Agricola’s pre-military life and early military life affected his attributes and shaped his future to give the qualities for success. Before his first birthday the Emperor ordered for the death of his senator father because of his refusal to prosecute the Emperor’s second cousin, this left Agricola fatherless with only the support of his mother to nurture him to maturity and an early influential reference of what happens to those who don't obey their superiors.…
Roman society from republican times through to the empire worked on a system of “patronage”. Patron- client relationships existed through all levels of roman society. A patron was expected to assist his clients and their relatives by advancing their careers. In return the client had to support and further the cause of the patron, often giving them gifts. The system of patronage was particularly important for noble families of Rome, and as can be seen by Agrippina, the women of the imperial household could exert their influence as patrons. Throughout the reign of Claudius, and in the early years of her sons reign, Agrippina placed some of her clients into key positions. In AD49 used her influence with Claudius to have Seneca recalled from exile and give position as Praetor. She helped Seneca as she wanted him to tutor her son. Another of Agrippina’s Protégés was Burrus, Tacitus argues that she wanted to “remove the commanders of the guard, Lucius Geta and Rufrus Crispinus, whom she regarded as to loyal the memory and the cause of ….. Messalina children.” So Agrippina asserted to Claudius that the guard was split by their rivalry and that unified control Agrippina would mean stricter discipline , whereupon the patron client command was transferred Burrus, who was a distinguished solider but fully aware whose initiative was behind the appointment.”…
Despite his poor judgement of individuals, Tiberius had many positive qualities. He stuck to tradition and liked those who spoke up, a quality he possibly wished to possess. He was an efficient administrator, protecting each province and ensured that ‘old impositions were not aggravated through official acquisitiveness or brutality.’ (Tacitus, Annals, p.200)…
Tacitus, an ancient historian, was the closest to Agrippina's time and was hostile towards her since he disliked the principate, instead favouring the senate to be in power. He portrayed Agrippina as a deceptive, ill- mannered woman and is highly- critical when he relates her many schemes and intrigues in her pursuit of power not only for the men in her life, but also, and more despicably, for herself, as can be seen in the following quote from The Annals.…
Agrippina was related to the Claudian ‘gens’, one of the oldest and most illustrious patrician families with imperial connections. Her father Germanicus had risen through the cursus honoroum to two consulships and the proconsulships of Germany and Gaul. Germanicus’s brother was the brother was the future Claudian emperor, Claudius. Agrippina’s family lineage was therefore immensely prestigious. Her mother is quoted twice by Tacitus asserting her descent from the blood of the divine Augustus. According to revisionist Barret, Agrippina would have learnt from her mother in her formative years a powerful sense of her important place in the scheme of things.…
* Galba says, in the words of Tacitus: ‘Under Tiberius and Gaius and Claudius we were the inheritance, so to speak, of one family’…
Agrippina’s powerful family lineage allowed her to excel beyond the role of women in Roman society and become successful in the terms of wealth and power. Agrippina’s achievements include the marrying Claudius, successfully removing others, ascension of Nero, and having honors and powers given beyond other women of Rome. It is difficult to assess the extent of Agrippina’s achievements because of the gender bias that derives from the Ancient sources Dio Cassius, Suetonius and Tacitus and the re-assessment from modern sources such as Susan Wood and Anthony Barrett.…
The traditional dates for the Roman Republic are 509 to 27 B.C. The latter part of this period from 133 to 27 B.C. is known as the late Republic. It is also known as the Roman Revolution. The result of this revolution was the emergence of the Roman Empire and the catalyst has traditionally been linked to a single Roman citizen called Tiberius Gracchus. The wake of his brief political career left Rome much different than it had been. Like a crack in the wall of a dam, Tiberius revealed a weakness in the Roman system of government that would soon spider out of control until it could no longer hold back the deluge of the building political tension. What was this weakness?…
It has been said that without the long walls we will be unable to fend off our enemies in times of war and that we will be impotent, unable to pursue our foreign interests without fear of foreign aggression. Without the walls, we would have been unable to build our once-great empire, let alone to have defended it in the face of Peloponnesian resistance, for with them we were indomitable by land, and the power of our navy and our commercial machine was always available. We would not have withstood the frequent Spartan sieges but would have starved, cut off from our port. Thus, it seems that in order to return to our former excellence we will need new walls.…
tried to build a more solid senate but failed to take power away from the…
The Agricola serves to criticizes Rome on a political level. Tacitus discretely paints Rome to be a corrupt empire with greedy, tyrannical rulers who held complete control over all aspects of Roman life. They held an impervious belief that it was…
He is being compared to Cesare Borgia in chapter 7 and to the discussion of civil principalities in chapter 9. Agathocles is portrayed a man of “virtue of spirit and body” as well as having the “greatness of… soul” but these attributes does not qualify him to be the ruler who is virtuous. The reason for Agathocles fails to be portray the virtú is because despite his “actions of virtue” due to “his savage cruelty and inhumanity together with his infinite crimes (VIII). This illustrates that Agathocles transition in use of violence from the moderate level to excessive level to maintain the power seems to be an act that Machiavelli is against. Agathocles was born as “the son of a potter,” and he rose to through the ranks of the military in Syracuse by betraying his fellow citizens and massacring the nobility in order to establish his reign. He than appointed himself “to this position, he determined to make himself prince and to possess by force and without obligation to others.” Thus, Machiavelli makes the case that reputation is important in maintaining the power and if the ruler fails to keep the reputation clean than he can still acquire power but cannot acquire glory. In Agathocles case when looked into his action we can see that the opposite happens, he securely rules for many years “after infinite betrayals and cruelties. This gives credibility to Agathocles because the way he used…
Late Greek and Roman societies felt that interpersonal relationships were the cause of human distress.…
According to www.rome.info, "There were 32,000 prostitutes in Rome," even when Rome was still relatively stable, and emperors like Caligula and Nero "became infamous for wasting money on lavish parties where guests drank and ate until they became sick." The decline in morals took a sick turn, seeing as, by law, it was "illegal to execute a virgin, so Roman soldiers were instructed to rape the victim before execution." "Morals break down and an obsession with sex and violence takes hold. Citizens see the degradation of morals as emancipation from the stringent constraints that restricted their behavior. The decline in morals is often slow and subtle and unrecognized by the civilization," says bibleblender.com. For many rulers, such as Galba,…
Many of the classical civilizations; Rome, Greece, China, India, the Islamic Empire, and the Americas, are classified on three main principles: art, ideas and institutions. These themes not only had a revolutionary impact at the time, but have been preserved and perpetuated throughout history. Classicism is the evolution of societies into civilizations, according to Marilynn Hitchens.(1) Classicism can be understood as defining and long-lasting civilization patterns shaped by belief systems. As said by Renaissance writers, history is “philosophy teaching by example”.(2)…