Bellwork

• Write down anything you know about:– Republic– Romulus – Remus– Rome– Italy– Senate• Be prepared to discuss these at the

beginning of class

World History

Section 3, Unit 6Ancient Rome p. 1

Objectives

• Identify characteristics of early Roman civilization

• Map the location of Rome• Discuss the beginnings of the

Republic and compare this Republic to modern U.S. governments

• Discuss the spread of Rome throughout Europe

Review

• In the last Unit, we discussed Greece and their influences on the modern world.

• What are some concepts from the Greece unit that you remember? –What were the two major city-states and

how were they different?–What influences did the Greeks have on

the rest of the world? • Government, art, architecture, sports?

Rise of Rome

• While Greece was in decline, a new civilization to the west was developing and increasing it’s power.

• The city of Rome would grow from a small village into a vast empire and adopt much of Greek influences.

• Despite that, Rome would create a lasting legacy of it’s own.

Location

West of Greece, Rome is found on the western part of the Italian Peninsula– midway between the tip and the Alps. Rome developed there because of it’s strategic position and fertile soil. It was built on seven rolling hills at a curve on the Tiber River.

Alps

Romulus and Remus• According to Roman

legend, in 753 B.C., the city was founded by Romulus and Remus, the twin sons of the god Mars and a Latin Princess.

• The infants were abandoned near the Tiber River and raised by a she-wolf.

Romulus and Remus

• When they grew older, the legend says they would be discovered and raised by a shepherd into adulthood.

• By the time they become adults, Romulus founds a new city and, after a disagreement with his brother over location, kills Remus and builds the city of Rome.

Reality

• The earliest settlers on the Italian peninsula arrived in prehistoric times. From about 100-500 B.C., three groups inhabited the region and eventually battled for control. They were the:– Latins– Greeks– Etruscans

Reality

• The Latins were farmers and shepherds who wandered into Italy across the Alps around 1000 B.C.– They settled on either side of the Tiber

River, which they called Latium. They built the original settlement of Rome– a cluster of wooden huts atop one of the several hills in the area, Palatine Hill. These settlers were the first Romans.

Greek Influence

• Between 750 B.C. and 600 B.C., Greek settlers established about 50 colonies on the coasts of southern Italy. The cities became prosperous and commercially active.

• They brought Rome into closer contact with Greek civilization, who taught the Romans how to grow grapes and olives.

Etruscans

• The Etruscans were native to northern Italy and were skilled metalworkers and engineers.

• They strongly influenced the Roman civilization.

Etruscans

• They had a writing system that the Romans adopted and also influenced Rome’s architecture, especially in the use of the arch.

Question: Look at these two statues carefully. Are they different?

Zeus

Jupiter

Roman Religion• Romans borrowed religious ideas from both

the Greeks and Etruscans. The Romans adopted Etruscan rituals that they believed helped them win the favor of the Gods.

• Roman gods took the personalities and legends of the Greek gods. Romans, however, renamed many of the gods, such as:– Zeus: Jupiter– Poseidon: Neptune– Hera: Juno– Hermes: Mercury– Athena: Minerva– Hades: Pluto

The Early Republic

• Around 600 B.C., an Etruscan became king.

• However, Rome was not controlled by the Etruscans.

• Under it’s Etruscan kings, Rome grew from a collection of hilltop villages to a city that covered nearly 500 sq. miles.

The Early Republic

• Much of Rome was rich agricultural land.

• Various kings ordered the construction of Rome’s first temples and public buildings.– Palatine Hill’s swampy valley was

drained and made into a public meeting place: the Forum.

Tarquin the Proud

• The last king of Rome was Tarquin the Proud. He was a harsh tyrant who was driven from power in 509 B.C. by Roman aristocrats and wealthy landowners who resented him.

• The Romans declared they would never again be ruled by a king and swore to put to death anyone who plotted to make himself king.

Republic

• Having disposed of the monarch, the Romans established a new form of government: a republic.– The words comes from res publica, Latin for “public

affairs”.

• A republic is a form of government in which the power rests in the citizens who have a right to vote for their leaders. – Republics also hold that law applies to all people

equally.

• In Rome, citizenship with voting rights was granted only to free-born male citizens.

