Nero

Ruled between 54 - 68

Background:

• Nero was adopted by his great-uncle Claudius to become his heir and successor

• Nero was born in 37 A.D., the nephew of the emperor. 

• After his father’s death, his mother married his uncle and persuaded him to name Nero his successor.

• Nero took the throne at 17, rebuffed his mother’s attempts to control him, and had her killed.

• Nero was born as Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus, the son of Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus and Agrippina, who was the great-granddaughter of the emperor Augustus.

•  He was educated in the classical tradition by the philosopher Seneca and studied Greek, philosophy and rhetoric. 

Achievements 

• During his reign, Nero focused much of his attention on diplomacy, trade, and enhancing the cultural life of the Empire. 

• During his reign, the redoubtable general Corbulo conducted a successful war and negotiated peace with the Parthian Empire. 

• Nero annexed the Bosporan Kingdom to the Empire and began the First Roman–Jewish War.

• Until the year 59, Nero was described as a generous and reasonable leader. 

• He eliminated capital punishment, lowered taxes and allowed slaves to bring complaints against their masters.

• He supported the arts and athletics above gladiator entertainment and gave aid to other cities in crisis. 

• Although he was known for his nighttime frolicking, his actions were good-natured, if irresponsible and self-indulgent.

•  after Agrippina’s murder, Nero descended into a hedonic lifestyle that was marked not just by lavish self-indulgence but tyranny. He spent exorbitant amounts of money on artistic pursuits and around 59 A.D., began to give public performances as a poet and lyre player,

Cause of Death: 

• In 68, he committed suicide when the empire revolted.

Historical Significance 

• becoming an emperor at the age of 17 years old. 

• During his leadership, he enhanced the trade and cultural life of Romans. He also had a successful war through general Corbulo which resulted in peaceful negotiations with the Parthian Empire.
• used the peoples money to build a pleasure house for himself- after death, the people  buried it to forget about his reign. 

Spartacus

BLOG?: Was Spartacus a hero or villain, and why?

WHO was Spartacus?

Spartacus was a Thracian gladiator who led a slave revolt with an army numbering in the tens of thousands. 

WHAT did he do?

He defeated Roman forces over half a dozen times, marching his people up and down the Italian peninsula until he was killed in battle in April 71 B.C.

WHY did he do it?

to leave Italy-gain freedom from Romans

WHEN did it happen?

Born around 109 BC

Revolt: 73–71 BC

WHERE did it happen? 

Italy mostly

HOW did it end?

Spartacus was killed in battle in 71 BC

WAS HE A HERO OR A VILLAIN?

Hero- he brought slaves to freedom 

Roman Culture

ROMAN CLOTHING

*Ancient Rome was very much a “face-to-face” society (actually more of an “in-your-face” society), and public display and recognition of status were an essential part of having status.

*Much of Roman clothing was designed to reveal the social status of its wearer, particularly for freeborn men. In typical Roman fashion, the more distinguished the wearer, the more his dress was distinctively marked, while the dress of the lowest classes was often not marked at all.
* Typically, Roman garments were made of wool. In the early Republic, women spun the fleece and created the clothing  the home, and doubtless many women of the less wealthy classes continued this practice throughout the history of Rome.
*The toga was the national garment of Rome, and the color of the toga was significant, marking differences in age and status:

• toga virilis also called toga pura: unadorned toga in the off-white color of the undyed wool that was worn by adult male citizens
• toga praetexta: off-white toga with a broad purple border shown in the right-hand drawing. The only adults allowed to wear this toga were curule magistrates (curule aedile and above).
• toga pulla: toga made of dark-colored wool worn during periods of mourning
• toga candida: artificially whitened toga worn by candidates for political office
• toga picta: purple toga embroidered with gold thread worn by a victorious general during a triumphal parade and later adopted by emperors for state occasions. A variant of this costume was the toga purpura, an all-purple toga worn by the early kings and possibly adopted by some emperors

*Propriety demanded that adult male citizens wear only one item of jewelry, a personalized signet ring that was used to make an impression in sealing wax in order to authorize documents.

 ROMAN FOOD

*Rich people at beef, pork, poultry, fowl, lamb and, fish.
* Ordinary citizens grow their own fruit and vegetables.
*The poor consisted mostly of grain which was cooked into porridge or bread.

ROMAN RELIGION

*religion had played a great role in it's society and was involved in almost every aspect of the life of the Roman citizen. 

*Big feasts were held in honor of certain gods and would include spectacals like chariot races and gladiatoral fights.

*Religious practices are best remembered with grand temples,great festivals and christian persecution to the final acceptance of christianity within the Roman empire over the traditional pagan religious.

*

The Roman religious practices can be divided into three phases which span from the founding of the city to the fall of the empire. The First Phase (753 BC to 500 BC) - The first phase of Roman religion dated from the founding of the city to the early republic. This phase occurred before the Roman civilization had really adopted the Greek ways and so the religious practices of this time consisted of only three gods and these gods were known as the Archaic Triad. The Second Phase (500 BC to 313 AD) - Before the end of the 6th century BC Greek influence had begun to affect Roman religion and this resulted in the transformation from the Archaic Triad to the more Greek influenced Captioline triad. The Third Phase (313 AD to 476 AD) - By the early empire ,in the first century AD, the traditional form of Roman religion was beginning to show signs of breaking up. Causes for this breakup could be attributed to the swarms of new religious beliefs that were sweeping through the Roman empire and the fact that most of these theologies promised peace after death to the destitute and uneducated majority of the Roman populace. The most notable of these new religions was Christianity ,which had found it's roots in the rebellious Roman territory of Judea.

PP

Roman Government from lizzibeee