63 Facts About Roman Empire

The vast Roman Empire territories were organized in senatorial and imperial provinces except Italy, which continued to serve as a metropole.

The Eastern Roman Empire survived for another millennium, until Constantinople fell in 1453 to the Ottoman Turks under Mehmed II.

The corpus of Roman Empire law has its descendants in many modern legal systems of the world, such as the Napoleonic Code of France, while Rome's republican institutions have left an enduring legacy, influencing the Italian city-state republics of the medieval period, as well as the early United States and other modern democratic republics.

The Roman Empire Republic was not a nation-state in the modern sense, but a network of towns left to rule themselves and provinces administered by military commanders.

In 212 AD, during the reign of Caracalla, Roman citizenship was granted to all freeborn inhabitants of the empire.

Related searches

Western Roman Empire began to disintegrate in the early 5th century as Germanic migrations and invasions overwhelmed the capacity of the empire to assimilate the migrants and fight off the invaders.

Roman Empire did this by declaring Zeno sole emperor, and placing himself as his nominal subordinate.

The Eastern Roman Empire, called the Byzantine Empire by later historians, continued to exist until the reign of Constantine XI Palaiologos.

Roman Empire was one of the largest in history, with contiguous territories throughout Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East.

In reality, Roman Empire expansion was mostly accomplished under the Republic, though parts of northern Europe were conquered in the 1st century AD, when Roman Empire control in Europe, Africa, and Asia was strengthened.

Roman Empire reached its largest expanse under Trajan, encompassing an area of 5 million square kilometres.

The connectivity by land and sea between the vast territories of the Roman Empire made the transfer of infectious diseases from one region to another easier and more rapid than it was in smaller, more geographically confined societies.

Roman Empire jurists show a concern for local languages such as Punic, Gaulish, and Aramaic in assuring the correct understanding and application of laws and oaths.

Roman Empire was remarkably multicultural, with "a rather astonishing cohesive capacity" to create a sense of shared identity while encompassing diverse peoples within its political system over a long span of time.

Freeborn Roman women were considered citizens throughout the Republic and Empire, but did not vote, hold political office, or serve in the military.

One purpose of the Roman Empire census was to determine the ordo to which an individual belonged.

Senators had an aura of prestige and were the traditional governing class who rose through the cursus honorum, the political career track, but equestrians of the Roman Empire often possessed greater wealth and political power.

Roman Empire aristocracy was based on competition, and unlike later European nobility, a Roman Empire family could not maintain its position merely through hereditary succession or having title to lands.

Three major elements of the Imperial Roman Empire state were the central government, the military, and the provincial government.

Roman Empire government was thus limited, but efficient in its use of the resources available to it.

Pervasiveness of military garrisons throughout the Empire was a major influence in the process of cultural exchange and assimilation known as "Romanization, " particularly in regard to politics, the economy, and religion.

Knowledge of the Roman Empire military comes from a wide range of sources: Greek and Roman Empire literary texts; coins with military themes; papyri preserving military documents; monuments such as Trajan's Column and triumphal arches, which feature artistic depictions of both fighting men and military machines; the archeology of military burials, battle sites, and camps; and inscriptions, including military diplomas, epitaphs, and dedications.

Roman Empire law facilitated the acquisition of wealth by a pro-Roman Empire elite who found their new privileges as citizens to be advantageous.

The extension of universal citizenship to all free inhabitants of the Empire in 212 required the uniform application of Roman law, replacing the local law codes that had applied to non-citizens.

Scholar Moses Finley was the chief proponent of the primitivist view that the Roman Empire economy was "underdeveloped and underachieving, " characterized by subsistence agriculture; urban centres that consumed more than they produced in terms of trade and industry; low-status artisans; slowly developing technology; and a "lack of economic rationality.

Related searches

The supply contracts for the army, which pervaded every part of the Roman Empire, drew on local suppliers near the base, throughout the province, and across provincial borders.

The Roman Empire is perhaps best thought of as a network of regional economies, based on a form of "political capitalism" in which the state monitored and regulated commerce to assure its own revenues.

Early Roman Empire was monetized to a near-universal extent, in the sense of using money as a way to express prices and debts.

Main mining regions of the Roman Empire were the Iberian Peninsula; Gaul (gold, silver, iron); Britain (mainly iron, lead, tin), the Danubian provinces (gold, iron); Macedonia and Thrace (gold, silver); and Asia Minor (gold, silver, iron, tin).

Roman Empire provinces traded among themselves, but trade extended outside the frontiers to regions as far away as China and India.