Republic v. Democracy

• While a republic shares the common feature of a representational system– a system in which people elect politicians– they are quite different.

• In a republic, a constitution or charter exists to protect the rights of people from the government/will of the majority. – In this case, no matter what most people want in a

nation, as long as the laws exist, rights cannot be taken away.

• In a pure democracy, the majority is not restrained and can impose its will on the minority.

Social Classes– early in Rome, different groups of people struggled for power

Patricians• Aristocratic

landowners who held most of the power.

• Patricians inherited their power and social status and they claimed that their authority came from their ancestry

Plebeians• Common farmers,

artisans and merchants who made up most of the population

• They had the right to vote, but were barred by law from holding the most important government positions

Tribune

• In time, the Senate of Rome allowed the plebeians to form their assembly, called the tribune.

• Tribunes protected the rights of plebeians from unfair acts of patrician officials.

• Overtime, the political power of plebeians grew and allowed them to gain political power.

Laws

• An important victory for the plebeians was the creation of a written code of law.

• With laws unwritten, the patricians would interpret the laws to suit themselves. – This made it easy for laws to unfairly

punish plebians.

Laws• In 451 B.C., a group of

officials began writing down Rome’s laws.

• These laws were carved on twelve tablets and hung in the Forum.

• They became the basis for Roman Law and they insisted on the idea that all free citizens, patricians and plebeians, had a right to the protection of the law.

Government System• In the first century B.C., a Roman

writer boasted that Rome had achieved a balanced government. What they meant is that their government had taken the best features of a monarchy, an aristocracy, and democracy and combined them.

(if you do not know what these systems are, ask)

Government System

• In place of a king, Rome had two officials called consuls. They commanded the army and directed the government. However, their power was limited. – A consuls rule was only one year long

and the same person could not be elected consul again for 10 years.

– As well, one consul could always be vetoed by the other consul.

Senate

• The Roman senate had both legislative and administrative functions in the republic. By tradition, there were 300 members, chosen from the upper class of Roman society.– Overtime, however, plebeians would be allowed

to be in the Senate.

• Membership was for life, so the senate provided continuity and exercised enormous influence over both foreign and domestic policy.

Assemblies

• The Assemblies, that existed outside of the Senate, were more democratic. The two assemblies that existed were:– Centuriate Assembly – Tribal Assembly

Centuriate Assembly

• Was an assembly made up of all citizen-soldiers– they served for life.

• They appointed consuls and made laws, but were weaker than the Senate

Tribal Assembly

• The Tribal Assembly were citizen groups according to where they live and are members for life– made laws for the common people (plebeians).

Dictators• In times of crisis, the

republic could appoint a dictator– a leader who had absolute power to make laws and command the army.

• A dictators power only lasted for six months.

• Dictators were chosen by the consuls and then elected by the senate.

Unlike today, the term “dictator” in early Rome did not have the negative connotation it does today. The word comes from Latin dictare.

Roman Government

Rome United States of America

Executive

Legislative

Judicial

Legal Code

Citizenship

Two Consuls– one year term

One president, elected by people- 4 years

Senate, Centuriate and Tribal assembly

Senate and House of Representatives

8 judges- 1 year terms- over see civil and criminal courts

Supreme Court- 9 justices, life terms, and hears highest issues– civil and criminal casesTablets with a list of

rules on as the basis of Rome’s legal system

U.S. constitution

All adult male landowners

All native-born or naturalized persons

Military• All citizens who owned

land were required to serve in the army. For some public offices, one had to serve ten years.

• Roman soldiers were organized into large military units called legions. – A legion was made up

of almost 5,000 heavily armed foot soldiers (infantry) and horseback soldiers (cavalry).

Legions

• Legions were divided into smaller groups of 80 men, each of which was called a century. In battle, the strength of the legion was it’s flexibility. Each century in a legion could act independently of the group.

• The military organization and fighting skill of the Roman army were key factors to Rome’s rise to greatness.

Rome Conquers Italy• Roman power grew slowly but

steadily as the legions battled for control of the Italian peninsula.

• By the fourth century B.C., Rome dominated central Italy. They defeated the Etruscans in north and captured Greek city-states in the south.

