111 HUM THE ROMAN REPUBLIC Chronology: Etruscans: Roman Republic: Roman Empire: Age of Augustus: 900-509 BC, beginning of Roman Republic 509-31 BC, Battle of Actium (or 27BC "Augustus") 31BC-476AD, Odoacer became Emperor of Rome 31 BC-14AD (the "Golden Age of Rome")
Etruscans: Precursors of the Romans Individuals who were in italy before the romans, and who, when the latin speaking people we call the romans came into italy, were conquered by and intermarried with the romans Legacy to Rome Position of women, arch, toga, sense of action, divination, superstition, modesty, portraits, realism, kinds of temples Roman Republic: Last king overthrown in 509 BC, founding of Rome There are two main time periods in the thousand year history of rome: the republic, and the empire They overthrew the last latin king, and rome was founded, or it might have been the last Etruscan king. They are finished with monarchy and begin their form of democracy in the form of the republic Their constitution was not a written constitution, it was an understanding between the people of power Government had three levels: At the head were the two counsels- civil leader, and military leader (they had some checks and balances). These positions were elected annually. This wasn't the most effective way to do things, but was a way to turn over power so no one man could get too much power. Senate: a group of older men, 300 of them, they were advisory only, they did not vote. But they were usually from the oldest, wealthiest, most powerful family, so their word did carry a lot of clout, people listened to them and deferred to them. They were elected for life and were very politically conservative, they didn't change the old ways. They didn't tend to be progressive. This turned out to be beneficial because the main bodies were... Assemblies. These were the younger men (all male citizens), and they always wanted to go for their own ideas, so the senate provided a good system of checks and balances for the assemblies so that rome didn't advance too fast and get it out of control Struggle of the Orders The two groups were the patricians and plebeians, and the two groups were called the orders. The struggle of the orders was the struggle between the patricians and the plebeians for power, as the patricians had the power and the plebeians wanted it. In the early early age, it was based on wealth. Patricians These were the people who could trace their ancestry back to the founders of rome, 5-7% of the population. (in the beginning they were the wealthy ones) Plebeians
Everybody else... early on many of the plebeians became quite wealthy, and they began to assert themselves for more rights because the patricians had all the power, and the plebeians wanted more of that power, so they asked the patricians to write down the law... Law of Twelve Tables (450 BC) Wrote down what they thought the laws could be, but it gave the patricians the right to make up all the laws. This document, although written down, was not good. It said that the patricians had everything and the plebeians did not. It gave the plebeians something to start fighting against. Constitutional changes, done peacefully There was a methodical, slow, constitutional change during the republic (450-287) 445, plebeians could marry patricians: offspring could become patricians 367, one of the counselships was reserved for the plebeians By 300, plebeians could be priests 287, laws passed by plebeians were binding on all the patricians The entire struggle was done through constitutional and legal change. The plebeians, wanting more power, asked the patricians to write down the law. This was done through peaceful, constitutional change, there was no all out warfare, the romans will look back on those days and say that those were the good ol' days. Romans looked back at this time period of the early republic and saw it as early and peaceful, it was good, since the constitution was working -all due to the roman law and the changing constitution The romans had natural law, that was valid for all people at all times, universal truths, such as murder is bad They also had civil law (applied to only roman citizens), things like trial by jury, jury of peers, innocent till proven guilty Looked at roman law when made the constitution of the