NCERT Solutions for Class 11 History Chapter 3 An Empire Across Three Continents
Class 11 History Chapter 3 NCERT Textbook Questions Solved
Question 1.
If you had lived in the Roman Empire, where would you rather have lived—in the towns or in the countryside? Explain why?
Answer:
I would have liked to live in towns of the Roman empire as it had better sources of earning and facility to fight with natural calamities that occurred frequently.
In Roman city, there was such a structure which was quite strong to fight with the daily lives problems. Because towns were coming under the territory of city and they had been aided by the people who belonged to the political and business related fields.
Question 2.
Compile a list of some of the towns, cities, rivers, seas and provinces mentioned in this chapter, and then try and find them on the maps. Can you say something about any three of the items in the list you have compiled?
Answer:
Continents: Europe, North Africa.
Island: Sicily
Rivers: Nile, Rhine, Danube, Sind
Sea: Mediterranean, Caspian, Black sea, Aegean sea.
Provinces: Gaul, Numidia, Tunisia, Macedonia, etc.
Towns and Cities: Constantinople, Naples, Damascus, Alexandria and Rome. (See NCERT Page 59)
Description of three items compiled in the list:
- Rivers helped in providing irrigation facilities for agriculture.
- Seas and oceans helped in the promotion of trade and commerce.
- Towns and cities were the main centers of economic, social and political activities of the empire.
Question 3.
Imagine that you are a Roman housewife preparing a shopping list for household requirements. What would be on the list?
Answer:
As a Roman housewife, I would like to include the following items in my list, while preparing a shopping list for household requirements-Roman glass painting, curtains, kitchen appliances, bed sheet, cushion cover, toys, furniture and other modem appliances of daily life.
Question 4.
Why do you think the Roman government stopped coining in silver? And which metal did it begin to use for the production of coinage?
Answer:
The Roman government stopped coining in silver because the Spanish silver mine became empty, thus causing dearth of silver in the Roman empire. Now the Roman government began to use gold for the production of coinage.
Question 5.
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?
Answer:
Trajan is remembered as a successful soldier-emperor who presided over the greatest military expansion in Roman history, leading the empire to attain its maximum territorial extent by the time of his death. He is also known for his philanthropic rule, overseeing extensive public building programmes and implementing social welfare policies, which earned him his enduring reputation as the second of the Five Good Emperors who presided over an era of peace and prosperity in the Mediterranean world.
As per the above passage, we can conclude if India had been conquered by Trajan, he would have been the greatest ruler and extended philanthropic rule all over India. There must be absence of democratic ideas and democratic rights in India. The division of society will be on the basis of Roman society.
Question 6.
Go through the chapter carefully and pick out some basic features of Roman society and economy which you think make it look quite modem.
Answer:
We found that in Roman society women were quite financially independent in spite of getting married but got share of property from her natal house. It was the main feature of Roman society. This feature shows us that women were holding a strong status in the society.
Another modem feature, we found from Roman economy was that there were very strong trading relations from across the Roman empire’s provinces, which shows that Roman economy was also very strong and provided the revenue to its government.
Class 11 History Chapter 3 More Questions Solved
Class 11 History Chapter 3 Very Short Answer Type Questions
Question 1.
Which were the two powerful empires that ruled over most of Europe?
Answer:
The two powerful empires that ruled over most of Europe were Rome and Iran.
Question 2.
Which sea separates the continents of Europe and Africa?
Answer:
Mediterranean Sea separates the continents of Europe and Africa.
Question 3.
Which rivers made boundaries of the Roman empire from the north side?
Answer:
The boundaries of the Roman empire were surrounded by two great rivers, the Rhine and the Danube.
Question 4.
What is another name of the third century in the Roman empire?
Answer:
The third century of the Roman empire was also called the ‘Early empire’.
Question 5.
Which languages were used for administrative purposes in the early empire of Roman civilization?
Answer:
For the purpose of administration, Latin and Greek were the most widely used languages.
Question 6.
Which languages were spoken in upper classes in east and west of the early empire of Rome?
Answer:
The upper classes of the east spoke and wrote in Greek, those of the west in Latin.
Question 7.
Who had established the regime in 27 BCE?
Answer:
The regime was established by Augustus in 27 BCE. He was the first emperor in 27 BCE.
Question 8.
In which languages was Roman history written?
Answer:
Most of the Roman history was written in Greek and Latin languages by people from a senatorial background.
Question 9.
What was the system to judge the behavior of Emperor in the Roman Empire?
Answer:
The Emperors were judged by how they behaved towards the Senate.
Question 10.
How the Romans had formed their army structure?
Answer:
The Romans had a paid professional army where soldiers had to put in a minimum of 25 years of service.
Question 11.
What do you mean by the ‘Augustan age’?
Answer:
The ‘Augustan age’ meant the reign by Augustus from 27 BCE to 14 CE. His reign is remembered for peace.
