The Roman Empire

- Rome's increasing wealth and expanding boundaries brought many serious problems such as discontent among the lower classes of society and a breakdown in military order; these problems lead to the republic
- The rich started buying large farm estates which made it hard for smaller farmers to compete making a lot of them jobless and homeless
- Two tribune brothers named Tiberius and Gaius Gracchus tried to help Rome's poor by proposing reforms as limiting the size of estates and giving land to the poor 
- Their helping of the poor gave them lots of enemies which resulted in both of them being killed (Tiberius in 133 BC) (Gaius in 121 BC).
- After their deaths, civil war broke out in Rome
- In 60 BC military leader Julius Ceasar joined forces with Crassus and Pompey
- For the next 10 years, Rome was dominated by these three leaders
- They were in a triumvirate: a group of three rulers
- Caesar lead a successful campaign to conquer all of Gaul during 58-50 BC.
- Pompey had concerns about Caesar being the leader so he had the senate order, Caesar, to disband his legions in 50 BC.
- On January 10, 49 B.C., Caesar took his army across the Rubicon River, making Pompey flee; in 46 BC, Caesar returns to Rome with the popularity and support from the masses.
- In 44 BC Julius Caesar was named dictator for life until he was assassinated on March 15, 44 BC in the senate chamber.
- The second Roman triumvirate came into power in 43 BC, lasting for 10 years; the leaders were Octavian, Mark Antony, and Lepidus, but all good things came to end... and those three eventually became rivals
- Octavian earned the title Augustus (exalted one) when he became the unchallenged ruler of Rome.
- Augustus' rule sparked the peak of power in Rome for 207 years. This period of peace and prosperity was called Pax Romana and it went from 27 BC to 180 AD.
- While in power, Augustus stabilized the frontier, glorified Rome, and created a system of government that survived for centuries, and set up a civil service.
- In 14 AD, Augustus died, but Rome was able to remain the empire's stability
- 90% of Romans were farmers
- 1/3 of Rome's total population was slaves making them have more use of slaves than every previous civilization
- The earliest Romans worshipped powerful spirits/divine forces, called lumina, that they thought resided in everything around them; Lares were the guardian spirits of each family.
- During the Pax Romana, the religion of Christianity started to rise in Rome.



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