A brief introduction to the history of Roman Empire:
Ancient Rome refers to the civilization that rose in the middle of Italy Peninsula (Apennine Peninsula) from the 9th century BC and experienced the Roman monarchy. In 5 10 BC, Rome established a republic and gradually conquered the Italian peninsula. From the 3rd century BC to the 2nd century BC, Rome fought three wars with Carthage, a western Mediterranean power, for the hegemony of the Mediterranean, plundering resources and slaves, which was called Punic War in history.
In the 2nd century BC, Rome became the overlord of the Mediterranean. In about 1 century, it expanded into a huge Roman empire spanning Europe, Asia and Africa, ruling the Mediterranean. By 395 AD, the Roman Empire was divided into two parts. The Western Roman Empire perished in 476; The Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantine Empire) was destroyed by the Ottoman Empire in 1453. Like China in Qin and Han Dynasties, it was one of the powerful empires in the ancient world.
During the reign of Emperor Trajan of Antony Dynasty (98-1 17), the territory of the Roman Empire reached its largest and its economy was unprecedentedly prosperous, starting from Spain and Britain in the west, reaching the upper reaches of the Euphrates River in the east, North Africa in the south and the Rhine and Danube River in the north. The Mediterranean became the inland sea of the empire.
Second, explain the important figures in the history of the Roman Empire in combination with relevant historical periods:
1, Introduction (Wang Zhengguo)
According to legend, when Troy was captured by the Greeks (about 1300- 1 190 BC), Aeneas, the son of Venus, and his followers escaped, went west along North Africa and arrived in ancient Italy via Carthage. At that time, there was Latinum in Italy, ruled by King Latinus. Aeneas defeated Tunus and established a kingdom (Alba). Later, his grandson Romulus founded Rome and became the first king.
2. Toulouse Hestirius period
In the era of Toulouse Hestirius, there were frequent wars between Rome and the neighboring town of Alba, and the people suffered greatly. Torres Aosti Luz and King Metis Fufitius of Alba made up their minds to stop fighting, but in order to decide which city's king got the highest position, Metis Fufitius proposed such a method: let several soldiers fight, and which city's soldiers won, which city's king became the highest monarch.
It happens that both Rome and Alba have triplets. The triplets in Rome (they are called "Curiatii") and Alba's triplets were born at the same time. So Torres and Metis chose these two pairs of triplets as representatives of their respective cities.
Shortly after the start of the game, two Horatii have died. Fortunately, the surviving Horatius was not injured, while the Curiti brothers were not killed, but everyone was injured to varying degrees. The surviving Horatius pretended to escape, and the Courrian brothers were tricked into chasing him. However, due to different injuries, some of them ran fast and some ran slowly, so they could not catch up with Horatius at the same time. So Horace doesn't have to fight with them in pairs. He fought with everyone alone and then killed them one by one.
In this way, Rome won, and Toulouse Hestirius became the monarch of Alba.
3. The period of Servis Tullius.
From 578 BC to 534 BC, Servis Tullius ruled. During this period, servius tullius carried out reforms, including:
Citizens who can perform military service are divided into five grades according to their property, and each grade provides a different number of 100-person troops, totaling 193. The establishment of committee of 100 replaced the power of the Gurion Congress to declare war, elect and judge. 193 team 100 people, each with one vote. Divide the clan tribe into four regions. The reform of Severus Tullius completed the transition from clan system to state in ancient Rome.
4. Lucius Tacven's period
The proud king Lucius Tarquini superbus was the son-in-law of Severus Tullius, but he led troops into the palace and killed Severus Tullius, becoming the king himself and the last king. After Lucius Tarquini superbus came to power, he was cruel and heartless. In 5 10 BC, he was expelled from Rome by Roman civilians, led by Lucius Junius Brutus, the son of Servis Tullius.
The Roman people decided that they no longer needed a king, but elected two consuls. They were originally called consuls and later renamed consuls for a term of one year. The first consuls were Lucius Junius Brutus and Lucius Tacvin Colladay. In 509 BC, the Roman nobles came to power and established the Roman Republic.
5, Wang Zheng period
It is said that in 754 -753 BC, Romulus, an ancient Roman, built the city of Rome on the Tiber River, which initiated the era of royal government. There have been seven kings, clans and tribal organizations still intact. The ruling class included the king, the Senate and the curia Conference (Rome called the phratry curia, and every 65,438+00 clans formed a phratry, which was later replaced by the meeting of 100 people). Later, there was a distinction between nobles and civilians.
In the era of kingship, the king has absolute power. He is a great legislator, the leader and chief priest of the army, and his power is only restricted by the Senate and the citizens' assembly. The Senate is the Senate Council, which is composed of different tribal leaders. According to the Constitution and traditional customs, the Senate has the right to pass or veto the appointment of the king and to judge the king's legislation and litigation. The citizens' assembly consists of all male citizens in Rome and is divided into 30 groups according to their kinship; It authorized the monarch to exercise his power and was finally formally approved by the Senate.
6. The establishment of ancient Rome.
The date of the establishment of the city of Rome is uncertain, and it is traditionally believed to be in 753 BC. This has been widely confirmed by archaeological discoveries, although some people may have lived there long ago.
Traditionally, the Romans attributed the establishment of Rome to the hero Romulus. He and his twin brother Remus are descendants of the hero Aeneas. Aeneas was the son of the Greek goddess Aphrodite (known as Venus in Roman mythology). After the Greeks occupied Troy, he came to Italy.