Question 12.
What were the great urban centers that lined the shores of the Mediterranean?
Answer:
The great urban centers that lined the shores of the Mediterranean were Carthage, Alexandria and Antioch.
Question 13.
How was the jurisdiction system structured in Italy in the Roman Empire?
Answer:
In the Roman empire there was an urban center with its own magistrates, city council and a ‘territory’ containing villages which were under its jurisdiction.
Question 14.
Who were the main players in the political history of the empire?
Answer:
The emperor, the aristocracy and the army were the three main players in the political history of the empire.
Question 15.
Who was Tiberius?
Answer:
Tiberius was the second in the long line of Roman Emperors. His span of rule remained from 14 GE to 37 CE. He was the adopted son of Augustus.
Question 16.
How many emperors ruled in the third century of Rome?
Answer:
Twenty-five emperors ruled in the third century of Rome.
Question 17.
Which type of family was in Roman society?
Answer:
In Roman society there was nuclear form of family.
Question 18.
What was the position of slaves in Roman society in the third century?
Answer:
Slaves were included in the family in Roman society.
Question 19.
What was the legal right of property of women after marriage in Roman society in the third century?
Answer:
The wife did not transfer to her husband’s authority but retained full rights in the property of her natal
family.
Question 20.
How had the marriages been solemnized in Roman society in the third century?
Answer:
Marriages were generally arranged. Women were subject to domination by their husbands.
Question 21.
Who was Augustine?
Answer:
Augustine was the great Catholic bishop who spent most of his life in North Africa.
Question 22.
What was the status of father in Roman families?
Answer:
Father had substantial legal control over their children.
Question 23.
Which languages had been used for writing and reading in Rome during third century?
Answer:
Coptic was spoken in Egypt, Punic and Berber in North Africa, Celtic in Spain and the north-west.
Question 24.
Which language had been used for translation of the Bible?
Answer:
Coptic was used for translation of the Bible by the middle of the third century.
Question 25.
What were Amphorae?
Answer:
Liquids like wine and olive oil transported in containers were called ‘Amphorae’.
Question 26.
What was Dressel 20 in Spain?
Answer:
The Spanish olive oil of the middle of the third century was mainly carried in a container that was called ‘Dressel 20.
Question 27.
Which countries had been exporters of wine and olive oil in the later fifth and sixth centuries?
Answer:
In the later fifth and sixth centuries, the Southern Asia Minor (Turkey), Syria and Palestine became major exporters of wine and olive oil.
Question 28.
What was exported to Rome by Sicily and Byzacium?
Answer:
Sicily and Byzacium exported large quantities of wheat to Rome.
Question 29.
Which kind of currencies were used in the monetary system of the first three centuries in Rome?
Answer:
Silver and gold based currencies were used in the monetary system of the first three centuries in Rome.
Question 30.
What does ‘Late antiquity’ mean?
Answer:
‘Late antiquity’ is the term used to describe the final and attractive period in the evolution and break-up of the Roman empire.
Question 31.
What was the traditional religious culture of the classical world, for both Greek and Roman?
Answer:
The traditional religious culture of the classical world for both Greek and Roman had been Polytheism.
Question 32.
What does Frankincense mean?
Answer:
Frankincense is the European name for an aromatic resin used in incense and perfumes.
Question 33.
Who was Diocletian?
Answer:
Diocletian was an emperor who ruled from 284-305 in the fourth century.
Question 34.
What was the system of income in early fifth century in Rome?
Answer:
Many of the Roman households received an income of four thousand pounds of gold per year from their
properties.
Question 35.
Who was Olympiodorus?
Answer:
Olympiodorus was a writer, an historian and an ambassador in the early fifth century.
Question 36.
What did Emperor Anastasius build in the late-fifth-century?
Answer:
The Emperor Anastasius built the eastern frontier city of Dara in less than three weeks by attracting labor from all over the East by offering high wages in the late-fifth- century.
Question 37.
What was Papyrus?
Answer:
The ‘Papyrus’ was a reed-like plant that grew along the bank of the river Nile in Egypt and was processed to
produce a writing material that is paper.
Question 38.
What were the textual sources used for?
Answer:
Textual sources include histories of the period written by contemporaries. These were usually called ‘Annals.
Question 39.
Tell the name of two phases of the Roman Empire.
Answer:
The Roman Empire can broadly be divided into two phases, i.e. Early Empire and Late Empire.
Question 40.
What were the dynasties that ruled Iran in the third century?
Answer:
The Parthians and later the Sasanians ruled Iran in the third century.
Question 41.
What does the ‘civil war’ refer to?
Answer:
Civil war refers to armed struggles for power within the same country.
Question 42.
What was ‘Denarius’?
Answer:
The Denarius was a Roman silver coin containing about 4 y gm of pure silver.
