Classical Rome

The name Classic Rome refers to the classical period of Ancient Rome, and although it is sometimes used to extend the entire temporal dimension of it (from the 8th century BC to the 5th century AD) more properly should be reserved for the end of the Roman Republic (2nd century BC and 1st century AD) and the beginning of the Roman Empire (1st and 2nd century), the Principality (dynasties July-Claudia and Antonina to Marcus Aurelius), being the centuries of Roman decadence (from the third century to the fifth century) considered a non-classical period. In political and socioeconomic terms, classical Rome is characterized by the adaptation of republican institutions to the personal exercise of power (dictatorships and empire), territorial expansion, the end of previous social struggles between patricians and plebeians, to the benefit of of a concept of citizenship stratified into economic categories (senatorial aristocracy, equestrian class ...) and the predominance of the mode of production of slavery, ending with the crisis of the third century. The cultural forms are characterized by the influence of the Hellenistic culture, whereas the previous period came to a greater extent from the Etruscan heritage and the endogenous development of the Latin culture; and in the later period was greatly influenced by Christianity.

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