Class 11 History Chapter 3 Important Extra Questions An Empire Across Three Continents
An Empire Across Three Continents Important Extra Questions Very Short Answer Type
Question 1.
Write the continental expansion of the Roman empire.
Answer:
This empire was extended to territories of Europe, North Africa, and Western Asia i.e. Islamic countries.
Question 2.
What are the sources worth reckoning about Roman and Iranian empires?
Answer:
These are:
- Textual sources including accounts of contemporary historians,
- Documentary sources including inscriptions and papyri, and
- Material remains including the things discovered by archaeologists through excavation and field surveys.
Question 3.
Which sea was called the heart of the Roman empire?
Answer:
It was the Mediterranean sea because the Roman empire was at its north and south and it had a center or middle location.
Question 4.
Mention the area controlled by Iran.
Answer:
It was extended from south to Caspian sea down to eastern Arabia and larger parts of Afghanistan.
Question 5.
Mention the time-line for early Europe and the late empire in the context of the Roman empire.
Answer:
The whole period of the third century is early Europe and the period thereafter is late Europe.
Question 6.
What do you understand by the term Princeps?
Answer:
It was a Latin term meaning leading citizen i.e.’ the first citizen of the empire or the emperor.
Question 7.
What was the nature of the republic during the regime of Augustus? i.e. 27 B.C.E.
Answer:
It was actually, an aristocracy system of Government in which the senate was the most powerful. The senate was a body constituted by wealthy families popularly known as nobility.
Question 8.
What was seen specifically in the Roman empire?
Answer:
It was its diverse culture yet bound together by a common system of government. Briefly, it can be stated that there was unity in diversity in terms of the diverse culture of people.
Question 9.
What was the language of the upper class in the Roman empire?
Answer:
It was the Greek language.
Question 10.
What was the specific or chief organ of government in the Roman empire?
Answer:
It was the army. As the available records of contemporary history state, there was a vast army consisting of six lakhs soldiers in the fourth century. This organ of government had the power to determine the fate of emperors.
Question 11.
What was the system of succession to the throne in the so-called republic of the Roman empire?
Answer:
It was based on family descent either natural or adopted e.g. Tiberius was the adopted son of Augustus.
Question 12.
What do you understand by gender in connection with Roman society?
Answer:
The term ‘gender’ incorporates in its scope; the family structure and other similar institutions of society in connection with the Roman empire.
Question 13.
What was the term “literary” in connection with the Roman empire?
Answer:
It is referred to as casual literacy among communities of the Roman empire due to the sudden befall of calamities like the volcano explosion of 79 C.E. in Pompeii.
Question 14.
What meaning the term culture reflects on the culture of people during the Roman empire existed from the first to third half-century?
Answer:
It is meant by and implied to diverse nature of society learned about seven different languages including Greek and Latin both accepted as administrative languages or it may be stated that these languages patronized by the then rulers.
Question 15.
What do you understand by pluralism in religion?
Answer:
It implies general religions and cults simultaneously, were running that period in parallel.
Question 16.
What was an effective tool for ruling so diverse empires?
Answer:
It was the decentralization of powers among Princep, the Senate, and the Army and coordination of their efforts/activities into one i.e. Principate or so-called republic.
Question 17.
What reason would you imagine in the womb of events that resulted in mutiny?
Answer:
The senate can be attributed to failed that period during which soldier wars had taken place.
Question 18.
What was the manner of recruitment of soldiers in the Roman empire and Iranian empire?
Answer:
The soldiers were given privileges and perks. They were duly recruited as modern and paid. Their service tenure was also fixed (i.e. 25 years service).
However, the manner of recruitment under the Iranian army was that of coercive as military service was made necessary for every citizen who had attained the age of eighteen years and compelled to serve at least at his being of forty-three. It was termed a conscripted army by the historians of that time.
Question 19.
Name the historians of the Roman empire.
Answer:
These were-Cassius Dio, Tacitus, Columella, Pliny the Elder (author of Natural History), and Olympiodrous of Thebes.
Question 20.
How did the term “Draconian” is added to the dictionary?
Answer:
The addition of this word to the dictionary is related to the harsh behavior of the ruler called Draco in the Greek language. It is worthwhile to quote here that he had punished with a death sentence even for petty crimes. Generally, draconian means harsh or inhuman mostly in the treatment of others.
