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Themes In World History Chapter 3 An Empire Across Three Continents

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    NCERT Solution For Class 11 History Themes In World History

    An Empire Across Three Continents Here is the CBSE History Chapter 3 for Class 11 students. Summary and detailed explanation of the lesson, including the definitions of difficult words. All of the exercises and questions and answers from the lesson's back end have been completed. NCERT Solutions for Class 11 History An Empire Across Three Continents Chapter 3 NCERT Solutions for Class 11 History An Empire Across Three Continents Chapter 3 The following is a summary in Hindi and English for the academic year 2021-2022. You can save these solutions to your computer or use the Class 11 History.

    Question 1
    CBSEENHS11012493
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    What was Principate? Describe your understanding of Republic in the early empire. 
    Solution
    The regime established by Augustus, the first emperor, in 27 BCE was called the ‘Principate’.

    The Republic was the name for a regime in which the reality of power lay with the Senate, a body dominated by a small group of wealthy families who formed the ‘nobility’. In practice, the Republic represented the government of the nobility, exercised through the body called the Senate. The Republic lasted from 509 BC to 27 BC, when it was overthrown by Octavian, the adopted son and heir of Julius Caesar, who later changed his name to Augustus. Membership of the Senate was for life, and wealth and office-holding counted for more.
    Question 2
    CBSEENHS11012494
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    Who was saint Augustine?
    Solution
    Saint Augustine (354-430) was bishop of the North African city of Hippo from 396 and a towering figure in the intellectual history of the Church.

    Bishops were the most important religious figures in a Christian community, and often very powerful.
    Question 3
    CBSEENHS11012495
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    What is meant by Pax-Romana?
    Solution
    The word Pax-Romana means the period of peace and prosperity in Rome. This period existed in Rome under Emperor Augustus Octavian.
    Question 4
    CBSEENHS11012496
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    Mention the evidences of Roman's contribution to law and Government.
    Solution
    Roman's contribution:

    1. The Roman laws are the basis of the law of many European countries.

    2. The Roman Code of Laws was made by emperor Justinian on this basis, the laws of Germany, France, Italy and Spain were made England also got great help from this Code of Laws.

    3. The greatest contribution of Roman intelligence is their law. Their law was based on reasoning. 
    At first Kingship was established in Rome. Many centuries later Democratic Government was formed in Rome.
    Question 5
    CBSEENHS11012497
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    Describe the geographical location of the Roman Empire with the help of the following map.


    Fig.: Europe and North Africa
    Solution
    If you look at the map, you will see that the continents of Europe and Africa are separated by a sea that stretches all the way from Spain in the west to Syria in the east.
    This sea is called the Mediterranean, and it was the heart of Rome's empire. Rome dominated the Mediterranean and all the regions around that sea in both directions, north as well as south.
    To the north, the boundaries of the empire were formed by two great rivers, the Rhine and the Danube; to the south, by the huge expanse of desert called the Sahara. This vast stretch of the territory was the Roman Empire.
    Question 6
    CBSEENHS11012498
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    If you had lived in the Roman Empire, where would you rather have lived in the towns or in the country side? Explain why.
    Solution
    If I had lived in the Roman Empire, I would you have lived in the  countryside as it keeps human closer to nature. It further allows the facility for the domestication of cattle, which provides all sort of resources to man.


    Question 7
    CBSEENHS11012499
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    lmagine that you are a Roman housewife preparing a shopping list for household requirement. What would be on the list ?
    Solution
    Being a Roman housewife one should prepare the list of all the necessary items needed for a roman house. Roman life was very different from what we have today.

    Question 8
    CBSEENHS11012500
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    Describe your knowledge about the Roman Calendar. 
    Solution
    The Roman made a calender on the basis of his knowledge of astronomy. July was named after Julius Caesar and August was named Augustus. September, October, November and December were named after Latin languages which meant seventh, eight, ninth and tenth. The Romans too had a knowledge of medical science.
    Question 9
    CBSEENHS11012501
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    Mention the main social classes in Ancient Roman Civilization and also the position of the Slaves.
    Solution
    During the ancient civilization the Roman society was divided mainly among three classes :

    (i) The Particians or the Rich.

