Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History

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The Roman Republic

• 
  Fresco wall painting in a cubiculum (bedroom) from the Villa of P. Fannius Synistor at Boscoreale, ca. 40–30 B.C.; Late Republican
  Roman
  Plaster
  Rogers Fund, 1903 (03.14.13a–g)
  
• 
  Torso of a Ptolemaic King, Ptolemaic Period, 80–30 B.C.
  Egyptian
  Dark basalt; H. 36 5/8 in. (93 cm)
  Purchase, Lila Acheson Wallace Gift and Rogers Fund, 1981 (1981.224.1)
  
• 
  Sword, mid-1st century B.C.; Late Iron Age (La Tène)
  Celtic
  Iron blade, copper alloy hilt and scabbard; L. 19 3/4 in. (50 cm)
  Rogers Fund, 1999 (1999.94a-d)
  
• 
  Tivoli Hoard, mid-1st century B.C.; Late Republican
  Roman; Italy, said to have been found at Tivoli or Boscoreale
  Silver
  Rogers Fund, 1920 (20.49.2–.12)
  
• 
  Portrait bust of a man, 1st century B.C.; Republican
  Roman
  Marble; H. 14.37 in. (36.5 cm)
  Rogers Fund, 1912 (12.233)
  
• 

  Funerary relief, ca. 325–300 B.C.
  Greek, South Italian, Tarentine
  Limestone; H. 23 1/16 in. (58.5 cm), W. as preserved 21 1/8 in. (53.6 cm)
  Fletcher Fund, 1929 (29.54)

  
• 
  Statue of a draped seated man, Republican or Early Imperial, 1st century B.C.
  Roman
  Marble; H. 51 1/2 in. (130.8 cm)
  Rogers Fund, 1909 (09.221.4)
  

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From its inauspicious beginnings as a small cluster of huts in the tenth century B.C., Rome developed into a city-state, first ruled by kings, then, from 509 B.C. onward, by a new form of government—the Republic. During the early Republic, power rested in the hands of the patricians, a privileged class of Roman citizens whose status was a birthright. The patricians had exclusive control over all religious offices and issued final assent (patrum auctoritas) to decisions made by the Roman popular assemblies. However, debts and an unfair distribution of public land prompted the poorer Roman citizens, known as the plebians, to withdraw from the city-state and form their own assembly, elect their own officers, and set up their own cults. Their principal demands were debt relief and a more equitable distribution of newly conquered territory in allotments to Roman citizens. Eventually, in 287 B.C., with the so-called Conflict of the Orders, wealthier, land-rich plebians achieved political equality with the patricians. The main political result was the birth of a noble ruling class consisting of both patricians and plebians, a unique power-sharing partnership that continued into the late first century B.C.

During the last three centuries of the Republic, Rome became a metropolis and the capital city of a vast expanse of territory acquired piecemeal through conquest and diplomacy.

Related

Timelines (6)

• Anatolia and the Caucasus (Asia Minor), 1000 b.c.–1 a.d.
• Ancient Greece, 1000 b.c.–1 a.d.
• Eastern Europe and Scandinavia, 1000 b.c.–1 a.d.
• Italian Peninsula, 1000 b.c.–1 a.d.
• Western and Central Europe, 1000 b.c.–1 a.d.
• Western North Africa, 1000 b.c.–1 a.d.

Primary Thematic Essays (3)

• Art of the Hellenistic Age and the Hellenistic Tradition
• Augustan Rule (27 B.C.–14 A.D.)
• The Roman Empire (27 B.C.–393 A.D.)

Other Thematic Essays (37)

