Transcript File

I. THE LAND AND PEOPLES OF ITALY
The Italian peninsula juts out into the Mediterranean,
making it a natural stopping point for trade and travel.
Indo-Europeans moved into
Italy between 1500-1000 BC
Greeks settled in southern
Italy, bringing their culture,
their alphabet, and crops
(olives and grapes).
Etruscans had more impact
on the early development of
Rome.
People of Latium near Rome
were called Latins, thus the
language of “Latin.”
In 509 B.C., the Romans
overthrew the last Etruscan king
and established a republic.
By 264 BC, Rome had defeated
its neighbors and controlled
almost all of Italy.
To rule Italy, the Romans
devised the Roman
Confederation, allowing some
peopled, including Latins, to
have full Roman citizenship.
Others were given incentives by
which they could attain Roman
citizenship.
Roman Ideals as related by Roman historian Livy
Cincinnatus
• In 458 BC, Cincinnatus, who had been
consul in 460 BC, was plowing his
fields when messengers arrived to tell
him he had been named dictator to
defend the city.
• He took up the supreme command,
defeated Rome's enemies, and
returned to his farm, all within 16 days.
• Further, he refused the honors that
came with his military victories and
resigned his command.
• Who was the “American”
Cincinnatus?
• "With one hand he
returns the
Greek Influence
“Rome conquered Greece, but Rome was in turn
conquered by Greek culture.”
• Romans emulated Greek dress,
architecture, gods, warfare,
literature, poetry, drama, etc.
• The panoply of twelve Greek
gods (Zeus, Poseidon, Hermes,
Ares, Aphrodite, etc.) was
adopted by Rome and renamed
(Jupiter, Neptune, Mercury,
Mars, Venus, for example)
and our planets still bear their
names.
Reasons for the Rise of Rome
• Government: created political institutions in response
to problem.
• Romans were good diplomats
– Shrewd with granting citizenship
– allowed states to run their own internal affairs
• Rome excelled in military matters
– Accomplished soldiers
– Persistent (if lost a battle, fixed the problem)
• Built infrastructure
– Built roads to connect their colonies
– Public works (i.e. aqueducts)
II. THE ROMAN REPUBLIC
(509 BC)
(not a democratic republic)
Rome was divided into two groups:
~ Patricians - large landowners who
formed Rome’s ruling class and could be
elected the Senate.
~ Plebians - smaller landowning farmers,
craftspeople, and merchants.
Both groups were citizens and could vote,
but only the patricians could be elected to
office and intermarriage between the
groups was forbidden.
Structure of the Republic
•Senate: 300 Patricians who served for life
•Centuriate Assembly (also Patricians) who
elected:
• Consuls: ran the government and led the roman
army into battle (chosen each year).
•Praetors: acted as judges of civil law.
•Other various officials overseeing government
functions
•Roman Law:
• The Twelve Tables: code of laws (text p. 149)
•Included standards of justice such as:
• innocent until proven guilty
•rights of the accused to trial before a judge,
•judge must weigh evidence.
The Struggles of the Orders:
Plebians wanted political and social equality.
In 471 B.C. an assembly called the council of the plebs was created,
but wealthy patricians still dominated Roman political life.
Class Conflict in Rome
1. The plebeians wanted political and social equality.
2. Plebeians fought in the army to protect Rome.
3. Finally, in 471 B.C. a popular assembly called the council of the plebs was
created.
4. By the 4th century BC, plebeians could be consuls.
5. In 287 BC, the council of the plebs received the right to pass laws for all
Rome.
6. Despite these gains, wealthy patricians dominated Roman political life.
III. ROMAN EXPANSION
Rome fought Carthage, another strong Mediterranean power, three times.
What modern country is Carthage located in (p. A2 of text)?
1st Punic War (264-241 BC)
Rome sent troops to Sicily and defeated Carthage’s navy, forcing them
to give up the rights to Sicily in 241 B.C. Three years later, Rome
seized the islands of Sardinia and Corsica.
Carthage wanted REVENGE.
•
Hannibal was the Oldest Son of the Carthaginian General Hamilcar
Barca. The Roman historian Livy stated that Hannibal's father forced
his son to promise eternal hatred against the Romans after the first
Punic War.
•
Hannibal would lead a bold invasion of Italy in the Second Punic War.
2nd Punic War (218-202 BC):
• Hannibal crossed the Alps with
30,000-40,000 men and 6000
horses and elephants.
• He defeated the Romans in
several battles.
• Rome eventually pushed the
Carthaginians out of Spain under
the leadership of Scipio Africanus
the elder.
• In 204 B.C., Scipio led a Roman
army from Sicily into North
Africa and forced Hannibal to
return from Italy to face them in
Carthage.
• Scipio’s Romans defeated the
Carthaginians at the Battle of
Zama in 202 B.C., ending the 2nd
Punic War.
3rd Punic War (149-146 BC)
Carthage went to war against a Roman ally who had encroached on their land.
The Romans, led by Scipio Aemilianus Africanus the younger, stormed
Carthage, torched the city and killed or enslaved the remainder of Carthage's
population. The territory of Carthage became a Roman province called Africa.
Rome became Master of the Mediterranean.
Voice from the Past:
Roman Historian Sallust
• “But when our country had grown great through toil,
when great kings had been vanquished in war, when
Carthage, the rival of Rome’s sway, had perished root
and branch, then Fortune began to grow cruel. . . .
Hence the lust for power first, then for money, grew upon
them; these were, I may say, the root of all evils. For
greed destroyed honor, integrity, and all other noble
qualities. Ambition drove many men to become false; to
have one thought locked in the breast, another ready on
the tongue; to value friendships and enmities not on their
merits but by the standard of self-interest.”
IV. END OF ROMAN REPUBLIC (Section 2 in text)
After the Punic Wars, large estates owned by patricians (latifundia)
dominated farming, driving small plebian farmers out of business.
Leaders who tried to pass laws returning land to the poor (Tiberius and
Gaius Gracchus) were killed by conservative patrician senators. Poor
people grew angry and restless.
From 82 B.C. to 31 B.C. ,
Rome suffered through civil wars
Three men emerged victorious - Crassus, Pompey, and Julius Caesar and combined their power to form the First Triumvirate in 60 B.C.
Caesar was popular, but needed a strong army to remain in power.
He conquered Gaul, gaining control of the area of modern-day France.
When Crassus was killed, Caesar defeated Pompey and became dictator in 45 B.C.
Caesar gave land to the poor and expanded the Senate, filling it with his supporters.
A group of leading opposition senators assassinated Caesar in 44 B.C.
A power struggle ensued after Julius Caesar’s
death.
•A Second Triumvirate emerged:
•Octavian -Caesar’s heir and grandnephew
•Antony -Caesar's ally and assistant
•Lepidus -commander of Caesar's cavalry
•Eventually, they fought one another.
•Octavian defeated Antony and Cleopatra at
the naval battle of Actium in 31 B.C.
The civil wars ended and the Roman Republic
was no more.
A new period of Roman history known as the
Age of Augustus began in 31 B.C.
Rome shifted from Republic to Empire.