DÜNYA MEDENİYETLERİNE GİRİŞ

The new city attracted a great many settlers, in part because the king built a temple honoring the god Janus and then declared that any person entering the temple would be entitled to asylum in the city. So, Rome became a city of refuge for those seeking a new life.

After the fall of the Etruscans, Rome began to expand its reach, incorporating neighboring areas. In the process of the huge second Punic War, Rome expanded its direct control over much of Italy. Moreover, the war meant that Rome had also become embroiled in Greek affairs, since some of the Greek cities were allied with Carthage and others opposed. Those in opposition to Carthage called to Rome for help. Soon, as a result, Rome was expanding throughout these Greek areas, as well.

The second of the two contestants was Julius Caesar, a young consul; he was elected as part of a triumvirate with Pompey and another man, Crassus in 60 BCE. Enemies called this a “three headed monster.” Caesar had victories in the east. In response to one of them, he famously proclaimed: veni, vidi, vici – I came, I saw, I conquered.

Juvenal wrote poems denouncing pride, and he satirically examined the vanity of human wishes. He famously said that we should seek “a sound mind in a sound body.” Writing during a particularly offensive reign (when Rome was very corrupt), he said that he wrote satire because vice, crime, and the misuse of wealth had so ruled society that it was impossible not to write satire.

Three Great Roman Institutional Innovations are as follows:

Rome, while not a cultural desert, did not innovate in art, drama, or philosophy.

Mithraism was brought back to Rome by soldiers who traveled to the east and perhaps related to astrology; only men were admitted as members. The cult believed in a powerful god who could move the heavens, it advanced the idea of fatalism and avowed a lack of personal responsibility for what happens in life. Bulls were slaughtered at the Mithraic ceremonies and in the caves where the followers met are found depictions of scorpions, dogs, snakes, and lots of blood.

Most important of all for civilizational history was the arrival of Christianity, an offshoot of the Jewish religion, destined to become a major world religion via Rome. In the beginning, the Romans were tolerant toward Christianity. But when the Christians, like the Jews, refused to pay homage to Roman gods and the dead emperors, now seen as gods by the Romans, the empire turned against them and advocating Christianity was punishableby death.

Those who lived in lands that allied with Rome often received grants of citizenship. Gradually, most who lived in Northern or Southern Italy were named Roman citizens and over the centuries many migrated to Rome to live, generating a cosmopolitan atmosphere there as well as across many parts of the empire. Later, during the empire period, the Senate continued simultaneously to appoint Romans to high positions while extending Roman citizenship to yet additional subjects. Finally, in 212 CE all free subjects of the empire obtained Roman citizenship.

The Punic Wars were the most important institution underlying Rome’s expansion to include societies east and west. Of all the wars involving Rome, none were more important than the three on-and-off outbursts of fighting known collectively as the Punic Wars. This series of battles began in 264 BCE and ended almost a century later, in 146 BCE. The Punic Wars together amounted to a long-lasting conflict between Rome and Carthage, a powerful rival citystate and society to the south, founded originally by the Phoenicians, that arose in what is now Tunisia, on the southern coast of the Mediterranean.

The social, political, and ethical institutions of the Roman Republic lasted in Rome for about 500 years (or more, as a shadow of itself ). But the ideas of the republic – governmental checks and balances, social stratification, leadership class balanced with rights for all, civic virtue, and military prowess – have since been imitated in one form or another all around the world.

The Romans liked to believe that they were descended in a direct line from Ancient Greece, the major civilization that prevailed before them in Europe and the Middle East.

The empire was split in two, and under attack by barbarians, the power of the mighty Western Roman Empire vanished when the last emperor was forced by a Germanic leader, Odoacer, to abdicate in 476 CE

There are many legends – the most ingrained, two founders suckling as babes on a mother wolf. And then there is the truth. Thus, the city of Rome itself was founded, according to many of the legends, in 753 BCE.