Question 43.
How had Emperor Gallienus ruled?
Answer:
The Emperor Gallienus (253-68) consolidated their rise to power by excluding senators from military command and reorganized the army.
Question 44.
Which territory was covered by the Roman Empire?
Answer:
The Roman Empire covered most of Europe and a large part of the fertile crescent and North Africa.
Question 45.
What do documentary sources include?
Answer:
Documentary sources include mainly inscriptions and papyrus.
Question 46.
Which area had been controlled by Iran?
Answer:
Iran controlled the whole area including south of the Caspian Sea down to eastern Arabia and sometimes large parts of Afghanistan also.
Question 47.
What was the role of army in Roman empire?
Answer:
The army was the largest single organized body of around 60,000 forces by the fourth century and it certainly had the power to determine the fate of emperors in Roman empire.
Question 48.
What is the history of Byzantium?
Answer:
Byzantium was the creation of a second capital at Constantinople. It is at the site of modern Istanbul in Turkey which is surrounded on three sides by the sea.
Question 49.
Write about literacy rate in the Roman Empire.
Answer:
It is certain that rate of literacy was casual and varied greatly between different parts of the empire. Literacy
was widespread among certain categories such as soldiers, army officers and estate managers.
Question 50.
What do you mean by ‘Principate’?
Answer:
The regime established by Augustus, the first Emperor, in 27 BCE was called the ‘Principate’.
Question 51.
What was the fiction kept alive about Augustus?
Answer:
Augustus was the sole ruler and the only real source of authority. The fiction was that he was only the ‘leading citizen’ not the absolute ruler.
Class 11 History Chapter 3 Short Answer Type Questions
Question 1.
How did corruption come in administrative system in the late Roman bureaucracy?
Answer:
In the late Roman bureaucracy, the higher and middle echelons, was a comparatively affluent group because it drew the bulk of its salary in gold and invested much of it in buying up assets like land. There was, of course, a great deal of corruption especially in the judicial system and in the administration of military supplies.
Question 2.
How slaves were treated after murder of Lucius Pedanius by his slave Secundus? What was the reaction of crowd at that time?
Answer:
After the murder of Lucius Pedanius by his slave Secundus, ancient custom required that every slave residing under the same roof must be executed. But the crowd gathered to save the innocent lives and riots began. The Senate house was overwhelmed. Inside, there was feeling against excessive severity, but the majority opposed any change. However, a huge crowd was ready with stones and torches but prevented the order from being carried out.
Question 3.
What does ‘Post – Roman’ mean in the 540’s?
Answer:
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 540’s. In the West, by contrast, the empire fragmented politically as Germanic groups from the North took over all the major provinces and established kingdoms that are best described as ‘Post-Roman’.
Question 4.
Who was Columella?
Answer:
Columella, a first-century writer who came from the south of Spain, recommended that landowners should keep a reserve stock of implements and tools, twice as many as they needed to improve the better situation of laborers.
Question 5.
What had occurred after Prophet Muhammad’s death by 642?
Answer:
By 642, barely ten years after Prophet Muhammad’s death, large parts of both the Eastern Roman and Sasanian empires had fallen to the Arabs in a series of confrontations. Though, those conquests, which eventually a century later extended up to Spain, Sind and Central Asia, began in fact with the subjection of the Arab tribes by the emerging Islamic state, first within Arabia and then in the Syrian desert on the fringes of Iraq.
Question 6.
What is Frankincense?
Answer:
Frankincense is the European name for an aromatic resin used in incense and perfumes. It is tapped from Boswellia trees by slashing the bark and allowing the exuded resins to harden. The best quality of it came from the Arabian peninsula.
Question 7.
Define the territorial position of the Roman empire.
Answer:
The continents of Europe and Africa are separated by a sea, called the Mediterranean that stretches all the way from Spain in the west to Syria in the east and it was the heart of Rome’s empire. To the north, the boundaries of the empire were formed by two great rivers, the Rhine and the Danube and to the south, by the huge expanse of desert called the Sahara. This vast stretch of territory was the Roman empire.
Question 8.
What does the term ‘Republic’ refer to in the history of the Roman empire?
Answer:
The Republic was the name for a regime in which the power lay with the Senate, a body dominated by a small group of wealthy families who formed the ‘nobility’. The Republic represented the government of the nobility, exercised through the body called the Senate. The Republic lasted from 509 BCE to 27 BCE, when it was overthrown by Octavian, the adopted son and heir of Julius Caesar.
Question 9.
How army was the important key institution of imperial rule in the Roman empire?
Answer:
The Roman had a paid professional army where soldiers had to put in a minimum of 25 years of service. The existence of paid army was a distinctive feature of the Roman empire. It was an organized body in the empire by the fourth century and had the power to determine the fate of emperors. The soldiers would trouble for better wages and service conditions. These agitations often took the form of revolt.