US The history of rome is full of war, since they conquered the known world. The history of rome is really the history of war. Punic Wars: 264-146BC We're going to discuss the three punic wars, because they started to erode away at the constitution and changed the entire economic scope of Rome. We are discussing them because they are so influential. Rome versus Carthage (North Africa) Carthage= Phoenician ("Punic") Call them the punic wars, since punic is the latin name for Phoenicia. Phoenicia was a very powerful area, who was sending out colonies at the same time as the Greeks were, all around the Mediterranean sea. One of the prime Phoenician colonies was carthage, right across from sicily. Cause of Punic Wars: The causes are much like the causes of the Trojan wars (Helen, paris). According to Virgil's Aeneid This explains away all the events of the roman republic and wraps it up neatly. Virgil says that the wars were caused by an African queen by the name of dido. This is at the time that troy is defeated by the greeks. Aeneas has to leave his defeated city, and take people with him
to go find a new city. Aeneas is leaving troy w/ his father over his shoulder, and his son in hand. He shows the past and the new. When Aeneas and the Trojans leave their defeated city, they eventually end up in Carthage. Aeneas (Trojan) & Dido (Carthage) When aeneas comes to carthage, dido, the African queen falls in love with him, and he, she. They end up in the cave, and have sex. Dido thinks they are married, and aeneas doesn't really care. The gods come to Aeneas, and tell him this isn't his destiny, his future. He needs to go on and found Rome. He starts to arrange to leave, but word gets back to Dido. So she curses him and his ancestors forever, and storms off and commits suicide. He leaves carthage, and there is the image of his ship sailing off w/ her funeral in the distance. The romans use this story to say why they have to go defeat carthage. Because Dido cursed rome, and until they defeat her and her city, Rome will never be the same. "real" cause Trade from east to west Real reason why romans wanted to control carthage. Whoever controlled sicily and carthage controlled all shipping from the western to the eastern Mediterranean. You can stop any ships going from side to side. Both trade, and military can be controlled. Three wars Don't need to know the dates, just that they were in the middle of the roman republic. Change from the early, happy days, to the late days where everything fell apart. 1st war: Rome took sicily, Sardinia, Corsica 2nd war: began because it looked like Rome was going to gobble up everything. Carthage wanted to take Saguntum, they called rome for help. Romans sent help but carthage took over saguntum anyway and that angered the Carthaginian general Hannibal and he decided to teach Rome a lesson. Hannibal attacking romans on their own soil for many years. Hannibal conquered saguntum, and marched into italy. This destroyed most of italy. Hannibal and his troops stayed in italy for over 16 years, trying to take over italy. Hannibal was from Carthage. He had area of control in southern spain. 3rd war: Still thing bothering the Romans cuz they have to destroy carthage. They own all the territory but want to destroy carthage. In this war, the romans completely leveled carthage. Legend has it that the Romans salted the earth so that nothing would ever grow there again. These wars are important because... -shows Romes determinism -shows Rome's expansionist policies -the entire economy of rome Shifts... Changed economic course of Rome Particularly during the second punic war. Previous to this, you had to own land to be present in the economy. In order to be in the army you had to own land : A soldier had to own land, he had to have an independent source of income to support himself. At the beginning of the second punic war, Hannibal and his elephants came into italy, and all the men who were farmers joined the army to get rid of him. They thought it would only be 6 months, but turned out to be 16 years. By then, most of the farmers had died, and those who hadn't died, their farms were destroyed. The invadors destroyed the farms, ate food, killed animals. The farmers were not able to rebuild their farms, widows couldn't rebuild farms.