Question 21.
What do you understand by mosaic?
Answer:
It was a kind of drawing on wall-pictures or patterns with glass and stones as material e.g. as in Edessa found by archaeologists.
Question 22.
What is a special characteristic of mosaic at Edessa?
Answer:
It has been known through an inscription found that wife of king Edgar and her family had been depicted in the mosaic of that palace.
Question 23.
For what the Pompeii is famous?
Answer:
The archaeologists have found a wine merchant’s dining room pari-passu to modem pub where mystical animals were drawn on the walls.
Question 24.
What are graffitis?
Answer:
These were the funniest writings on walls in Pompeii.
Question 25.
What do you mean by the term funniest in connection with graffitis?
Answer:
It means a thing that has no productive values other than keeping people in mirth or ecstasy.
Question 26.
Write the names of deities worshipped by people under the Roman empire?
Answer:
These were known as Jupiter, Juno, Minerva, and Mars including several Greek and Eastern deities.
Question 27.
What do you understand by the term monolith?
Answer:
A society or culture absolutely orthodox and of rigid communities/traditions.
Question 28.
Who was addressed Laity in the Roman empire?
Answer:
Those were the ordinary members of a religious community below priests or clergy who had official positions within the community.
Question 29.
What were Colosseums?
Answer:
These were the public places or areas where the trained people (gladiators) fight wild beasts and finally, knock them down. The excellent muscle power developed by them and the skill as well, was observed by the populace gathered there, on special occasions and thus, they entertained.
Question 30.
How did the western Roman empire suffer?
Answer:
As the administration was conducted through provincial units complied with certain changes adopted by the society, kingdoms independent by the German groups from the north i.e. Goths, Vandals, Lombards were established. It resulted in a decline in fragments of the Roman empire. This period was specifically described as kingdoms of the post-Roman period.
Question 31.
What had happened to the eastern part of the Roman empire?
Answer:
Despite the plague affected the Mediterranean in the 540 C.E., this part of the empire witnessed general prosperity and expansion till the sixth century.
Question 32.
What do you understand by Christianisation?
Answer:
It was the process by which Christianity spread among different groups of the population and became the dominant religion.
Question 33.
What is the condition of Egypt during the period of the sixth century under Justinian, the ruler of the Roman empire?
Answer:
It was a densely settled part of the empire in the fifth and sixth centuries than it would be even in the twentieth-century i.e. in the modern period. Income from taxes from those regions was worked out over 2.5 million solidi (gold coin) per year. It was equivalent to 35,000 pounds of gold.
Question 34.
Who was destroyed by the Arabs between the period around 511 to 774 C.E.?
Answer:
These were the Visigoths of Spain, Franks of Gaul, and Lombards in Italy.
Question 35.
What different kind of world did come in the offing when Arabs had conquered the western kingdoms?
Answer:
It was known as the Medieval period of history.
Question 36.
Where was the second capital of the Roman Empire established?
Answer:
It was established by Constantine in 313 C.E. at the site of modern Istambul in Turkey previously called Byzantium but on the name of the emperor, it was called Constantinople.
Question 37.
How did the Roman empire get economic stability?
Answer:
The emperor, Constantine had introduced a new denomination, the solidus (a gold coin weighing 4Vi grams). It had an abundant supply from the regions in North Africa. On this count, we can say that the empire would have got stability.
Question 38.
What was the financial condition of the senate members in the Roman empire?
Answer:
The members of the senate were the wealthiest people. Each of them owned a medium-city-like area, the comforts, and facilities as a medium-sized city.
Question 39.
Who was the emperor of the Roman empire during 284-305 C.E. and what changes did he bring in the realm?
Answer:
He was Diocletian. He fortified the frontiers, reorganized provincial boundaries, and separated military frontiers and those of the civilians. Thus, military commanders (duces) became more powerful. He abandoned territories with little strategic and economic importance.
Question 40.
Why is Constantine remembered so in the Roman empire?
Answer:
- He introduced solidus (the gold coin) which outlasted the Roman empire itself.
- Oil presses and glass pictures (screw presses and watermills) were established amply under his rule.
- Invested more in the promotion of cottage industries in villages.
- Followed by reinforced changes that were brought by his predecessor Diocletian in administration.