Question 10.
What was the policy of taxation in the Roman empire?
Answer:
The great urban centers of the Mediterranean were the base of the grand system of the Roman empire. It was through the cities that ‘government’ was able to tax the regional countrysides which generated much of the wealth of the empire. The local upper classes actively collaborated with the Roman state in administering their own territories and raising taxes from them.
Question 11.
How had the Roman survived their lives during famine?
Answer:
The famine for many successive years in many provinces had clearly displayed for men of any understanding the effect of malnutrition in generating illness. So the city- dwellers, collected and stored enough grain for the next year immediately after the harvest, carried off all the wheat, barley, beans and lentils, and left to the peasants various kinds of pulses-after taking quite a large proportion of these to the city. After consuming what was left in the course of the winter, the country people had to resort to unhealthy foods in the spring. They ate twigs, shoots of trees and bushes and roots of inedible plants.
Question 12.
What was the typical form of marriage in the third century of Rome?
Answer:
Males married in their late twenties or early thirties; while women were married in the late teens or early twenties. There was an age gap between husband and wife. As a result, there was inequality. Marriages were generally arranged, and there is no doubt that women were often subject to domination by their husbands. Divorce was relatively easy and needed no more than a notice of intent to dissolve the marriage by either husband or wife.
Question 13.
How was the economic condition in the early Roman empire?
Answer:
The empire had a substantial economic infrastructure of harbors, 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, Italy where conditions were suitable for these crops. Liquids like wine and olive oil were transported.
Question 14.
How had the Roman empire been considered the wealthiest empire in case of fertility of land?
Answer:
The Roman empire included many regions that had a reputation of exceptional fertility. Campania in Italy, Sicily, the Fayum in Egypt, Galilee, Byzacium (Tunisia), Southern Gaul (called Gallia Narbonensis) were among the most densely settled or wealthiest parts of the empire, like Strabo and Pliny. The best kinds of wine came from Campania. Sicily and Byzacium exported large quantities of wheat to Rome. Galilee was densely cultivated, and Spanish olive oil came mainly from numerous estates {fundi) along the banks of the river Guadalquivir in the south of Spain.
Question 15.
How was labor treated in the Roman empire under Augustus reign?
Answer:
During the reign of Augustus, there were still 3 million slaves in a total Italian population of 7.5 million. Slaves were an investment, and landowners used them in perspective where too many might be required or where their health could be damaged. These considerations were not based on any sympathy for the slaves but on hard economic calculation. On the other hand, if the Roman upper classes were often brutal towards their slaves, ordinary people did sometimes show much more compassion.
Question 16.
What do you mean by authoritarian regime?
Answer:
The Roman state was an authoritarian regime. Government frequently 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 of 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.
Question 17.
How had the cultural transformation occurred in the Roman world in its final centuries? HOTS
Answer:
At the cultural level, developments in religious life came with the Emperor Constantine. He decided to make Christianity the official religion with the rise of Islam in the seventh century. But there were equally important changes in the structure of the state that began with the Emperor Diocletian (284-305), and it may be best to start with these. Over expansion had led Diocletian to ‘cut back’ by abandoning territories with little strategic or economic value.
Question 18.
What do you mean by Polytheist?
Answer:
Polytheist was the traditional religious culture of the classical world for both Greek and Roman. It involved a multiplicity of cults that included both Roman and Italian gods like Jupiter, Juno, Minerva and Mars, as well as numerous Greek and eastern deities worshiped in £he thousands of temples, shrines and sanctuaries throughout the empire. Polytheists had no common name or label to describe them.
Question 19.
Define the term the ‘Late Roman bureaucracy’.
Answer:
The ‘Late Roman bureaucracy’ for both the higher and the 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 of landed property. There was, of course, 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 common.
Question 20.
How was the ruling system of the Roman empire in spite of many regions and languages spoken?
Answer:
The Roman empire had numerous territories and a variety of cultures that were chiefly bound together by a common system of government. Many languages were spoken in the empire. All those who lived in the empire were subjects of a single ruler, the emperor, regardless of where they lived and what language they spoke.
Question 21.
Why had Latin and Greek languages been used in administration?
Answer:
Many languages were spoken in the empire. But for the purpose of administration Latin and Greek were the most widely used languages. The upper classes of the east spoke and wrote in Greek, those of the west in Latin, and the boundary between these broad language areas ran somewhere across the middle of the Mediterranean, between the African provinces of Tripolitania (which was Latin speaking) and Cyrenaica (Greek speaking).
Question 22.
Who were considered the worst emperors of Rome?
Answer:
The worst emperors were those who were hostile to the senatorial class, behaving with suspicion, or brutality and violence. Many senators desired to go back to the days of the Republic, but most of them realized that this resulted into revolts, if the soldiers felt let down by their generals or even the emperor.
Question 23.
