Chapter 5: Imperial Rome, 146 B.C.E. - 192 C.E.

The Republic broke down after the Punic Wars * The following years were full of fighting, death, and destruction which brought many farmers to ruin * The war damaged the farmland leading the farmers to lose their land and sold it to the wealthy * Those that either lost or sold their land ended up becoming laborers, tenant farmers, etc. and since they were no longer landowners, they weren’t eligible for the army
There was an increase in the slave population after the Punic Wars due to the small wages paid to free laborers * Slaves made up for one-third of the total population in 1st century B.C.E.
Tiberius and Gaius Gracchus were the social reformers of the time with them wanting to help ordinary Romans
Tiberius Gracchus * First of the political leaders who appealed to the populace * He was the leader of an annually elected pleb assembly * Introduced a land reform program that would allow citizens to agriculture * Came up with a law that limited the amount of public land a person could hold as he wanted to distribute land recovered by the state to landless peasants * Was murdered alongside 300 of his supporters by a group of senators that broke into an assembly meeting during
Gaius Gracchus * Tiberius Gracchus’s younger brother * Tribune * Wanted to limit the Senate’s power * Replaced senators with equestrian class * Attempted to extend citizenship to non-Roman-Italians which the Senate didn’t like * Encouraged colonization to provide land for the poor * His ideas weren’t successful * Was murdered along with 3000 of his supporters at the hands of the Senate
Julius Caesar founded colonies in in Italy, Asia, Greece, Africa, Spain, and Gual * Extended Roman citizenship to parts of Spain and Gual * Was appointed dictator by the Senate
Declared himself dictator for life
Was turning Rome into a monarchy
Assassinated by group of senators to save the republic
His death led to civil war in Rome
Augustus, despite becoming the first emperor, wanted to keep the facade of Rome being a republic * Held 4 terms as consul * Was Tribune for life after 23 B.C.E. * Reduced number of senators from 1000 to 600 * The empire experienced peace and stability for two centuries under his and his successors’ leadership
Augustus’ stepson, Tiberius was recognized as the ruler of Rome after his death * Tiberius was unpopular
Nero was a tyrannical ruler
Jews refused to be a part of the polytheistic cults of Rome and were allowed to keep their monotheistic cults and didn’t have to make sacrifices to Roman Gods
Jesus was raised as a Jew in Galilee * Preached messages of peace and love for God
Pontius Pilate, a Roman governor believed that Jesus posed a threat to law and order * In 30 C.E. Pontius Pilate ordered Jesus to be put to death by crucifixion * Jesus’s followers announced he had risen 3 days after death * To his followers, his resurrection was proof of him being the Messiah
Christianity spread past its origins as a Jewish sect because of Paul of Tarsus who was a Jew that had become an early Christian convert from Asia Minor