• By 265 B.C., the Romans were masters of all of Italy, except for Po Valley in northernmost Italy.

Conquerors

• Rome had different laws and treatment for different parts of conquered territory.

• The neighboring Latin’s on the Tiber became full citizens of Rome. Those farther away, the people became citizens, but could not vote.

Conquerors

• Many other groups fell into another category: allies of Rome. Rome did not interfere with it’s allies, as long as they sent troops to the Roman armies and did not make treaties with any other state. – Such leniency allowed Rome to build a

successful empire which stretched far beyond Italy.

Commercial Network

• Rome’s location gave it easy access to the riches of the lands near the Mediterranean Sea. Roman merchants moves by land and sea.

• They traded Roman wine and olive oil for a variety of foods, raw materials, and manufactured goods from other lands.

• However, other large cities on the Mediterranean interfered with Roman access to the sea.

Carthage

• Carthage, a dominant city in the northern most point of Africa, dominated the Mediterranean and attempted to limit Roman access to the rest of the sea.

• In 264 B.C., Rome and Carthage went to war over control of the Mediterranean, called the Punic Wars.

Carthage

First Punic War

• Between 264 and 146 B.C., Rome and Carthage fought three wars. The first war was for control of Sicily and the western Mediterranean, which lasted for 23 years. It ended in defeat for Carthage.

• Rome took the rich, grain-growing island of Sicily (near the tip of Italy) as a province.

• However, an uneasy peace followed.

Second Punic War• The second Punic

War began in 218 B.C.

• The mastermind behind the war was a Carthaginian general named Hannibal.

• Hannibal was a brilliant military strategist who wanted revenge for Carthage’s defeat.

Second Punic War (cont.)

• Hannibal assembled an army of 50,000 infantry, 9,000 calvary, and 60 elephants with the intent of capturing Rome. To surprise the Romans, he led his army on a long trek from Spain across France and through the Alps.

• Although he lost more than half his men and elephants, he invaded northern Italy.

Second Punic War (cont.)

• For more than a decade, Hannibal’s forces marched up and down the peninsula at will. His soldiers lived off the land, seized crops and cattle, and pillaged farmhouses.

• Hannibal won his greatest victory at Cannae, in 216 B.C., where he inflicted enormous losses on the Romans.

• However, the Romans regrouped and with the aid of their allies, stood firm. They prevented Hannibal from capturing Rome.

Fall of Hannibal

• The Romans finally found a daring military leader to match Hannibal– a general named Scipio.

• Scipio devised a plan to attack Carthage, which forced Hannibal to return to defend his city. In 202 B.C., near Carthage, the Romans finally defeated Hannibal’s forces.

Third Punic War

• By the time of the Third Punic War, Carthage was no longer a threat to Rome.

• Yet, some Romans remembered the devastation Carthage had brought to Italy and were angered by it’s return to prosperity. Romans were pushed to believe that Carthage must be destroyed.

• Between 146-149 B.C., the Romans laid siege to Carthage, set it afire, and sold it’s 50,000 inhabitants to slavery. The territory Carthage once held was made a new province of Africa.

Consequences of the Punic Wars

• Rome’s victories in the Punic wars gave it dominance over the western Mediterranean. The Romans went on to conquer the eastern half.

• They took control of Macedonia, Greece, and parts of Anatolia (modern day Turkey). By about 70 B.C., Rome’s Mediterranean empire stretched from Anatolia to the east to Spain in the west.

Roman Empire (Red and Orange)

Roman Empire

• As the Roman Republic grew, it had to contend now with increased wealth and power… and problems that it would soon face.

Questions

• If you have any questions, please ask now

Review

1. How did the plebeians begin to gain political power?

2. In what two ways was Rome believed to be founded (i.e.– the mythology v. the reality)?

3. How is the Roman concept of a dictator different than what we think of a dictator now?

4. Why did the plebeians want laws to be written down?

5. What is a republic? Is the United States a Republic? Why or why not?

6. How did Scipio prevent Hannibal from further attacking Rome? Explain your answer.

7. The Romans treated other conquered peoples fairly well. Why did you think they were so cruel to the Carthaginians?

Next lesson

• In the next lesson, we will be discussing the fall of the Republic and the growth of the Roman Empire.