An Empire Across Three Continents Important Extra Questions Short Answer Type
Question 1.
The text has referred to three writers whose work is used to say something about how the Romans had treated their workers. Can you identify them? Record the section for yourself and describe any two methods the Romans used to control labor.
Answer:
Yes, those three writers were-Tacitus, Columella, and Pliny the Elder.
Tacitus writes on labor controlling networks. He states the slaves were misbehaved and tortured to the extent, they sometimes committed the murder of their owners. He has written that a City Perfect (as of today’s Mayor or Chief Councillor) was murdered by one of his slaves which ultimately, resulted in riots, so uncontrolled as the slaves besieged the senate-house. However, the convict was executed. It shows the senators did not take notice of so grave a situation. No laws reducing punishment were passed particularly, made for the slaves.
The slaves were sometimes grouped into gangs or smaller teams and sternly supervised. As per Columella, another historian of that period, most groups were made in each group of ten slaves. The Natural History writer, Pliny who was also Elder (councilor) to administration, states that slaves were chained together by their feet so that they could save the expenditure incurred on supervision and a permanent measure to keep them busy with the work so assigned to them. He further states, a seal was put upon the workmen’s apparel and they had to wear a mark or a net with a close mesh on their heads.
Agricultural labor was also in a pathetic state and the same conditions prevailed when we talk of workers in factories and workshops. A law was passed in 398 C.E. allowing branding upon the body of laborers/ workmen so that they would be recognized if and when they run away and try to hide. Private employers began doing contracts in term of debts when they would provide the laborers/workers at the time of joining for a period of 25 years ahead and thus, debt bondage oppressed their instincts to the extent, they tolerated every draconian treatment and had surrounded them in servitude although they were free.
Question 2.
It is told that some specific events and circumstances add new words to the vocabulary. Can you state the event that added the term Draconian? Please, explain.
Answer:
Yes, “Draconian” a specific term got popularity owing to Draco, the Greek lawmaker in the Roman empire. He, during the early sixth century B.C.E., had recommended a law in 398 C.E., which referred to workers being branded so they could be recognized if and when they run away and try to hide.
It was gross inhuman treatment with the laborers i.e. the main active and sensitive part of the project/ work. Hence, the pains inflicted upon laborers by branding so severe and harsh to mankind would have accumulated and said law, we see added to the dictionary since then for all kinds of rules, regulations, decrees, orders, implications, and ordinances equally implied.
Question 3.
What were Frankincense and its origin?
Answer:
It was an aromatic resin used in perfumes. It was extracted by the process of piercing the bark of Boswellia trees. The Arabian peninsula was suitable for the natural growth of those trees in forest areas there.
Question 4.
Describe the living standard of Aristocrat’s (nobles) during the Roman empire.
Answer:
These were those rich people called members to the senate in government like councilors of modem period. They owned a medium city like big area with all affluent and appurtenance facilities and ease. Hippodromes, fora, temples, fountains, and different kinds of baths were essential components to their possession.
Every councilor had an income of 4,000 pounds of gold per annum from their properties not including grain, rice, and other produce which, if sold, would have exchanged for at least 1500 pounds. The second class people came into being when Gallienus imposed a prohibition on the recruitment of senators into the army in order to prevent control of the empire from falling into their hands. Their income was one thousand or fifteen hundred pounds of gold per year. It has been mentioned by Olympiodorus, the historian of that period.
Question 5.
What period, you would say or the contemporary historian had stated as “Late Antiquity”, why would have this phrase used for, explain.
Answer:
It was the period around the fourth to seventh centuries. The term “antiquity” is archaeological and denotes the period around the modern and the past i.e. medieval period. Several natural and economic changes were witnessed by this period about that of three centuries. Constantine and Diocletian were the emperors of that period. It was Diocletian who inserted division of power in army and civilians including senators. He curtailed the territories less productive and minimal importance in view of defense i.e. strategy.
Constantine on his part had reinforced the division of power made by his predecessor viz. Diocletian and is remembered for circulation of gold coin solidus weighing 4.5 grams. This measure brought economic stability. the empire as there was no dearth of supply from North Africa. He established his second capital at Byzantium (Istambul in Turkey at present) and named I Constantinople (i.e. the palace of the emperor Constantine). Cotta industries got patronage of these two rulers and factories mainly h of oil presses and glass factories, was established.