    (ii) The Plebeians or the Common People.

    (iii) The Slaves.

    In Rome, the slaves were employed in agriculture, mining, road construction, workshops and on ships. They were brutally exploited and as a result of it, many used to become crippled in the very young age.

    Tips: -

    (M.Imp)
    Question 10
    CBSEENHS11012502
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    Why do you think the Roman Government stopped coining in silver? And which metal did it begin to use for the production of coinage ?
    Solution
    The monetary system of the late empire broke with the silver-based currencies of the first three centuries because the Spanish silver mines were exhausted and government ran out of sufficient stocks of the metal to support a stable coinage in silver.
    Gold was used for the production of coinage.
    Question 11
    CBSEENHS11012503
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    Discuss the factors responsible for the decline of the Roman Civilization.
    Solution
    The factors responsible for the decline of the Roman Civilization are as followings :
    1. Wars and Luxurious Life : Repeated wars and conquests bent and broke the back of democracy. The luxurious and easeful way of living demoralised the ruling class.

    2. Slave Revolts : The number of slaves had out numbered the free men. They grew rebellious and could not be quelled by the ruling class.

    3. The Weakness of Emperors : The Roman emperors being incompetent and weak could not face the invaders.

    4. Spread of Christianity : The Christian religion gave meassage of love and equality. It weakened the rule of emperors since it created rebellions feeling among the slaves.

    5. Raids and invasions : Invaders and raiders shattered the Roman Civilization.
    Question 12
    CBSEENHS11012504
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    Describe the systems of Government in ancient Greek and Rome. How were they different from the systems of the Government in ancient China or ancient Iran ?
    Solution
    Systems of Government in ancient Greek and Rome:

    Ancient Greek and Rome had their federal structure of Government. Later on, they also had Monarchy and Kingship. The Greeks were successful in their democratic city states. The idea of republicanism was developed by the Romans. There the royal persons used to call themselves as the servants of the people.

    The difference between the systems of Greek and Rome and ancient China and ancient Iran.

    In ancient China and Iran, there was no democratic and republican system of Government as in Greek and Rome. China and Iran were ruled by the kings, therefore there was the Monarchical form of Government in both of these countries.
    Question 13
    CBSEENHS11012505
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    Mention the social scenario in ancient Greek and Rome.
    Solution

    The Greek society was divided into three classes :
    1. Nobles or Upper Class.
    2. Demos or free people.
    3. Slaves.
    The Roman society was also divided into the three groups :
    1. The Patricians or the Rich.
    2. Plebeians or the Common People.
    3. The Slaves.


    The upper class in both the countries included in rich and  the landed aristocracy which led a very luxurious life. The second class was comprised of traders, craftsmen, warriors and the cultivators.

    The people enjoyed all the civic rights but they had to bear the burden of most of the taxes. For the purpose, they were against the upper class.

    The condition of the third class i.e. the slaves was very bad in both the countries. They were bought and sold in the markets. They were treated like animals by their masters.

    Tips: -

    (Imp).
    Question 14
    CBSEENHS11012506
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    State the conditions of Slaves in ancient Greek and Rome. In which types of work were they generally engaged and what was the impact of slavery on the nature of society?
    Solution
    A large number of people in ancient Greek and Rome were slaves. The prisoners of war and those who could not pay their debts were kept as slaves. The conditions were very bad, they had to work day and night and they were deprived of all the social and political rights

    All types of works were taken from the slaves. They were employed in agriculture, mining, road building, workshops and on the ships.

    The slave system produced an evil effect both on the Greek and the Roman societies. Continuous exploitation of the slaves ofter led them to revolt and the State had to strengthen its forces constantly to suppress them.
    Question 15
    CBSEENHS11012507
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    Make a comparison of the achievements of the Romans with those of the Greeks in any five spheres.
    Solution
    The comparison: 

    1. By nature, the Greeks were ideals while the Romans were the realists.

    2. The Greeks could raise the small City States while Romans built a big empire.

    3. The Greeks attached more importance to the Democratic Form of Government in comparison to the Romans.

    4. The Greeks were expert in the fields of art and literature while the Romans are well known for their laws and administration.

