It’s impossible to cover Roman history of 900 years in four hours of discussion and viewings. Instead we explored a highly selective set of issues that still seem important to historians today. These included Rome as the first mega-city of one million people: how it was supplied from the resources of its conquered territories and how its population lived. We looked at computer re-creations of the port of Ostia through which many of the goods arrived to feed and supply everyday needs. We compared the Republican government with the Empire that followed when dictators, styled as Emperors, captured the government of Rome. We explored why the Republic and the Empire both collapsed due to such pressures as the constant warfare on the borders; the pressures of large groups of ‘barbarians’ invading in order to find land to settle in; massive corruption in the governing classes, the drying up of the supply of slaves that were the ‘working class’ of the ancient world.
Rome grew too big to sustain effective control over its massive territories as its armies shrank and became less loyal and it had no way of being able to use fast communications to manage its territories. Rome was never a democracy but despite this, or maybe because of this, it survived for around 900 years, much of this time being a major power in the Mediterranean.
Meg Dillon
Meg Dillon
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