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Topic: History of Rome.

The Pompeii-Caesar civil war was the most violent of wars towards dictatorship in Rome. The wars lead to disruptions and uncertainty of leadership leading to the subordinate potentates did not know whom to follow as they did not know who will be victorious. Caesar returned from North Africa and during the years 47-46 BC he massacred and defeated the Pompeii rebels; Rome senate declared him the dictator for ten years. He triumphed over regions in North Africa and after that defeated another group of rebels lead by Pompeii’s son Sextus. Caesar changed several things including the calendar to Julian and allowed attack on street gangs. After Caesar’s death he wrote a will that his Grand nephew Octavian, who later changed his name to Julius Caesar, to take his position. Returning from military training, after hearing the death of Caesar, Octavian came back home only to find Mark Antony having depleted all of Caesar’s funds. A third party still wanted to be the heir of Caesar’s political position, M.Aemilius Lepidus. They all however agreed on a three man dictatorship form of government. The three divided power and each of them ruled different sections of Italy. Of the three Octavian had the strongest hold on the political position. Several emperors after the Octavian triumvirate followed who include Augustus Caesar who ruled for 33 years, followed by Tiberius who ruled for 23 years (Highet, 1949). After Tiberius there stood an evil and crazy ruler known as Caligula who ruled for four years followed by Claudius who ruled for 12 years and Nero another crazy dictator who ruled for 13 years. After Nero there followed five years of good ruling with peace.

The term renaissance hails from a French equivalent of the Italian word rinascita which means ’rebirth’. It describes the changes that took place in Europe and that lead to what one would consider as the initiation of modern world. The term renaissance describes the 14th and 15th century period where the rebirth of classical values and artistry took place especially in Italy. This new age was introduced by lawyers and notaries imitating the ancient Latin styles and learned Roman archaeology. Petrarch spent most of his time studying human culture and this caught the attention of many Roman popes, emperors and rulers. Plague destroyed much of the economy and around the mid 14th century the European economy went down; but around 15th century there was recovery, with the construction of palaces, decorative arts and long distance trade along the Mediterranean belt. During the later years renaissance was characterized by the development of the bureaucracy and governance in regions of justice and taxation. Italy grew in term of culture especially in Florence under the Medici; artistic achievement continued with Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo and Titian. Great as it was, renaissance had a dark side to the European regions; warfare was common and death by violence was common (Highet, 1949). Nicolo Machiavelli constructed the realistic science of human nature targeting Italian culture and the formation of a secure civil life. His work brought about great contributions towards renaissance and creation of the modern world. Renaissance science mainly involved medicine, physics and mathematics. Through experiments many discoveries were made both inside and outside universities. Artists started to test with perspective; Perspective was a way of saying that the world should be adapted not only to the eyes but to the proportions of the human body.

Filippo Brunelleschi was the foremost architecture in the Italian renaissance. He was a mathematician, engineer, and was also good at ship designing; but he is most famous for the innovation of perspective and for the engineering the construction of the cathedral dome in Florence. He was also a painter with a very bad temper and most of the rich families fought to see to it that he does not succeed in anything. But one family, the Medici family helped him out; they funded him and gave him a chance to express himself. One of his greatest works was the redesigning of the cathedral dome. There was great competition among man architects with many trying to build the dome but only Brunelleschi had the capability and the right knowledge to build the dome. As other families were against his work, Brunelleschi hurried with the construction; with the death of Medici he knew danger was not so far. He developed the mechanism of the crane which made the lifting of objects easier in the construction. His other works that were of great interest were; development of the hydraulic machinery and also helped to build fortified walls of Florence that served as barriers during wars. He is also credited to the discovering of the linear perspective that led to the revolution of painting during renaissance. The perspective phenomenon was used in building, for example the Piazza that faced the Dome. Some of the other discoveries Brunelleschi made was the hoist and the paddle wheelbarrow used still in the construction of his buildings (Fanelli, 1980).

Nicolo Machiavelli also known as the father of political theory was a philosopher, writer and poet who was born to a scholar in the year, 1496. He received rigorous training and entered Florentine government as a clerk. He wrote his first work in 1499 and progressively went on producing various writings; development of various themes such as use of the Romans as an example to address rebellion. Other writings include political analysis, portrait of the affairs of Germany and France between 1508 and 1512. After the Medici family came to power, for he suffered under the Florentine Republic, he tried to crawl back to the political arena and in the year 1512 he wrote ‘The Prince’ which was published after his death in 1527. But the book brought about controversy and was unable to get a position in politics. The Prince dictated that as a leader one ought to disregard the moral norms and focus on authority and power. The book emphasized on insurance and the preservation of power. He believed necessary cruelty was needed in order to maintain power. He also worked as translator and wrote a novel, several poems and three plays. During the renaissance some of his political topics were used in governance (King, 2007).

Leonardo da Vinci was considered the genius and archetypal Renaissance man. He was greatly talented mostly as an engineer, great artist, architect and sculptor. In 1482, Leonardo’s paintings included the virgin on the Rocks and the Last supper. He was employed in the Ludovico projects which included the designing of a dome for the Milan Cathedral. With Ludovico overthrown, Leonardo fled to Venice where he was employed as a military architect and engineer. His greatest piece of art was that of the monalisa. Renaissance humanism saw no disparity between science and art; Leonardo’s science and engineering clearly manifested itself in his arts and drawings. He was also able to describe the human anatomy through his talent in art. He was given permission to dissect human corpses so as to enable him study the various parts of the human body. He drew many studies of the human skeleton and the muscle structure of the body. He was also attributed to the designing of various structures such as barricades and bridges all used as military defence projects(Stanley, 1996).

Why was Florence such a huge part of the renaissance of Europe, Italy was located at the coast which allowed it to interact with other people and allowed easy trading between it and other nations such as Egypt and Spain. People around the region gained knowledge as they were exposed to different things that made them discover more. Florence was the banking centre and it currency, the florin, was used in trade as an international currency. This and the fact that it was a republic provided a good environment that made Florence a huge anchor in the Renaissance.

How did Europe gain its capital and weaponry, through merchant trade and the development of banking this enabled trade among various traders. Both barter trade and carrying of money in the form of gold and silver was to some extent a difficulty in trading but the coming up of a bank that gave Bill of Exchange to the buyers enabled easy trade. Through the payment of interest banks were able to make profits. They borrowed the idea of double entry of book keeping from the Arabian merchants in order to keep track of the numerous accounts. The banking system also enabled the insuring of property and also people were able to get money through bonds where people lend money to a single recipient who later returned it after a number of years plus interest.

During the rebirth of Europe many inventions were made through the contribution of various people such as Brunelleschi, Machiavelli and Leonardo.

References:

Fanelli, G., & Brunelleschi, f. (1980). Brunelleschi. Firenze: Scala Books

Highet, G. ( 1949). The classical tradition: Greek and Roman influences on western literature..New York: Oxford University Press.

King, R. (2007). Machiavelli: philosopher of power. New York: Atlas Books/ Harpercollins.

Stanley, D. (1996). Leonardo da vinci. New York: Morrow junior books.