Roman Empire Study 1

 001) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_Empire ...

A) The Roman Empire[a] was the post-Republican state of ancient Rome. It included territory around the Mediterranean in Europe, North Africa, and Western Asia, and was ruled by emperors. The adoption of Christianity as the state church in 380 and the fall of the Western Roman Empire conventionally marks the end of classical antiquity and the beginning of the Middle Ages. 

B) The Roman Republic became severely destabilized in civil wars and political conflicts, eventually culminating in the victory of Octavian over Mark Antony and Cleopatra at the Battle of Actium in 31 BC and the subsequent conquest of the Ptolemaic Kingdom in Egypt. The Roman Senate granted Octavian overarching power (imperium) and the new title of Augustus, marking his accession as the first Roman emperor of a Principate with Italia as the metropole and Rome as its sole capital. The vast Roman territories were organized in senatorial and imperial provinces.

C) The first two centuries of the Roman Empire saw a period of unprecedented stability and prosperity known as the Pax Romana (lit. 'Roman Peace').

D) In the 3rd century, the Empire underwent a crisis that threatened its existence, as the Gallic and Palmyrene Empires broke away from the Roman state, and a series of short-lived emperors led the Empire. It was reunified under Aurelian (r. 270–275). To stabilize it, Diocletian set up two different imperial courts in the Greek East and Latin West in 286; Christians rose to positions of power in the 4th century following the Edict of Milan of 313. The imperial seat moved from Rome to Byzantium in 330.  

E) Latin evolved into the Romance languages, while Medieval Greek became the language of the Eastern Roman Empire.  

F) The Julio-Claudian dynasty lasted for four more emperors—Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, and Nero—before it yielded in 69 AD to the strife-torn Year of the Four Emperors, from which Vespasian emerged as victor. Vespasian became the founder of the brief Flavian dynasty, followed by the Nerva–Antonine dynasty which produced the "Five Good Emperors": Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, Antoninus Pius, and Marcus Aurelius. 

G) But despite this gesture of universality, the Severan dynasty was tumultuous—an emperor's reign was ended routinely by his murder or execution—and, following its collapse, the Roman Empire was engulfed by the Crisis of the Third Century, a period of invasions, civil strife, economic disorder, and plague

002) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Antony ...

A) Marcus Antonius (14 January 83 BC – 1 August 30 BC), commonly known in English as Mark Antony,[1] was a Roman politician and general who played a critical role in the transformation of the Roman Republic from a constitutional republic into the autocratic Roman Empire. 

B) After Caesar's assassination in 44 BC, Antony joined forces with Marcus Aemilius Lepidus, another of Caesar's generals, and Octavian, Caesar's great-nephew and adopted son, forming a three-man dictatorship known to historians as the Second Triumvirate. 

003) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julius_Caesar ...

A) Gaius Julius Caesar (/ˈsiːzər/; Latin: [ˈɡaːiʊs ˈjuːliʊs ˈkae̯sar]; 12 July 100 BC – 15 March 44 BC) was a Roman general and statesman. A member of the First Triumvirate, Caesar led the Roman armies in the Gallic Wars before defeating his political rival Pompey in a civil war, and subsequently became dictator from 49 BC until his assassination in 44 BC. He played a critical role in the events that led to the demise of the Roman Republic and the rise of the Roman Empire.

B) In 60 BC, Caesar, Crassus, and Pompey formed the First Triumvirate, an informal political alliance that dominated Roman politics for several years.  

004) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Actium 

A) The Battle of Actium was a naval battle fought between a maritime fleet of Octavian led by Marcus Agrippa and the combined fleets of both Mark Antony and Cleopatra VII Philopator. The battle took place on 2 September 31 BC in the Ionian Sea, near the former Roman colony of Actium, Greece, and was the climax of over a decade of rivalry between Octavian and Antony. 

005) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gallic_Wars

A) The Gallic Wars were a key factor in Caesar's ability to win the Civil War and make himself dictator, which culminated in the end of the Roman Republic and the establishment of the Roman Empire. 

006) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Triumvirate ...

A) The First Triumvirate was an informal political alliance among three prominent politicians in the late Roman Republic: Gaius Julius Caesar, Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus and Marcus Licinius Crassus. 

007) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ptolemaic_Kingdom 

A) The Ptolemaic Kingdom (/ˌtɒlɪˈmeɪ.ɪk/; Koinē Greek: Πτολεμαϊκὴ βασιλεία, romanized: Ptolemaïkḕ basileía)[6] or Ptolemaic Empire[7] was an Ancient Greek state based in Egypt during the Hellenistic period.[8] It was founded in 305 BC by Ptolemy I Soter, a companion of Alexander the Great, and ruled by the Ptolemaic dynasty until the death of Cleopatra VII in 30 BC.[9] Ruling for nearly three centuries, the Ptolemies were the longest reigning and final dynasty of ancient Egypt. 

008) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Severan_dynasty ...

A) The Severan dynasty was an Ancient Roman imperial dynasty that ruled the Roman Empire between 193 and 235, during the Roman imperial period. 

009) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classical_antiquity ...

A) Classical antiquity, also known as the classical era, classical period, classical age, or simply antiquity,[1] is the period of cultural history between the 8th century BC and the 5th century AD centred on the Mediterranean Sea,[note 1] comprising the interlocking civilizations of ancient Greece and ancient Rome known as the Greco-Roman world. It is the period in which both Greek and Roman societies flourished and wielded huge influence throughout much of Europe, North Africa, and West Asia.[2][3] 

010) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Late_antiquity ...

A) Late antiquity is the time of transition from classical antiquity to the Middle Ages, generally spanning the 3rd–7th century in Europe and adjacent areas bordering the Mediterranean Basin. 

011) https://study.com/learn/lesson/goddess-cybele-mythology.html

A) Cybele is the Roman equivalent of the Greek goddess Rhea, the wife of Cronus and the mother of Zeus. Her cult seems to have originated in Phrygia, a kingdom in Asia Minor, but worship of Cybele spread to Greece and eventually became a major cult of the Roman Empire. She is often associated with motherhood, nature, fertility, and agriculture. 

B) Cybele and Attis were worshiped together. Attis was worshiped as a fertility god: his death and resurrection represent plants of the earth, which die in the winter and grow again in the spring. In art, Attis was depicted wearing a Phrygian hat.

012) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augustus ...

A) Caesar Augustus (born Gaius Octavius; 23 September 63 BC – 19 August AD 14), also known as Octavian, was the founder of the Roman Empire; he reigned as the first Roman emperor from 27 BC until his death in AD 14. 

B)  His maternal great-uncle Julius Caesar was assassinated in 44 BC, and Octavius was named in Caesar's will as his adopted son and heir; as a result, he inherited Caesar's name, estate, and the loyalty of his legions. He, Mark Antony and Marcus Lepidus formed the Second Triumvirate to defeat the assassins of Caesar. 

C) Following their victory at the Battle of Philippi (42 BC), the Triumvirate divided the Roman Republic among themselves and ruled as de facto dictators. The Triumvirate was eventually torn apart by the competing ambitions of its members; Lepidus was exiled in 36 BC, and Antony was defeated by Octavian at the Battle of Actium in 31 BC. Antony and his wife Cleopatra, the Ptolemaic queen of Egypt, killed themselves during Octavian's invasion of Egypt, which then became a Roman province. 

013) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Livia  .... 

A) Livia Drusilla (30 January 59 BC – AD 29) was Roman empress from 27 BC to AD 14 as the wife of emperor Augustus. 

B) She married Tiberius Claudius Nero around 43 BC, and they had two sons, Tiberius and Drusus. In 38 BC, she divorced Tiberius Claudius Nero and married the political leader Octavian. The Senate granted Octavian the title Augustus in 27 BC, effectively making him emperor. Livia then became the Roman empress. 

C) After Augustus died in AD 14, Tiberius became emperor. Livia continued to exert political influence as the mother of the emperor. She died in AD 29. She was the grandmother of the emperor Claudius, great-grandmother of the emperor Caligula, and the great-great-grandmother of the emperor Nero. 

D) In AD 42, Livia was deified by Claudius, who acknowledged her title of Augusta. 

014) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiberius ...

A) Tiberius Caesar Augustus[b] (/taɪˈbɪəriəs/; 16 November 42 BC – 16 March AD 37) was the second Roman emperor. He reigned from AD 14 until 37, succeeding his stepfather, the first Roman emperor Augustus. Tiberius was born in Rome in 42 BC. His father was the politician Tiberius Claudius Nero and his mother was Livia Drusilla, who would eventually divorce his father, and marry the future-emperor Augustus in 38 BC. 

B) When Tiberius died, he was succeeded by his grand-nephew and adopted grandson, Germanicus' son Caligula, whose lavish building projects and varyingly successful military endeavours drained much of the wealth that Tiberius had accumulated in the public and Imperial coffers through good management. 

015) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julia_the_Elder ...

A) Julia the Elder (30 October 39 BC – AD 14), known to her contemporaries as Julia Caesaris filia or Julia Augusti filia (Classical Latin: IVLIA•CAESARIS•FILIA or IVLIA•AVGVSTI•FILIA),[1] was the daughter and only biological child of Augustus, the first Roman Emperor, and his second wife, Scribonia.  

B) It was sealed with an engagement: Antony's ten-year-old son Marcus Antonius Antyllus was to marry Julia, then two years old.

The engagement never led to marriage because civil war broke out. In 31 BC, at the Battle of Actium, Octavian and Agrippa defeated Antony and Cleopatra. In Alexandria, the defeated couple both committed suicide, and Octavian became sole ruler of the Roman Empire.