Question 6.
Who was Nero and why is he famous even today?
Answer:
Nero was a Roman citizen known to the Greek language and one of the extremists among the slaves/workers/workmen coerced and tortured badly by their factory owners, land-owners, and senators. He led the motion violently when a slave convicted as the murderer of Lucius Pedanius Secundus was being taken to execute under the order of the senate. He rebuked the population for watching deafly; the injustice, so severe practiced on the slaves. The crowd was ready to attack senators and the jailor got blows of stones and was tortured in their hands. This was the first mass agitation led by Nero.
Question 7.
Who were plebs Sordida? Do you see they resemble modem film stars and sportsmen? How?
Answer:
In context to the Roman empire, plebs Sordida were the unkempt lower class people but addicted to circus and theatre display including slaves. Their activities were confined to observe the moods of their owners mostly senators and keep them at mirth. There were no laws preventing their execution on the displeasure of their owners. Thus, that section of society was of the least value and even today, these activities are called pastimes i.e. merely for recreation at leisure and these people are like soothsayers in Shakespearean plays.
The theatrical quality, however, has preferred by the public to the extent, one may see one or more lessons on text-books recommended by NCERT by virtue of their keen observation of society and its instincts soaked into the ocean of western culture and cunning manners. Travesty of words and dialogues, the electronic media has technically sorted and pseudo trends are being implanted into human minds.
The logic for such are invincible in globalization and trying to create a universal soul that would make humanity universal. We are thus, soon, going to be universal-men once described by our culture as-“Ayam Nijah Paroveti Ganana Laghuchetsam, Udara Caritanamatu Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam.” No doubt, it is a renaissance but just reverses the cycle of the renaissance that had begun since thirteenth century C.E. from Italy.
Question 8.
What had resulted when debt-bondage did the attack on the labor instincts?
Answer:
The workmen/laborers/coolies/workers/servants etc. suffered when draconian tricks were practiced on them severely. It gradually hammered nails in their head and heart of them, it gave birth to rebellion in Judaea against Roman domination e.g. great Jewish revolt of 66 C.E.’The revolutionaries destroyed the money lenders’ bonds to won popular support.
Question 9.
Who was the exception of labor coercion?
Answer:
Despite labor coercion to a severe degree by virtue of draconian laws, the emperor Anastasius of the late fifth century offered high wages in course of the frontier city of Dara constructed by him. It is pertinent to mention that-that the entire city was built by workers in less than three weeks’ time. We also came to know through Papyri that widespread wage-labor had become inputs of the Mediterranean by the sixth century especially, in the east.
Question 10.
Describe some less-advanced states under the Roman empire.
Answer:
Numidia (modem Algeria) witnessed transhumance during the Roman empire. There were pastoral and semi-nomadic communities. Transhumance was the regular animal movement of the herdsmen between the higher mountain regions and low lying ground in search of pasture for sheep and other flocks. They had oven-shaped huts (Papalia) with them, all portable. In Spain, the villages called Costella was inhabited by the Celtic speaking peasantry. However, with the expansion of Roman estates in North Africa, the pastures of these communities were drastically reduced and their movements more tightly regulated.
Question 11.
Discuss the sophistication trends in the Roman economy.
Answer:
Economic Life under the Roman empire was most advanced. Diversified applications of water power around the Mediterranean, development of water-powered milling technology, the use of hydraulic mining techniques in the Spanish gold and silver mines and gigantic industrial scale, well organized commercial and banking networks, and widespread use of gold coins indicate prima facie the sophisticated economy under the Roman empire.
Question 12.
Who were equities and what was their role in the Roman empire?
Answer:
The term equities denote the horse-rider, hence, it refers to knights who were the second most powerful and wealthy group after senators viz. this group represents the army, the third organ of the government. They were families whose property qualified them to serve in the cavalry. Mostly, people of this group were landowners and some others were ship-owners, traders, and bankers, viz. people were involved in business activities.
Question 13.
Discuss the traditional religious culture of Greek and Roman under the Roman empire.
