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Visual History of the World
(CONTENTS)
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The Ancient World
ca. 2500 B.C. - 900 A.D.
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The epics of Homer, the wars
of Caesar, and temples and palaces characterize the image of classic
antiquity and the cultures of ancient Greece and the Roman Empire.
They are the sources from which the Western world draws the
foundations of its philosophy, literature, and, not least of all,
its state organization. The Greek city-states, above all Athens,
were the birthplace of democracy. The regions surrounding the
Mediterranean Sea and great parts of Northwest Europe were forged
together into the Roman Empire, which survived until the time of the
Great Migration of Peoples. Mighty empires also existed beyond the
ancient Mediterranean world, however, such as those of the Mauryas
in India and the Han in China.
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Alexander the Great
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The Rule of the Generals and Imperial Rome
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74 B.C.-192 A.D.
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The civil war destroyed the structure of the Roman republic. The seizure
of power by the generals Pompey, Caesar, and Antonius prepared the way
for the transition to autocratic imperial rule finally accomplished by
Augustus. The era of imperial Rome had begun. After the dynasty of
Augustus, other dynasties ruled including that of Julius Caesar and
Octavian, with the emperors increasingly coming from the provinces of
the empire rather than from thecity of Rome itself. Diocletian's
tetrarchy restored a strong system of government to the late Roman
Empire.
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Pompey, Caesar, and Crassus
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Julio-Claudian family tree
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The alliance of the generals Pompey and Caesar with Crassus, the
richest man in Rome, ended the Republic. In the ensuing power struggle
between Caesar and Pompey, it was Caesar who ultimately triumphed.
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After Sulla retired as dictator in 79 B.C., two of his followers
tried to seize power.
3 Gnaeus Pompcius Magnus (Pompey the Great), as a general
under Sulla, had liberated Italy's coasts from pirates.

3 Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus
Now his political ambition awoke and in 70 B.C. he shared the consulship
with Marcus Licinius Crassus, the wealthiest man in Rome. Together they
repealed the major part of Sulla's constitution and reestablished the
tribunate, which made them very popular in Rome. After Pompey brought
eastern Europe up to Asia Minor under Roman control, everyone expected
him to claim the dictatorship, but the opposition of the Senate caused
him to delay. Instead, Pompey and Crassus sought an ally from within
Marius's powerful party of the people.
This ally was the general 1,
7 Gaius Julius Caesar.

1 Gaius Julius Caesar
He was Marius's nephew and was married to Cinna's daughter. In order to
get the plebeians on his side, Caesar forced the Senate to pass land
reforms and purchase state lands for settlers and war veterans. As the
First Triumvirate, Pompey, Crassus, and Caesar shared power in 60-59
B.C. and effectively repealed the republican constitution.
They also divided the provinces among themselves: Pompey took Spain,
Crassus took Syria, and Caesar took Illyria and
2 Gaul.
When Crassus fell against the Parthians in 53 â.ñ, Pompey (the only
consul for 52 B.C.) and Caesar faced each other in a bid for sole power.
Both depended on their loyal armies and financial strength.

Gaius Julius Caesar
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7 Gaius Julius Caesar

Caesar was the first to print his own bust on
a Roman minted coin.
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2 Armor and weapons of Caesar's
army in the Gallic War, 58-51 B.C.
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Armor and weapons of Caesar's army
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When Pompey's followers attempted to keep Caesar away from Rome so he
couldn't campaign for the consulship in 49, Caesar marched out of Gaul
with his troops and crossed the 5
Rubicon River to Rome.
Civil war broke out once more, and Pompey was soon forced to flee.
Caesar occupied Spain and won the decisive battle at Pharsalus
(Thessaly) against Pompey.
Pompey fled to Egypt, where he was 4
assassinated when he arrived on orders of the Egyptian King Ptolemy.
Caesar then 6 entered Rome in 47
B.C. as its undisputed ruler, popular and pardoning most of his rivals.
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Map
of Italy with Rubicon river
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Caesar crossing the Rubicon River

5 Caesar crossing the Rubicon River, 49
B.C.
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4 Murder of Pompey
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6 Caesar's triumphal procession
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Modern bronze statue of Julius Caesar, Rimini, Italy
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Vercingetorix surrenders to Caesar , by Lionel Royer.
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The Rule of Caesar to the Victory of Augustus
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Caesar's dictatorship was ended by his assassination. In alliance,
Antony and Octavian, Caesar's grand-nephew and heir, forcibly assumed
power. Octavian eventually became sole ruler.
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9 Julius Caesar, supported by his
clients and soldiers, solidified his power and defeated the last
supporters of Pompey and the Republic in Africa, Spain, and at sea in
46—45 B.C.

9 Coin from Caesai:
"I came, saw and triumphed"
He then carried out wide-ranging social and legal reforms in the empire.
Caesar rejected monarchical titles, but in 44 became dictator for life.
However, some senators who still held republican ideals
13 stabbed Caesar to death while he was
on his way to the Senate on March 15 (the "ides" of March), 44 B.C.

13 Murder of Julius Caesar on March 15,44 A.D.,
painting, 1815
10 Marcus Antonius (Mark Antony),
one of Caesar's generals, called for the banishment of the murderers,
who fled from Rome.
Then the 19-year-old grand-nephew of Caesar, 11
Octavian, made his claim for the inheritance, and signs of a power
struggle appeared.
As Brutus and Cassius, two of Caesar's assassins, had won the entire
east of the empire over to their cause, Octavian and Mark Antony entered
into an alliance of convenience. Together with the consul Marcus
Aemilius Lepidus, they formed the Second Triumvirate, which lasted from
43 to 33 B.C. In 42 they defeated the republicans at Philippi and then
divided the provinces among themselves, Antony receiving the East (and,
at first, Gaul), Octavian Italy and the West (eventually in-eluding
Gaul), and Lepidus North Africa.
Antony's clashes with the Parthians gave Octavian the opportunity to
build up his power in Rome. In 33 B.C., he was elected to the
consulship, along with one of his followers. In the meantime, Antony had
begun an affair with the Ptolemaic queen of Egypt, Cleopatra, to whose
charms Caesar had also succumbed. This gave Octavian the excuse to fight
Antony, who was married to Octavian's sister. He convinced the Senate
that Antony was planning to separate the East from the rest of the Roman
Empire. Even Lepidus, who was later compensated with the office of the
highest priest (pontifex maximus), joined Octavian's side.
Using Caesar's money, Octavian armed an enormous fleet under the command
of his friend 12 Agrippa, who
destroyed the fleets of Antony and Cleopatra in 31 B.C. at
8 Actium.
The next year, Octavian occupied Egypt. With this he unified, for the
first time, the empire under one man.
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10 Marcus Antonius
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11 Bust of Octavian ca. 40-50 A.D.
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12 Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa
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Cleopatra VII,
painting by Mose
Bianche's 1865
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Cleopatra VII
Cleopatra VII, the last Greek ruler of Egypt from 51 B.C. and
blessed with legendary beauty, successfully opposed her
co-regent and brother Ptolemy XIII with the help of Rome and her
lover Julius Caesar.
After a stay in Rome, she removed Ptolemy XIII and elevated her son by
Caesar to co-regent as Ptolemy XV (Cesarion) in 44 B.C. In 41,
she became the lover of Mark Antony, who then moved to
Alexandria.
Both of them took their lives when Octavian entered Alexandria
in 30 B.C., she using the poison of a snake.
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8 Antony and
Cleopatra after the
battle at Actium
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In this Baroque vison, Battle of Actium by Lorenzo A. Castro (1672),
Cleopatra flees, lower left, in a barge with a figurehead of Fortuna.
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The Death of Caesar, by Jean-Leon Geérome (1867).
On March 1544 BC, Octavius's adoptive father Julius Caesar was
assassinated
by a conspiracy led by Marcus Junius Brutus and Gaius Cassius Longinus
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Death of Caesar, by Vincenzo Camuccini
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The Suicide of Brutus
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David, The Lictors Bringing Back to Brutus the Bodies of His Sons, 1789
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