Connecting the Dots in World History, A Teacher's Literacy-Based Curriculum by Edwards Chris;

Author:Edwards, Chris; [Edwards, Chris]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
Published: 2015-08-15T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Seven

Rome

Dot 1: Names and Sources

To begin, let’s clear up some of the semantic confusion. One word, Rome, is too often used to describe a civilization/empire that existed in some form for about two thousand years. Rome began as a kingdom, became a storied republic, and then, during the era of Julius and Augustus Caesar, morphed into an empire dominated by a succession of “Caesars” or emperors (who, in turn, were usually dominated by their soldiers).

After the time of Constantine in the early fourth century, Christianity overtook Rome’s previously popular polytheism and the empire split into two. The western empire, fragile for reasons to be studied later, finally collapsed in 476 BCE, while the eastern empire lived on until 1453 and took the name of Byzantium, or the Byzantine Empire. It, too, is sometimes called Rome. Early on, however, Rome functioned as a republic, and it is the Roman Republic and its interactions with Greece and Carthage that serve our purposes here.

What we know about the Republic comes from just a few well-trod (and probably not very reliable) sources. There is Polybius (200–188 BCE), a Greek taken hostage by the Romans during the Macedonian Wars who wrote of their history. There is Cicero (106–43 BCE), the most famous of Roman senators and orators, whose letters, speeches, and works of philosophy made up a large part of what was once termed a classical education. He reported frequently on the crises of the later Republic. Livy (65 BCE–17 CE) recorded the most comprehensive history of the early Republic, but his sources come from the records of prestigious Roman families—his work details the infamous Punic Wars. Finally, there was Plutarch (40 CE–125 CE), whose life paralleled that of early Christianity (of which he makes no mention in his works) and who recorded what he knew about an ancient world that was several hundred years distant from his own life.

Dot 2: Romulus and Remus

Rhea Silvia, an honored Vestal Virgin of the city of Alba Longa, became pregnant. This fact proved difficult to square with her title, and she defended herself by claiming that the cause of her pregnancy was no mortal but a god. Her twins, when they came, were given the names of Romulus and Remus. The king, Amulius, had usurped the throne from a man named Numitor, and Rhea was the daughter of the royal who had been wronged; Amulius had made her a Vestal Virgin to avoid the possibility of her having any children who might challenge him. He ordered that the babies be placed in the Tiber River to die of exposure.

The river flooded and supposedly not only washed the babies up on shore but also drowned the pups of a now mournful she-wolf. She responded to the cries of the boys and the ravenous babies suckled at her teats, a metaphor indicating that the boys gorged themselves on the milk of a wolf and absorbed wolfish instincts.

These two young rakes grew up unaware of their parentage and

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