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32 results

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  • 10 - World City: Society and Culture in Rome (85–45 BCE)

  • Josiah Osgood, Georgetown University, Washington DC
  • Book:
    Rome and the Making of a World State, 150 BCE–20 CE
    Published online:
    11 April 2018
    Print publication:
    12 April 2018, pp 160-176

  • Summary

    This chapter explores the social, cultural, and economic history of the city of Rome in the late Republic. The influx of immigrants into the city in search of fortune caused many shops and family businesses to spring up and altered the cityscape in the process. Roman education, focused on rhetoric, philosophy, and classical literature, developed and in turn a more robust intellectual life. This chapter documents the many literary contributions by contemporary authors such as Catullus and Cicero. Rome, as it is today, was a museum city with the public display of much impressive arts and architecture. This chapter ends with a survey of the popular culture and leisure activities, along with a discussion of sexuality and the use of humor.

  • 6 - Italy and the Reinvention of Rome (150–50 BCE)

  • Josiah Osgood, Georgetown University, Washington DC
  • Book:
    Rome and the Making of a World State, 150 BCE–20 CE
    Published online:
    11 April 2018
    Print publication:
    12 April 2018, pp 90-107

  • Summary

    The granting of citizenship to Italians at the end of the Social War, while exposing the limitations of traditional city-based government, also helped contribute to the rise of Rome as a world state. This chapter examimes developments in Italy before and after the Social War, focusing especially on the exceptionally well-preserved Pompeii. Empire made Italians rich and this fueled their alienation from Rome. But as they finally became better integrated into the Roman state politically, the Italians came to feel more Roman and the culture of the Italian peninsula became more unified.

  • 12 - Principate: Government for the World State (30–6 BCE)

  • Josiah Osgood, Georgetown University, Washington DC
  • Book:
    Rome and the Making of a World State, 150 BCE–20 CE
    Published online:
    11 April 2018
    Print publication:
    12 April 2018, pp 199-218

  • Summary

    This chapter explores how the government of the Roman empire was transformed under the first emperor, Augustus. Though Augustus effectively became the head of state, there never was a formla monarchy, nor a legally defined position of 'emperor.' Old political origins such as the Senate continued to function. As Augustus aged, his younger male family members were promoted as part of his amibition to achieve long-term stability to Rome. The chapter discusses reforms of taxation, provincial government, the army, and the running of the city of Rome. The major historical sources for the life and times of Augustus are also analyzed.

  • 8 - Rival Leaders and the Search for Power Bases (66–50 BCE)

  • Josiah Osgood, Georgetown University, Washington DC
  • Book:
    Rome and the Making of a World State, 150 BCE–20 CE
    Published online:
    11 April 2018
    Print publication:
    12 April 2018, pp 124-143

  • Summary

    This chapter begins by following an aspiring Roman politicians (M. Aemilius Scaurus) from his initial rise to power to the conviction that led to his downfall and shows the extent to which politicians were cultivating different powerbases and seeking to gain the resources of empire for their own ends. A distinctive feature of the 60s and 50s was increased mobilization of those living in the city of Rome as street-fighters. The analyzes Cicero's use of rhetoric in establishing himself in the political arena and his ultimately unsucessful attempt to build consensus by attacking Catiline. The discussion then turns to efforts by Julius Caesar, Crassus, and Pompey to monopolize powerbases and resources. Their alliance undermined the institutions of Senate and People and ultimately led to civil war in 49 BCE.

  • 13 - The New Age: Refashioning Culture and Society (30–5 BCE)

  • Josiah Osgood, Georgetown University, Washington DC
  • Book:
    Rome and the Making of a World State, 150 BCE–20 CE
    Published online:
    11 April 2018
    Print publication:
    12 April 2018, pp 219-241

  • Summary

    The political transformation entailed by the rise to power of Augustus was matched by cultural transformation. Romans thought they were living in a new age, and they created new types of architecture, art, and everyday consumer goods that could embody a sense of peace and prosperity. Augustus and his family, often worshipped like gods, were increasingly important symbols of what it meant to be Roman. Being Roman was less associated with the old city-state activities of voting or fighting under yearly elected consuls. It meant worshipping the emperor, commissiong new types of art, or reading new works of literature like Vergil's Aeneid.

  • 14 - The World State Tested (4 BCE–20 CE)

  • Josiah Osgood, Georgetown University, Washington DC
  • Book:
    Rome and the Making of a World State, 150 BCE–20 CE
    Published online:
    11 April 2018
    Print publication:
    12 April 2018, pp 242-258

  • Summary

    Augustus' later years in power witnessed a series of challenges: discord within his family, the ruling dynasty; major military rebellions against Rome; fire, flooding, and food shortage in the city of Rome. In 4 CE Augustus orchestrated a series of adoptions that strengthened the idea that his 'house' would rule even after he died. He also signaled that expansion of the Roman empire through further wars of conquest was at an end. Without much difficulty, Tiberius was able to succeed Augustus in 14 CE, and when Tiberius' intended successor Germanicus unexpectedly died five years later, the response by Romans across the Roman world showed that the 'Augustan house' commanded much loyalty. The principate would endure as the form of government that could run a world state.

