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| The period from 507-31 BCE, during which Rome was largely governed by the arisocratic Roman Senate. |
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| A council whose members were the heads of wealthy, landowning families. Originally an advisory body to early kings, in the era of Roman Republic the senate effectively governed the Roman state and the growing empire. Under Senate leadership, Rome conquered an empire surrounded by the Mediterrenean Sea. |
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| Patron/Client Relationship |
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| In ancient Rome, a fundamental social relationship in which the patron - a wealthy and powerful individual - provide legal and economic protection and assistance to clients, men of lesser status and means, and in return the clients supported the political career and economic interests of their patron. |
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| A term used to characterize Roman government in the first 3 centuries BCE, based on the ambigious title princeps (first citizens) adopted by Augustus to conceal his military dictatorship. |
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63 BCE-14 CE.
Honorific name of Octavion, founder of Roman Principate, military dictatorship that replaced the failiing rule in the Roman Senate. After defeating all rivals, between 31 BCE-14 CE, he laid the groundwork for several centuries of stability and prosperity in the Roman Empire. |
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| In ancient Italy, prosperous landowners second in wealth and status to the senatorial aristocracy. The Roman emperors allied with this group to counterbalance the influence of the old aristocracy and used the equites to staff the imperial civil service. |
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| Means "Roman peace." Cannoted the stability and prosperity that Roman rule brought to the Roman Empire. |
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| The process by which the Latin language and Roman culture became dominent in the Roman Empire. The Roman government did not actively seek to Romanize subject people, but indigeous people in the provinces often choose to Romanize because of the political and economic advantages that it brought, as well as the Roman success. |
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5 BCE-34 CE.
A jew from Galilee in northern Israel who sought to reform Jewish beliefs and practices. He was executed as a revolution 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. |
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5-65 CE.
Jew from the Greek city, Tarsus in Anatolia, 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 established churches. Finding his greatest success among pagans, began the process which Christianity separated from Judaism. |
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| 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. |
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| Historians' term for the political military, and economic turmoil that beset the Roman Empire during much of the 3rd century CE: frequent changes of ruler, civil wars, barbarian invasion, decline of urban centers, and near-destruction of long-distance commerce and the monetary economy. After 284 CE, Diocletian restored order by making fundamental changes. |
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285-337 CE.
Roman emperor (r. 312-337). After reuniting the Roman Empire, he moved the capital to Constantinople and made Christianity a favored religion. |
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| Historians' name for the eastern portion of the Roman Empire from the fourth century onward, taken from "Byzantion," an early name for Constantinople, the Byzantine capital city. The empire fell to the Ottomans in 1453. |
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| A people and state in the Wei Valley of eastern China that conquered rival states and created the first Chinese empire (221-206 B.C.E.). The Qin ruler, Shi Huangdi, standardized many features of Chinese society and ruthlessly marshalled subjects for military and construction projects, engendering hostility that led to the fall of his dynasty shortly after his death. The Qin framework was largely taken over by the succeeding Han Empire. |
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| Founder of the short-lived Qin dynasty and creator of the Chinese Empire (r. 221-210 B.C.E.). He is remembered for his ruthless conquests of rival states, standardization of practices, and forcible organization of labor for military and engineering tasks. His tomb, with its army of life-size terracotta soldiers, has been partially excavated. |
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| A term used to designate (1) the ethnic Chinese people who originated in the Yellow River Valley and spread throughout regions of China suitable for agriculture and (2) the dynasty of emperors who ruled from 206 B.C.E. to 220 C.E. |
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| City in the Wei Valley in eastern China. It became the capital of the Zhou kingdom and the Qin and early Han Empires. Its main features were imitated in the cities and towns that sprang up throughout the Han Empire. |
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| In China, the class of prosperous families, next in wealth below the rural aristocrats, from which the emperors drew their administrative personnel. Respected for their education and expertise, these officials became a privileged group and made the government more efficient and responsive than in the past. The term gentry also denotes the class of landholding families in England below the aristocracy. |
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