April 30th

Today in West Civ we watched a film on Nero the Roman Emperor. He is a personal favorite of mine because he is mentally crazy and sometimes acts like a 5 year old. He also made Rome really pretty even if he had to rob some temples in the process.

April 29

THE ROMAN EMPIRE

• senate kills Caesar by stabbing him 23 times 
• the senate told Caesar that they needed to have a meeting on the ides of march and killed him
• the people in the senate in on the plot stabbed him so they all had "blood on their hands"
• Octavian- AKA Caesar Augustus was Julius Caesar's Grand nephew who took over at the age of 18

Augustus- the first emperor- getting it done

• Begins the Pax Romana - a period of peace and prosperity
• Built roads, aqueducts (brought waters to the cities)
• Set up civil service to take care of roads, the grain supply, even a postal service
• Augustus dies at age of 76 in A.D. 14, and passes power to

From Jesus to Christianity

• Jesus was a Roman citizen and a practicing Jew
• At 30, he began his ministry (A.D. 31- 33), preaching to the poor (and there were lots of them) in the empire, and reading out to outsiders
• Statements like "My kingdom is not of this world" made the Romans (and the Jews) nervous, and they began to plan his execution
• The governor of the roman province of Judaea, Pontius Pilate (prompted by Jewish high priests), sentences Jesus to death by crucifixion
• For somebody who is such a huge figure in the world today during his lifetime he wasn't a big deal

The word spread about the risen Jesus

• Paul is instrumental in telling the world about Jesus' life, death, resurrection, and message

April 28th

Today we talked about Julius Caesar and his influence in Rome. He was a cool guy who did a lot of good stuff for the poor and was feared by a lot of people.

April 23rd

Today we saw some AMAZING projects. If it wasn't the over the top food it was that amazing letters or the presentation on how The United States could decline like Rome. I am excited to present Friday and can't wait to see the great projects then too!

April 22nd

Today in class people presented their projects. I really enjoyed the food and the information I learned today! I can't wait to see what happens tomorrow!

Notes

• For the Romans the conquest of the western Mediterranean meant an increase in military power  
• In the previous 250 years, from 500 B.C. to the outbreak of the Punic wars , the Romans had unified most of Italy; in the next 250 years, they would spread their rule from the eastern Mediterranean to the British Isles
• But even before the final defeat of Carthage, venturesome Romans were looking also to the eastern Mediterranean of for new areas to exploit
• Rome's first involvement was in Greece, and it grew out of a special invitation.
• Around 200 B.C., ambassadors from various Greek city-states appealed to Rome for aid in resisting the king of Macedonia, who had allied with Carthage.

Notes

• Myth of Rome is that the settled on a land that was ruled by Reins and Romulus which were raised by a she-wolf (check Wikipedia)
• woman was a virgin and conceived by the god
• twins left to die in the Tiber and were rescued and raised by a she-wolf
• Twins went on to find Rome and rule

• big conflict that went on for centuries was between the rich and the poor - not necessarily actual fighting
• The Gracchus brother were elected to the assembly and they always tried to make thing better for the poor in Rome
• Time of war everyone fought rich and poor- unless you have a physical ailment
• you may be fighting for 5-10 years
• Families carried on to work the farm (wives and children)
• rich older people unable to fight would try to swoop in and buy the farm, this happened a lot
• Rich people were able to have massive acres of land were the sellers would still work on the farm
• Gracchus brothers didn't think that this was right and made a concept that stated the rich were already exceedingly rich and made farms called latifundia. You have more land than you need so give some of the land back to the poor
• Latifundia was huge acres of land that the rich owned
• In the end the Gracchus brothers appealed and the law was vetoed at first then the Gracchus brothers won and on of the members of the senate beat one of the brothers to death with a chair and threw him in the Tiber river then the law was overturned
• People believe that America is going done the same road as Rome
• Big cooperation's buy out small farmers who can't make it
• Punic wars
• Roman methods of conquest and administration paid handsome dividends, for by 250 B.C., all of Italy south of the River Po was in Roman hands. This success brought Rome into collision with a rival city-state beyond the sea: Carthage, on the north coast of Africa.
• Founded about 700 B.C. by Phoenician colonist Carthage had become a oligarchic and empire-building republic similar to Rome and spread its influence across North Africa, southern Spain, Sardinia, Corsica, and Sicily
• The Romans inherited the struggle with Carthage when they agreed to protect their Greek allies. But ultimately what was at stake was the command of the whole Mediterranean Sea
• The Punic Wars were waged on land and sea in three vicious rounds between 264 and 146 B.C.
• In the first phase of the struggle, after many years of exhausting warfare, Rome was able to force Carthage out of Sicily, but the North African city kept the rest of its empire
• In the second ( and decisive) phase, the Carthaginian general Hannibal invaded Italy, defeated several Roman armies and brought Rome to the brink of defeat, But the loyalty of Rome's allies, the perseverance of their own forces, and their greater man power -- for they were able to draw citizen and allied soldiers from all of Italy, while Carthage relied on smaller mercenary armies -- enabled them to triumph.
• At the end of the second Punic war in 202 B.C., Carthage was disarmed and helpless
• Rome provoked a third war, and in 146 B.C., Carthage was captured after bitter fighting
• The senate ordered the city to be leveled, its people sold into slavery, and even the ground on which it had stood to be solemnly cursed
• In 202 B.C., Rome had won control of the western Mediterranean
• The former possessions of Carthage in Sicily, Spain , and Africa became the first Roman provinces
• proconsuls: governors --- from the Latin words for "stand in for a consul"
• The provinces paid tribute to the Roman state, contributed "auxiliary" units of Calvary and light infantry to the Roman forces, and provided opportunities for influential Roman citizens to build up private fortunes
• It was not until the time od Augustus after 27 B.C., that the provinces began to share in the benefits of Roman Order
• In addition, some local rulers survived by becoming client kings, bound to Rome by ties of allegiance and support like those between Roman patrons and clients, through the first century A.D.
• Punic from Poeni, the Latin name for the Phoenicians
• In the first phase of the struggle, after many years of exhausting warfare.

