History of Roman Empire

HISTORY OF ROMAN EMPIRE

Roads, money, jewelry, reading and writing, stone houses and an army. These things are all 

we have learned from the Romans. These folks came from Italy, with its capital Rome. The 

Roman Empire would become the largest empire in history in Europe. It started with the city 

of Rome (with a few hundred inhabitants) and ended with 60 million inhabitants.

In 600 BC Italy was inhabited by different peoples. The Greeks had a place in the south of

Italy and the Carthaginians on the island of Sicily. The card is already the city of Rome. It

was the Latins. Many nations fought against each other. After long struggle finally won the

Latins. They became increasingly powerful. In 590 v. Chr. the Latins of the Etruscans 

conquered.

800 years later, the Romans had conquered almost all of Europe. The Netherlands also 

was conquered by the Romans. But not the Netherlands. The Romans had taken the Rhine 

River as a boundary. That meant that the south of the Netherlands was occupied.


Netherlands was not yet a real country though! Our country consisted of several Germanic 

tribes. In the north attended the Frisians, in the west Kanninefaten, in the east tubantes and

just above the Rhine, the Batavians. Around 50 BC the Romans invaded this country.

According to an old (fictional) story of the city of Rome was founded by Romulus. Romulus

had a brother named Remus. They were twin sons of the god Mars, the god of war. They

were abandoned at birth. A she-wolf brought the twins large. In a fight Romulus killed his

brother and became the first king of Rome and the city got its name. An old story is called a

myth or a legend.

Rome was ruled by a king, but was chased away the last Etruscan king of Rome in 509 BC.

Rome was now a republic (without a king).

The Republic was ruled by the Senate. The Senate had at first 300 men. They were all rich

men, called patricians. The Senate was headed by two men, the consuls. Those two men

were in the wartime chief of the army, Minister of Justice and Minister - President. The two

consuls were elected each year by the male citizens of Rome.

Foreigners, slaves and women were not allowed to vote. They had no political rights. The

citizens were allowed to vote chose not only consuls (leaders), but also praetors (judges),

quaestors (managers of the money), aediles (responsible for public works) and censors.

The patricians therefore had the power. But there was another group that had absolutely

nothing to say. That group of people called the plebeians. After a fierce battle against the

patricians they were also more rights. There were written laws that caused the patricians no

longer just could not play the boss.

Meanwhile, the Romans had conquered much territory. The Romans had strong armies and

had good weapons. The soldiers had to obey the commander. (General) The commanders

had so much power, because all soldiers obeyed him. The best-known military leader was

Julius Caesar. He conquered many areas, such as France (Gaul) and parts of what is now

Italy.

Julius Caesar was born in 100 v. Chr. First he was a lawyer, and later he became a

statesman, general and writer. He captured with his army in 50 v. BC Gaul. That land is now

France. He also conquered other areas. He returned to Rome and wanted to be the boss.

He found himself an emperor and tried to govern alone.

If you want to govern alone, you are a dictator. You dictate (tells) others what they should

do. Of his surname (Caesar) comes the word "emperor". Julius Caesar tried to lower the

power of the Senate. This gave him many enemies. One day in 44 v. Chr. He was also killed

in the Senate by one of his enemies.

Julius Caesar was now dead, but the Roman people would surely like to keep one boss.

From now is the time of the Republic was over. Now met for the first emperors who held

only power. The famous emperor in Roman history was the emperor who came after Julius

Caesar. It was his adopted son Octavian. He was emperor of 27 v. BC to 14 AD. (So 41

years emperor) Octavian made peace in his country. The provinces (regions such as the

south of the Netherlands) were also better controlled. From now on there would be a long

period of peace in Western Europe. That period in Roman history is called the "Pax

Romana" (Roman Peace). Julius Caesar also introduced a new calendar. The year was

now 365 days and every fourth year a leap year. (1 extra day) so it was the last day of the

year February 28 (or February 29 in a leap year) December was not the last month, but the

tenth month. (Dec = deci = 10) The month in which Caesar was born, was named in his

honor "July".

A picture of emperor Octavian: 



The emperor was later given a different name. He was now called "August". That word "the

sublime" means. So the emperor stood above all others. Augustus is the same emperor as

emperor Octavian.

The Romans had a script very similar to that of the Greeks. It was written with a stylus. It is

a kind of wooden pen with a sharp edge and a blunt end. With the sharp edge he wrote in a

layer of wax, with the blunt side one could wipe it again.

Laws and important things people wrote on papyrus. Papyrus was very expensive. If you

practiced writing, you had to practice on a wooden board. There was a soft layer over it.

(That was waxed)

In Latin there is no difference between the letter "i" and "j" and there was no difference

between the "u" and "v". Most Romans were indeed not read or write. They were so

illiterate. Throughout the Roman Empire were speaking dozens of different languages, but

almost all languages have alphabet later adopted by Latin. In Italy, France, Spain, Belgium,

the Netherlands and part of Switzerland resemble words written in the Latin of the Romans.

The Latin figures have not disappeared. Each number could be written using letters. The

letter "X" meant the number 10. The letter "V" was the number 5. The number 15 was then

"XV" (10 + 5). By first name a smaller number, you knew you had to get off that little

number. Ex .: IV = 5-1 or IX = 10-1 = 9

Overview of figures and letters:

I = 1

V = 5

X = 10

XXX = 30

L = 50

XL = 40

LX = 60

C = 100

D = 500

M = 1000

Especially with large numbers it was difficult, for example, 1326 = MCCCXXVI.

In addition to the alphabet the Romans brought something new into the conquered

territories in Europe coins. For the Roman period there were no coins. To buy something,

you had to change something else. A garment one could therefore exchange on the market

at a knife. But the Romans had money to pay their huge armies. All the coins had on one

side the image of the emperor.