Roman historian Titus Levi described this myth as follows: The grandfather of the twin brothers was Numito, who was the king of Alba in the Alba Mountains in the southeast of Rome. Amulius, the evil brother of the king, deported the king and made Leia Silvia, the only daughter of the king, a virgin to prevent her from bearing children (virgins are not allowed to bear children), in order to prevent the descendants of the king from taking revenge. But Leia Sylvia violated his constraints, fell in love with Mars and gave birth to twins. When the twins were abandoned in the Tiber River, a female wolf nursed them. Later, a shepherd found out that his wife raised them. When they grew up, the twin brothers became the leaders of the greenwood. After remus was captured and brought to King Amulius, romulus led his men to rescue him and killed Amulius. At this time, the life experience of the twin brothers was revealed to the world, and their grandfather Numeitu reigned. The two brothers left their grandfather and set up their own city where the shepherd found them. When deciding who will be the master of the city, the Oracle told them to decide according to the birds they saw that predicted success. Remus saw six vultures when he stood on Mount Aventing, and romulus saw 12 vultures when he stood on Mount Balading. The latter figure is luckier, but Remus is the first sign to see it. As a result, there was a quarrel between the brothers, and romulus finally killed Remus and became the king of the new town. He ruled for a long time, was accepted by the gods after his death, and became a respected god of war, Quirinus.
7. Republican period
From the 5th century BC to the early 3rd century BC, the struggle between civilians and nobles came to an end, and the Italian peninsula was basically unified. The Committee of 100 elected two consuls from the nobility to exercise the highest administrative power for a period of 1 year; The main institutions that manage the country are the Senate, senior officials and citizens' assembly, which are responsible for protecting the rights of civilians from being infringed by nobles. This also marks the birth of Roman law. Debt slavery was abolished 326 years ago.
When Rome was founded, it was a small country. Since the beginning of the 5th century BC, it has defeated some Latin American cities and neighboring countries such as Lasquin, conquered the indigenous and Greek city-states in the southern Italian peninsula, and became a big country in the western Mediterranean. Rome launched three Punic wars and conquered Carthage in 146, making it a province of Rome. Before 2 15-168, he launched three Macedonian wars, conquered Spain and Macedonia, and controlled the whole of Greece. He conquered the eastern lands such as Syria through the Roman-Syrian war and diplomatic means.
During this period, the economy developed rapidly, but it also intensified social contradictions. Due to the formation of manor system and the extensive use of slave labor, Italy's agriculture, industry and commerce and usury flourished and the slave economy developed greatly; A large number of bankrupt peasants became vagrants, which aggravated the social contradictions in Rome. From 1930s to 65438+1930s, they are intertwined. For example, during the period from 133 to 123, the Gragu Brothers Reform took place.
107 years ago, with the support of Democrats, gaius marius was elected as consul and began to carry out military reform. He carried out the recruitment system, which made a large number of landless or less citizens flood into the army.
In the first 90 years, in order to fight for Roman civil rights, the Italians revolted, which is called the allied war in history.
In the first 82 years, with the support of optimates, Sura led the army to occupy Rome.
Sixty years ago, gaius Julius Caesar, Marcus Lisini crassus and Pompeii Magnus secretly concluded a treaty to jointly fight against the Senate, which was called the first tripartite alliance.
In the first 53 years, crassus was completely annihilated in the Battle of Calais in Pattaya, and he himself was killed, leaving only two of the Big Three. During this period, Caesar fought in Gaul, gained a lot, and his reputation and status rose sharply, causing Pompey's jealousy and vigilance. Pompeii allied with the Senate against Caesar.
48 years ago, Julius Caesar defeated Pompeii in the battle of salus, and Pompeii fled to Egypt and was killed. Caesar was declared a dictator for life, combining military and political power. He carried out reforms, but his political opponents hated him because of dictatorship. He was assassinated by optimates conspirators on March 15 44 years ago. After Caesar's death, the Roman Civil War broke out again. In the first 43 years, Antony, Rebida and Octavian made an open alliance and gained the legal right to rule the country for five years, which was called the last trilateral alliance in history.
Then Octavian defeated the other two. Twenty-seven years ago, the Senate awarded Octavian the title of "Augustus" and established the head of state system. The Republic declared death and Rome entered the age of empire.
8, the imperial period
The political system created by Augustus, known as the head of state system in history, is actually a monarchy in the name of the Republic.
After Augustus died, his adopted son Tiberius succeeded to the throne, thus creating the system of succession to the throne. The period from 27 years ago to 192 is called the pre-imperial period, including Claudius, Flavi and Antony. The society was relatively stable during this period. During the reign of Emperor Trajan of Antony Dynasty (98-1 17), the imperial territory reached its maximum: from Spain and Britain in the west, to the upper reaches of the Euphrates River in the east, to North Africa in the south, and to the Rhine and Danube River in the north, and the Mediterranean Sea became the internal sea of the empire. The economy is unprecedentedly prosperous. Christianity rose in the middle of 1 century and spread rapidly in the 2nd and 3rd centuries.
In the Western Roman Empire, the economic crisis continued, the population decreased, the fields were barren, the urban and rural areas were depressed, and the rule was weakening. In 4 10, the visigoths once occupied Rome. In 452, Attila the Hun entered Italy. In 455, the Vandals attacked Italy and fell into Rome again. It has successively established barbarian countries such as Visigoth Kingdom, Vandal-Alain Kingdom, Burgundy Kingdom and Eastern Goth Kingdom. In September 476, the German army invaded, and its mercenary leader Odyak deposed the last monarch, romulus Augustus Luce, and the Western Roman Empire was declared dead.
The Eastern Roman Empire lasted until 1453 and was destroyed by the Ottoman Empire.