Answer:
Both Greek and Roman were poly-theist. There were numerous cults in which gods like Jupiter, Juno, Minerva, and Mars and several Greek and eastern deities worshipped in thousands of temples, shrines, and sanctuaries throughout the empire. The above were mainly Roman/Italian gods. Polytheists had no common name or label to describe themselves. Judaism was diverse within the Jewish communities of late antiquity. Bishops were orthodox type and used to criticize the common Christians for beliefs and practices they did thereupon. They made a very rigid1 set of beliefs and practices.
Question 14.
Describe the condition of the middle class under the Roman empire.
Answer:
The middle class was consisting of government servants in the bureaucracy and soldiers as also prosperous merchants and farmers in the eastern provinces. The middle class has been described as clients to the great senatorial houses.
Question 15.
Who were humiliates?
Answer:
Humilores was the term incorporating jointly all lower classes of the Roman society. They conferred a rural labor force of which many were permanently employed on the large, estates, workers in industrial and mining departments, migrant workers for the grain and olive harvests, and building industry i.e. construction of houses, public-houses including palaces. Self-employed artisans were better fed than wage laborers (in big cities) including slaves.
Question 16.
Discuss the Roman bureaucracy during early fifth-century C.E.
Answer:
It was an 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 corruption in the judicial and administration of military supplies. Bureaucrats were extorting animals and provincial governors were corrupt. As historians and other members of the intelligentsia condemned these practices, the government passed time to time several legislations to curb the corrupt practices. Olympiodoriis, the historian of that period has mentioned that a number of laws were passed in order to abolish corrupt practices. The government being autocratic responded to protest with violence in the cities of the East.
The law passed by the fourth century C.E. imposed restrictions on the arbitrary tendencies of the emperor as it provided protection to civil rights. For an instance, Ambrose, the powerful Bishop protested sternly against the repressive measures they practiced on the civilian population.
Question 17.
How independent were women in the Roman world? Compare the situation of the Roman family with the family in India today.
Answer:
Women were independent the most in the Roman empire with the right to get a share in their father’s property and became independent property owners on her father’s death. The Dowry system was also prevalent in that society. Thus, women were two ways benefited. We can state that married couples were not one financial entity but two, and the wife enjoyed complete legal independence. She was free to get a divorce from her husband only through the notice of intent to dissolve the marriage. The marriageable age for males was their late twenties or early thirties while it was late teens or early twenties for the females. It means boys were eligible to marriage after twenty-five while it was eighteen or nineteen for the girls.
Thus, a large gap between husband and wife and would have encouraged a certain inequality. Mostly arranged marriages were solemnized but women were often subjected to domination by their husbands. Augustine, the bishop of the North African city of Hippo writes that his mother was regularly beaten by his father and that most other wives in that small town had similar bruises to show. Father had substantial legal control over their children viz. they were free to kill their unwanted children e.g. such children would be left to die by leaving them out in the cold.
Indian Succession (Reforms) Act, 2005 has also provided women in India, right to get a share in their fathers’ properties equal to their siblings. Divorce cases are also piling up at the courts of this country. Women have been given reservations on 33% of the assembly and parliament seats including at the level of local self-government viz. village, block, and district levels (Panchayati Raj).
An Empire Across Three Continents Important Extra Questions Long Short Answer Type
Question 1.
Outline the Roman administration, the structure of society, Gender, literacy, culture, and economic expansion under the Roman empire.
Answer:
We would like to answer this question under the following sub-heads:
(a) Administration-It was an aristocracy form of government. The administration was done through provinces under a single emperor. Organs of the Roman government were the emperor, the senate (wealthy families mostly landowners), and the army (equities consisting of ship owners, bankers, traders, and landowners). These were knights and categorized under middle class) viz. three organs. Tacitus, the contemporary writer says that the middle class was a client to the great senatorial houses. The fourth organ was that of Humiliores (i.e. lower class). It was consisting of plebs Sordida addicted to the circus and theatrical displays and finally, the slaves.
Early administration was called Principate alias aristocracy in which emperor was Princep (leading citizen) not the absolute ruler but actually, such was only a facade as it was the emperor who had exercised the real power of administration. Senate was powerful till it was a republic. Senate was consisting of the wealthiest families of Roman and later, Italian descent, mainly landowners. Senators only had written the Roman histories. There were also emperors who behaved with suspicion or brutality and violence against the senatorial class but even after efforts made skilfully, this class could not bring back the days of the republic i.e.; the period when it had absolute powers to rule. Urban centers were developed and the large chunk coffer constituted income from taxation on provinces, urban centers, and the villages.
