The Decline and Fall of RomeAnswer the following questions: 1. What do you remember about the beginning of the Roman Empire? 2. Name the most prominent Roman emperors. What were they famous for? 3. When did the Roman Empire fall? Give Russian equivalents to the following terms and proper names: Byzantine[′bizənti:n] Greece [gri:s] Greek [gri:k] Hellenistic [¸heli′nistik] Renaissance [ri′neisəns] Roman Empire [′rəumən ′empaie]
Give Russian equivalents to the following words and expressions:
deity [′di:iti], n refashion [ri:fæ∫(ə)n], v Romanize [′rəumə′naiz], v at best the city state a world view
Study the following words and expressions: accomplish [ə′kɒmpli∫], v – завершать, выполнять, совершать assassination [ə¸sæsinei∫(ə)n], n - убийство cognizant [′kogniz(ə)nt], adj – знающий, осведомленный cohesion [kəu′hi:ʒ(ə)n], n - сцепление, сплоченность devious [′di:viəs], adj - лукавый, неискренний embody [im′bodi], v – содержать, включать emphasis [′emfəsis], n – акцент, ударение, значительность endow [in′dau], v – наделять, одарять equate [i′kweit], v - уравнивать, приравнивать forge [fɔ:dʒ], v – изобретать, выдумывать ripen [′raipən], v – зреть, созревать rival [′raiv(ə)l], n – соперник, конкурент scheming [′ski:miŋ], n – плетущий интриги secular [′sekjulə(r)], adj -мирской, светский strangulation [‚stræŋgju′lei∫(ə)n], n – удушение stupendous [stju:′pendəs], adj - изумительный, колоссальный subsist [səb′sist], v – существовать, жить sustain [sə′stein], v – поддерживать virtue [′və:tju:], n – добродетель, целомудрие, достоинство virtuous [′və:tjuəs], adj – добродетельный, целомудренный yield [ji:ld], v – поддаваться, уступать
abundantly clear [ə′bʌnd(ə)ntli ′kliə]– предельно ясно downright insanity [′daunrait in′sæniti] - явное безумие to eat away – разъедать no doubt [nou daut] – без сомнения, вероятно to pay homage to [pei ′hɔmidʒ]– преклоняться перед regardless of [ri′ga:dlis] – невзирая на to take great pain – мучиться, прилагать старания through and through [θru:] – до мозга костей, полностью Read and translate the text using the dictionary if necessary:
One of the reasons for the success of the Roman Empire was that the Romans treated their Empire as the world. In other words, the world was equated with the Empire. This belief formed the social cement which kept the Empire sustained. However, this bond, this social cohesion, was temporary at best. There were forces outside the Roman Empire which were eating away at the Empire itself. And regardless of whether we accept the fact that Rome fell as a result of internal pressure or invasions from the outside, or both at one and the same time, one thing is abundantly clear: Rome fell, and did so with a loud noise. It would take Western Civilization nearly ten centuries to recover and refashion a world which could be the rival of the civilization of Rome. By the third and fourth centuries AD, it is proper to speak of a Greco-Roman tradition of thought. The Romans tried to limit the influence of Greek thought in the early days of the Empire. However, over time Greek ideas joined with Roman conceptions and a new tradition of thought was forged. In some respects, the Hellenistic world became Romanized. This is just one more example of how the Romans succeeded by assimilated other cultures. Furthermore, the Greco-Roman tradition refers as much to classical and Hellenistic Greece as it does the days of the Roman Republic and the Empire. Both civilizations produced a world view which we could only call pagan. This world view was secular through and through. Gods and goddesses were common to both civilizations and yet as time passed it was the virtuous life of the good citizen that was of supreme importance. The emphasis was on living the good life in the here and now, whether in the city state or the cosmopolis. The Greco-Roman tradition was fashioned over the one thousand year history of the classical world, the world of Greece and Rome. The Renaissance of the 14th through 16th centuries attempted to revive the ideals of the classical world, and so the humanists of the Renaissance tried to imitate the humanism of centuries past. Humanist scholars took great pains to study the texts of the ancient world, not just to "harvest" the virtuous life of classical man, but to learn classical Greek and Latin. If ancient texts needed to be studied, then they needed to be studied in the language in which they were composed. What had happened between the fall of Rome and the Renaissance was the bastardization of classical languages. As scholars, the humanists needed the classical world for its language as much as it did for its ideas. The Greco-Roman tradition was secular: it proposed no one God and formal religion as we know it today, did not exist. While the Greeks would pay homage to their many deities, as would the Romans, there is no doubt that they placed their true faith in the hands of man. In other words, humanism: man the thinker, man the doer, man the maker. For the Greeks, man was endowed with Reason, the capacity to think and use his intellect. This initially took the form of glorifying the city state: the city state was the world. Above