    5. The Greeks emphasized the freedom of thought while the Romans considered discipline and obedience more important.

    Tips: -

    (V.Imp.)
    Question 16
    CBSEENHS11012508
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    State one of the striking features of Roman urban life with an example. 
    Solution
    Public baths were a striking feature of Roman urban life (when one Iranian ruler tried to introduce then into Iran, he encountered the wrath of the clergy there! Water was a sacred element and to use it for public bathing may have seemed a desecration to them), and urban populations also enjoyed a much higher level of entertainment.

    For example, one calendar tells us that spectacular (shows) filled no less than 176 days of the year!

    Question 17
    CBSEENHS11012509
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    Discuss in brief the struggle of the Plebeians against the tyranny of the Patrician Class.
    Solution
    Struggle against the Tyranny :
    The Plebeians fought and struggled hard against the Tyranny of the Partician Class. They succeeded in winning their rights to elect tribunes to veto the decisions of the Senate and the Councils. They got the codification of law written on tablets of wood.

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    Question 18
    CBSEENHS11012510
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    Describe the success of the individual emperor and succession to the throne with examples.
    Solution

    Success of individual emperors depended on their control of the army, and when the armies were divided, the result usually was civil war.
    Except for one notorious year (69 CE), when four emperors mounted the throne in quick succession, the first two centuries were on the whole free from civil war and in this sense relatively stable.


    Succession to the throne was based as far as possible on family descent, either natural or adoptive, and even the army was strongly wedded to this principle.

    For example, Tiberius (14-37 CE), the second in the long line of Roman emperors, was not the natural son of Augustus, the ruler who founded the Principate, but Augustus adopted him to ensure a smooth transition.

    Tips: -

    (M.Imp.)
    Question 19
    CBSEENHS11012511
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    Suppose the emperor Trajan had actually managed to conquer India and the Romans had held on to the country for several centuries. In what ways do you think India might be different today ?
    Solution

    If roman emperor Trajan had actually managed to conquer India, India would be different today on following aspects:

    (i) Changes in art, architecture, literature and law as was evident even in the case of Indo Greek.
    (ii) Conversion and Christianization.
    (iii) Concept of public baths and entertainment.
    (iv) Slavery would probably have become more rampant as roman society was known to use slave labour in every sector- agriculture, mining ,handicrafts etc.

    Question 20
    CBSEENHS11012512
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    'One of the more modern features of Roman society was the widespread prevalence of the nuclear family'. Describe.
    Solution
    One of the more modern features of Roman society was the widespread prevalence of the nuclear family:

    1. Adult sons did not live with their families, and it was exceptional for adult brothers to share a common household. On the other hand, slaves were included in the family as the Romans understood this. By the late Republic (the first century BCE ), the typical form of marriage was one where the wife did not transfer to her husband's authority but retained full rights in the property of her natal family. While the woman's dowry went to the husband for the duration of the marriage, the woman remained a primary heir of her father and became an independent property owner on her father's death.

    2. Thus Roman women enjoyed considerable legal rights in owning and managing property. In other words, in law the married couple was not one financial entity but two, and the wife enjoyed complete legal independence. Divorce was relatively easy and needed no more than a notice of intent to dissolve the marriage by either husband or wife.

    3. On the other hand, whereas males married in their late twenties or early thirties, women were married off in the late teens or early twenties, so there was an age gap between husband and wife and this would have encouraged a certain inequality.

    Marriages were generally arranged, and there is no doubt that women were often subject to domination by their husbands.

    4. Augustine, the great Catholic bishop who spent most of his life in North Africa, tells us that his mother was regularly beaten by his father and that most other wives in the small town where he grew up had similar bruises to show.

    Finally, fathers had substantial legal control over their children sometimes to a shocking degree, for example, a legal power of life and death in exposing unwanted children, by leaving them out in the cold to die.
    Question 21
    CBSEENHS11012513
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    Give the name of the person and for civilization responsible for the cultural advances as reflected in the following works of literature and art.
    Solution

    Name of Works

    Name of Person

    Name of Civilization

    Iliad

    Andronix

    Roman Civilization

    Book of Odes

    Andronix

    Roman Civilization

    Acropolis

    Parceles

    Greek Civilization

    Parthenon

    Paraceles

    Greek Civilization

    Aencid

    Virgil

    Roman Civilization

    Oedipus Rex

    Horace

    Roman Civilization

    Orations

    Cecro

    Roman Civilization

    The Republic

    Plato

    Greek Civilization

    Harmes and Dionysus

    Phierics

    Greek Civilization

    Meditations.

    marx Orilis.