(b) Gender-It was witnessed that women were given independent legal rights to the effect that they were made heir to the property of their natal family, entitled to own and manage the property at their will, and independent property owner on their father’s death. Those were not transferred to their husbands’ authority after marriage. They were made free to divorce their husbands or their husbands would free to divorce them and it needed no more than a notice of intent to dissolve the marriage. Despite so many legal rights given, male domination was all apparent as Saint Augustine, the bishop had described the coercive treatment of his father to his mother. Perhaps that was because of the large gap between the marriageable age of boys and girls i.e. 30 years and 19 years respectively.
(c) Literacy-Advertisements and graffiti (wall writing) in Pompeii reveals that there was casual literacy. The papyri survived in hundreds, disclose documents such as contracts were written by professional scribes. The general public was illiterate but soldiers, army officers, and estate managers were well educated to tackle their affairs. Greek, Latin, Celtic, Aramaic, and Coptic were the languages. The former two were widely used and patronized by the emperor. The latter was mostly in oral form as no script till then developed.
(d) Culture-Diversity of religious cults and local deities is witnessed all through the Roman empire. There were languages like Greek, Latin, Aramaic, Coptic, and Celtic, etc. Greek and Latin, there was diversity in styles of dress and costume, the food people ate, their forms of social organization (tribal/non-tribal) and their patterns of the settlement were also of diverse nature. Aramaic was the dormant language group of the Near East (west of the river Euphrates).
(e) Economic expansion-Economic infrastructure of the Roman empire was consisting of harbors, mines, quarries, brickyard, and olive oil factories. Major trading items were wheat, wine, and olive oil. Wine and olive oil were transported in containers called amphorae. Spanish olive oil of this period was mainly carried in a container called Dressel-20. Prices of commodities were determined on perfect competition as for instance, Spanish producers had captured the markets for olive oil from their Italian counterparts. North Africa subsequently became a major producer of olive oil. During the later fifth and sixth centuries, the Aegean, southern Asia Minor (Turkey), Syria, and Palestine became major exporters of wine and olive oil.
Producer regions of the Roman empire were Campania (Italy), Sicily, Fayum (Egypt), Galilee, Byzantium (Tunisia), southern Gaul (Gallia Narbonensis), and Baetica (Southern Spain). The writers like Strabo and Pliny had stated this fact.
Less advanced territories were the villages like Numidia (Algeria) and Castella. Transhumance was in vogue, as these communities were that of herdsman.
There were well-organized commercial and banking networks, water-powered milling-technology, the use of hydraulic mining techniques, and the industrial sector developed in the first and second centuries. The Papyri survived from later centuries (i.e. 4th to 7th century) reveals an affluent society where money was in extensive use and rural estates generated vast incomes in gold. Only Egypt contributed taxes of over 2.5 million solidi (gold coin) roughly equal to 35,000 lbs. of gold.
(f) Social Hierarchies-Hierarchy of society can be mentioned as
- senators (Patres),
- leading members of the equestrian class,
- section of people attached to the great houses,
- plebs Sordida (lower class) and
- slaves.
Italian families were two-third of the total number of senators. The first two groups above (i.e. senators and equities) were merged into one in the early part of the fourth century under emperor Constantine I. Half of all families were of African or eastern origin. The middle class was that of government servants, the army as also ship-owners, traders, and 1 banker. The lower class was collectively known as humiliates. This class comprised of the rural labor force, industry and mine workers, seasonal workers in the agriculture and construction industry, self employed artisans, and slaves. Silver coins were exhausted in the fourth century and gold coins circulated. Constantine founded this new monetary system on gold. There was enormous income from the industrial and mining sectors also as Constantine preferred the promotion of cottage industries.
Conclusion-Thus, we see how an empire across three continents had survived for more than six hundred years. It was a common type of administration wherein diverse cultures, religions, languages, etc. made their imprints, on the pages of history. Coercion and torture of the labor class were, however, pathetic and it finally, gave birth to the revolutionaries like Nero who shattered the system of slavery in spite of it was favored blindly by the senate. During the early seventh century, we see a reduction in this trend after the Jewish war.