The Pax Romana The Roman Peace A 200

The Pax Romana: The Roman Peace – A 200 year Golden Age? “I found a Rome of bricks; I leave to you one of marble”

DO NOW: Primary source reading - Tertullian, early Christian author “The empire is a world every day better known, better cultivated, and more civilized than before. Everywhere roads are traced, every district is known, every country open to commerce. Smiling fields have invaded forests; flocks and herds have routed the wild beasts; the very sands are sown; the rocks planted; the marshes drained. There are now as many cities as there were once solitary cottages. Wherever there is a trace of life there are houses and human habitations, well-ordered governments and civilized life. ” --Tertullian, 225 CE Q. 1: How does this quote demonstrate that Rome was wellgoverned and prosperous?

DO NOW: Primary source - Juvenal, Roman Poet Though we hurry, we merely crawl; We're blocked by a surging mass ahead, a pushing wall of people behind. A man jabs me elbowing through, one socks a chair pole against me, one cracks my skull with a beam, one knocks a wine cask against my ear. My legs are caked with splashing mud, from all sides the weight of enormous feet comes smashing on mine, and a soldier stamps his hobnails through to my sole. Look at other things, the various dangers of nighttime. How high it is to the cornice that breaks, and a chunk beats my brains out, or some slob heaves a jar, broken or cracked from a window. Bang! It comes down with a crash and proves its weight on the sidewalk. You are a thoughtless fool, unmindful of sudden disaster, if you don't make your will before you go out to have dinner. There as many deaths in the night as there are open windows. Where you pass by, if you're wise, you will pray, in your wretched devotions. People may be content with no more than emptying slop jars. Q. 2: How does the Roman poet Juvenal describe daily life in Rome?

DO NOW: Primary source - Juvenal, Roman Poet “With no vote to sell, their motto is ‘couldn’t care less. ’ Time was when the plebeians elected generals, heads of state, commanders of legions: but now they’ve pulled in their horns, there’s only two things that concern them: BREAD and CIRCUSES. ” “The plebeians have become a people to whom one need only throw bread and give a spectacle of horses since they have no interest in anything else. When they enter a theatre or stadium they lose all consciousness of their former state and are not ashamed to say or do anything that occurs to them. . constantly leaping and raving and beating one another and using abominable language and often reviling even the gods themselves and flinging their clothing at the charioteers and sometimes even departing naked from the show. The malady continued throughout the city for several days" (Orationes, XXXII, LXXVII). Q. 3: Why are the people being given “bread and circuses”? Q. 4: Compare the plebeians’ role in society in the Republic vs. the Empire.

Discussion: Is the PAX ROMANA a golden age? FOR AGAINST PRIMARY SOURCE EVIDENCE? • USE answers from Q 1 -Q 4.