Ancient Rome

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French erotic postcard (c. 1910) depicting Roman Empire decadence.

Ancient Rome was an Italic Iron Age civilization that began in the 8th century BC and ended in the 7th century AD, approximately. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to become one of the largest empires in the ancient world with an estimated 50 to 90 million inhabitants (roughly 20% of the world's population) and covering 6.5 million square kilometers (2.5 million sq mi) during its height between the first and second centuries AD.. Together with Ancient Greece it is often grouped into the term "Classical Antiquity".

Its main periods are:

  • Roman Kingdom, 753–509 BC
  • Roman Republic, 509–27 BC
  • Roman Empire, 27 BC-AD 476

The Byzantine Empire (c. AD 330–1204 and 1261–1453), the predominantly Greek-speaking continuation of the eastern half of the Roman Empire during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, is also often called the Eastern Roman Empire and can be seen as a continuation of Ancient Rome. The Holy Roman Empire (AD 962–1806) did not have much to do with the Roman Empire besides the name.

In its approximately 12 centuries of existence, Roman civilization shifted from a monarchy to a classical republic and then to an increasingly autocratic empire. Through conquest and assimilation, it came to dominate Southern and Western Europe, Asia Minor, North Africa, and parts of Northern and Eastern Europe. Rome was preponderant throughout the Mediterranean region and was one of the most powerful entities of the ancient world. It is often grouped into classical antiquity together with ancient Greece, and their similar cultures and societies are known as the Greco-Roman world.

Ancient Roman society has contributed to modern government, law, politics, engineering, art, literature, architecture, technology, warfare, religion, language and society. A highly developed civilization, Rome professionalized and expanded its military and created a system of government called res publica, the inspiration for modern republics such as the United States and France. It achieved impressive technological and architectural feats, such as the construction of an extensive system of aqueducts and roads, as well as the construction of large monuments, palaces, and public facilities.

By the end of the Republic, Rome had conquered the lands around the Mediterranean and beyond: its domain extended from the Atlantic to Arabia and from the mouth of the Rhine to North Africa. The Roman Empire emerged under the leadership of Augustus Caesar. 721 years of Roman-Persian Wars started in 92 BC with their first war against Parthia. It would become the longest conflict in human history, and have major lasting effects and consequences for both empires. Under Trajan, the Empire reached its territorial peak. Republican mores and traditions started to decline during the imperial period, with civil wars becoming a common ritual for a new emperor's rise. Splinter states, such as the Palmyrene Empire, would temporarily divide the Empire in the crisis of the 3rd century.

Plagued by internal instability and attacked by various migrating peoples, the western part of the empire broke up into independent kingdoms in the 5th century. This splintering is a landmark historians use to divide the ancient period of universal history from the pre-medieval "Dark Ages" of Europe.

Corporal punishment in Ancient Rome

Punishment of a pupil, mural from Pompeji showing a Roman teacher whipping a schoolboy (M/B).
Drawing after the same mural.

Corporal punishment was widespread in Ancient Rome, and due to the many written accounts, we know its details relatively well. Several authors described the details of Roman punishments, such as Horace, Martial, and in particular Saint Augustine.

Corporal punishment was used in the education of the youth, in the training of slaves, in the military, and in the punishment of criminals. Besides that, whipping and self-whipping is also found in religious Roman ceremonies, festivals, and erotic pleasure.

The Romans had the following whipping and spanking implements:

  • the virga - a birch rod or similar implement (such as a bundle of leather strips).
  • the ferula - a cane
  • the lorum - a leather strap
  • the flagrum - a whip with two or three lashes with small metallic dumbbells on the pointslashes
  • the flagellum - a whip similar to the flagrum but smaller
  • the scutica - a whip with twisted parchment thongs
  • switches made of elm, vine, laurel or myrtle

Professional whippers were called lictor or carnifex. A man who wielded the virga was called virgator, a man who used the lorum was called lorarius.

See also

More information is available at [ Wikipedia:Ancient_Rome ]
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