ROMAN CIVILIZATION:
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The center of the roman civilization was Italy,
the peninsula that projects into the Mediterranean sea in the west of Greece.
The river Tiber on which the city of Rome is located runs through the central
part of the peninsula.
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The city of Rome was founded about 1000 BC by
Romulus, in the district of Latium. The language of the ancient Romans, Latin,
gets its name from Latium.
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The
early Romans had a king, an assembly and a senate.
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Towards the end of the 6th century BC
the king was overthrown and a republic was established. Under the republic the
roman’s conquered other parts of the peninsula, and by 265 BC controlled all of
Italy. The political system of the roman republic consisted of two consuls, the
senate & the assembly.
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The romans were involved in a series of wars
with cartage, a city on the north coast of Africa. The danger of Carthaginian
occupation of Sicily led the romans to attack cartage. The wards that followed,
known as the Punic wars, lasted from 264 BC to 146BC. The Carthaginians were
defeated in this war.
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By the beginning of the 1st century BC the roman
had conquered creek and Asia Minor and established a protectorate over Egypt.
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Rivalry for power grew between two generals,
Pompey & Julius Caesar. War between them followed and Pompey was murdered
by his enemies in Egypt. Caesar remained in Egypt for some time, attracted by
the captivating beauty of the Egyptian queen Cleopatra. On his return to Rome,
in 46 BC, he made himself dictator. However, on the charge that Caesar intended
to become king, he was assassinated in 44 BC, in a senate meeting.
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After the assassination of Caesar, power passed
into the hands of mark antonym and Lepidus, Caesar’s friends and Octavian,
Caesar’s grandnephew. The leaders of the conspiracy, brutes and cassias, feed
and organized a large army, but they were captured and slain.
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In 37 BC, Octavian became the most powerful man
in the Roman Empire, he ruled for 44 years under the titles of Augustus
imperator, meaning Holy victorious-general’. He also called himself princes,
‘first citizen of the state’.
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In 284
AD, Diocletian became ruler. From this time on, roman civilization declined
more rapidly. One of Diocletian’s successors, Constantine, built a new capital
called Constantinople, on the site of ancient Byzantium, in 330 AD. Not long
after, the Roman Empire was divid3d into two empires – western & eastern.
The western part soon broke into many pieces. But eastern part, called as
Byzantine Empire, continued for a thousand years more.
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The final blow to the Roman Empire at the hands
of northern invaders they were German tribes. By 476 AD, the once powerful
Roman Empire was no more.
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The roman worshipped as many gods &
goddesses as the Greeks. Jupiter sent rain for the corps; mars helped them in
war; mercury carried their messages; Neptune, the god of sea; vestal guarded
the home; Juno protected their women.