  • 1 - From World Power to World State: An Introduction

  • Josiah Osgood, Georgetown University, Washington DC
  • Book:
    Rome and the Making of a World State, 150 BCE–20 CE
    Published online:
    11 April 2018
    Print publication:
    12 April 2018, pp 1-9
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  • Summary

    To focus obsessively on the ‘fall of the Roman Republic’ obscures the political accomplishments and related innovations in literature, commerce, and religion during that time and ignores the fact that It was during ‘the fall of the Roman Republic’ that the city of Rome itself became a cultural and intellectual center that eclipsed other Mediterranean cities and could suitably proclaim Roman power.

  • 3 - The City of Rome: Scene of Politics and Growing Metropolis

  • Josiah Osgood, Georgetown University, Washington DC
  • Book:
    Rome and the Making of a World State, 150 BCE–20 CE
    Published online:
    11 April 2018
    Print publication:
    12 April 2018, pp 25-47
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  • Summary

    This chapter focuses on the politics within the city. The census was a crucial institution that not only counted Roman citizens, but also divided them to different categories based on their military roles and voting rights. Voting assemblies were the core of the Roman political scene. Legislation was passed after the people had expressed their views by casting their votes. Along with the voting assemblies, the magistrates and the senate constituted the major branches of government. Magistrates held executive power, the Senate -- made up of current and former magistrates -- set much policy for the magistrates to enact. The elites in Rome consolidated their power in Rome by sponsoring extravagant spectacles to showcase their wealth. Religion, closely tied up with politics, was a major factor that bound society together. The emergences of new diseases as a result of trade and the exchanges of goods and people, together with the all too often natural disasters such as flooding and fire, sometimes made it difficult to get by in the city.

  • 11 - War of the World (49–30 BCE)

  • Josiah Osgood, Georgetown University, Washington DC
  • Book:
    Rome and the Making of a World State, 150 BCE–20 CE
    Published online:
    11 April 2018
    Print publication:
    12 April 2018, pp 177-198

  • Summary

    Civil war broke out in 49 BCE and lasted for twenty years, as rival leaders including Caesar, Pompey, Octavian, and Mark Antony eliminated one another. The period witnessed new experiments in autocracy, including dictatorship and the triumvirate. Leaders took new names and titles and their images saturated the Roman world. The position of emperor was being forged, and with it a standing army of legions that owed loyalty to him.

  • 7 - Rome between Republic and Empire: The Stuck Elephant (80–60 BCE)

  • Josiah Osgood, Georgetown University, Washington DC
  • Book:
    Rome and the Making of a World State, 150 BCE–20 CE
    Published online:
    11 April 2018
    Print publication:
    12 April 2018, pp 108-123

  • Summary

    The type of government that suited the sprawling Roman empire was increasingly incompatible with the traditional city-based SPQR. The major wars of the 80s destabilized the Mediterranean and left the Senate facing security challenges for years afterwards, with only limited success. This chapter focuses on the successes of Pompey in reestablishing order and his rise to power in the city and beyond. This chapter ends with the arrival of Julius Caesar in the Roman political scene and forshadows the lasting influence he will have on the city and its government.

  • 5 - The Spiral of Violence (104–80 BCE)

  • Josiah Osgood, Georgetown University, Washington DC
  • Book:
    Rome and the Making of a World State, 150 BCE–20 CE
    Published online:
    11 April 2018
    Print publication:
    12 April 2018, pp 68-89
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  • Summary

    The question of how the profits and prestige of the Roman empire should be shared continued in the period 104-80 BCE. Violence was used to achieve political aims and brought on the dissolution of civic institutions that threatened the Republican ideal. While the Social War was destructive to Roman politics, the Italians benefited by gaining citizenship. A turning point was Sulla's decision to march on Rome with an army in 88 BCE, leading to the outbreak of full civil war. Leaders sought legitimacy through violence and unique claims to divinity. While Sulla went onto create a new constitution for Rome, it proved unable to bring immediate stability.

  • 2 - The New World Power: The Empire and Imperial Affairs (150–139 BCE)

  • Josiah Osgood, Georgetown University, Washington DC
  • Book:
    Rome and the Making of a World State, 150 BCE–20 CE
    Published online:
    11 April 2018
    Print publication:
    12 April 2018, pp 10-24

  • Summary

    In 150-139 BCE, Rome docused on expanding its overseas imperium by assigning different provinciae to senior magistrates. Rome reached a new height of power when it successively conquered the Celtiberian and Lusitanians in Spain, caused the total destruction of Carthage after the Punic Wars, and ravaged the Greek city of Corinth. Besides Rome's military prowess, its strategic use of its rivers and sea power also brought significant achievements in trade (especially slaves) with other cities around the Mediterranian.

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