Age Of Empires The Rise Of Rome Free Download

[Taneka Tarring]

TheRoman Empire was the state ruled by the Romans following Octavian's assumption of sole rule under the Principate in 27 BC, the post-Republican state of ancient Rome. It included territories in Europe, North Africa, and Western Asia and was ruled by emperors. The fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 AD conventionally marks the end of classical antiquity and the beginning of the Middle Ages.

By 100 BC, Rome had expanded its rule to most of the Mediterranean and beyond. However, it was severely destabilized by civil wars and political conflicts, which culminated in the victory of Octavian over Mark Antony and Cleopatra at the Battle of Actium in 31 BC, and the subsequent conquest of the Ptolemaic Kingdom in Egypt. In 27 BC, the Roman Senate granted Octavian overarching power (imperium) and the new title of Augustus, marking his accession as the first Roman emperor of a monarchy with Rome as its sole capital. The vast Roman territories were organized into senatorial provinces, governed by proconsuls who were appointed by lot annually, and imperial provinces, which belonged to the emperor but were governed by legates.[18]

Due to the Empire's extent and endurance, its institutions and culture had a lasting influence on the development of language, religion, art, architecture, literature, philosophy, law, and forms of government across its territories. Latin evolved into the Romance languages while Medieval Greek became the language of the East. The Empire's adoption of Christianity resulted in the formation of medieval Christendom. Roman and Greek art had a profound impact on the Italian Renaissance. Rome's architectural tradition served as the basis for Romanesque, Renaissance and Neoclassical architecture, influencing Islamic architecture. The rediscovery of classical science and technology (which formed the basis for Islamic science) in medieval Europe contributed to the Scientific Renaissance and Scientific Revolution. Many modern legal systems, such as the Napoleonic Code, descend from Roman law. Rome's republican institutions have influenced the Italian city-state republics of the medieval period, the early United States, and modern democratic republics.

Rome had begun expanding shortly after the founding of the Roman Republic in the 6th century BC, though not outside the Italian Peninsula until the 3rd century BC. Thus, it was an "empire" (a great power) long before it had an emperor.[20] The Republic was not a nation-state in the modern sense, but a network of self-ruled towns (with varying degrees of independence from the Senate) and provinces administered by military commanders. It was governed by annually elected magistrates (Roman consuls above all) in conjunction with the Senate.[21] The 1st century BC was a time of political and military upheaval, which ultimately led to rule by emperors.[22][23][24] The consuls' military power rested in the Roman legal concept of imperium, meaning "command" (though typically in a military sense).[25] Occasionally, successful consuls were given the honorary title imperator (commander); this is the origin of the word emperor, since this title was always bestowed to the early emperors.[26]

Rome suffered a long series of internal conflicts, conspiracies, and civil wars from the late second century BC (see Crisis of the Roman Republic) while greatly extending its power beyond Italy. In 44 BC Julius Caesar was briefly dictator before being assassinated. The faction of his assassins was driven from Rome and defeated at the Battle of Philippi in 42 BC by Mark Antony and Caesar's adopted son Octavian. Antony and Octavian's division of the Roman world did not last and Octavian's forces defeated those of Mark Antony and Cleopatra at the Battle of Actium in 31 BC. In 27 BC the Senate made Octavian princeps ("first citizen") with proconsular imperium, thus beginning the Principate (the first epoch of Roman imperial history, usually dated from 27 BC to 284 AD), and gave him the title Augustus ("the venerated"). Although the republic stood in name, Augustus had all meaningful authority.[27] Since his rule began an unprecedented period of peace and prosperity, he was so loved that he came to hold the power of a monarch de facto if not de jure. During the years of his rule, a new constitutional order emerged (in part organically and in part by design), so that, upon his death, this new constitutional order operated as before when Tiberius was accepted as the new emperor.[citation needed]

In the view of contemporary Greek historian Cassius Dio, the accession of Commodus in 180 marked the descent "from a kingdom of gold to one of rust and iron",[36] a comment which has led some historians, notably Edward Gibbon, to take Commodus' reign as the beginning of the Empire's decline.[37][38]

The Western Roman Empire began to disintegrate in the early 5th century. The Romans were successful in fighting off all invaders, most famously Attila,[43] but the empire had assimilated so many Germanic peoples of dubious loyalty to Rome that the empire started to dismember itself.[44] Most chronologies place the end of the Western Roman Empire in 476, when Romulus Augustulus was forced to abdicate to the Germanic warlord Odoacer.[45][46][47]