A few wealthy Roman citizens began buying all the farms they could get their hands on. They made big commercial farms instead of the independent farms. They didn't hire the farmers to go back and work on the farms, but they put slaves on the farms. When the second punic war was over, the entire economic history of Rome had changed. Before the war, Rome was a small self-supporting, agrarian state (self supporting farms). After the war, the majority was a huge commercial farm, owned by a few men. Rome became the largest welfare state in history. from agrarian economy to "welfare state" after the war, all the soldier men went into Rome and demanded that the state support them. They didn't have their farms anymore. There were tens of thousands of men. The state had to find a place for them to stay, food to eat, and work for them to do. Rome had to build apartments, ratino grain, etc. This spurred on the empire building because if they got a new province, they could tax it and send revenue back to rome to support it. Hannibal He conquered saguntum. Hannibal and his troops stayed in italy for 16 years trying to defeat them. The romans saw that they couldn't defeat Hannibal there, so they sent troops to Carthage to distract Hannibal and his men so they would have to go home and protect their homeland. Latifundia: commercial farms, worked by slaves This was the name for the farms made by the wealthy Romans. Land Reform: redistribute land Tiberius Gracchus (133 BC),
violence begins He proposed that some of the wealthy gave up their land and give it back to the people. This was not very popular among the owners of the latifundia. He was attacked by 300 men and was assassinated, we begin to see violence in rome. Gaius Gracchus (123 BC) This guy was tiberius' brother. He proposed the same thing, land reform. He went out one day and was assassinated and 3000 of his followers were killed, this shows how violence escalates in rome. This begins the later part of the roman republic, called the civil wars. Violence enters roman politics, and the later republic is marred by the civil wars, and they just escalate. Historically, as soon as violence enters a government, it doesn't leave, it just escalates. Civil Wars: Marius (107 BC) The romans had a problem: before the second punic war you had to own land to be a soldier. Now there were very few men who owned land. They didn't qualify to be soldiers. So a man by the name of Marius came up with the idea to get rid of the land requirement, and hire soldiers. Any man who volunteers can be a soldier, and Rome will pay for them out of tax dollars, or even out of his own money from his pocket, land, and things they received from war. We begin to see personal armies rise up. The romans remembered Alexander and what he did. Marius made a huge, personal army. He used his personal army to take over rome. There was a horrible reign of terror. Proscriptions: a big list of men that the ruler doesn't like, and he will offer money for anyone who assassinates them. Posted the list in the forum.
Sulla (82 BC) He was out of town conquering other territories when Marius started the proscriptions. He hurried back when he heard of it, and brought his personal army and took over rome. He assassinated thousands of Marius' followers. He named himself dictator, dictator without a time limit. He was allowed to be dictator, but the constitution provided for dictator of 6 months, then you were supposed to step down. There was a well known roman in history called Cincinnatus. One day he was out digging in his field, and so he went to rome and became dictator, held the office for six months and solved all the problems of rome, and when it was over, he went back to his farm. This was the story. But Sulla did not do this, he named himself dictator w/ no time limit (dictator for life). There is not much to credit Sulla with, but some of the reforms during his dictatorship were positive, and he did eventually retire. There was a power void left after he retired. And a number of years past. 1st Triumvirate (60 BC) Pompey, Crassus, Caesar These three men stepped up after sulla retired and they form the Triumvirate (they made it up, not in the constitution). The Triumvirate was three men ruling together. Caesar was a patrician, came from a noble family, was a great writer. He was also a brilliant general and strategist. He had conquered Gaul, which brought great wealth to rome and to Julius Caesar. When he won, the majority of the money went directly to him. People were jealous when he conquered gaul, and they were afraid that he would come back with a bigger army and take over. While he was in gaul, people planned against him so that he couldn't go back and take over rome (particularly Pompey). He heard about this, and went back to rome. He stopped at the Rubicom River, and he stepped across and said "the die is cast" he crossed rubicom with his army and he knew there was no going back and he would have to take Rome and attack his own city. He attacked the city, and pompey left Greece and went to Egypt (Egypt was the last Hellenistic kingdom: Ptolemy and Cleopatra 7). When pompey went to Egypt the pharaoh chopped off his head, and gave it to Caesar, and Caesar wept, because he did respect Pompey. He wanted to defeat Pompey, not for him to just be illegitimately killed by a foreigner. Caesar very disappointed that he did not get to take over pompey himself. The 1st triumvirate fell apart then. After Caesar was in Egypt and found out pompey was dead, he got in between Ptolemy (took over Egypt). Ptolemy XIII was the thirteenth in line for the Kingdom, and Cleopatra VII was later on. These were Macedonians, who have ruled Egypt since the death of Alexander. These people were ruling still, and Caesar got into the power struggle in between Ptolemy and Cleopatra. She is noted for not being a great beauty, but she was noted for being absolutely brilliant. She could speak dozens of languages, and read copiously, had a huge library, was aware of ancient history and modern politics. Caesar liked it, and they got along well and had a son, Caesarean ("little ceasar"). He returned to rome in 46 after that liason. He then declared himself dictator for life... Julius Caesar: Dictator of Rome (46-44 BC) He immediately set up that he would probably establish himself as a king. People didn't like that. He did leave many reforms though: One good thing he did was straighten out the calendar. He brought back the concept of the Egyptian calendar (365 days instead of 360) and it also had one extra day every four years, which makes up for the day it would be off each day. This is called the Julian calendar that lasted until the Gregorian calendar we use today.