    Roman Civilization
    Question 22
    CBSEENHS11012514
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    Point out the contribution of ‘Roman Civilization’ to the world civilization.
    Solution
    The contribution: 
    1. Law and Government : The Romans were great exponents of law. The Roman law did not make any discrimination among the citizens. Most of the countries of the world owe their present legal systems of the Romans.

    The Romans were probably the first people who could exercise effective control upon the different dominions of their vast empire. The credit also goes to the Romans for the development of the idea of Republicanism.

    2. Language, Philosophy and Literature : Latin, the language of the Romans became the language of all the educated people of Europe. Cicero was great philosopher of Rome. He stressed upon the natural rights of all the individuals.

    Ancient Rome also produced the great poets like Virgil and Horace, who spread the glory of Roman civilization through their immortal works.

    3. Art : The Romans were the inventors of the concrete. They could firmly cement the bricks and the pieces to stone together. They were very efficient engineers too. The art of painting murals was highly developed in Rome.

    4. Science and Technology : The Romans were the first to start the public services. Free medicines were given to the poor. The Roman physicians wrote a book containing information on, surrgery
    .
    They also complied a medical encyclopaedia. The Roman Calendar, with a few changes is still in practice in the world.

    Tips: -

    (Imp.)
    Question 23
    CBSEENHS11012515
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    'The great urban centres that lived the shores of the Mediterra were the true bedrock of the empiral system'. Explain
    Solution
    The explanation:

    1. It was through the cities that ‘Government’ was able to tax the provincial countrysides which generated much of the wealth of the empire what this means is that the local upper classes actively collaborated with the Roman state in administering their own territories and raising taxes from them.
    In fact, one of the most interesting aspects of Roman political history is the dramatic shift in power between Italy and the Provinces.

    2. Throughout the second and third centuries, it was the provincial upper classes who supplied most of the cadre that governed the provinces and commanded the armies.

    They came to form a new elite of administrators and military commanders who became much more powerful than the senatorial class because they had the backing of the emperors.

    3. As this new group emerged, the emperor Gallienus (253-68) consolidated their rise to power by excluding senators from military command. We are told that Gallienus forbade senators from serving in the army or having access to it, in order to prevent control of the empire from falling into their hands.
    Question 24
    CBSEENHS11012516
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    Go through the chapter carefully and pick out some basic features of Roman society and economy which you think make it look quite modern.
    Solution
    The features: 
    1. The empire had a substantial economic infrastructure of harbours, mines, quarries, brickyards, olive oil factories, etc. Wheat, wine and olive-oil were traded and consumed in huge quantities, and they came mainly from Spain, the Gallic provinces, North Africa, Egypt and, to a lesser extent, Itlay, where conditions were best for these crops.

    Liquids like wine and olive oil were transported in containers called ‘amphorae’. The fragments and
    sherds of a very large number of these survive ( Monte Testaccio in Rome is said to contain the remnants of over 50 million vessels!) , and it has been possible for archaeologists to reconstruct the precise shapes of these containers, tell us what they carried, and say exactly where they were made by examining the clay content and matching the finds with clay pits throughout the
    Mediterranean. In this way we can now say with some confidence that Spanish olive oil, to take just one example, was a vast commercial enterprise that reached its peak in the years 140-160.

    2. The Spanish olive oil of this period was mainly carried in a container called ‘Dressel 20’ (after the archaeologist who first established its form). If finds of Dressel 20 are widely scattered across sites in the Medieterranean, this suggests that Spanish olive oil circulated very widely indeed.

    3. By using such evidence (the remains of amphorae of different kinds and their ‘distribution maps’), archaeologists are able to show that Spanish producers succeeded in capturing markets for olive oil from their Italian counterparts.