What were the main urban centers of the Mediterranean in the Roman empire to collect revenue for government?
Answer:
The great urban centers that linked the shores of the Mediterranean (Carthage, Alexandria, Antioch, the biggest among them) were the true foundation of the imperial system in the Roman empire. It was through the cities that government was able to tax the provincial countryside which generated much of the wealth of the empire.
Question 24.
What was the impact on the Roman empire when it shifted its power between Italy and the provinces?
Answer:
When Roman empire had shifted its power between Italy and the provinces 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 army and formed new groups of administrators and military commanders who became more powerful than the senatorial class because they had the backing of the emperors.
Question 25.
How had the structure of villages and cities been prepared in the Roman empire?
Answer:
Villages were in the territory of city. Villages could be upgraded to the status of cities. The city lives was more beneficial than villages for better facilities during food shortages and even famines than the countryside.
Question 26.
Who were barbarians?
Answer:
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 was an obvious symptom of the strains faced by the empire in this period.
Question 27.
Discuss some revolts that had taken place from 233’s, simultaneously after the decline of the Roman empire.
Answer:
The Iranian ruler claimed that he had annihilated a Roman army of 60,000 and even captured the eastern capital of Antioch. 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.
Question 28.
How had the people of Rome stabled their prosperity?
Answer:
The prosperity of individual regions rose and fell depending on how effectively they could organize the production and transport of particular goods, and on the quality of those goods.
Question 29.
What had been the strategy of Spanish to capture market for olive oil?
Answer:
Spanish olive oil was a vast commercial enterprise that reached at its peak in the years between 140-160. The Spanish olive oil of this period was mainly carried in a container called ‘Dressel 20’. Dressel 20 was widely scattered across sites in the Mediterranean. It was circulated widely as they supplied better quality of oil at lower prices. Spanish producers succeeded in capturing markets for olive oil from their Italian counterparts.
Question 30.
The emperor of the state XYZ ordered to stop the practice of slavery and warned the people to strictly follow the orders to make his state an ideal model for others. What values does he exhibit?
Answer:
The emperor of the state shows social and moral values. He understood that freedom is the fundamental right of every human being. He also set an example for the other emperors by facilitating slaves. He was a kind ruler who thought for the people, they had same feelings and rights in common society. He had courage to fight with others for his subject to provide equal rights.
Question 31.
If women got settled their marriages according to their wish, what values do they show?
Answer:
Woman had right to find her life partner according to her wishes and this step would never ever harm the society. However, it shows the independence of women and they can form a better society, can contribute to make a good future of their family and society if they select their groom according to their choice.
Question 32.
Why do you think that the condition of slaves in Roman empire was better than daily wages laborer? Justify accordingly.
Answer:
The condition of slaves in Roman empire was not better than daily wages laborer because the slaves had worked as per the instructions of their masters, so that they might easily survive the day to day requirements of their family. But after the war when peace was established in empire they were easily available at cheaper rates. Their exploitation was increasing at that time by the higher class of society. Some amendments had been done by emperors and reformers to improve.
Question 33.
Great traders would not have paid the fair price to poor peasants. What kind of values do traders show for the society?
Answer:
Most of the traders thought about themselves. So they purchased grains at lower level from the farmers and sold them at high level store till the hike of rates in the market. But they were not interested in sharing their profit with their actual masters who produced it. This kind of values among the people shows that they were greedy persons and were interested in taking advantage only for themselves not for the society.
Question 34.
If you were the Roman emperor, how would have you managed famine that occurred in your ruling territory in ancient time?
Answer:
If I were the Roman emperor, I would have raised the level of production of edible foods and made arrangement to keep additional production for maintaining famine situation.
Question 35.
Precious metals increase greed and inflation. What values do government show to stop it from the society?
Answer:
Had precious metals been in the market, it would have increased the greed of the people to accumulate and preserve for personal purposes. This causes inflation in the market and will create hazardous situation for the poor and middle class families. Government shows its moral and social values and has to come forward to convince the people that, metals are only the things of uses. They satisfy needs of the people. Rather than keeping and preserving it, let it be in the market as currency for maintaining economy of nation so that ordinary people may not suffer.
Class 11 History Chapter 3 Long Answer Type Questions
Question 1.
What do you think about the importance of Latin and Greek languages in the Roman empire?
Answer:
“Greek East” and “Latin West” are the terms that are used to distinguish between the two parts of the Greco-Roman world, especially the eastern regions where Greek was the lingua franca, and the western parts where Latin filled this role. During the Roman empire a division had persisted between Latin and Greek speaking areas. This division was encouraged by administrative changes in the empire’s structure between the third and fifth centuries, which led ultimately to the establishment of separate Eastern and Western Roman empires.