In regard to Italy, "there can be little doubt that the lower classes of Pompeii, Herculaneum and other provincial towns of the Roman Empire enjoyed a high standard of living not equaled again in Western Europe until the 19th century AD".

Roman Empire roads are considered the most advanced roads built until the early 19th century.

Roman Empire bridges were among the first large and lasting bridges, built from stone with the arch as the basic structure.

The largest Roman Empire bridge was Trajan's bridge over the lower Danube, constructed by Apollodorus of Damascus, which remained for over a millennium the longest bridge to have been built, both in overall span and length.

Several earthen dams are known from Roman Empire Britain, including a well-preserved example from Longovicium.

Roman Empire aqueducts were built to remarkably fine tolerance, and to a technological standard that was not to be equalled until modern times.

City planning and urban lifestyles had been influenced by the Greeks from an early period, and in the eastern Empire, Roman rule accelerated and shaped the local development of cities that already had a strong Hellenistic character.

Urbanization in Roman Empire Africa expanded on Greek and Punic cities along the coast.

Network of cities throughout the Empire was a primary cohesive force during the Pax Romana.

Similar facilities were constructed in cities throughout the Empire, and some of the best-preserved Roman structures are in Spain, southern France, and northern Africa.

Roman Empire baths were distinguished by a series of rooms that offered communal bathing in three temperatures, with varying amenities that might include an exercise and weight-training room, sauna, exfoliation spa, ball court, or outdoor swimming pool.

Roman Empire literature focuses on the dining habits of the upper classes, for whom the evening meal had important social functions.

Book-length collection of Roman Empire recipes is attributed to Apicius, a name for several figures in antiquity that became synonymous with "gourmet.

When Juvenal complained that the Roman Empire people had exchanged their political liberty for "bread and circuses", he was referring to the state-provided grain dole and the circenses, events held in the entertainment venue called a circus in Latin.

The design of Roman Empire circuses was developed to assure that no team had an unfair advantage and to minimize collisions, which were nonetheless frequent and spectacularly satisfying to the crowd.

Related searches

People visiting or living in Rome or the cities throughout the Roman Empire would have seen art in a range of styles and media on a daily basis.

Examples of Roman Empire sculpture survive abundantly, though often in damaged or fragmentary condition, including freestanding statues and statuettes in marble, bronze and terracotta, and reliefs from public buildings, temples, and monuments such as the Ara Pacis, Trajan's Column, and the Arch of Titus.

Much of what is known of Roman Empire painting is based on the interior decoration of private homes, particularly as preserved at Pompeii, Herculaneum and Stabiae by the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 AD.

Unique source for Jewish figurative painting under the Roman Empire is the Dura-Europos synagogue, dubbed "the Pompeii of the Syrian Desert, ".

Plentiful and major examples of Roman Empire mosaics come from present-day Turkey, Italy, southern France, Spain, and Portugal.

In Roman Empire tradition, borrowed from the Greeks, literary theatre was performed by all-male troupes that used face masks with exaggerated facial expressions that allowed audiences to "see" how a character was feeling.

Schools became more numerous during the Roman Empire and increased the opportunities for children to acquire an education.

Roman Empire recognized the importance of play in child development, and disapproved of corporal punishment because it discouraged love of learning—in contrast to the practice in most Roman primary schools of routinely striking children with a cane or birch rod for being slow or disruptive.

Urban elites throughout the Roman Empire shared a literary culture embued with Greek educational ideals.

However, in the Eastern Roman Empire, known as Byzantine Empire, reading continued throughout the Middle Ages as reading was of primary importance as an instrument of the Byzantine civilization.

Tertullian, a convert to Christianity from Roman Empire Africa, was the contemporary of Apuleius and one of the earliest prose authors to establish a distinctly Christian voice.

Religion in the Roman Empire encompassed the practices and beliefs the Romans regarded as their own, as well as the many cults imported to Rome or practiced by peoples throughout the provinces.

Roman Empire religion was practical and contractual, based on the principle of do ut des, "I give that you might give.

Inscriptions throughout the Empire record the side-by-side worship of local and Roman deities, including dedications made by Romans to local gods.

Roman Empire supported the church financially and made laws that favored it, but the new religion had established itself as successful prior to Constantine.

Roman Empire's reforms were met by Christian resistance and civic inertia.

Roman Empire even launched an invasion of Otranto, located in Southern Italy, with the purpose of re-uniting the Empire, which was aborted by his death.

The Greek form Romaioi remained attached to the Greek-speaking Christian population of the Eastern Roman Empire and is still used by Greeks in addition to their common appellation.