Doğru seçenek C, Etruscans are believed to be from Asia Minor

Doğru seçenek E. Diğer çeldiriciler uygarlığın criterlerinden sayılır

Among the many legends, the most ingrained is about the two founders who are represented as suckling as babes on a mother wolf. Rome was said to have been ruled at first by one of these brothers, Romulus, an Etruscan who crowned himself king. Romans believed that he and his twin brother Remus had been born the sons of a Vestal Virgin. Another view is that the Romans liked to believe that they were descended in a direct line from Ancient Greece, the major civilization that prevailed before them in Europe and the Middle East. Their main legend of origin was recorded in the great work The Aeneid, written by Virgil (70 - 19 BCE). According to this epic poem, Aeneas, a warrior of Troy and son of a prince of Troy and the goddess Athena, was a valiant fighter for the doomed city of Troy, but when the city finally fell to its besiegers, he led a band of his people westward to found, eventually and after much wandering, the city of Rome, a new homeland for his divine nation with its godly origins. Historically, Rome was originally a market town dominated by the Etruscans, migrants who most likely were originally from Anatolia. As a result, the names in all choices except Choice E - Arabs  appear in recounts of the origin of the city Rome. The correct answer is E.

Rome expanded to all of these territories except South Africa and China. Some of these possessions lasted short. For instance, Mesopotamia remained only for three years under the control of the Roman Empire. Much of what is shown the southern frontier of the empire runs into the unoccupied desert. Around the time of Julius Caesar, just before the empire replaced the republic, military conquests had expanded the reach of Rome. At that point, all of Gallia (today’s France and Belgium and parts of Western Germany) was within it, more of North Africa (but not that much) near Carthage, Cyrene (now in Eastern Libya), Syria, Cyprus, the Cilicia region, and the Bithynia region of Northwest Anatolia. Rome never effectively penetrated far to the south in Africa, so only the coastal regions in the north. As for Carthage, in 146 BCE, the siege after the second Punic War proved to be too much for the unfortunate Carthaginians; the destruction of the city of Carthage led to the final scene of the third Punic War. Out of an estimated half a million people in Carthage, only 50,000 survived. They were taken away as slaves by the Romans. The city was burnt to the ground and the ruins ploughed over. A new Roman province, named Africa, was created in the area. To sum up, China and South Africa were not Roman territories. The correct answer is D.

There were six female gods, starting with Juno, who, based on the Etruscan belief, was a moon goddess and originally stood as a representation of women but evolved to become more like the Greek Hera, wife of Zeus. Joining her were Minerva (Athena to the Greeks), Venus (Aphrodite to the Greeks), Diana (Artemis), Vesta (Hestia to the Greeks), and Ceres (Demeter to the Greeks). Thus, the correct answer for Athena is choice A – Minerva.

When Christians refused to pay homage to Roman gods and the dead emperors, seen as gods by the Romans, the empire turned against them and advocating Christianity was punishable by death. When in 64 CE the city burned, the Emperor Nero unfairly blamed the Christians; many Christians were killed based on the false charge. Major persecutions of Christians followed in the early fourth century, led by the co-emperors Diocletian and Galerius, who saw Christianity as a threat to their rule. In 306 CE, Constantine converted to Christianity and became the Roman emperor. In 314, his Edict of Milan ensured tolerance for Christians throughout the Roman Empire. Julius Caesar lived before the emergence of Christianity (born 100 or 102 BCE). The correct answer is C.

Rome was led by Senators who legislated. The city was not to be ruled based on arbitrary decisions taken by a king, an autocrat, but rather on deliberation. The leaders themselves came from a group of advisers that Romulus supposedly had formed to guide him; their descendants became known as the patricians. They became the leading class of Roman citizens, a subgroup of about five percent of the population, and would ultimately constitute the men who were to serve at the helm of Rome for five hundred years during the Republic and, subsequently, the Empire. The importance of the Senate for Roman history cannot be emphasized enough; when looking around Roman monuments that still survive one will see stamped on them SPQR – Senatus Populusque Romanus (the Roman Senate and People). It can be found on coins, weapons, and anything possessed by the state. The correct answer is B.