Latin and Greek were the dominant languages of the Roman empire. The language of the ancient Romans was Latin, which served as the “language of power”. Latin was omnipresent in the Roman empire as the language of the law courts in the West, and of the military everywhere. A great number of Roman citizens would have lacked Latin, though they were expected to acquire at least token knowledge, and Latin remained a marker of “Romanness”.
Greek had become a shared language around the Eastern Mediterranean and into Asia Minor as a consequence of the conquests of Alexander the Great. The “linguistic frontier” dividing the Latin West and the Greek East passed through the Balkan peninsula. Educated Romans, particularly those of the ruling elite, studied and often achieved a high degree of fluency in Greek, which was useful for diplomatic communications in the East even beyond the borders of the empire. The use of Greek at international level was one condition that enabled the spread of Christianity, as indicated for example by the choice of Greek. With the dissolution of the empire in the West, Greek became the dominant language of the Eastern Roman empire.
Question 2.
What do you know about Augustus? Explain.
Answer:
Augustus was the founder of the Roman empire and its first Emperor, ruling from 27 BCE until his death in 14 CE. He was born Gaius Octavius into an old and wealthy equestrian branch of the Plebeian Octavii family. In 44 BCE he was adopted posthumously by his maternal great-uncle Gaius Julius Caesar following Caesar’s assassination. Together with Mark Antony and Marcus Lepidus, he formed the Second Triumvirate to defeat the assassins of Caesar. Following their victory at Phillipi, the Triumvirate divided the Roman Republic among them and ruled as military dictator.
Lepidus was kept into exile and stripped of his position and Antony committed suicide following his defeat at the Battle of Actium by Augustus in 31 BC.
After the demise of the Second Triumvirate, Augustus restored the outward facade of the free Republic, with governmental power vested in the Roman Senate, the executive magistrates, and the legislative assemblies. In reality, however, he retained his autocratic power over the Republic as a military dictator. By law, Augustus held a collection of powers granted to him for life by the Senate, including supreme military command, and those of tribune and censor. It took several years for Augustus to develop the framework within which a formally republican state could be led under his rule. He rejected monarchial titles, and instead called himself Princeps Civitatis (“First Citizen”). The resulting constitutional framework became known as the Principate, the first phase of the Roman Empire.
Question 3.
How was the reign of Augustus by 27 BC? Discuss.
Answer:
The reign of Augustus initiated an era of relative peace known as the Pax Romana (The Roman Peace). Despite continuous wars or imperial expansion on the empire’s frontiers and one year-long civil war over the imperial succession, the Roman world was largely free from large-scale conflict for more than two centuries. Augustus dramatically enlarged the empire, annexing Egypt, Dalmatia, Pannonia, Noricum, and Raetia, expanded possessions in Africa and Germania, and completed the conquest of Hispania.
Beyond the frontiers, he secured the empire with a buffer region of client states, and made peace with the Parthian empire through diplomacy. He reformed the Roman system of taxation, developed networks of roads with an official courier system, established a standing army, and also the Praetorian Guard, created official police and fire-fighting services for Rome, and rebuilt much of the city during his reign.
Augustus died in 14 AD at the age of 75. He might have died from natural causes. He was succeeded as emperor by his adopted son (also steps on and former son-in-law), Tiberius.
Question 4.
Explain the system of administration governed by politicians of senatorial rank in Rome.
Answer:
In ancient Rome, provinces were generally governed by politicians of senatorial rank, usually former consuls. A later exception was the province of Egypt, incorporated by Augustus. After the death of Cleopatra it was ruled by a governor of equestrian rank only, perhaps as a discouragement to senatorial ambition as Egypt was considered Augustus’s personal property, following the tradition of earlier, hellenistic kings.
The territory of people who were defeated in war might be brought under various forms of treaty, in some cases entailing complete subjection. The formal annexation of a territory created a “province” in the modern sense of an administrative unit that was geographically defined. Republican provinces were administered in one-year term by the consuls and praetors who had held office the previous year.
Rome started expanding beyond Italy during the First Punic War. The first permanent provinces to be annexed were Sicily in 241 BC and Sardinia in 237 BC. Military expansionism kept increasing the number of these administrative provinces, until there were no longer enough qualified individuals to fill the posts.
The terms of provincial governors often had to be extended for multiple years, and on occasion the Senate awarded imperium even to private citizens, most notably Pompey The Great. Prorogation undermined the republican constitutional principle of annual elected magistracies, and the amassing of disproportionate wealth and military power by a few men through their provincial commands was a major factor in the transition from a republic to imperial autocracy.
Question 5.
What was the policy of education in the Roman empire?
Answer:
Education in the Roman empire contributed to the social mobility that characterized the earlier period of Imperial history known as the Principate.
Education was available only for those who could pay for it, since there was no state- supported system of schools with public funding.
A higher rate of literacy is indicated among military personnel than among the general population. Educated women were not unusual, and there was an expectation that upper-class girls would at least attend primary school, probably in the same classes as boys. Only an elite few, regardless of gender, went on to receive secondary education.
