The Roman Empire: From Augustus to the Fall of Rome

276 Pages·47.864 MB·English

by  Gregory S. Aldrete

Topic Subtopic
Discover a true story of power as a renowned professor surveys the rise and fall
of the Roman Empire from 31 BC to the end of antiquity. History Ancient History
T The Roman Empire
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“Passionate, erudite, living legend lecturers. Academia’s

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Course Guidebook
—The Los Angeles Times p
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“A serious force in American education.”
Professor Gregory S. Aldrete
—The Wall Street Journal
University of Wisconsin–Green Bay
Gregory S. Aldrete is the Frankenthal Professor of History and
Humanistic Studies at the University of Wisconsin–Green Bay.
He received his PhD in Ancient History from the University of
Michigan. Professor Aldrete has been honored with a number
of teaching awards and fellowships, and he has written and
edited several books, including Daily Life in the Roman City
and Gestures and Acclamations in Ancient Rome. Among
his other Great Courses are History of the Ancient World: A
Global Perspective and The Rise of Rome.
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Gregory S. Aldrete, PhD
Frankenthal Professor of History and Humanistic Studies
University of Wisconsin–Green Bay
Gregory S. Aldrete is the Frankenthal Professor of History and
Humanistic Studies at the University of Wisconsin–Green Bay. He
received his BA from Princeton University and his PhD in Ancient History
from the University of Michigan. His interdisciplinary scholarship spans the
fields of history, archaeology, art history, military history, and philology.
Professor Aldrete has written and edited several books, including Gestures
and Acclamations in Ancient Rome; Floods of the Tiber in Ancient Rome;
Daily Life in the Roman City: Rome, Pompeii, and Ostia; The Long Shadow
of Antiquity: What Have the Greeks and Romans Done for Us? (with Alicia
Aldrete); and Reconstructing Ancient Linen Body Armor: Unraveling the
Linothorax Mystery (with Scott Bartell and Alicia Aldrete).
PROFESSOR BIOGRAPHY i
Professor Aldrete has won many awards for his teaching, including two
national ones: He was named the Wisconsin Professor of the Year by the
Council for Advancement and Support of Education and the Carnegie
Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, and he received an Award for
Excellence in Teaching at the College Level from the Society for Classical
Studies. At the state level, he was selected from among all professors in
the University of Wisconsin System to receive a System Regents Teaching
Excellence Award, and his campus granted him its highest teaching
award, the Faculty Award for Excellence in Teaching from the university’s
Founders Association.
Professor Aldrete has been honored with a number of fellowships, including
two yearlong humanities fellowships from the National Endowment for
the Humanities (NEH) and the Solmsen Fellowship at the Institute for
Research in the Humanities in Madison, Wisconsin. Additionally, he was
a fellow of two NEH seminars held at the American Academy in Rome and
was a participant in an NEH institute at the University of California, Los
Angeles. Professor Aldrete was the Martha Sharp Joukowsky Lecturer for
the Archaeological Institute of America, for which he gave a series of public
lectures across the United States.
Professor Aldrete’s innovative Linothorax Project, in which he and his
students reconstructed and tested ancient linen body armor, has garnered
considerable media attention; it has been featured in documentaries on the
Discovery Channel, the Smithsonian Channel, and the National Geographic
Channel as well as on television programs in Canada and across Europe.
His research has also been the subject of articles in U.S. News and World
Report, The New Yorker, The Atlantic, The Chronicle of Higher Education,
Der Spiegel magazine, and Military History and of internet news stories in
more than two dozen countries.
Professor Aldrete’s other Great Courses are History of the Ancient World:
A Global Perspective; The Decisive Battles of World History; History’s Great
Military Blunders and the Lessons They Teach; and The Rise of Rome. ■
ii THE ROmAn EmPIRE: FROm AuGuSTuS TO THE FAll OF ROmE
TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
Professor Biography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . i
Course Scope . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
LECTURE GUIDES
1 Dawn of the Roman Empire . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
2 Augustus, the First Emperor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
3 Tiberius and Caligula . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
4 Claudius and Nero . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
5 The Flavian Emperors and Roman Bath Culture . . . . . . . 40
6 The Five Good Emperors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
7 Hazards of Life in Ancient Rome: The Five Fs . . . . . . . . 64
