ancient rome

This article is by Samuel Lewis.

I would really have to say, that it was the taking up of Roman history that caused one of the most significant changes in my life; and took me from being an uneducated person, to someone with an education.

I think that I was fourteen when it occurred to me that I would like to do a full-scale project on Ancient Rome. I chose Ancient Rome, because it was something that I knew barely nothing about, and yet was referred to so often by everybody. It is the civilization which is most similar to ours, today, and is so recent that remains from it can be found everywhere, in even the most obscure and far-flung corners of its empire.

Getting Started
I began by ordering three books from the internet - one about the Republic, one about the emperors, and the first volume of Gibbon's History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, which is a classic, but the first two books are modern.

I remember, I started reading the book about the Republic, and was bitterly disappointed to find that interesting stories and important events, such as the sack of Rome by the Gauls, and the Punic wars, were merely mentioned, and the main body of the book was taken up with complicated ramblings about the socio-political development of Roman civilization in the time of the Republic. Luckily I was able to send it back, but then followed a bit of a freak-out on my part, as I had no material for over half of Rome's history - the time of the Republic. No modern work could be found which covered this time, but my father, when browsing the internet did come across several books by ancient writers, one of which was a compilation of books 1 - 5 of Titus Livy's History of Rome. 
This was the best we could find, so we bought it, and from then on began for me a most exciting time of discovery and real learning. Livy was a historian living in around 100 BC - he wrote a history of Rome, consisting of 142 books, most of which have been lost, but what's survived is almost all that we now have covering those periods. 
So I had gone back to the source - no second-hand information - and began to discover the world of Ancient Rome.

the Gauls try to scale the walls of the Capitol during the Gallic sack.

Rome under the Kings
I learnt how Romulus founded the city and, lacking people to live in it, invited all the thieves and beggars in the area to make their homes there, and then - the population being predominantly male - how he kidnapped all the women from the neighboring Sabine clan. Romulus was king, and when he died, the people, by general consent chose a man of high character and renowned wisdom, to succeed him - by name, Numa Pompilius. Numa ruled for over 40 years, his compassion and unswerving justice transforming a city, built by thieves, and inhabited by uncouth vagabonds into a realm of peace.

Numa was succeeded by a succession of five kings, the last of whom was Tarquin the Proud, whose son, so the story goes, committing an act of injustice upon the wife of a friend, stirred the citizens of Rome to a revolution, in which they expelled their king and installed a democracy.

Early days of the Roman Republic
So began the celebrated Roman Republic, which lasted until 27BC , when it was brought to its knees through the greed and aggression of so many of its foremost citizens, and Augustus was crowned supreme emperor. When people talk of Rome nowadays, it is often in reference to the time of the emperors, and to the emperors themselves, whose debauched acts are familiar to many of us; however, it was the time of the Republic, and the early Republic in particular, that made Rome great - if you want to understand how and why Rome succeeded in conquering so much land, and governing it so successfully for such a long time, then we must return to those dawning days of the Republic, when their honour was the thing that people most valued, and everyone was eager for the common good.

So, a democratic form of government was created, consisting of two consuls who controlled the armies and governed the state, who were elected each year, and a senate - a group of older men, who advised the consuls. In those days everyone felt a part of the government, and responsible for their own rights and liberty; once, when the government was too overbearing, all the people left the city and camped outside on a nearby hill, which forced the consuls to sue for peace, and be more lenient in future. At another time, when an enemy king was besieging Rome, and trying to cross the bridge over the Tiber into the city, Horatius Cocles 'held the bridge', single-handedly stopping the enemy from crossing it, while it was being dismantled, and then, left on the opposite bank of the river from his home, and surrounded by the enemy, he jumped into the river, and swam with all his armor back to Rome.

Italy in 264BC.  The red is Roman territory, and the green their allies.

Some years after, Rome was attacked and razed to the ground by a band of marauding Gauls; everything was destroyed, except for the citadel in the middle, which, crammed with all the women and children and young men of the city, managed to hold out. This is referred to as the 'Gallic sack of Rome', and was so devastating in its effects, that it was a few hundred years before the city regained its former might.

It was just after the Gallic sack that my book finished, and I was left on a cliff-hanger, desperate to know what happened next. However, I was delighted to find out that there were other books by Livy which had also survived (books 5-10, focusing on the Samnite wars, books 21-30 covering the second Punic war, and books 31-45 about the Romans' conquest of Greece and Asia Minor). I quickly bought them, and once again resumed my studies.

Samnite Wars
The Romans soon came into conflict with the neighbouing Samnite people, and the wars with them, which lasted for a long time, finally left the Romans in charge of Italy. There is one instance from the Samnite wars which is particularly famous, and is reminiscent of the Tom & Jerry, or Coyote and Roadrunner cartoons, in which there is one party who always gets the worst of it, however clever they are. The Samnites, who had been so often beaten, decided to defeat their old enemies through treachery, so they succeeded in trapping the Romans in a narrow pass - the pass of the Caudine Forks. However, now that they had finally got the whole of the Roman fighting force in their power, they didn't know what to do with them. It was wisely suggested by the Samnites' general's blind father, that the Romans should be either all killed, which would enfeeble Rome for years, or either they should be let off scot-free, which would win their enemy's respect and gratitude. Neither of these decisive moves were eventually adopted, but instead, a compromise, whereby the Romans' leader, Postumius, was forced to swear that Rome would never make war on Samnium again, and each soldier was allowed to leave the pass without his weapons and only one garment, amid the taunts of the Samnites. The next year the Romans inevitably broke faith; Postumius declared that the oath he had made bound only himself never to make war with the Samnites, and told his countrymen to avenge their disgrace - which they promptly did, soundly defeating the Samnites in a memorable victory.

