Terms : Hide Images
| 4963077790 | Republic | The period from 507 to 31 B.C.E., during which Rome was largely governed by the aristocratic Roman Senate. | 0 | |
| 4963077791 | Aqueduct | A conduit, either elevated or underground, using gravity to carry water from a source to a location—usually a city—that needed it. The Romans built many aqueducts in a period of substantial urbanization. | 1 | |
| 4963079830 | Senate | A council whose members were the heads of wealthy, landowning families. Originally an advisory body to the early kings, in the era of the Roman Republic the Senate effectively governed the Roman state and the growing empire. | 2 | |
| 4963081518 | Third-century crisis | Historians' term for the political, mili- tary, and economic turmoil that beset the Roman Empire during much of the third century C.E.: frequent changes of ruler, civil wars, barbarian invasions, decline of urban cen- ters, and near-destruction of long-distance commerce and the monetary economy. After 284 C.E. Diocletian restored order by making fundamental changes. | 3 | |
| 4963085494 | Patron/Client relationship | In ancient Rome, a fundamental social relationship in which the patron—a wealthy and powerful individual—provided legal and economic protec- tion and assistance to clients, men of lesser status and means, and in return the clients supported the political careers and economic interests of their patron. | 4 | |
| 4963097433 | Constantine | Roman emperor (r. 312-337). After reuniting the Roman Empire, he moved the capital to Constantinople and made Christianity a favored religion. | 5 | |
| 4963097434 | Principate | A term used to characterize Roman gov- ernment in the first three centuries C.E., based on the am- biguous title princeps ("first citizen") adopted by Augustus to conceal his military dictatorship. | 6 | |
| 4963101008 | Augustus | (63 b.c.e.-14 c.e.) Honorific name of Octavian, founder of the Roman Principate, the military dictatorship that replaced the failing rule of the Roman Senate. After defeating all rivals, between 31 B.C.E. and 14 C.E. he laid the groundwork for several centuries of stability and prosperity in the Roman Empire. | 7 | |
| 4963101009 | Equites | In ancient Italy, prosperous landowners second in wealth and status to the senatorial aristocracy. The Roman emperors allied with this group to counterbalance the influ- ence of the old aristocracy and used the equites to staff the imperial civil service. | 8 | |
| 4963103706 | Pax Romana | Literally, "Roman peace," it connoted the stabil- ity and prosperity that Roman rule brought to the lands of the Roman Empire in the first two centuries C.E. The move- ment of people and trade goods along Roman roads and safe seas allowed for the spread of cultural practices, tech- nologies, and religious ideas. | 9 | |
| 4963103707 | Romanization | The process by which the Latin language and Roman culture became dominant in the western provinces of the Roman Empire. The Roman government did not actively seek to Romanize the subject peoples, but indige- nous peoples in the provinces often chose to Romanize because of the political and economic advantages that it brought, as well as the allure of Roman success. | 10 | |
| 4963110763 | Jesus | (ca. 5 b.c.e.-34 c.e.) A Jew from Galilee in northern Israel who sought to reform Jewish beliefs and practices. He was executed as a revolutionary by the Romans. Hailed as the Messiah and son of God by his followers, he became the central figure in Christianity, a belief system that developed in the centuries after his death. | 11 | |
| 4963110764 | Paul | (ca. 5-65 c.e.) A Jew from the Greek city of Tarsus in Anatolia, he initially persecuted the followers of Jesus but, after receiving a revelation on the road to Syrian Damascus, became a Christian. Taking advantage of his Hellenized background and Roman citizenship, he traveled throughout Syria-Palestine, Anatolia, and Greece, preaching the new religion and establishing churches. Finding his greatest success among pagans ("gentiles"), he began the process by which Christianity separated from Judaism. | 12 |