• Ancient Greek Colonization and Trade and their Influence on Greek Art
• Arms and Armor
• Art of the Roman Provinces, 1
• Barbarians and Romans
• Boscoreale: Frescoes from the Villa of P. Fannius Synistor
• Contexts for the Display of Statues in Classical Antiquity
• Eastern Religions in the Roman World
• Etruscan Art
• Frederic Edwin Church (1826
• Hellenistic and Roman Cyprus
• Hellenistic Jewelry
• Images of Antiquity in Limoges Enamels in the French Renaissance
• Intellectual Pursuits of the Hellenistic Age
• List of Rulers of the Roman Empire
• Luxury Arts of Rome
• Mystery Cults in the Greek and Roman World
• Painted Funerary Monuments from Hellenistic Alexandria
• Polychromy of Roman Marble Sculpture
• Retrospective Style in Greek and Roman Sculpture
• Roman Glass
• Roman Housing
• Roman Inscriptions
• Roman Painting
• Roman Portrait Sculpture: Republican through Constantinian
• Roman Portrait Sculpture: The Stylistic Cycle
• Roman Sarcophagi
• Sardis
• The Augustan Villa at Boscotrecase
• The Byzantine City of Amorium
• The Decoration of European Armor
• The Julio-Claudian Dynasty (27 B.C.–68 A.D.)
• The Nude in Western Art and its Beginnings in Antiquity
• The Praenestine Cistae
• The Rise of Macedonia and the Conquest of Alexander the Great
• The Seleucid Empire (323-64 B.C.)
• The Year One
• Theater and Amphitheater in the Roman World

Maps (4)

• Africa, 1000 B.C.-1 A.D.
• Europe, 1000 B.C.-1 A.D.
• West Asia, 1000 B.C.-1 A.D.
• World, 1000 B.C.-1 A.D.

Index Terms (34)

Art Movement/Style

• Egyptian Art in the Ptolemaic Period
• Augustan Art in Ancient Rome
• Republican Art in Ancient Rome

Geography/Place

• Rome (Ancient)

Material and Technique

• Copper
• Iron
• Silver from the Italian Peninsula
• Painting in Fresco
• Plaster
• Sculpture in the Round from Egypt and Western North America
• Basalt
• Limestone
• Marble Sculpture in the Round

Object

• Wall painting
• Period Rooms from Europe
• Secular Architecture from Europe
• Body Armor
• Helmet
• Sword
• Implement for Tableware
• Musical Instruments from the Italian Peninsula
• String Instrument
• Deep Vessel (Cup or Bowl)
• Deep Vessel from Europe
• Vessel from the Italian Peninsula

Subject Matter/Theme

• Archaeology from Africa and Egypt
• Archaeology from Europe
• Ruler from Egypt
• Food and Feasting
• Funerary Art from Europe
• Interior
• Portrait Sculpture from Africa and Egypt
• Trade (1–500 a.d.)
• Warfare

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During the last three centuries of the Republic, Rome became a metropolis and the capital city of a vast expanse of territory acquired piecemeal through conquest and diplomacy. Administered territories (provinciae) outside Italy included: Sicily, Sardinia, Spain, Africa, Macedonia, Achaea, Asia, Cilicia, Gaul, Cyrene, Bithynia, Crete, Pontus, Syria, and Cyprus. The strains of governing an ever-expanding empire involving a major military commitment, and the widening gulf between those citizens who profited from Rome's new wealth and those who were impoverished, generated social breakdown, political turmoil, and the eventual collapse of the Republic. Rome experienced a long and bloody series of civil wars, political crises, and civil disturbances that culminated with the dictatorship of Julius Caesar and his assassination on March 15, 44 B.C. After Caesar's death, the task of reforming the Roman state and restoring peace and stability fell to his grandnephew, Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus, only eighteen years old, who purged all opposition to his complete control of the Roman empire and was granted the honorific title of Augustus in 27 B.C.



Department of Greek and Roman Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Citation Department of Greek and Roman Art. "The Roman Republic". In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/romr/hd_romr.htm (October 2000) Further Reading Gruen, Erich S. Culture and National Identity in Republican Rome. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1992. Kleiner, Diana E. E. Roman Sculpture. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1992. Matyszak, Philip Chronicle of the Roman Republic: The Rulers of Ancient Rome from Romulus to Augustus. London: Thames & Hudson, 2003. Milleker, Elizabeth J., ed. The Year One: Art of the Ancient World East and West. Exhibition catalogue.. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000. Related exhibitions and online features Special Exhibitions (including upcoming, current, and past exhibitions)

These related Museum Bulletin or Journal articles may or may not represent the most current scholarship. Oliver, Andrew, Jr. "Two Hoards of Roman Republican Silver." The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, v. 23, no. 5 (January, 1965). . JSTOR | PDF