    This would only have happened if Spanish producers supplied a better quality oil at lower prices. In other words, the big landowners from different regions competed with each other for control of the main markets for the goods they produced.

    The success of the Spanish olive growers was then repeated by North African producers - olive estates in this part of the empire dominated production through most of the third and fourth centuries.

    4. Later, after 425, North African dominance was broken by the East : in the later fifth and sixth centuries the Aegean, southern Asia Minor (Turkey), Syria and Palestine became major exporters of wine olive oil, and containers from Africa show a dramatically reduced presence on
    Mediterranean markets. Behind these broad movements the prosperity of individual regions rose and fell depending on how effectively they could organise the production and transport of particular goods, and on the quality of those goods.
    Question 25
    CBSEENHS11012517
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    Describe the salience of  Roman bureaucracy.
    Solution
    Roman bureaucracy:
    (i) The late Roman bureaucracy, both the higher and middle echelons, was a comparatively affluent group because it drew the bulk of its salary in gold and invested much of this in buying up assets like land.

    (ii) There was of course also a great deal of corruption, especially in the judicial system and in the administration of military supplies. The extortion of the higher bureaucracy and the greed of the provincial governors were proverbial.
    But Government intervened repeatedly to curb these forms of corruption -we only know about them in the first place because of the laws that tried to put an end to them, and because historians and other members of the intelligentsia denounced such practices.

    (iii) This element of ‘criticism’ is a remarkable feature of the classical world. The Roman state was an authoritarian regime; in other words, dissent was rarely tolerated and Government usually responded to protest with violence (especially in the cities of the East where people were often fearless in making fun of emperors). Yet a strong tradition or Roman law had emerged by the fourth century, and this acted as a brake on even the most fearsome emperors. Emperors were not free to do whatever they liked, and the law was actively used to protect civil rights.

    (iv) That is why in the later fourth century it was possible for powerful bishops like Ambrose to confront equally powerful emperors when they were excessively harsh or repressive in their handling of the civilian population.
    Question 26
    CBSEENHS11012518
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    Describe yours understanding about the Roman Social Structure.
    Solution
    The Roman social structure:

    1. Tacitus described the leading social groups of the early empire as follows: senators (patres, lit. ‘fathers’); leading members of the equestrian class; the respectable section of the people, those attached to the great houses; the unkempt lower class (plebs sordid) who, he tells us, were addicted to the circus and theatrical displays; and finally the slaves.

    In the early third century when the Senate numbered roughly 1,000 approximately half of all senators still came from Italian families.

    2. By the late empire, which starts with the reign of Constantine I in the early part of the fourth century, the first two groups mentioned by Tacitus (the senators and the equites) had merged into a unified and expanded aristocracy, and at least half of all families were of African or eastern origin.

    This ‘late Roman’ aristocracy was enormously wealthy but in many ways less powerful than the purely military elites who came almost entirely from non-aristocratic backgrounds.

    3. The ‘middle’ class now consisted of the considerable mass of persons connected with imperial service in the bureaucracy and army but also the more prosperous merchants and farmers of whom there were many in the eastern provinces.

    Tacitus described this ‘respectable’ middle class as clients of the great senatorial houses. Now it was chiefly Government service and dependence on the State that sustained many of these families. Below them were the vast mass of the lower classes known collectively as humiliores (lit. ‘lower’).

    4. They comprised a rural labour force of which many were permanently employed on the large estates; workers in industrial and mining establishments; migrant workers who supplied much of the labour for the grain and olive harvests and for the building industry; self -employed artisans who, it was said, were better fed than wage labourers; a large mas of casual labourers, especially in the big cities; and of course the many thousands of slaves that were still found all over the western empire in particular.
    Question 27
    CBSEENHS11012519
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    Explain the traditional religious culture of the classical world.
    Solution
    The traditional religious culture:

    (i) The traditional religious culture of the classical world, both Greek and Roman, had been polytheist. That is, it involved a multiplicity of cults that included both Roman/Italian gods like Jupiter, Juno, Minerva and Mars, as well as numerous Greek and eastern deities worshipped in thousands of temples, shrines and sanctuaries throughout the empire.

