Julius Caesar

We reviewed a little bit on the Gracchus brothers, talking about the Latifundia.

Notes
Proletarians-the lowest class of the Roman Citizens

With the changes in Rome's society and politics, the character of its armies and their commanders also changed. Instead of the farmer-soldiers of old, it was now landless and property less proletarians who were drafted to fill the ranks of the legions. This new type of soldier proved just as courageous and tough as the old one, and throughout the first century B.C., Rome's empire expanded faster than ever. But Rome's citizen-soldiers were now "semi professionals" who fought largely in the hope of bettering themselves through pay, loot, promotion, and above all grants of land or money to provide them with a living when they were discharged . And small farms for veterans were precisely what the senate had shown itself too greedy and shortsighted to provide.

Julius Caesar came from an old patrician family that had come down in the world, and he entered the city's politics as a young man determined to regain the fame and power of his ancestors. In 60 BC he began to collaborate with Pompey, an officer promoted by Sulla who had conquered many eastern Mediterranean lands. The two allies formed a triumvirate(three-man board), together with another former henchman of Sulla, Marcus Crassus, that was for a time the dominant political force in Rome.
Caesar won an appointment as proconsul of a province that included the southern regions of Gaul, a territory stretching all the way from northern Italy and the Mediterranean coast to the Rhine River and the Atlantic Ocean. The Gauls, as the inhabitants were called, were a branch of the Celtic peoples, the predominant barbarian ethnic group across most of western Europe and the British Isles.

Crassus had led an army to crushing defeat by the neighboring empire of Parthia, while Pompey had stayed in Rome, growing increasingly jealous of Caesar's success. Finally, with Pompey's support, the Senate ordered Caesar to disband his army and return to Rome.

Rubicon- A big decision that you make where you can't go back(in general)

Pompey was hastily commissioned to defend the Senate, but his forces were no match for Caesar's veterans. Forced to flee from Italy, Pompey was later defeated by Caesar in Greece and murdered in Egypt, where he had taken refuge. After subduing supporters of Pompey and other opponents, the Senate now hailed him, however reluctantly, the Father of the Fatherland- a title recently invented for the Republic's most admired statesman. The people's assemblies continued to exist, but they did little more than endorse Caesar's propels.

Caesar extended Roman citizenship to parts of Gaul and Spain and appointed citizens from the provinces to the Senate. He gave the Romans splendid public buildings and roads, and introduced reforms into every department of administration.

Roman legion

Mr. Schick explained the test coming up on Friday and he talked about the Roman Legion. He reviewed a little on the Punic wars too and talked about the 200 point project.


The roman legion would have 5000 soldiers. It contained cavalry and infantry. The Legion had groups of 80, every group was called a century.  

This has been such an educating blog, I know, but the project, and test study guide is already on Mr. Schick's blog. So....THE END      

Notes

I'm back after being sick all last week. Today we took notes on Rome and talked a little bit on the project that we have to present after we get back from break.

Gracchus Brothers
They thought that the rich should give land back to the people they took it from because they were out fighting in a war and the rich have enough money. They don't need more land.

Is this fair?
In one way, yes. The rich just came in, bought the land and just walked off. The man was out fighting in the war and could not take care of the land. When the man comes back, he'll have nothing. Giving the land back would be good because he'll have a home again.

In another way, no. The rich came in, gave the remaining part of the family on that land, money, got the land and said "See ya!" The rich should give the land back because even though they have lots money, losing it is still bad. If they just gave it back to them, it wouldn't be fair. It's kind of like they just game them money for no reason. If I bought land, I'm going to keep it.

 Latifundia-

a large landed estate or ranch in ancient Rome or more recently in Spain or Latin America, typically worked by slaves.

 

Punic wars

The three Punic Wars between Carthage and Rome took place over nearly a century, beginning in 264 B.C. and ending with the destruction of Carthage in 146 B.C. By the time the First Punic War broke out, Rome had become the dominant power throughout the Italian peninsula, while Carthage–a powerful city-state in northern Africa–had established itself as the leading maritime power in the world.

 

The Punic Wars (from Poeni, the Latin name for the Phoenicians) were waged on land and sea in three vicious rounds between 264 and 146 B.C.

 

First phase

-Rome was able to Carthage out of Sicily, but the North African city kept the rest of its empire.

 

Second

-The Carthaginian general Hannibal invaded Italy, defeated several roman armies, and brought Rome to the brink of defeat. But the loyalty of the Roman armies, the perseverance of their own forces, and their greater manpower, 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, Carthage was disarmed and helpless.

 

Third

Carthage was captured. In a final act of vengeance, the Senate ordered the city to be leveed, its people sold into slavery, and even the ground on which it had stood to be solemnly cursed. But this was only an epilogue to the main struggle. Already in 202 B.C., Rome had won control of the western Mediterranean.

Roman Scoiety

After getting our test back we had to write either about the Roman society, family, or government. And well..... Family

The community and family
Instead of devoting his life directly to the city-states, as in Sparta, a Roman man belonged first of all to a family and a clan(a group of families descended from a real or mythical forefather). Clans and families, in turn, were held together by fathers. In particular by men who had the status of paterfamilias or "family father." The family father wielded unlimited power, including the power of life and death over everyone in his household, as well as over sons and daughters who left his household upon marriage. Only his wife might not be completely subject to him, if she was still subject to authority of her own father.
      Roman community life was seen as a kind of family life on the larger scale. One of the Republic's most important deities, besides those worshipped on the Capitol, was Vesta, the goddess of hearth and home. In every household, the fire in the hearth was sacred to Vesta and was only put out if the family moved.
      Motherhood, too, was reveled in Rome. A married woman bore the title of matron(Latin word matron meaning "lady mother.") Her "Juno", the divine force of fertility and nourishment that she embodied, was worshipped in the household alongside her husband's genius. She was supposed to live in subordination to her husband, but through strength of personality and authority with her menfolk, she was also expected to contribute to the community as well the family.

Test

We took a test today on Greece. I thought it was pretty easy, not saying that I think I'll get a 100%, but I feel good bout this one. After the test we just sat around, doing homework and other stuff. I got in trouble for playing games which is ridiculous because we weren't doing anything, but its KOOL. I just kind of sat there for 45 minutes looking at a wall.

The fun yet creepy stories

 In the beginning of the class, we got to listen to Laura talk about some very random stories that I think Mr. Schick was very much into(sarcasm) and then we reviewed a lot for the test that we have soon, by looking at the worksheet that we have been taking notes on for like 3 weeks. Mr. Schick told stories about him getting his masters and pronouncing Hippolyta wrong, he told stories about Oedipus killing his father then sleeping with his mother. The list goes on with countless, 1 or 2, stories that he told. We talked about Aplasia, Isagoras, Xerxes, Cleisthenes, Oedipus, Delian League which lead to talking about Russia and the Ukraine, we talked about Salamis, and a little bit on Darius. By the way, I was sick yesterday and couldn't get to blogging, but I'm sure the class was fine.

Great day

So we went to the gym and worked on stuff, but the problem was.. the internet was slower than slow and it took like 30 minutes to get on my blogger. I reviewed a little bit for an upcoming quiz/test and then I worked on some other homework. I wish we could go to the auditorium because the seats would have been A LOT MORE COMFORTABLE. However, the good thing was that Sam was here.