Hamilcar Barca. General for Carthage during the 1st Punic war, and father of Hannibal.

Punic Wars
Once the Romans had gained control of Italy, they came into conflict with Carthage, a great maritime power, situated in modern-day Tunisia, which controlled most of the Mediterranean trade. Rome's wars with Carthage are generally divided into the first, second, and third 'Punic' wars. The First Punic war was over the possession of Sicily; it was mainly fought on water - i.e. in naval battles - and the Romans suffered countless heavy defeats, as they knew nothing of the sea (prior to the war, they did not even own a fleet). However, every year they would build new ships to replace their hundreds of smashed vessels, and eventually, after 23 years of constant warfare, their perseverance carried them through, and Carthage sued for peace.

A few years later, war was stirred up again, by the ambitious, young Hannibal Barca. Hannibal is one of the most famous personalities from ancient times, and the exciting story of his daring campaign against Rome has aroused wonder in countless generations. He marched overland from Spain to Italy, crossing the Rhone river and Alps on the way, with an army of 35,000 men and 37 elephants; he defeated the Romans in two major battles - at Trasimene and Cannae - and came closer to destroying Rome than almost anyone else. And yet Rome's good government had won her the loyalty of her citizens and allies, and although beaten countless times, Rome's power could not be broken. Eventually, Hannibal was defeated by a man called Scipio, and the second Punic war came to an end.

The third Punic war was a smaller affair. The Romans decided to exterminate their old enemy once and for all, and this they did, although it is doubtful whether Carthage really posed any great threat to Roman power.

End of the Republic
Rome never really had a serious enemy again, until the time of the German invasions, some 500 years later. New territories were conquered every year, including Greece, the old kingdom of Macedonia, Illyria (the modern-day Balkans), Spain, North Africa, and Asia Minor (modern-day Turkey), but with no real enemy outside, internal disputes broke out.

Fabius. A Roman general in the 2nd Punic war.

It is around this point that Livy's history breaks off for good, and I found myself once again left with no material to work from. I was fortunate enough to stumble upon a classic work , which has provided me with so much instruction and amusement ever since: this was Plutarch's Lives - a collection of 46 short biographies of the most famous characters from ancient Rome and Greece. From the lives of the Romans, I was able to piece together all that was remaining for me to know, and from the lives of the Greeks - well, actually, I developed a passion for ancient Greece, but that, I suppose, would be the material for another article.

Rome had developed a system that honoured its war heroes above all others. At first, when these heroes fought only for the public good of their country, this was a safe, and even beneficial policy, but later, the worst sections of society began to be attracted to what looked like a lucrative profession, and these, when heaped with honours, abused their position. Such characters were Marius and Sulla, whose struggle for personal pre-eminence almost brought the state down. Caesar and Pompey were others, and their rivalry culminated in a terrible civil war, in which Caesar was victorious, and proclaimed himself dictator-for-life. Shakespeare has made famous, in his play Julius Caesar, how Brutus and Cassius murdered Caesar, in the name of liberty and the restoration of the Republic, and how they were later tragically defeated at Philippi, by Antony and Octavius, who were championing the dead Caesar's cause.

Later Antony and Octavius fell out, and Antony, having the worst of it, Octavius proclaimed himself emperor of Rome, assuming the more familiar title, 'Augustus'

the Roman Emperors 
There is no need to study the emperors of Rome in too great detail, as they don't make very enlightening reading. My opinion is that it was bad enough for them being them - without me making it worse studying them. However, there is one period of imperial Rome that is very interesting indeed. This is the time of the reigns of first Hadrian, then Antoninus Pius, and then Marcus Aurelius. These three men - and Antoninus Pius in particular - ruled with moderation, tolerance and justice, governing the people under them as if they had been the father of each. Trade prospered, the Arts flourished, and people were happy. If you want to read more about Antoninus Pius, you can look at the page dedicated to him on the Jamboree.

Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus. The Roman general who eventually defeated Hannibal.

After the death of Marcus Aurelius things gradually went downhill. Livy portrays the wars fought by the Romans as glorious, but from one's experience of the grim realities of warfare today, it cannot be doubted that what is true now, was as true then. War is seldom glorious, and a human life should not be trifled with, whatever race that life may be from. It almost seems that for every hour of exultation that the Romans had felt over their enemies, an equivalent hour had to be paid, of misery later on in the empire. And it was certainly so, for the decline and final fall of the Roman empire is a long and drawn-out story.

And yet there were always those individuals who broke free, and dared to walk their own path - people who didn't delight in the bloody spectacles of the amphitheatre, nor rejoice in the subjection of barbarian tribes. Such characters as the philosophers Epictetus and Musonius Rufus, Seneca, and the afore mentioned Marcus Aurelius and Antoninus Pius - people who took their destiny into their own hands, and did not let someone else decide it for them.

It is the history of these people that I want to study, and it is their examples, that I feel inspired to follow.

Any gaps in my knowledge, I tried to fill in with information gathered from the Internet; here are a few of the websites I made use of: 

Hannibal Barca and the Punic Wars - a really good site, with pictures, and lots of interesting information.

Ancient History Sourcebook: Rome - many of the old classic works on Ancient Rome, including those mentioned in this article, can be found online on this useful website.

...Some sample pages of the work I did when studying Ancient Rome

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