Rise of ROME
Peoples of ItalyRome’s quintessential geographical location allowed for a diverse and prosperous society. The tiber river, located in the Latium region, provided the early Roman settlers with easy access to the Tyrrhenian sea. Also, Rome’s location was far enough inland to prevent any imminent susceptibility to pirates, and it could be easily defended because of its position on top of seven hills. Since it was situated at a place with no turbulent rapids, the river could be easily crossed making Rome a natural intersection of trade between north and south traffic in Italy. Since the Italian Peninsula was a crossroad between the eastern and western Mediterranean Sea due to its cumbersome jutting out into the sea, Rome was very much a predominant element in trade. Italy’s central location in the Mediterranean region made governing its surrounding providences much more feasible. There were three immigrant groups that populated the Italian Peninsula, two of which were extremely edifying cultural influences. The chronologically first group of immigrants were the Indo-European Latin people who settled in the plain of Latium on which the city of Rome is located. The Latins were sedulous herders and farmers who built huts on the tops of Rome’s seven hills. Next came in the Greeks in the “Age of Greek Colonization” as they settled in Southern Italy and two thirds of eastern Sicily, a location of infamous and vehement dispute between rome and the Carthaginians. The greeks cultivate olives and grapes, passed on their alphabet, and provided the Romans with artistic and cultural models through their sculpture, architecture, and literature. Next came the etruscans, settling in Etruria, a city North of Rome. They Etruscans progressively expanded into north-central Italy near the copiously fertile Po River Valley. The Romans adopted both Roman dress and military organization from the Etruscans.
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Roman RepublicTraditionally it is said that early rome was under the sovereign control of seven kings, two of the last three being of Etruscan dissent. It is incontrovertible that Rome fell under Etruscan influence during this time. However, in 509 B.C., the Romans overthrew the last Etruscan king and established a republic, a form of government in which the leaser is not a king and certain citizens have the right to vote. At the beginning of the new republic Rome was engage in perpetual warfare. Resolving to end this enervating conflict, Rome crushed the latin states in Latium and struggled fairies to conquer the people of the central Apennines, an engagement that ended in victory. These triumphant conquest gave Romans superiority over the Italian Peninsula. However, it also inauspiciously propelled them into direct contract with the Greek communities of southern Italy. By 264 B.C., the Romans has overcome the Greeks and completed their conquest of virtually all of Italy. The Romans subsequently devised a Roman Confederation, a system through which Roman citizenship was granted in exchange for military service. Romans were fervent believers in the idea that the success of their ancestors was derived from their convictions of utmost duty, courage and discipline. Roman Historians, namely livy, spread these virtues through accounts of different people, like the farmer, Cincinnatus, who was spontaneously made a powerful dictator. Also, the Romans were exceptional diplomats, allowing their states to run internal affairs. Although very prudent. they could also be brusque and firm, crushing seditious movements or disloyalty at they bud. Also, the Romans were skilled, persistent, and accomplished soldiers and the military commanders were brilliant strategist. Ultimately, the Romans were practical. Rather than discursively creating a precautionary government , the Romans created political institutions in response to problematic conflict.
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Roman PoliticsEnduring callous rule in the system of monarchy under the Etruscans, the Romans distrusted kingship and instead devised a different system of government. Rome was divided into two social classes: the plebeians and the patricians. The patricians were wealthy, opulent landowners who, unlike the plebeians, could be elected to governmental offices by the centuriate assembly. The plebeians, like the patricians, paid taxes, owed military service, and could vote, and this class was comprised of minor landholders, artisans, merchants, and small farmers. The chief executive officers of the Roman republic were the consuls and praetors. The consuls ran the government and sovereignly led the Roman army into battle while the praetor was in charge of civil law- law that applied exclusively to Roman citizens. The Roman senate was a discriminatory group of Roman patricians tasked with discernibly advising the government with the force of law. The Roman republic also encompasses several assemblies included the centuriate and the council of the plebs. The centuriate assembly, composed of aristocratic landowners, elected chief officials while the council of the plebs had virtually only nominal power. Exasperated by this unfair treatment, the indignant plebeians demanded social equality. New officials called tribunes of the plebs were given to protect the power of the plebeians, and in the fourth century B.C., plebeians were permitted to marry patricians and become consuls. Finally, in 287 B.C., the council of plebs received the right to pass laws for all Romans. Romans initial code of law was their rudimentary and unsophisticated Twelve Tables. This code was the inadequate product of an unpretentious farming society, and it proved insufficient to accommodate late Roman needs. The Romans then developed a more sophisticated system of equitable law. However, as this law on applied to Roman citizens, questions began to arise when non-Romans were implicated in cases. In response to this calamitous confusion, the Romans established the Law of Nations, a natural of universal law grounded in logic and reason, and these standards of justice applied to all people.A person is deemed innocent until proven unscrupulously guilty, and convicts were permitted to defend themselves before a judge.
