Site Notes of a Historian Writing a Book on Rome
1Site: The Curia, Roman Forum, Rome. The Senate met in a hall called the Curia; the brick building standing here today was rebuilt under later emperors. After Romans drove out their last king in about 509 BCE, they formed a republic. Each year citizens elected two consuls to lead the government and the army. The Senate, made up mostly of wealthy and powerful men, advised them. Tribunes elected by the plebeians, or common people, could block actions that harmed plebeians. In about 450 BCE, Rome's laws were written on twelve tablets, the Twelve Tables, and set up in public.
2Site: Temple of Julius Caesar, Roman Forum. Only a stump of this temple remains. It marks where Caesar's body was burned in 44 BCE. Caesar, a general who had conquered Gaul, was named dictator for life, and a group of senators stabbed him. Years of civil war followed. In 27 BCE his adopted heir Octavian took the name Augustus and became the first emperor. The Senate still met in the Curia, but real power now belonged to one man.
3Site: Pont du Gard, southern France. Three rows of stone arches carry an aqueduct across a river valley here. Built in the first century CE, the channel brought water about 50 kilometers to the Roman city of Nemausus, today's Nîmes. Over that whole distance the channel drops only about 12 meters, a gentle and steady downhill slope. No pumps were used.
4Site: Hadrian's Wall, northern Britain. Emperor Hadrian ordered this wall begun in 122 CE. It ran about 73 miles across Britain, with forts along the way. By then the empire stretched from Britain to the Middle East, and guarding such long borders took huge armies and a great deal of money.
5Notes for the last chapter. In the 200s CE, armies often made and unmade emperors; historians count more than 20 emperors in about 50 years. To pay soldiers, emperors put less silver in their coins, and prices rose. Germanic peoples pressed against the borders. The empire was split into western and eastern halves, and after 395 CE it stayed divided. In 410 the Visigoths sacked Rome, and in 476 a Germanic general named Odoacer removed the last western emperor. The eastern half, ruled from Constantinople, lasted nearly 1,000 more years.