8 Roman Art and Architecture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
9 Roman Literature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
10 The Ordinary Roman Speaks: Graffiti . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
11 Final Words: Burial and Tombstone Epitaphs . . . . . . . 104
12 From Commodus to Caracalla . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
PROFESSOR BIOGRAPHY iii
13 The Crisis of the 3rd Century . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
14 Diocletian and Late 3rd-Century Reforms . . . . . . . . . 130
15 Early Christianity and the Rise of Constantine . . . . . . . 142
16 Constantine and His Successors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154
17 Gladiators and Beast Hunts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164
18 Chariot Racing, Spectacles, and Theater . . . . . . . . . . 174
19 The Roman Army . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184
20 Barbarians Overwhelm the Western Empire . . . . . . . . 194
21 The Byzantine Empire . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204
22 When and Why Did the Roman Empire Fall? . . . . . . . . 216
23 Late Antiquity: A New Historical Era . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224
24 Echoes of Rome . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232
SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL
Test Your Knowledge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 240
Timeline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 246
Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 254
Image credits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 264
Quiz Answers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 270
iv THE ROmAn EmPIRE: FROm AuGuSTuS TO THE FAll OF ROmE
THE
ROM A N
EMPIR E
At its height, the Roman Empire spanned the entire Mediterranean and
included more than 60 million inhabitants. The empire was one of the
most famous and influential states in all of world history, and the story of its
spectacular rise and disastrous fall has exerted an irresistible fascination for
the last 2,000 years. Roman contributions to art, architecture, law, language,
religion, science, philosophy, and culture still surround and constantly affect
us today. Rome’s military triumphs have inspired generations of would‑be
conquerors, and the famed discipline and organization of its legions have
provided models for countless later armies.
COuRSE SCOPE 1
This course begins with the first emperor, Augustus, who emerged as
the ultimate winner of the vicious cycle of civil wars that caused the
destruction of the Roman Republic. You will discover how he created
the new institution of the Roman principate, establishing the model that
would be emulated by all subsequent emperors. The course then traces the
dramatic history of the empire under a succession of good leaders and bad,
from the depravity of mad Caligula to the stoic philosophical musings
of Marcus Aurelius. You will see how the empire reaches a geographic,
cultural, military, and economic high point in the 2nd century AD
under the enlightened rule of the Antonine emperors but then comes to
the brink of collapse during the so‑called crisis of the 3rd century due to
a deadly combination of government instability, barbarian invasions, and
economic crises. A series of tough‑minded reformers, such as Diocletian,
stabilize the situation, and then events take an unexpected turn early in
the 4th century, when Constantine becomes the first emperor to convert
to Christianity. Soon, new waves of barbarians challenge Rome, and the
empire splits, with the western half eventually falling in the 5th century
while the eastern section manages to continue for nearly another millennium
in the guise of the Byzantine Empire, centered on Constantinople.
The final lectures of the course take an in‑depth look at the complex
questions of when exactly the Roman Empire fell, why it fell, whether the
period of late antiquity was a time of destruction and loss or innovation
and new growth, and what the long‑term influences of Rome were upon
the modern world.
2 THE ROmAn EmPIRE: FROm AuGuSTuS TO THE FAll OF ROmE
Interspersed throughout this grand chronological narrative are a number
of lectures that illuminate specific key aspects of Roman civilization,
including art, architecture, bath culture, literature, the Roman army,
spectacular entertainments (such as gladiator shows and chariot racing),
and the many hazards of daily life in the Roman city. In addition to relating
the remarkable stories of famous Roman emperors, generals, authors, and
artists, several lectures are devoted to recovering the lost voices of ordinary
Roman men, women, children, and slaves through a close examination of
often‑ignored source materials, such as graffiti scratched or painted on walls
and the inscriptions carved on Roman tombstones.
This course presents a lively, engaging account of the rise and fall of the
Roman Empire accompanied by insightful and in‑depth investigations of
the key factors and personalities that shaped its history. ■
COuRSE SCOPE 3
DAWN OF THE
ROMAN EMPIRE
lECTuRE 1