    (ii) Polytheists had no common name or label to describe themselves. The other great religious tradition in the empire was Judaism. But Judaism was not a monolith either, and there was a great deal of diversity within the Jewish communities of late antiquity.

    (iii) Thus, the ‘Christianisation, of the empire in the fourth and fifth centuries was a gradual and complex process. Polytheism did not disappear overnight, especially in the western provinces, where the Christian bishops waged a running battle against beliefs and practices they condemned more than the Christian laity did.

    (iv) The boundaries between religious communities were much more fluid in the fourth century than they would become thanks to the repeated efforts of religious leaders, the powerful bishops who now led the Church, to rein in their followers and enforce a more rigid set of beliefs and practices.
    Question 28
    CBSEENHS11012520
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    How the third century crisis was different than the first and second centuries a period of peace ?
    Solution
    The crisis:
    (i) If the first and second centuries were by and large, a period of peace, prosperity and economic expansion, the third century brought the first major signs of internal strain. From the 230s, the empire found itself fighting on several fronts simultaneously.

    (ii) In Iran a new and more aggressive dynasty emerged in 225 (they called themselves the ‘Sasanians’) and within just 15 years were expanding rapidly in the direction of the Euphrates. In a famous rock inscription cut in three languages, Shapur I, the Iranian ruler, claimed he had annihilated a Roman army of 60,000 and even captured the eastern capital of Antioch.

    (iii) Meanwhile, a whole series of Germanic tribes or rather tribal confederacies (most notably, the Alamanni, the Franks and the Goths) began to move against the Rhine and Danube frontiers, and the whole period from 233 to 280 saw repeated invasions of a whole line of provinces that stretched from the Black Sea to the Alps and southern Germany.

    (iv) The Romans were forced to abandon much of the territory beyond the Danube, while the emperors of this period were constantly in the field against what the Romans called ‘barbarians’. The rapid succession of emperors in the third century (25 emperors in 47 years!) Is an obvious symptom of the strains faced by the empire in this period.
    Question 29
    CBSEENHS11012521
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    Mention the aim of reinforcing cycle of development in which leaders encouraged the settlements of villagers close to themselves.

    Solution
    1. Besides people would be safe living in close proximity to one another. At Uruk, one of the earliest temple towns, we find depictions of armed heroes and their victims, and careful archaeological surveys have shown that around 3000 BCE, when Uruk grew to the enormous extent of 250 hectares — twice as large as Mohenjo-daro would be in later centuries -dozens of small villages were deserted.
    There had been a major population shift. Significantly, Uruk also came to have a defensive wall at a very early date. The site was continuously occupied from about 4200 BCE to about 400 CE, and by about 2800 BCE it had expanded to 400 hectares.
    2. War captives and local people were put to work for the temple, or directly for the ruler. This, rather than agricultural tax, was compulsory. Those who were put to work were paid rations. Hundreds of ration lists have been found, which give, against people's names, the quantities of grain, cloth or oil allotted to them.
    It has been estimated that one of the temples took 1,500 men working 10 hours a day, five years to build.
    3. With rulers commanding people to fetch stones or metal ores, to come and make bricks or lay the bricks for a temple, or else to go to a distant country to fetch suitable materials, there were also technical advances at Uruk around 3000 BCE. Bronze tools came into use for various crafts.
    Architects learnt to construct brick columns, there being no suitable wood to bear the weight of the roof of large halls.
    4. Hundreds of people were put to work at making and baking clay cones that could be pushed into temple walls, painted in different colours, creating a colourful mosaic. In sculpture, there were superb achievements, not in easily available clay but in imported stone.
    And then there was a technological landmark that we can say is appropriate to an urban economy: the potter's wheel. In the long run, the wheel enables a potter's workshop to ‘mass produce’ dozens of similar pots at a time.
    Question 30
    CBSEENHS11012522
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    What do you know about the trading town in a pastoral zone ?
    Mari (the capital) was known for its highly productivity agriculture.