Before this, the roman calendar had 10 months. The first 6 months were named after gods, and then they just numbered the months at the end. Julius Caesar put in 2 more months, July for Julius, and August for Augustus. On the 15th of march in 44 BC, his wife saw the eagle and said he shouldn't go to the senate. He went to the senate any way and he was assassinated. He said "Et tu, Brute" (you too, brutus), but most historians said he was more likely to say you too, my son. Sources show that he was likely to adopt Brutus as his heir. Too late. Now Caesar left no heirs, he had a grandnephew, an 18 year old named Octavian (always sick and always writing wills for himself, bc he was about to die, however he was a great mind). Octavian, after the assassination, was not in the inner group of Rome, was not in the movers and shakers. Was educated well but was not in the mainstream of the politics of rome. He moved to start consolidating power for himself. 2nd Triumvirate (43 BC) Antony, Lepidus, Octavian Octavian and 2 others started the 2nd Triumvirate. Lepidus soon retired. So the 2 big players of the 2nd triumvirate were Octavian and Marc Antony. Marc Antony off headed to Egypt (wanted to take over it as a province) hoping to ally with Cleopatra, get money and wealth, and attack rome. He had twins with Cleopatra. Octavian stayed back at rome because he knew that once someone left, people would plot against him and try and take over. Octavian tried to become a good leader among the people and show that he was there to lead them. He also knew that Marc Antony was plotting to take over rome. He headed out to stop them. He headed out to meet them, off the coast of Greece on an island. Octavian defeated Marc Antony & Cleopatra VII Battle of Actium (31 BC)- pivotal battle in history!! This is where marc antony w/ Cleopatra met Octavian. Cleopatra left the battle before it was really over, so so did Marc antony. Octavian reached Egypt the next year, and when he got there, Marc Antony and Cleopatra committed suicide, rather than being defeated outright. This is a huge date in history.... -was the last of the roman civil wars. Octavian brought peace to rome -end of the last of the Hellenistic kingdoms (Cleopatra was a Hellenistic queen). last of the heirs of alexanders generals -egypt became a roman province (wealthiest): Octavian took it as his personal palace -the end of the roman republic End of last Hellenistic kingdom end of Roman Republic, Octavian=Augustus Octavian returned to rome in 27 BC. He declared the Pax Romana (roman peace). The roman people said they would be at peace for 200 year. He closed the gates of the temple of Janice. Janice is the god with 2 faces, he is the symbol of the new year, one face looking to the past the other to the future. He closed the temple gates and declared peace. He also resigned. He left and went to go be by himself. Everyone loved this and followed and honored him. Declared him Augustus, (the most revered one) he knew what he was doing, and he knew how to work people. Made a huge public display of making Rome a republic again and he claimed he didn't want power. Nothing is more appealing to people than someone who denies power. They gave him the titles... He told them he was going to restore the roman republic to its old state, but he, behind the scenes, began the roman empire...