Modest number of slaves were educated and they played a key role in promoting education and the culture of literacy. Teachers, scribes, and secretaries were likely to be slaves. The education of slaves was not discouraged, and slave-children might attend classes with the children of their masters. Book stores were already well-established in Rome by the beginning of the Imperial period, and are found also in urban centers of the provinces.
Books were expensive, but by the later period, popular genres of literature indicated reading for pleasure among non-elites. Emperor sponsored libraries that were to some extent public, and a wealthy individual might donate a library for a community, or accumulate impressive private collections to which in-house scholars might be attached. Literacy is thought to have declined in late antiquity during the transition away from the classical institutions and practices that supported it.
Question 6.
How was the infrastructure during the Roman empire?
Answer:
The infrastructure system in ancient Rome was complex. A system of thirteen Roman aqueducts provided the inhabitants of Rome with water of varying quality, the best being reserved for potable supplies. Water was used in public baths and in latrines. Inferior types of latrine systems have been found in many places, such as house steads, a Roman fort on Hadrian’s Wall in Pompeii, Herculaneum, and elsewhere that flushed waste away with a stream of water. Romans used sea sponges on a stick and dipped in vinegar after defecation.
The Romans had a complex system of sewers covered by stones. They recycled public bath waste water by using it as part of the flow that flushed the latrines. Terracotta piping was used in the plumbing that carried waste water from homes. The Romans were the first to seal pipes in concrete to resist the high water pressures developed in siphons and elsewhere. Beginning around 5th century BC, city officials called aediles supervised the sanitary systems. They were responsible for the efficiency of the drainage and sewage systems, the cleansing and paving of the streets, prevention of foul smells, and general oversight of brothels, taverns, baths, and other water supplies. Roman rubbish was often left to collect in alleys between buildings in the poor districts of the city. It sometimes became so thick that stepping stones were needed.
The empire of Rome, especially the city itself, had a huge demand for water. The average Roman consumed over 200 gallons of water per day. Wealthy households had water supplied to their settlements unlike many poor who could not afford this. Even these people enjoyed the luxuries of Rome’s public baths, fountains, and public toilets equipped with sinks.
River Tiber was the city’s main water source before any aqueducts were constructed. As the population of Rome increased, however, the Romans taste for water became too much for the river to supply.
The paved roads were all constructed so they would require minimal amount of repair and provide a very smooth surface for travelling.
Question 7.
How was economic scenario of the Roman empire?
Answer:
The Roman economy was underdeveloped and underachieved, as subsistence agriculture, urban centers that consumed more than they produced in terms of trade and industry, low status artisans, slowly developing technology, and lack of economic rationality.
Some cities were known for particular industries or commercial activities, and the scale of building in urban areas indicates a significant construction industry. Papyri preserve complex accounting methods that suggest elements of economic rationalism and the Empire was highly monetized. Although the means of communication and transport were limited in antiquity, transportation in the 1st and 2nd centuries expanded greatly, and trade routes connected regional economies.
Economic dynamism opened up one of the avenues of social mobility in the Roman empire. Social advancement was thus not dependent solely on birth, patronage, good luck, or even extraordinary ability. Although aristocratic values permeated traditional elite society, a strong tendency toward plutocracy is indicated by the wealth requirements for census rank. Prestige could be obtained through investing one’s wealth in ways that advertised it appropriately: grand country estates or town houses, durable luxury items such as jewels and silver ware, public entertainments, funerary monuments for family members or co-workers, and religious dedication such as altars. Guilds and corporations provided support for individuals to succeed through networking, sharing sound business practices, and willingness to work.
Class 11 History Chapter 3 Passage Based Questions
Read the following passages and answer the questions that follow:
Passage 1.
A major difference between the two superpowers and their respective empires was that the Roman Empire was culturally much more diverse than that of Iran. The Parthians and later the Sasanians, the dynasties that ruled Iran in this period, ruled over a population that was largely Iranian. The Roman Empire, by contrast, was a mosaic of territories and cultures that were chiefly bound together by a common system of government. Many languages were spoken in the empire, but for the purposes of administration Latin and Greek were the most widely used, indeed the only languages.
The upper classes of the east spoke and wrote in Greek, those of the west in Latin, and the boundary between these broad language areas ran somewhere across the middle of the Mediterranean, between the African provinces of Tripolitania (which was Latin speaking) and Cyrenaica (Greek-speaking). All those who lived in the empire were subjects of a single ruler, the emperor, regardless of where they lived and what language they spoke.
Questions:
(i) How would you differentiate the Roman Empire from Iran?
(ii) Name two dynasties who ruled over Iran during this period.
(iii) Which empire was bound together by a common system of government and why?
Answers:
(i) The Roman Empire was entirely different from Iran on the ground of cultural activities.