    Solution
    1. Agriculture and animal rearing were carried out close to each other in this region. Some communities in the kingdom of Mari had both farmers and pastoralists, but most of its territory was used for pasturing sheep and goats.
    2. Herders need to exchange young animals, cheese, leather and meat in return for grain, metal tools, etc., and the manure of a penned flock is also of great use to a farmer. Yet, at the same time, there may be conflict. A shepherd may take his flock to water across a sown field, to the ruin of the crop.
    Herdsmen being mobile can raid agricultural villages and seize their stored goods. For their part, settled groups may deny pastoralists access to river and canal water along a certain set of paths.
    3. Through Mesopotamian history, nomadic communities of the western desert filtered into the prosperous agricultural heartland. Shepherds would bring their flocks into the sown area in the summer. Such groups would come in as herders, harvest labourers or hired soldiers, occasionally become prosperous, and settle down.
    A few gained the power to establish their own rule. These included the Akkadians, Amorites, Assyrians and Aramaeans. (You will read more about rulers from pastoral societies in Theme 5.)
    The kings of Mari were Amorites whose dress differed from that of the original inhabitants and who respected not only the gods of Mesopotamia but also raised a temple at Mari for Dagan, god of the steppe. Mesopotamian society and culture were thus open to different people and cultures, and the vitality of the civilisation was perhaps due to this intermixture.
    4. The kings of Mari, however, had to be vigilant; herders of various tribes were allowed to move in the kingdom, but they were watched. The camps of herders are mentioned frequently in letters between kings and officials. In one letter, an officer writes to the king that he has been seeing frequent fire signals at night - sent by one camp to another - and he suspects that a raid or an attack is being planned.
    5. Located on the Euphrates in a prime position for trade - in wood, copper, tin, oil, wine, and various other goods that were carried in boats along the Euphrates - between the south and the mineral rich uplands of Turkey, Syria and Lebanon, Mari is a good example of an urban centre prospering on trade.
    Boats carrying grinding stones, wood, and wine and oil-jars, would stop at Mari on their way to the southern cities. Officers of this town would go aboard, inspect the cargo (a single river boat could hold 300 wine-jars), and levy a charge of about one-tenth the value of the goods before allowing the boat to continue downstream.
    Barley came in special grain boats. Most important, tablets refer to copper from ‘Alashiya’, the island of Cyprus, known for its copper, and tin was also an item of trade. As bronze was the main industrial material for tools and weapons, this trade was of great importance. Thus, although the kingdom of Mari was not militarily strong, it was exceptionally prosperous.
    Question 31
    CBSEENHS11012523
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    'In fact, except for Italy, which was not considered a province in these centuries, all the territories of the empire were organised into provinces and subject to taxation'. Explain. 
    Solution
    1. The Roman Empire stretched from Scotland to the borders of Armenia, and from the Sahara to the Euphrates and sometimes beyond. Given that there was no government in the modern sense to help them to run things, you may well ask, how was it possible for the emperor to cope with the control and administration of such a vast and diverse set of territories, with a population of some 60 million in the mid-second century. The answer lies in the urbanisation of the empire.

    2. The great urban centres that lined the shores of the Mediterranean (Carthage, Alexandria, Antioch were the biggest among them) were the true bedrock of the imperial system. It was through the cities that ‘government’ was able to tax the provincial countrysides which generated much of the wealth of the empire. What this means is that the local upper classes actively collaborated with the Roman state in administering their own territories and raising taxes from them. In fact, one of the most interesting aspects of Roman political history is the dramatic shift in power between Italy and the provinces.

    3. Throughout the second and third centuries, it was the provincial upper classes who supplied most of the cadre that governed the provinces and commanded the armies. They came to form a new elite of administrators and military commanders who became much more powerful than the senatorial class because they had the backing of the emperors.

    As this new group emerged, the emperor Gallienus (253-68) consolidated their rise to power by excluding senators from military command. We are told that Gallienus forbade senators from serving in the army or having access to it, in order to prevent control of the empire from falling into their hands.

    4. To sum up, in the late first, second and early third centuries the army and administration were increasingly drawn from the provinces, as citizenship spread to these regions and was no longer confined to Italy. But individuals of Italian origin continued to dominate the senate at least till the third century, when senators of provincial origin became a majority.

    These trends reflected the general decline of Italy within the empire, both political and economic, and the rise of new elites in the wealthier and more urbanised parts of the Mediterranean, such as the south of Spain, Africa and the east.

