4.1.1 Text资料文件与下载

4.1 Pax Romana 1

Hi guys, now we start a new chapter - Chapter Four: Ancient Roman Civilization - the second part, and we start it from Pax Romana.

1. On January 16, 27 BC the Senate gave Octavian the new titles of Augustus and Princeps. Augustus in Latin means "venerable", "majestic", and "superior "; Princeps means the first citizen. This marked the end of Roman Republic and the beginning of the Roman Empire; Octavian became the first emperor until his death in 14 AD at the age of 75. This period we called Augustan age.

2. The Augustan age

This is the map of the Roman Empire under Augustus. Yellow part represents the extent of the Republic in 31 BC, green represents territories conquered by Augustus, and pink areas represent client states. A client state is a state that is economically, politically, or militarily subordinate to or controlled by another more powerful state.

3. Julius Caesar was Octavian’s maternal great-uncle. They have the same first name Gaius. When Octavian was born, Caesar named him and made him as his adopted son and heir. After the assassination of Julius Caesar in 44 BC, Octavian formed the second Triumvirate with Mark Antony and Lepidus. He finally defeated the other two and started a new era: the Pax Romana or Pax Augusta. The Pax Romana in Latin meaning "Roman Peace". It was a two-hundred-year long period of relatively peaceful time from the Augustan age starting from 27 BC to 192AD, marked by the assassination of Commodus, the last emperor of Nerva–Antonine Dynasty. Pax was the Roman goddess of peace, came from the Greek goddess Eirene. Pax was one of Augustus’s favorite deities; a deity is a god or goddess. Worship of Pax was organized during the rule of Augustus.

4. In 13AD the Senate ordered to build an altar of Pax called Altar of Augustan Peace. The purpose was to honor Augustus because the Senate believed Romans were grateful for Augustus giving them harmony, prosperity and peace. An altar is a structure upon which offerings such as sacrifices are made for religious purposes.

5. This relief from the Alter of Augustan Peace. We can see the goddess Pax sits there holding two happy babies and she is looking at them with love. This was the symbol of the Pax Romana.

6. Augustus made some reforms. He reduced the member of Senators from 1,000 to 600, and made the membership hereditary; it could pass down to their sons. The Senate actually became the emperor’s useful subordinate. He disbanded some legions. The number of legions reduced from 60 to 28, all under absolute command of Augustus himself. And he established a small elite unit, the Praetorian Guard whose members served as personal bodyguards to the Roman emperor. Augustan age has three famous poets and a famous historian.

7. Virgil 70-19 BC

This is an image of Virgil wearing a laurel wreath, a symbol of victory and honor. Virgil used his poems to glorify Augustus and the new age. His epic the Aeneid has been considered the national epic of ancient Rome. Modeled after Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, the Aeneid told the heroic story of Aeneas, the son of a Trojan prince and the goddess Aphrodite, Roman name Venus. After the fall of Troy, he led some survivors underwent a series of adventures around the Mediterranean Sea, and finally arrived Italy. He was the first true hero of Rome, and an ancestor of Romulus and Remus. The founder of Rome. The Aeneid is full of prophecies about the future of Rome including the victories of Augustus; the shield of Aeneas even depicts Augustus would defeat Mark Antony and Cleopatra at Actium in 31 BC. Aeneas once entered the underworld, there he was told by his father about the mission of Rome:" remember, Romans, your task is to rule the people. This will be your art: to teach the habit of peace, to spare the defeated and to subdue the haughty."

8. Both Virgil and Horace (65-8BC) were patronized by Augustus. Horace was the leading lyric poet during the time of Augustus. His poems directly glorify Augustus and the new age. In his works Augustus was almost a god; his victories were compared to the great heroes of the Roman legend. His most famous work is The Odes, a collection in four books of Latin lyric poems. An ode is a poem, especially one that is written in praise of a particular person, thing, or event. The most frequent themes of his Odes are love, friendship, philosophy, and the art of poet.

9. Ovid (43-71) was the greatest Latin poet of erotic love. Augustus favored Virgil and Horace but disliked Ovid. He was sent by Augustus into exile in a remote province on the Black Sea, where he remained until his death. His famous Metamorphoses is a narrative poem consisting of 15 books and over 250 myths, telling the history of the world from its creation to the time of Julius Caesar. The Art of love consists of three books. The purpose of these poems was to teach the art of seduction and adultery. Seduction is an act of winning the love or sexual favor of someone, adultery is having sex with someone out of marriage. The first two books teach men how to seduce women and how to keep a lover. The third book teaches women seduction techniques.

10. Livy (59-17AD) was a great historian at the Augustan age. His only surviving work is the History of Rome telling the history of Rome from the earliest legends through the death of Augustus in Livy's own time. He recorded the chaos of numerous civil wars, and the moral corruption of the Roman Republic. He praised Roman heroism in order to promote the new type of government of Augustus. In the preface of this book he said that he did not care whether his personal fame remained in darkness, what he cared was his work could help to "preserve the memory of the deeds of the world’s preeminent nation".

11. Julio-Claudian Dynasty

The Pax Romana lasted for 200 years, mainly consisted of three dynasties. The Julio-Claudian dynasty was the first consisting of five emperors, they ruled the Roman Empire from 27 BC to 68 AD when the last emperor Nero committed suicide. The name "Julio-Claudian dynasty" is derived from the two imperial families: the gens Julia and gens Claudia. "Gens" means family. These are the five emperors: Augustus (27 BC–14 AD), Tiberius (14–37), Caligula (37–41), Claudius (41–54), and Nero (54–68).

12. Nero’s rule is usually associated with very cruel tyranny and extravagance. His personality was vicious and paranoid, extremely suspicious and afraid of other people. It seems he cared only two things. One was murdering. He killed his mother, wife, aunt and his tutors and generals. The other one was spending a lot of money and time to show and to make people believe he was a great poet, actor, singer and athlete.

13. Great Fire of Rome 64AD

According to Roman historian Tacitus (c. 56 – c. 120 AD), in 64AD Nero secretly sent out men pretending to be drunk to set fire to the city. This Great Fire of Rome lasted for six days. Nero watched the fire from his palace on the Palatine Hill. The same time he was singing. The fire destroyed 3 of the 14 Roman districts and severely damaged 7 more.

14. Nero blamed the Christian community in the city for the fire, and started the first persecution against the Christians by the Roman Empire. Many Christians were killed by "being thrown to the beasts, crucified, and being burned alive". This painting shows Christians were crucified and being burned alive.

15. The Year of the Four Emperors 69 AD

Nero’s cruelty and tyranny caused anger across the Empire. Finally the desperate commanders in Gaul, Spain and Africa revolted. This was the first civil war of the Roman Empire. Nero committed suicide. The Year of 69 was called the year of Four Emperors. Four emperors ruled in succession: Galba, Otho, Vitellius, and Vespasian. And Vespasian finally restored the order who became the first Emperor of a new dynasty, the Flavian Dynasty.

16. Let’s look at Key words: Julius Caesar, Pax Romana, Virgil, Ovid, Nero.

This is the first part of chapter four.