The Roman Empire

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May have been murdered by his wife

Excellent administrator

Divided the government into bureaus

Formed professional civil service

Slide 33

Julio-Claudians

Nero (54-68 AD)

Married Claudius’s daughter

Initially permitted two advisors (Seneca, Burrus)

Assumed total power in 62 AD

Killed mother

Burrus died

Seneca retired

Divorced wife

Burning of Rome

Revolt in 56 AD and Nero killed many conspirators

Peter and Paul killed 54 AD

68 AD Nero committed suicide

Slide 34

"What does it matter to know what a straight line is if one has no notion of rectitude?"

– Seneca

“Anyone entering our homes should admire us rather than our furnishings.”

– Seneca

Slide 35

“Wild animals run from the dangers they actually see, and once they have escaped them, worry no more. We, however, are tormented alike by what is past and what is to come.”

– Seneca

Slide 36

“A person adopted as a friend solely for the sake of his commercial usefulness will be cultivated only so long as he is thus useful. This explains the crowd of people who cluster about successful men, and the lonely atmosphere about the ruined. To procure friendship only for the better and not for the worse is to rob it of all its dignity.”

– Seneca

Slide 37

Julio-Claudians

Four Claimants (69 AD)

Galba, Otho, Vitellius, Vespasian

All generals

Vespasian defeated the others and became emperor

Vespasian founded the Flavian Dynasty

Turned into monarchy

Slide 38

Flavians

69-96 AD

Vespasian, Titus, Domitian

Reasonably good administrators

First non-Patrician Caesar

Suppression of the Jewish revolt

Destruction of Jerusalem

Masada

Timing—70 AD

Slide 39

Age of the Adoptive Emperors

96-193 AD

The Golden Age of Rome

5 good and 1 bad emperor

Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, Antoninus Pous, Marcus Aurelius, Commodus

None were power hungry except Commodus

Façade of constitutionality

Hadrian separated the civil services from the army

Army changed from greater mobility to maintenance

Slide 40

Spartacus

(Kirk Douglas)

Gladiator

(Russell Crowe)