Hot answers tagged roman-empire
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Banking existed in the era of the Romans and earlier. In ancient Greece and Asia Minor temples served as a sanctuary where individuals could make deposits for safekeeping. This practice continued with the Romans (see this article titled "Temple Banking In Rome"). For instance, the Temple of Artemis in Ephesus was the largest depository in Asia and served as ...
22
To sum it up: The costs simply outweighed the benefits.
You have to consider that Germania at this time was essentially one huge forest, which was very, well empty. No cities to conquer, the first German cities were actually founded by the Romans, like e.g. Aachen, Cologne or Trier. The Germans were primitive tribesmen and had little too offer to the Roman ...
18
They were not supermen by any means :)
But yes, temperatures were higher, by more than 1 degree (Kent and Wales were famous for their wines, right now it's far too cold there for that for example).
And don't forget that in the Roman era, wars were fought in summer almost exclusively, later expanding into spring and autumn as the conscript army was replaced ...
9
No, they were not. The Ptolemys were the last dynasty to rule Egypt directly in the old fashion. When the Romans took over, they just treated it as another province in the empire.
In 30 BC, following the death of Cleopatra VII, the Roman Empire
declared that Egypt was a province (Aegyptus), and that it was to be
governed by a prefect selected by the ...
8
This is an addition to Mike Rodney's answer. The Twelve Tables, traditionally written in 450 BC, were some of Rome's most ancient laws.
The majority of Table III deals with banking. In particular Law I says that bankers can't steal deposits; Law II forbids usury†; Laws V through X concern treatment of delinquent debtors.
So banking was common enough 2500 ...
8
A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, John Murray, London, 1875 covers custom duties in the Roman Empire at some length:
PORTO′RIUM was one branch of the regular revenues of the Roman state, consisting of the duties paid on imported and exported goods: sometimes, however, the name portorium is also applied to the duties raised upon goods for being ...
7
Egypt remained "special" throughout the period of rule from Rome (through at least 395, in some respects through 640), and there is no indication that the Augustan restrictions were ever lifted.
Dio recounts in the Roman History 51.17 that
[Octavian] made Egypt tributary and gave it in charge of Cornelius Gallus. For in view of the populousness of both ...
6
http://www.romanarmy.net/coldweather.htm Seems to address cold weather clothing very well. It seems they did what we did, scarfs, multiple layers, hats, enclosed boots etc but with the exception of trousers, which they saw as barbarian. They went for lower leg coverings instead. I would point out these guys seem to manage without trousers.
Except actually ...
6
Wikipedia to the rescue: This article on caligae (military boots) states that
Socks were not normally worn with caligae, although in colder climates
such as Britain, woolen socks were used.
This one on Roman military personal equipment mentions that
[The sagum and the paenula] were made from wool, which insulated and
also contained natural oil ...
6
House numbering was introduced in Europe in the modern era, mainly
due to military-administrative reasons.
The Roman Empire had no official postal system. Letters and wares
were sent by slaves, servants or day labourers with sufficiently
exact instructions where to deliver.
6
The Roman Empire had the cursus publicus, which maintained an infrastructure of horses and way stations. The messenger himself was supplied by the one sending the message. It was used for transporting messages, magistrates, and some heavy goods too. Important messages typically travelled at roughly 50 miles per day.
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Octavian who would later become Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus:
My answer really focuses on the why as much as the who, because the reality may have been that in many ways he gave himself the title.
Octavian returned from Egypt with a wealth of treasure and a serious wealth of power. He was respected by his legions, of which he was commander of all sixty of ...
6
Josephus was able to read and write in several languages.
Obviously Greek as he wrote most of his books in it.
Aramaic, which was often called Syriac in his time.
Latin maybe. Even though he was associated with Vespasian, that would not necessitate knowing Latin. The Romans spoke Greek as it was the lingua franca of the day. Once Josephus was given a Latin ...
6
In 30 BC Cleopatra, Mark Anthony, and Caesarion (Ptolemy Caesar) famously met their deaths in the aftermath of the Battle of Actium at the dawn of the Roman Empire and the Augustan Age.
Ronald Syme (in The Roman Revolution) provides this account of the Ptolemaic dynasty's demise in Egypt:
The children of Cleopatra presented a more delicate problem ...
5
Language spoken by Josephus: Aramaic
Jewish Historian Josephus wrote –
"I have also taken a great deal of pains to obtain the learning of the Greeks, and understand the elements of the Greek language, although I have so long accustomed myself to speak our own tongue, that I cannot pronounce Greek with sufficient exactness; for our nation does not ...