HUM 111 THE AGE OF AUGUSTUS AND THE ROMAN EMPIRE Chronology: The Roman Empire: The Age of Augustus: Christianity legalized: Christianity state religion: Decline of the Empire: Visagoths sack Rome: First Germanic Emperor: 31BC-476AD 31BC-14AD (The Golden Age of Rome) 315 (Constantine) 392 (Theodosius) 3rd & 4th centuries (Diocletian) 410 (threats from Germanic tribes) 476 (Odoacer)
So what? See how the politics effected the daily lives of the people. Next week we will go behind the scenes and see the real rome. Tonight we look at the Public rome. Rome is noted for -grandeur -manipulation- every aspect of the citizens' daily lives was manipulated -propaganda- yes, we will look at fabulous artworks that the Romans made, but we will see why. We will see the types of functions that went on in the buildings they build. Daily life of ancient rome: -roman task to rule the world and bring order, why the gods have given people government, laws, etc. Romanism -everywhere they went they built the people new cities Age of Augustus: (master politician) Augustus' accomplishments Liked to brag that he found rome a city of brick, and left it a city of marble. He actually just put a thin marble veneer over the brick. This was a difference between the Greeks and Romans. Greeks, marble meant solid marble. Romans, just had to have a veneer of marble. Augustus always has 2 little curls on his forehead. Statue: Augustus of Primaporta... statues of Augusta were set up all over the entire empire. Statues would also be on the stage in the center, for everyone to look at. From a political aspect, this is propaganda. People need to look at him. He took the name Augustus, but people called him other things as well... Titles: Princeps This means first among equals. Imperator Victorious commander Pater Patriae Father of his country Pontifex Maximus Pontifex-priest; maximus-big Head of the state religion Imperium The statues reminded people of imperium, that the gods had to want you to be victorious for you to by victorious. Pietas was also symbolized by the statue. The number one duty is to the state, this is symbolized by the statue. What is your duty to the state, what can you do for it. Virgil's Aeneid
His history of rome, all about the story. Aeneis goes to found rome. Augustan Hero Reminds people of the augustan hero. He is the model of the ideal roman. It was augustus who asked virgil to write the history of rome. They had little bits and pieces of the history of rome. They didn't have a wonderful epic poem of the history of rome. This was lacking, so augustus asked virgil to write the history. Virgil uses augustus as the model for Aeneus (the founder of rome), and augustus likes this Pietas Your number one duty is to the state. Give up your own personal desires for the sake of the state, for the good of rome. The Roman Task The roman task, virgil says, is to rule, to bring peace to the world through government, administration, and law. It says in the Aeneid (see the passage above). Romans focus on government. If you asked romans why they went out and conqured the empire, they would say that it is their roman task. The gods had ordained them to do this all. Augustus of Primaporta Armor: symbolism, Venus There are gods and goddesses on the armor, showing the gods support him Romans have hand gestures, he is addressing his troops. No shoes, showing that it is a sacred act. There is a little baby riding a dolphin- dolphin is the symbol for Venus (latin Aphrodite), the goddess of love. Aeneis is showing that he is the ancestor of Venus, and Augustus is the ancestor of Aeneis, showing that he is divine. Cupid is riding the dolphin. This is propaganda, who is going to go against the man who is related to Venus. When you conquer all the different people you have to set up certain values and standards for everyone to follow. We talked about the idea that Virgil says "I sing of war in Rome" in the aeneid. We know that before Virgil died, he told people to destroy the Aeneid cuz he wasn't done. But it appears towards the end that virgil was unsure if he should glorify war. He starts open ended question.... Can violence be justified to bring peace? Does the end justify the means? This really applies today. Virgil starts to wonder as more and more wars happen in his lifetime, "is Rome worth it?" Augustus also had one of his writings carved in marble... Res Gestae This is a writing about augustus' life, it is carved in marble, cast in bronze, and put all over Rome. He shows his pietas, that being rome's leader is all for the sake of rome. He doesn't tell people that Egypt is like his personal pocketbook. It is in the marketplace, in the temple. It is all over the place. This is to remind the people... this is what an ideal roman does, this is what you should have our kid be like. Propaganda and manipulation, everyone should be augustan heros. Augusta was known for being sickly, frail, etc. The people would never see the real augustus, so In his statue he is idealized and looks better.
