From Republic to Empire

古罗马：从共和国到帝国 · Ancient Rome, part 1

Rome on a timeline

• 753 BC · Legend says Romulus founds the city of Rome.
• 509 BC · Romans remove their last king. Rome becomes a republicrepublic 共和国Government where citizens elect leaders to rule for them.History Vocab ↗.
• 44 BC · Julius Caesar is killed.
• 27 BC · Augustus becomes the first emperoremperor 皇帝A single ruler of an empire, usually for life.History Vocab ↗. The empireempire 帝国Many lands and peoples ruled by one government.History Vocab ↗ begins.
• AD 80 · The ColosseumColosseum 罗马斗兽场A huge stone arena in Rome for games and shows.History Vocab ↗ is finished.
• AD 476 · The western half of the empire falls.

AD years count up from year 1: AD 80 came before AD 476.

A city on seven hills

• The legend: twin brothers Romulus and Remus were raised by a wolf. Romulus founded Rome and named it after himself.
• What historians think: villages on seven hills slowly joined into one city.
• Rome was near the middle of Italy, close to the sea, on the River Tiber: good for farming and trade.

The wolf story is a myth, like the Greek myths in Unit 1. Ask: why would a city want an exciting founding story?

The Republic: no more kings

republic 共和国

Government where citizens elect leaders to rule for them.

senate 元老院

A council of important men who advised Rome’s leaders.

consul 执政官

One of two top leaders of the Roman Republic, chosen for one year.

Two consuls, chosen for one year, could each block the other. Romans had had a bad king and never wanted one person to hold all the power again.

How the Republic worked made in draw.io

Hover (or tap) a box to focus on it.

A draw.io infographic. The source is drawio/republic.drawio: open it in draw.io (desktop app or app.diagrams.net), change it, save, then run python scripts/drawio.py to update the picture. Ask: who chose the consuls? Who advised them? Why two consuls and not one?

Athens and Rome: who decides?

Athens: democracy 民主

Citizens vote on the laws themselves, in the Assembly.

Rome: republic 共和国

Citizens elect leaders (consulsconsul 执政官One of two top leaders of the Roman Republic, chosen for one year.History Vocab ↗), who make decisions with the senatesenate 元老院A council of important men who advised Rome's leaders.History Vocab ↗.

Many countries today are republics: people elect leaders to decide for them.

Julius Caesar

• A famous general who won wars in Gaul (today’s France).
• He took control of Rome and made himself dictator for life.
• In 44 BC, a group of senators killed him. They wanted to save the republicrepublic 共和国Government where citizens elect leaders to rule for them.History Vocab ↗…
• …but after years of civil war, Rome got an emperoremperor 皇帝A single ruler of an empire, usually for life.History Vocab ↗ anyway.

Augustus and the empire

• Caesar’s adopted son Octavian won the civil war.
• In 27 BC he took the name Augustus and became the first emperoremperor 皇帝A single ruler of an empire, usually for life.History Vocab ↗.
• About 200 years of peace followed across the empireempire 帝国Many lands and peoples ruled by one government.History Vocab ↗: the Pax Romana, “Roman peace”.

A marble statue of Augustus, about 2,000 years old.

The Roman army

• A legionlegion 军团A large unit of the Roman army, about 5,000 soldiers.History Vocab ↗ had about 5,000 soldiers, all Roman citizens.
• Soldiers marched with heavy packs and built a camp every night.
• They also built roads, bridges and walls across the empireempire 帝国Many lands and peoples ruled by one government.History Vocab ↗.

Roman soldiers carved on Trajan’s Column in Rome, about AD 113.

The roads the army built are part of the next deck: Roman engineering.

Sort it out

On your Republic or Empire? worksheet, sort the cards with a partner.

Exit ticket

Who led the Roman Republic?

Picture credits

• Title: Cicero Denounces Catiline in the Roman Senate, Cesare Maccari (1880s), public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
• Augustus of Prima Porta: photo by Till Niermann, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
• Trajan’s Column: photo by Joe Mabel, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
• Drawings: original, made for this course. Full list: images/CREDITS.md.