all, the Greeks asked questions. What is knowledge? What is the state? What is beauty? What is virtue? What is justice? Was the best form of government? The Greeks, in the last analysis, were thinkers rather than doers. In time, the Greek world view came or to be based on the intellect more than it was on action. The Romans, on the other hand, were doers, they were men of action. They succeeded in translating into action what the Greeks had only thought possible. The Romans also asked questions about the world, about nature, and about man. To be sure, they inhabited the same world as the Hellenistic Greeks. They understood and accepted the chaos and disorder of the world. However, they were clearly more prepared to develop their thought of the world in relation to what kind of world in which they wanted to live. The Romans also had the example of the Greeks and their history. In other words, the Romans were cognizant of what the Greeks had accomplished and not accomplished. The Greeks had no such history to which they could refer. The end result for the Romans was that they managed to create their own world and they called it the Roman Empire. And their world view became embodied in a pagan cult. This cult was nothing less than the patriotic worship of Rome itself. Despite the obvious fact that the majority of Roman emperors were scheming, devious, opportunistic, or plainly insane, the world view dominated the social life of the Roman citizen of the Empire. The history of the Empire is dotted with political assassinations, strangulations, emperors playing fiddles while Rome burned, court intrigue and rivalry not to mention a widespread incidence of downright insanity or paranoid schizophrenia. In the end, it is extraordinary that the Roman Empire existed for as long as it did. For Edward Gibbon, author of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (3 vols, 1770s), the decline of Rome was natural and required little explanation: "The decline of Rome was the natural and inevitable effect of immoderate greatness. Prosperity ripened the principle of decay; the cause of the destruction multiplied with the extent of conquest; and, as soon as time or accident removed the artificial supports, the stupendous fabric yielded to the pressure of its own weight. The story of the ruin is simple and obvious: and instead of inquiring why the Roman Empire was destroyed we should rather be surprised that it has subsisted for so long." It's a complicated question and has occupied the attention of historians for centuries. One thing can be said with certainty - although Rome ultimately fell in A.D. 476, its decline was a process that had been going on for centuries. Roman strengths eventually became Roman weaknesses. Another thing which we ought to remember is that the Roman Empire was large, and when we speak of the fall of Rome, we are talking about the western half of the Empire. The eastern half survived as the Byzantine Empire until 1453. Lastly, there is no one explanation that accounts for Rome's decline and fall.
Ex.1. Answer the following questions: 1. What were the reasons for successful growth of the Roman Empire? 1. Why did Rome fall? 2. What do you know about the Greco-Roman tradition? 3. What did the Greeks and the Romans contribute to the world? 4. Why did scholars of the Renaissance study ancient languages? 5. What does E.Gibbon say about the decline of Rome? What is your opinion? 6. What happened to the eastern part of the Empire after the fall of Rome?
Ex. 2. Match the words with their definitions:
Ex. 3. a) Give English equivalents to the following expressions: 1. мировоззрение древних греков 2. преклоняться перед богами 3. добродетельная жизнь простых граждан 4. языческий культ 5. большинство римских императоров 6. неизбежный эффект 7. явное безумие 8. Византийская империя b) Choose the expressions from 3 a) to speak about:
1. The Greco-Roman tradition. 2. The decline and fall of Rome. Ex. 4. Complete the table with the appropriate forms of the words given:
Ex. 5. Translate from Russian into English: 1. Автор считает, что одной из причин успеха Римской Империи было то, что римляне считали свою империю целым миром. 2. Со временем наибольшую важность для древних римлян стала приобретать добродетельная жизнь простых граждан. 3. Итогом стараний римлян было то, что они смогли создать свой собственный мир, который они назвали Римской Империей. 4. Эпоха Возрождения пыталась оживить идеи классического мира, поэтому гуманисты того времени старались подражать идеалам прошедших веков. 5. Древние тексты нужно было изучать на том языке, на котором они были написаны, поэтому ученые-гуманисты учили классические греческий и латинский языки. 6. Независимо от того, принимаем мы тот факт, что Рим пал в результате внутреннего давления или влияний извне, или из-за обеих причин одновременно, предельно ясно одно: Рим пал, и пал он с оглушительным треском.
Ex. 6. Make a brief report on one of the following topics, use the vocabulary from the text:
- The Greko – Roman tradition - The decline of Rome Text B Guess the meaning of the following words:
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