    A city in the Roman sense was an urban centre with its own magistrates, city council and a ‘territory’ containing villages which were under its jurisdiction. Thus one city could not be in the territory of another city, but villages almost always were.
    Villages could be upgraded to the status of cities, and vice versa, usually as a mark of imperial favour (or the opposite). One crucial advantage of living in a city was simply that it might be better provided for during food shortages and even famines than the countryside.
    Question 32
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    How the cultural diversity of the empire was reflected many ways and at many levels ? Describe with an example.
    Solution
    The cultural diversity of the empire was reflected in many ways and at many levels in the vast diversity of religious cults and local deities; the plurality of languages that were spoken; the styles of dress and costume, the food people ate, their forms of social organisation (tribal/non-tribal), even their patterns of settlement. Aramaic was the dominant language group of the Near East (at least west of the Euphrates), Coptic was spoken in Egypt, Punic and Berber in North Africa, Celtic in Spain and the northwest. But many of these linguistic cultures were purely oral, at least until a script was invented for them.

    Armenian, for example, only began to be written as late as the fifth century, whereas there was already a Coptic translation of the Bible by the middle of the third century. Elsewhere, the spread of Latin displaced the written form of languages that were otherwise widespread; this happened notably with Celtic, which ceased to be written after the first century.
    Question 33
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    How can you say that the ruling elites were wealthier and more powerful than ever before ? Explain.

    Solution

    1. All of this carried over into strong urban prosperity that was marked by new forms of architecture and an exaggerated sense of luxury. The ruling elites were wealthier and more powerful than ever before.
    In Egypt, hundreds of papyri survive from these later centuries and they show us a relatively affluent society where money was in extensive use and rural estates generated vast incomes in gold. For example, Egypt contributed taxes of over 2 1/2 million solidi a year (roughly 35,000 lbs of gold) in the reign of Justinian in the sixth century.
    Indeed, large parts of the Near Eastern countryside were more developed and densely settled in the fifth and sixth centuries than they would be even in the twentieth century! This is the social background against which we should set the cultural developments of this period.
    2. The traditional religious culture of the classical world, both Greek and Roman, had been polytheist. That is, it involved a multiplicity of cults that included both Roman/Italian gods like Jupiter, Juno, Minerva and Mars, as well as numerous Greek and eastern deities worshipped in thousands of temples, shrines and sanctuaries throughout the empire.
    Polytheists had no common name or label to describe themselves. The other great religious tradition in the empire was Judaism. But Judaism was not a monolith either, and there was a great deal of diversity within the Jewish communities of late antiquity.
    Thus, the ‘Christianisation’ of the empire in the fourth and fifth centuries was a gradual and complex process. Polytheism did not disappear overnight, especially in the western provinces, where the Christian bishops waged a running battle against beliefs and practices they condemned more than the Christian laity did.
    The boundaries between religious communities were much more fluid in the fourth century than they would become thanks to the repeated efforts of religious leaders, the powerful bishops who now led the Church, to rein in their followers and enforce a more rigid set of beliefs and practices.
    3. The general prosperity was especially marked in the East where population was still expanding till the sixth century, despite the impact of the plague which affected the Mediterranean in the 540s. In the West, by contrast, the empire fragmented politically as Germanic groups from the North (Goths, Vandals, Lombards, etc.) took over all the major provinces and established kingdoms that are best described as ‘post-Roman’.
    The most important of these were that of the Visigoths in Spain, destroyed by the Arabs between 711 and 720, that of the Franks in Gaul (c.511-687) and that of the Lombards in Italy (568-774). These kingdoms foreshadowed the beginnings of a different kind of world that is usually called ‘medieval’.
    In the East, where the empire remained united, the reign of Justinian is the highwater mark of prosperity and imperial ambition.
    Question 34
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    Which word was used for the aristocratic class of Rome?
    Solution

    Patrician

    Question 36
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    __________ means the period of peace and prosperity in Rome.
    Solution
    Pax-Romana
    Question 37
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    July was named after _____________  and August was named after ________.
    Solution
    Julius Caesar, Augustus

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