Odoacer ended the Western Empire by declaring Zeno sole emperor and placing himself as Zeno's nominal subordinate. In reality, Italy was ruled by Odoacer alone.[45][46][48] The Eastern Roman Empire, called the Byzantine Empire by later historians, continued until the reign of Constantine XI Palaiologos. The last Roman emperor died in battle in 1453 against Mehmed II and his Ottoman forces during the siege of Constantinople. Mehmed II adopted the title of caesar in an attempt to claim a connection to the Empire.[49]

The Roman Empire was one of the largest in history, with contiguous territories throughout Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East.[50] The Latin phrase imperium sine fine ("empire without end"[51]) expressed the ideology that neither time nor space limited the Empire. In Virgil's Aeneid, limitless empire is said to be granted to the Romans by Jupiter.[52] This claim of universal dominion was renewed when the Empire came under Christian rule in the 4th century.[f] In addition to annexing large regions, the Romans directly altered their geography, for example cutting down entire forests.[54]

Roman expansion was mostly accomplished under the Republic, though parts of northern Europe were conquered in the 1st century, when Roman control in Europe, Africa, and Asia was strengthened. Under Augustus, a "global map of the known world" was displayed for the first time in public at Rome, coinciding with the creation of the most comprehensive political geography that survives from antiquity, the Geography of Strabo.[55] When Augustus died, the account of his achievements (Res Gestae) prominently featured the geographical cataloguing of the Empire.[56] Geography alongside meticulous written records were central concerns of Roman Imperial administration.[57]

Trajan's successor Hadrian adopted a policy of maintaining rather than expanding the empire. Borders (fines) were marked, and the frontiers (limites) patrolled.[58] The most heavily fortified borders were the most unstable.[23] Hadrian's Wall, which separated the Roman world from what was perceived as an ever-present barbarian threat, is the primary surviving monument of this effort.[65]

Latin and Greek were the main languages of the Empire,[g] but the Empire was deliberately multilingual.[70] Andrew Wallace-Hadrill says "The main desire of the Roman government was to make itself understood".[71] At the start of the Empire, knowledge of Greek was useful to pass as educated nobility and knowledge of Latin was useful for a career in the military, government, or law.[72] Bilingual inscriptions indicate the everyday interpenetration of the two languages.[73]

Latin and Greek's mutual linguistic and cultural influence is a complex topic.[74] Latin words incorporated into Greek were very common by the early imperial era, especially for military, administration, and trade and commerce matters.[75] Greek grammar, literature, poetry and philosophy shaped Latin language and culture.[76][77]

There was never a legal requirement for Latin in the Empire, but it represented a certain status.[79] High standards of Latin, Latinitas, started with the advent of Latin literature.[80] Due to the flexible language policy of the Empire, a natural competition of language emerged that spurred Latinitas, to defend Latin against the stronger cultural influence of Greek.[81] Over time Latin usage was used to project power and a higher social class.[82][83] Most of the emperors were bilingual but had a preference for Latin in the public sphere for political reasons, a "rule" that first started during the Punic Wars.[84] Different emperors up until Justinian would attempt to require the use of Latin in various sections of the administration but there is no evidence that a linguistic imperialism existed during the early Empire.[85]

After all freeborn inhabitants were universally enfranchised in 212, many Roman citizens would have lacked a knowledge of Latin.[86] The wide use of Koine Greek was what enabled the spread of Christianity and reflects its role as the lingua franca of the Mediterranean during the time of the Empire.[87] Following Diocletian's reforms in the 3rd century CE, there was a decline in the knowledge of Greek in the west.[88] Spoken Latin later fragmented into the incipient romance languages in the 7th century CE following the collapse of the Empire's west.[89]

The dominance of Latin and Greek among the literate elite obscure the continuity of other spoken languages within the Empire.[90] Latin, referred to in its spoken form as Vulgar Latin, gradually replaced Celtic and Italic languages.[91][92] References to interpreters indicate the continuing use of local languages, particularly in Egypt with Coptic, and in military settings along the Rhine and Danube. Roman jurists also show a concern for local languages such as Punic, Gaulish, and Aramaic in assuring the correct understanding of laws and oaths.[93] In Africa, Libyco-Berber and Punic were used in inscriptions into the 2nd century.[90] In Syria, Palmyrene soldiers used their dialect of Aramaic for inscriptions, an exception to the rule that Latin was the language of the military.[94] The last reference to Gaulish was between 560 and 575.[95][96] The emergent Gallo-Romance languages would then be shaped by Gaulish.[97] Proto-Basque or Aquitanian evolved with Latin loan words to modern Basque.[98] The Thracian language, as were several now-extinct languages in Anatolia, are attested in Imperial-era inscriptions.[87][90]

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