Alex's Western Civilization Blog

- 18-year-old Octavian takes over after Caesar's death - Octavian has his triumvirate which consists of him, Mark Antony, and Lepidus; this is the second triumvirate - Octavian eventually forces Lepidus to retire and he becomes rivals with Mark Antony -Mark Antony m ilitarily, p ersonally, p olitically, and e conomically partners with Cleopatra of Egypt, but Octavian defeats them at Battle of Actium - Octavian becomes the unchallenged ruler of Rome; now Rome is an empire, not a republic - imperator --> supreme military commander (where the word emperor comes from) - Octavian rules the empire for 40 years (27 BC to AD 14) - He began the Pax Romana ( a stable era of peace and prosperity) which was 207 years long (27 BC to AD 180) - Some of Octavian's accomplishments were expanding the Roman Empire further into Africa and setting up a civil service to run the government/empire - He died of natural causes - After Octavian’s death, power was passed down to emperors - T

I will be taking the test on June 2 at 1:25 - 2;:15 pm, and I'm in section Honors 201. - Two things that will keep the plebs from revolting:  bread (free grain from the state) and entertainment (Circus Maximus, Colosseum); partly to keep them alive and partly to keep them quiet/distracted - Tiberius Gracchus saw the advantages of courting the plebians, so the military generals worked at the angle - The angle was to  lead an army that conquers a land, then give them a share in the spoils - Julius Caesar (100 - 44 BC): a highly successful general and conquered the territory of Gaul - Caesar knew how politics work; make common folks happy and make friends in high places - Caesar, Pompey, and Crassus formed the First Triumvirate - All of Caesar's soldiers were devoted to him; Caesar had self-locomotion - Caesar serves one year as consul and appoints himself governor of Gaul - Pompey soon becomes jealous of Caesar and becomes his rival - Caesar's and Pompey's armie

My essay choice is  C.  Describe how the creation of the Roman Empire transformed the Roman government, society, economy, and culture.

- Rome's increasing wealth and expanding boundaries brought many serious problems such as discontent among the lower classes of society and a breakdown in military order; these problems lead to the republic - The rich started buying large farm estates which made it hard for smaller farmers to compete making a lot of them jobless and homeless - Two tribune brothers named Tiberius and Gaius Gracchus tried to help Rome's poor by proposing reforms as limiting the size of estates and giving land to the poor  - Their helping of the poor gave them lots of enemies which resulted in both of them being killed (Tiberius in 133 BC) (Gaius in 121 BC). - After their deaths, civil war broke out in Rome - In 60 BC military leader Julius Ceasar joined forces with Crassus and Pompey - For the next 10 years, Rome was dominated by these three leaders - They were in a triumvirate: a group of three rulers - Caesar lead  a successful campaign to conquer all of Gaul during 58-50 BC. - Pompey

The Punic Wars were fought between Rome and Carthage in Rome. There were three different wars. The First Punic War was  264 - 241 BCE and it was naval battles for control of the strategically located island of Sicily; Rome won. The Second Punic War was 218 - 201 BCE. The Carthaginian general Hannibal almost takes Rome by attacking Rome from the north after crossing Iberia and the Alps. He lays siege to much of the peninsula for 15 years, but he never can get to Rome; Rome wins again. The third and final Punic War was 149 - 146 BCE. Rome wanted to finally remove the threat of Carthage. Carthage was burned for 17 days, the city walls and buildings were destroyed. W hen the war ended, the last 50,000 people in the city were sold into slavery. T he rest of Carthage’s territories were annexed and made into the Roman province of Africa. The slaves were poured into Italy and by the end of the second century BCE, there were over a million slaves in Italy. The small farmers lost their land to a

Tarquin seized power like an old school tyrant, and its problem has something to do with his crazy family history. Tarquin's grandfather, the fifth king, dies and his widow's name is Servius Tullius. Servius Tullius has two daughter's and one of his daughter's names is Tullia and she kills her husband and her sister so she could marry Tarquin. Tulia convinces Tarquin to steal the power from her father, Servius Tullius who was king at the time. Tarquin sits and the throne and declares himself king but Servius Tullius objects to this, but this doesn't stop Tarquin from throwing him down on the street and having him assassinated. Tarquin refuses to bury the dead king's body and kills anyone who disagrees with him. Crazy must run in the family because of years later Tarquin's son Sextus forces himself on a matron but she refuses and he threatens to kill her. He ends up blackmailing her which leads to her suicide. Tarquin tried to hide the situation, but the peop

- The Etruscans were Rome settlers who were coming from the north-central part of the peninsula; most of their jobs were metalworkers, artists, and architects - Etruscans had 2 foundation myths: Virgil's Aeneid and the story of Remus and Romulus - The Greeks also settled in Rome; they had many colonies around the Mediterranean Sea - The Romans ended up adopting a lot of Greek ideas such as their religious beliefs, their alphabet, a lot of their art, and military techniques and weapons - The first settlers in Rome were the Latins; they descended from the Indo-Europeans - When they got there, they settled on the banks of the Tiber; they were situated so trading ships, not war fleets, could navigate no further than Rome - They built on the seven hills; Remus wanted Aventine and Romulus chose Palatine - There many streams that flowed into the Tiber and there was a marsh area called the Forum, between Palatine and Capitoline Hills - Lucius Tarquinius Superbus (aka Tarquin the Pr

I thought that Chi Cago was put together really well. I think that the rap flowed pretty nicely and was on the beat. The only problem I had with it was that I feel like I wasn't able to hear everything that was said because, but that's okay because I had the lyrics to look at. The rap brought up some topics that we have already learned about such as patricians, plebeians, and the Ides of March, but it also brought up stuff that we haven't learned yet, so I thought it was good to hear about new things. Overall, I think that it's a pretty good rap and I learned some new things about Rome.

Before the Twelve Tables, the plebeians, the commoners, didn't have many rights. Although they didn't have many rights, plebeians made up most of the population at the time. After a while, the plebeians got tired of not having a say in things. In 490 BC they plebeians stood up to the patricians demanding that they get some some, the patricians didn't budge. This causes the Conflict of Orders, a political struggle over power and say in Ancient Rome. The plebeians weren't planning on giving up their fight so they decided to have mass protests and threatened the patricians with their large armed force. The patricians finally had enough and gave them some power, giving them the Tribune of Plebs and having a say in legal matters. In 451 BC, ten Roman officials wrote down the Roman laws on wooden tablets and put them up at the forum, these laws are known as the Twelve Tables. Later on they changed the tablets to be bronze so they would last longer. The Twelve Tables were made

The image an architectural landmark from Rome that I chose is the Trevi Fountain. In the center of the fountain there are many statues of different figures which include  Oceanus, two horses, a Triton, Goddess Abundance, and the Goddess of Health. It's Romes most famous and largest fountain, with it being 85 feet high and 65 feet wide. Each day it spills approximately  2,823,800 cubic feet of water each day. It was designed by Nicola Salvi and is made up of mostly travertine stone.