Class Notes 4/4

The Romans not only imitated Greek Civilization but also improved on it, at least so far as government is concerned.

They arrived in a Mediterranean land with farming resources that were basically similar to those of Greece or Palestine, but able to support a larger population

The Etruscans were non-Indo-European immigrants who arrived in Italy from somewhere to the east about the ninth century b.c.

the Greek city-states had begun to plant colonies in southern Italy as early as the eighth century b.c. and these spread northward up the coast almost to the borders of Latium

Under the influence of the Etruscans and the Greeks, the Romans acquired the skills that enabled them to build their unique political institutions

The King was advised by a council of elders called the Senate (from the Latin senex, meaning "old man"

patricians or "men with fathers" -- that is, with fathers who already belonged to the hereditary group of leading families

When a king died, his successor was chosen by the senate from among its own members, subject to approval, however, was automatic, for apart from the king, it was the senate and the patricians who dominated the city- state

Around 500 b.c. Rome overthrew its Etruscan rulers, and the monarchy was also abolished. The government of the Roman city-state became officially the "people's business"

The result, however, was a system of government that was neither a Greek-style democracy nor an oligarchy, but a mixture of both

The consuls had veto power over each other

plebeians (from the Latin plebs, meaning "the common people"

Republic, the "people's Business" was in practice run by the senate an assembly of about three hundred heads of patrician families.

Two among the senators functioned as consuls (colleagues), wielding for a year at a time the military and government power that had formerly belonged kings.

At times of crisis the senate voted one of the consuls the dictator for a six month period

Etruscan government ruled from 535-509 b.c.

The one-year terms of consuls, and the fact there were two of them (each empowered to veto the other's lawmaking proposal)

The romans were so eager to avoid this possibility that the practice grew up of appointing two or more men for one-year terms to every magistracy (public office)

Among the chief complaints of the plebian was that they lacked legal protection. Before the fifth century b.c. there has been no written code of law. Instead, the sacred traditional

Class Notes 4/2

• the Latin's settled first in Italy(Rome)
• They settled on the shores of Tiber
• Mediterranean means middle of the earth 
• The most educated people thought that the Mediterranean was the middle, best focus of the earth
• They thought that the gods gave Italy the location that they had because they were destined to rule
• Italians thought they were the best people ever. They were ambitious and arrogant.
• They drained swaps to build their towns on top and drained them into the Tiber
• Washington D.C. is built on some swap but no as many swaps as Rome
• Tarquin the Proud was a harsh leader who the people wanted to get rid of. They remove him from office and find them in the same position as Greece. They decide to set up a government like the Greeks but a little different. They rolled three different governments together and called it the Republic. Democracy, Aristocracy, and monarchy were the three leading ways they lead but not just one. 
• The United States are like the Ancient Romans. Executive is like the Monarchy, the president is the closest thing to a King the USA has.
• Aristocracy were the rich people and they were in a group called the senate, the US has a senate and the name is no coincidence they took the name from the Romans. The senate and 2 per state no more no less no matter what state. Every person in the senate is a multi-millionaire.
•  Democracy is the House of Reps, there are 438 people in the House. You must run every 2 years. The reps are numbered by population.  
• In Washington D.C. the columns were modeled after Roman Architecture.
• In a democracy in Greece they voted on everything you had to do. In Ancient Rome and US we elect people to vote for us because we would vote everyday and have no time to do anything else.
• America was founded in 1776
• Res Publica is a Latin word the business of the people
• plebian was common person met at assembly
• Rome love to have slaves, slaves were at the bottom of social chart
• patricians were the aristocrats met at the senate
• consuls were like presidents and Rome had 2
• if someone tried to get more power individually and they referred to Tarquin
• Has two consuls to keep an eye on each other