(ii) These dynasties were the Parthians and the Sasanians.
(iii) Roman Empire was bound together by a common system of government as compared to Iranian Empire. In Roman Empire common people subjected to one ruler.
passage 2.
Doctor Galen on how Roman Cities Treated the Countryside:
The famine prevalent for many successive years in many provinces has clearly displayed for men of any understanding the effect of malnutrition in generating illness. The city-dwellers, as it was their custom to collect and store enough grain for the whole of the next year immediately after the harvest, carried off all the wheat, barley, beans and lentils, and left to the peasants various kinds of pulse- after taking quite a large proportion of these to the city. After consuming what was left in the course of the winter, the country people had to resort to unhealthy foods in the spring; they ate twigs and shoots of trees and bushes and bulbs and roots of inedible plants
Questions:
(i) What did the city dwellers do?
(ii) What does the given passage depict?
(iii) How was ancient Roman society divided?
Answers:
(i) The city dwellers collected and stored sufficient grain for the whole of the next year.
(ii) It depicts the ill effects of famine which resulted into shortage of food.
(iii) Ancient Roman society was divided into three classes. These were:
- The Patrician
- The Plebeian
- The Slaves
Passage 3.
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. 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.
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 of 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. 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
Questions:
(i) What was the main reason of corruption in administration of the Roman Empire?
(ii) What was the role of the Roman government in handling corruption that was widespread among the higher bureaucracy and provincial governors?
(iii) What do you know about law system of the Roman Empire?
Answers:
(i) The extortion of the higher bureaucracy and the greed of the provincial governors were the main reasons of corruption.
(ii) The government intervened repeatedly to control corruption. The Roman state was an authoritarian regime, dissent was rarely tolerated and government usually responded to protest with violence.
(iii) Roman law had emerged by the fourth century, and this acted as a brake on even the most fearsome emperors. They were not free to do, whatever they liked, and the law was actively used to protect civil rights. 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.
Passage 4.
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 Christianization 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.
Questions:
(r) What do you mean by Judaism?
(ii) What did the Christian bishops do?
(iii) Enlist the names of Roman gods who were worshipped in temples and shrines throughout the empire.
Answers:
(i) Judaism was a religious tradition in the Roman Empire.
(ii) The Christian bishops waged a running battle against beliefs and practices. The powerful bishops led the Church to rein in their followers and enforced a more rigid set of beliefs and practices.
(iii) Jupiter, Juno, Minerva and Mars were the Roman gods worshiped in thousands of temples, shrines and sanctuaries throughout the empire.
Passage 5.
‘Late antiquity’ is the term now used to describe the final, fascinating period in the evolution and break up of the Roman Empire and refers broadly to the fourth to seventh centuries. The fourth century itself was one of considerable ferment, both cultural and economic. At the cultural level, the period saw momentous developments in religious life, with the emperor Constantine deciding to make Christianity the official religion, and with the rise of Islam in the seventh century. But there were equally important changes in the structure of the state that began with the emperor Diocletian (284-305), and it may be best to start with these.
Over expansion had led Diocletian to ‘cut back’ by abandoning territories with little strategic or economic value. Diocletian also fortified the frontiers, reorganized provincial boundaries, and separated civilian from military functions, granting greater autonomy to the military commanders (duces), who now became a more powerful group. Constantine consolidated some of these changes and added others of his own. His chief innovations were in the monetary sphere, where he introduced a new denomination, the solidus, a coin of 4(4 gm of pure gold that would in fact outlast the Roman Empire itself. Solidi were minted on a very large scale and their circulation ran into millions.
Questions:
(i) What was the span of Diocletian regime?
(ii) What innovations had been done by Constantine?
(iii) What does ‘Late antiquity’ mean?
Answers:
(i) The span of Diocletian regime was 284-305.
(ii) Constantine did his main innovations in the monetary sphere, where he introduced a new denomination, the solidus, a coin of 4y gm of pure gold that would in fact outlast the Roman Empire itself. Solidi were minted on a very large scale and their circulation was quite huge.
(iii) ‘Late antiquity’ refers to describe the fascinating period in the evolution and breaking up of the Roman Empire.
Class 11 History Chapter 3 Map Skills
Question 1.
On the given map mark the stretch of the two continents Europe and North Africa how they are divided by Mediterranean sea.
(i) Rome
(ii) Naples
(iii) Tyrrhenian Sea
(iv) Sicily
(v) Gaul
(vi) Aegean Sea
(vii) Mediterranean Sea
(viii) Numidia
(ix) Rive Rhine
(ix) Campania
Answer:
2. On the given map of West Asia, mark and locate the following cities:
(i) Mecca
ii) Medina
(iii) Damascus
(iv) Antioch
(v) Edessa
(vi) Armenia
(vii) Bukhara
(viii) Samarqand
Answer:
