The Cultural Legacy of Rome

209 BCE Beginning of Roman Conquest of Iberia (or Hispania) as the Romans called it.

178 BCE The native Iberians are defeated by the Romans and Iberia becomes an important center of the Roman Empire.

133 BCE: The inhabitants of Numantia prefer to die rather than surrender to the Roman general Scipio Aemilianus.

27 BCE: The Romans pacify the Peninsula and divide it into three provinces: Tarraconense, Baetica and Lusitania. Their presence lasts for seven centuries.

19 BCE: The Roman emperor Augustus (r. 27 BCE-14CE) completes the conquest of Spain.

98 CE: The rule of Trajan, the first Roman emperor of Spanish origin, begins. The emperors Hadrian (r. 117-38), and Marcus Aurelius (r. 161-80) also were born in Spain .

330 CE Constantine establishes the city of Constantinople, the first Christian city and for a time center of the early Church. Constantinople fell in 1453.

354 CE St. Augustine born in North Africa of a pagan father and Christian mother. In 387 CE he converts to Christianity.

380 CE Christianity is proclaimed the sole religion of the Roman Empire by Theodosius I.

395 CE Death of Theodosius. The empire is divided between his sons, Arcadius in the East, and Honorius in the West. This is the end of Imperial unity; the East, which is called Byzantium is now autonomous.

399 CE St. Augustine (d. 430) is elected Bishop of Hippo. His Confessions is the first autobiography in western history. His most famous work, The City of God unites the sacred history of the Jewish people, the pagan history of the Greeks and Romans, and the Christian expectation of future salvation. He quotes classical writers such as Plato, Cicero, Seneca and Aristotle, the Old and New Testaments, and the interpretations and commentaries of the Church Fathers.

407-09 CE The Alans, Vandals, and Suevi cross a frozen Rhine and run through Gaul and Spain. They settle in Spain in 409. See table for more details.

410 CE The Visigoths (a Germanic people believed to have come from what is now Sweden) and their German allies sack Rome.

476 CE Odovacer, the leader of the united German tribes, assumes the title of king of Rome. This date is commonly used to signal the end of the Western Roman Empire and after it there are no Roman Emperors occupying the West at all.

By the end of the 6th century THREE ELEMENTS basic to western civilization in the Middle Ages are in place:

Linguistic Relationships among Romance Languages
English	Latin	Portuguese	Spanish	French	Italian	Romanian
black	niger	negro	negro	noir	nero	negru
do	facere	fazer	hacer	faire	fare	face
green	viridis	verde	verde	vert	verde	verde
horse	caballus	cavalo	caballo	cheval	cavallo	cal
iron	ferrum	ferro	hierro	fer	ferro	fier
three	tres	três	tres	trois	tre	trei

III. Continuance of Classical Culture (select examples). Major roman contributions in government, law, engineering, rhetoric, and literature

Philosophy: Classical philosophy of Greece and Rome: Plato (427-348 BC), Aristotle ((384 - 322 BC), Seneca the Younger (ca. 4 BC in Cordoba, Spain-65 CE; Roman Stoic philosoher)

Religion: Formation of the Early Christian Church. The "Church Fathers" (Jerome, Ambrose and Augustine are major figures)

History: Plutarch (c. 46- 127 CE; Greek historian, biographer, and essayist), Livy (59 BCE-17 CE; wrote a monumental history of Rome)

Law: 'Justinian Code'. This code formed by the Emperor Justinian in the 6th century became the basis of all systems of law in the western world.

Rhetoric, Literature: Ovid (Greece), Lucan (39 CE, in Córdoba], Spain-65 CE; Roman poet), Cicero (106 BCE-43 BCE; orator, statesman, political theorist, lawyer and philosopher), Virgil (70-19 BC; the author of epics such as the Aeneid)

Muslim: followers of Islam (many different ethnic groups such as the Arabs and the Berbers)

Names referring to the Peninsula: Iberia (Greeks), Hispania (Romans), Al-Andalus (Arabs), Sepharad (Jews)