Imperial Rome: politics, law, econoics, religion as reflected in its monuments Model: Circus Maximus, aqueducts, Colosseum, Forums, baths Model that is in the civic museum of rome. They have reconstructed ancient rome. We are going to walk around Rome and look at it in terms of grandeur, propaganda, and manipulation. Augustus studied ancient Greece, and one of his favorite of the past was Pericles, so he too liked to build big buildings that would live on long after he was forgotten. Imperial Forums: You can't analogize these to the agora, cuz agora had civic duties, it had a sacred quality But the Roman Forums were more of a huge meeting place. Had marketplace, business halls, courts. It was set aside by the government for public meetings. Rome, at its height, had over 20 million people. Each ruler tries to outdo the ruler before him. Early in the empire, emperors were worshipped as god after they died, and later in the empire, they were worshipped as gods while they were alive. They really played on the idea of the divine emperor. Julius Caesar (Temple of Venus) This was somewhat small, the first. You approach the temple from the front, not for you to walk around at all. Augustus (Temple of Mars) The forum of augustus is much bigger Forum of Peace This is a forum augustus built to celebrate the Pax Romana. That rome would be peaceful, although the Ara Pacis: Pax Romana Ara Pacis means the altar of peace. The task of bringing peace, and law, and order to the world. On it, we see the earth mother nurturing 2 infants (reminiscent of romulus and remus). There is the abundance of the earth around her. In a very un suttle way, augustus is saying, look what I have brought you, all of this wonderful stuff. People would be reminded that Rome will bring them benefits. There is a long frieze on the altar. (he has seen the Parthenon). On the frieze, there is a long procession showing the dedication of the altar. Augustus is on the frieze, he has his toga drawn up over his head, meaning he is acting as pontifus maximus. He is leading a little boy and his wife. He is reenacting the scene from Virgils Aeneid, that he is leading. We see a lot of women also. Women in rome had a lot more freedom than women in Greece. Women had a lot more freedom than in Greece, they could be in public. Even children, which was not present in classical Greece. Also the frieze is saying...People by this time, particularly the highest aristocrats, had stopped having children. They would have 1 or 2 maybe, but children are very expensive, they would rather build large buildings. Augustus said that he wanted to promote family values, so he says. He said that if a wife didn't have children, you had to divorce her and marry someone else. Wives were supposed to have at least 2 children.
The romans themselves weren't reproducing that much, there would be no more romans. So the relief is promoting people to have children. Pietas versus furor "pacification" of Spain & Gaul Forum of Trajan This is a huge forum, has 2 shopping malls, 2 stories high, has tons of shops in them. Basilica Ulpia Basilica, were these huge buildings. In this manifestation it's a law court, a market, a library. The entrance is on the long end. There are 2 altars, one would be for freeing slaves and law courts. The other would be to the divine emperor. A hall could hold maybe 10,000 people. Huge interior spaces for people to spend their day. It was important to give those soldiers on welfare places to go, so they felt like they were taking part in the grandeur of rome. There was a Greek Library and a Latin Library. When the Christians say we need a big hall to create a church, they didn't want it to be the same as the pagans. They keep the idea of three entrances but block off one end. Change it in other ways too. The Christians changed the buildings a little. Made of concrete and brick, a thin veneer of marble over it. Romans used the Corinthian column a lot. Roman architecture is the architecture of space, greek architecture is the architecture of mass. We are very roman in our approach to architecture today. Column of Trajan: Dacian Campaign Tells the story of one of trajans military campaigns. Frieze winds up the column, almost like a comic strip. Originally there was a statue of Trajan on top, but now it's a statue of Peter. In the time of the empire. The freize is a wonderful primary source, it shows all the parts of their lives. Primary source good for military historians. If you went in the library in the first column you would see the first part. On the second floor, the second part. If you were in the library you would see all the good things Trajan