Roman History, Culture, and Civilization
What this domain covers
Questions test chronology, institutions, and daily life: who held power, how the state was organized, and what ordinary Romans did.
Chronology you must know
- 753 BC: traditional founding of Rome by Romulus; 509 BC: expulsion of the kings and the Republic.
- Punic Wars: 264–241, 218–201 (Hannibal), 149–146 BC (Carthage destroyed).
- 133 BC: tribunate of Tiberius Gracchus; 88–82 BC: civil wars of Marius and Sulla.
- 44 BC: assassination of Julius Caesar; 31 BC: Actium; 27 BC: Augustus receives the principate.
- AD 476: deposition of Romulus Augustulus, conventionally the end of the western empire.
Institutions
Two consuls held imperium for one year; the senate advised and controlled finance; tribunes of the plebs could veto and were sacrosanct; the comitia passed laws and elected magistrates. The cursus honorum ran quaestor–aedile–praetor–consul.
Society and army
The familia was headed by the paterfamilias, who held legal power over dependents. Patrons and clients exchanged protection for political support. A legion of about 5,000 heavy infantry was divided into cohorts and centuries, supported by auxiliaries. Religion was public and contractual - do ut des - served by state priests (pontifices, augures) and the Vestal Virgins.
Worked example
A question asks why 27 BC matters. Augustus' settlement that year ended the fiction of the restored Republic and made one man permanent holder of imperium and tribunician power - the start of the principate, not a monarchy in name. Answer with the constitutional fact, not merely 'Augustus became emperor'.
Traps
- Mixing consular and tribunician powers.
- Confusing the 509 BC Republic with the 27 BC principate.
- Assuming all inhabitants were citizens; citizenship was extended gradually, notably after the Social War.