5
Interesting. My first instinct was to tell you the two events weren't contemporanious, but it turns out they were.
The Huns were active players from about 130 to 453 CE. They enslaved the nearest german tribes (most notably the eastern Goths, aka: Ostragoths), and pushed a lot of the rest into Roman territory. Their own armies at one point (451) made it ...
5
I visited Rome and also Pompeii last week. According to our tour guide and the evidence left by the protection provided to the ruins of Pompeii by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius, citizens of Pompeii in 79 AD did have street names and house numbers. Some even had signs in the entry way to their home warning “Cave Canem” or “Beware of Dog”.
5
Like we discussed in my answer in Why China was able to unify and not Europe.
The following documentary gives an explanation: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mAQqIcBamhs&feature=player_detailpage#t=2343s
The Germanic tribes, although being quite capable fighters didn't have enough to offer the Romans. The area was poor and difficult and dangerous to ...
4
The Romans were able to "conquer" large parts of Germania, briefly. They were unable to HOLD it for any length of time.
The reason stemmed from the region's "backwardness." There was no central government or central power through which the Romans could operate. There were no cities (except the ones the Romans built). There were few roads, and the country ...
4
Warning: answer contains a source in Italian only.
Short answer:
I never heard of such a thing like a "general policy" among Roman commanders concerning the usage of looted gold. There were some "moral guidelines", prohibiting for instance looting of temples and shrines, but (as the examples below demonstrate) these were often broken, and each commander ...
4
I think that the short answer to your question is: No. The Empire survived very well for about 400 years (let's say from the death of Augustus in 14 CE to circa 400 when the so-called migration of the peoples began to be felt in the Empire) with the same communications structure.
Ancient states required much less centralized decision making than modern ...
3
I am not sure this question would have made much sense to the Romans themselves. The whole concept of formal guidelines/directives is something which is associated with the modern bureaucratic state (especially in its totalitarian forms). The Romans just didn't work that way and probably would have been amazed at the suggestion that the Senate or the Emperor ...
3
No, this is based on a superficial reading of history. Toynbee was out to construct a grand unified theory of history. It's great fun but the finicky details just have to be swept under the rug for the theory to look impressive.
Let's look at it periodwise:
Early/Middle Republic: An agrarian society (see Tom Au's answer)
Late Republic: Rome was constantly ...
3
Like most questions about Roman history, the answer depends on the era you're considering.
In the early days of the Roman Republic, public taxes consisted of modest assessments on owned wealth and property. The tax rate under normal circumstances was 1% and sometimes would climb as high as 3% in situations such as war. These modest taxes were levied ...
3
According to Cassius Dio:
... the name Augustus was conferred on him by the Senate and the people.
At the time when they wished to give him some title of special
eminence, and some people were proposing one title and some another
and pressing for its adoption, Octavian had set his heart strongly on
being named Romulus. But when he understood that ...
3
It is forgotten in our modern age of fiat currencies, but money was historically not just a representation of value, but a physical store of value in itself. Coins contained a certain amount of precious metal, particularly silver or gold.
The size of the coin is only indirectly related to its value, because the true value of a coin lay in its total silver ...
3
According to Gibbon, The first "barbaric" nation that permanently settled on the soil of the Roman Empire were Visigoths with the permission of the Roman emperor Valens. The sole reason they asked to move south of the Danube was escaping the Huns - I guess that answers your question.
3
I believe that the commonly accepted answer is that our mythology of St. Valentine is first recorded in Chaucer.
The popular customs associated with Saint Valentine's Day undoubtedly had their origin in a conventional belief generally received in England and France during the Middle Ages, that on 14 February, i.e. half way through the second month of the ...
2
John's Revelation is generally accepted to have been written sometime during the reign of Domitian (although some still argue for Nero, and many argue it was about Nero).
A quick check of still extant coins from Domitian and Nero's era shows no coins with figures holding stars. I typically see stuff like wreaths, palm branches, lightning, or various kinds ...
2
The other source is a recent book by a philologist who argues from literary analysis that Attila was actually murdered. See http://worldhistoryconnected.press.illinois.edu/3.3/br_may.html for a sympathetic review of the book. However, the review also points out some of the weaknesses in Babcock's theory.
Since no new evidence is likely to come up, the jury ...
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