did, how he fulfilled his pietas. Propaganda. Triumphal Arches: Arch of Titus: Conquest of Jerusalem Manipulation: these were places right above really big, busy streets. The triumphal arches have an interesting origin. A triumph is a big victory parade. When an army went to the provinces and came back to Rome, they would have a Parade with a celebration. By the time of the civil wars, when you saw a victorious general, you didn't want them to come back because they would then take over the city. So people said that the general had to stay outside rome while they built an arch for them to celebrate. What this really did was leave the army out there and let it cool off. It would let the people cool down and not come in right after battle ready to take over rome. After a while, the soldiers would start to wander away, and it would diffuse the tension in the army. Once the people of the city saw this, they would let the soldiers come in and have their victory parade. This Arch of Titus celebrated his conquest of Jerusalem. Titas, returning to rome, his victory over the Jews was celebrated. An inside relief shows the roman soldiers carrying off the spoils from the temple of Jerusalem. For the romans, this was a great victory. For the Jewish, the romans were bragging about this.
The Arch of Constantine: they can be very elaborate. Incorporated parts of earlier arches as well. State Religion: romans also manipulated people through their religion. They Romanized everyone. They were very liberal, so they let people worship their own gods, but also made them worship the roman gods and goddesses. They set up roman temples everywhere. Typical roman temple: on a podium, frontal stairs, deep porch, half columns. Not meant to be seen democracy, all the way around. The roman temples were a way to get all the people of the empire sharing something. They had to all worship the roman pantheon. Temple of Fortuna: (temple of fortune) Temple complex outside of rome to the goddess of fortune: its up on a high hill, you go up a long ramp with no windows. There is a huge vista when you come out. A wonderful view after coming out of the dark tunnel. Very experiential architecture, characteristic of rome. There seems to be a big stage area on top. The priestess would appear on the top, so they had a little hidden entry for her. She would just appear up in the top. Element of surprise. You would go there to have your fortune told, to see what would happen in your future. pietas, order Pantheon: Hadrian, Roman laws & engineering The most perfectly preserved building in ancient rome. This is the temple to all of the roman gods. It is up on a podium with a deep porch. Instead of finding a rectangular sulla, you find a huge domed room. This doesn't look like its on a podium anymore. When the romans repave their street, they don't take off the old road, they just put it on top. The street level is 16 to 20 feet higher than it used to be. The roman forum is like 20 feet down because of this. There is a carving saying "Agrippa made me" the pantheon we see now was probably built by Hadrian. He was a great general and philosopher, poet, and architect. The romans had a special law, that whoever built a building was responsible for it forever. So if, 200 years later, it would fall apart, the family could be sued of who built it. So people would put their friends names on it so that they wouldn't be held responsible. There is a huge rotunda with an oculus at the top (eye open to the sky). When the rain comes in it wets the marble and makes it more intense. The oculus also lets out smoke from oil lamps, lets light in to highlight the walls too. The ceiling has recessed areas that are decorative but also lighten the load of the huge dome. They also let the concrete dry more evenly so it doesn't crack. You can only do this with concrete. Concrete at base is mixed with heavy rock, and at the top is mixed with lighter rock. Personal Monuments: Equestrian Monument of Marcus Aurelius Another work of propaganda. This shows a victorious commander on horseback. The idea of celebrating a general or an emperor is a very roman development. This guy is a roman emperor, no stirrups or saddle. This is a bronze monument in a public area. The reason it wasn't melted down was because the Christians thought that this was of the emperor Constantine. They thought that the gesture the guy was making was of blessing but it is really one of him addressing his troops. People come and go, and think that they can do stuff to work their way to get into the roman army, and maybe get a monument. This really tries to show people to be the Augustus hero.