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Roman Expansion
After punctiliously conquering all of Italy, the Romans were face to face with the last brutally domineering power of Mediterranean sea: the Carthaginians. Carthage was the largest and most affluent state in the Area as it preeminently influenced mediterranean trade. Their vehement hostility with the Carthage propelled them into a heated disupte over entitlement over Sicily. After Fortifying their navy through the construction of large fleets, the ROmans defeated the Carthaginian Navy off the coast of sicily, making sicily one of romesfirst provinces. In acrimonious retaliation for this, Carthage added new lands in SPain. After ROme encourgaged one of Carthages Spanish allied to reolt, Hannibal, a Carthaginian GEneral, struck back, and the second punic war commensed.Hannibal brough t the war to ROme crossing the treacherous Alps with an army including 37 elephants. THis hazardous journey was detrimental to the Carthaginian army, but those that survived posed a real threat to the Roman Empire. Eventually, in an ingenious military strategy, Rome invaded Carthage forcing the Carthaginnian to recall Hannibal from Southern italy. At the Battle of Zama, the romans, led by the valiant Scipio Africanus crushed Haninibal's forces , ending the Second punic war. In the third Punic war, the ROmans defeated carthage, a feat that was instigated by the conservative politician Cato who expressed his conviction to vanquish the Carthaginians. In the fourth macedonian War, the Romans conquered Macedonia as a province, and in 129 B.C., the Romans conquered Pergamum as their first provice in Asia. At the end of this period of perpetually callous conflict, the ROMans prevailed as the masters of the entire Mediterranean Sea!
Transition of Roman RepublicA republic is a governmental classification used to designate societies where the predominant leader is not a king, and certain citizens have the right to vote. In the Roman republic, those excluded from the multitude with voting suffrage were the subservient slaves. The transition from a republic to an empire was marked explicitly by Octavian. However, the origin of their evolution of government initially began with the first triumvirate, a government comprised of three people with equal power. The first triumvirate was composed of the valiant Julius Caesar, renowned for a military campaign in Spain, Crassus, venerated for his opulence, and Pompey, revered for his successes in Spain as a military hero. Following Crassus’ death in Syria, Caesar defeated Pompey’s forces, propelling him into the inauspicious position of dictatorship. During his dissension with Pompey, society had to withstand a prolonged period of barbaric civil war. However, a group of indignant and disgruntled senators resentfully assassinated Caesar. This death merely precipitated a second civil war period as a new struggle for power permeated the land. Octavian, Caesars heir, Lepidus, Caesars cavalry commander, and Antony, Caesars ally and assistant emerged as the second triumvirate. However, following Caesars death only two men divided the Roman world between them. Octavian, after conquering Antony’s army and navy at the battle of Actium in Greece, became the successor to the throne. Being awarded the reverently consecrated title of “Augustus” by the Senate and being called the “imperator” or commander in chief, Augustus was now the ruler of the Roman Empire. An empire is a political unit lead by one ruler that rules over surrounding conquered territories. In the new empire, Augustus renovated the military creating legions, auxiliary forces, and the praetorian guard. Also, now certain providences were given to the Emperor who assigned deputies called legates to govern them, and Augustus could overrule the senatorial governors.
Effects of Geography on Greek societyPhysical geography had significant impressions on Roman society. First, Rome’s quintessential location on the Tiber river, by the Northern po-river valley and in a Latium plain-based region was critical to the systematic agriculture success. Also, the river valley and Tiber river’s fertile soil deposits were crucial to their perpetual cultivation. Even in the less fertile mountainous regions around the Apennine Mountain range, the Greeks, with firsthand exposure to treacherous and precarious location of a mountain range, taught how to grow grapes and olives. Merchants greatly benefited by the location of Rome. Being the midpoint between the Northern and Southern frontiers of Italy and being located at a place of convenient crossing on the Tiber river, Rome was the natural crossing point for north-south traffic in western Italy. Also, since the peninsula protruded from southern Europe in the vast mediterranean sea area, it was the logical intersection of trade between the western and eastern Mediterranean sea. Also, after the conquering of Latium, the people in the central apennines, the Greeks in southern italy, siciliy in the first punic war, Spain in the second punic war, Carthage in the Third Punic war, Macedonia in the Fourth Macedonian war, and Pergamum in there final conquest and their first province in Asia, Rome was now the preeminent power in the Mediterranean Sea. Its central location in the Mediterranean helped military immensely in the rise of the Roman empire as it provided a medial position from which the government can operate. Also, the uncomplicated and unobstructed access to the Mediterranean held the military assertively fortify their barriers with the navy.
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Social Life in Rome
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Cites:
http://www.knowtheromans.co.uk/Categories/RomanGods/
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http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showthread.php?t=169257213
http://www.crystalinks.com/rome.html
http://www.history.com/news/history-lists/10-innovations-that-built-ancient-rome
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Forum_Romanum_Rom.jpg
https://romecitytours.com/bestofrometour.htm
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http://www.crystalinks.com/romeclasstructure.htm l
http://www.knowtheromans.co.uk/Categories/RomanGods/
http://www.buzzle.com/articles/zeus-family-tree.html
http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showthread.php?t=169257213
http://www.crystalinks.com/rome.html
http://www.history.com/news/history-lists/10-innovations-that-built-ancient-rome
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Forum_Romanum_Rom.jpg
https://romecitytours.com/bestofrometour.htm
http://www.roman-law.info/2016/01/concept-ius.html
http://www.crystalinks.com/romeclasstructure.htm l