Last Day of Notes

Here our the notes we took today..

• Poor Plebs
• How do you keep the Plebs happy?
• The poet Juvenal said the people "anxiously hope for 2 things: bread and circuses."
• Bread (free grain from the state) and entertainment (Circus Maximus, Colosseum), partly to keep them alive, and partly to keep them quiet.
• A Change in Rule
• Tiberius Gracchus recognized the advantages of courting the Plebeians (even though he was ultimately unsuccessful.
•  Military generals worked that angle-lead an army that conquers a land, then give them a share in the spoils.
• Soldiers' loyalty was to their military leader, not necessarily to Rome or the Republic.
• Nobody did that better than Caesar
• Julius Caesar (100-44 BCE).
• A highly successful general.
• He conquered the huge territory of Gaul.
• He Could Play the Game of Politics
• Made common folks happy.
• Made friends in high places.
• Pompey (a general who conquered Syria and Palestine).
• Crassus (the richest man in Rome, one of the richest men in all of history).
• These 3 men formed the first Triumvirate ("rule of three men").

POP QUIZ!

Today in class, we had a pop quiz! Honestly it was pretty hard because i didn't remember a lot of it but i believe i still got an 80%. There were 10 questions and we had 10 seconds for each question which is not a lot of time. I hate working on quizzes in a short period of time because i usually like to take my time on test and quizzes and look it over. Hopefully it wont bring my grade down to much... Anyways, Ticker and I are almost done our project but we still have to write a paper about it. All of this will get done. I'm excited to see what other groups did too!

Start of the Video Today in Class

Today in class we took notes on the BBC movie about the rise and fall of Ancient Rome. Here are the notes.

• Tiberius Gracchus
• He led a whole revolution and changed Rome forever.
• He came in  the movie when the third Punic war ended.
• After 6 days of fighting, the Carthaginians surrendered.
• Tiberius got the golden crown for climbing the Carthaginian walls first.
• The growing gap between the rich and poor caused trouble in Rome.
• Too many slaves.
• Octavius and Tiberius were friends but after Octavius took the farm from the ordinary people, Tiberius was unsettled.
• Latifundia was the word for when the aristocrats seized farm after farm.
• New Mantines are who Tiberius and his father fought.
• Rome lost this battle.
• Roman army was surrounded by barbarians.
• Tiberius was the only one who got picked to negotiate with the barbarians (New Mantines).
• Senate was angry at Tiberius leader and Tiberius, but only Tiberius's leader suffered. 

Going over the Roman Project

Today in class, we had a substitute today. He was very nice and had interesting comments. We got together and worked on our projects. are going to work on the project more tomorrow at my house. Sammi and Callie are going to work on the poster board on Saturday or Sunday i believe. I'm excited to learn about this and have fun during the process of building the Roman Parthenon. I cant wait to share the piece with our class.

First day on the BBC Video

Today in class, everyone watched a Roman BBC video on their computer. Honestly it was very interesting. It started out with Tiberius's son who was a leader in war. He was with the republic and disagreed with the idea of the aristocrats tasking farm-land from the ordinary people. The movie portrayed real events and explained the ideas of it clearly. I'm excited to watch more of that video and excited to learn more about the leaders and other important people to Ancient Rome. Its crazy how they impacted the world to what it is today!

Notes 5/6/15

Here are the notes from today....

• Roman Legion
• 5,000 soldiers, not in it for pay (not yet).
• The Roman army's elite, heavy, infantry.
• Recruited exclusively from Roman citizens.
• Group of eighty's a century.
• On horseback is the cavalry.
• Shield, sword, dagger, and armor and tunic.
• Carthage in the Punic war
• The Punic Wars (264-146 BCE)
• Rome vs Carthage
• 3 wars.
• 2 Empires Fighting for Control
• First Punic war (264-241 BCE).
• Naval battles for control of the strategically located island of Sicily. 
• Rome wins this one.
• The Carthaginian Empire Strikes Back
• 2nd Punic War (218-201 BCE)
• 29-year-old Carthaginian leader, Hannibal almost does the impossible: taking Rome.
• Attacks Rome from the North after crossing Iberia (Spain) and the Alps.
• Lays siege to much of the peninsula for 15 years, but he could never get to Rome.
• Third and Final war (149-146 BCE)
• Rome wanted to finally remove the threat of Carthage.
• Scipio, Tiberius Gracchus, and others mercilessly attacked the city.
• Carthage was burned for 17 days; the city's walls and buildings were utterly destroyed.
• When the war ended, the last 50,000 people in the city were sold into slavery.
• The rest of the Carthage's territories were annexed, and made into the Roman province of Africa.
• Total Destruction; End of an Empire
• Marcus Portius Cato the Elder was a politician who ended every speech by saying, "Delenda Carthage est," which means "Carthage must be destroyed." He got his wish.
• Economic Change; Social Upheaval
• Slaves poured into Italy (50,000 Carthaginians, 150,000 Greek prisoners of war).
• By the end of the 2nd century BCE, there were over a million slaves in Italy.
• Small farmers lost their land to aristocrats (for little or no money) if they couldn't pay their debts, sometimes because the men of the farm were fighting battles.
• Slaves did the work on the farms for the rich.
• The big farms became massive estates called latifundia.

More Notes 5/4/15

Today in class we took more notes on the power point. We learned about the plebeians and patricians a little more. Also we compared the judicial, legislative, and executive branch from Ancient Rome to the Old USA. Its crazy how similar our government was and still is to the Roman government. Also we talked about how the plebeians stopped going to war for the patricians. The plebeians wanted to see the laws and the patricians finally gave in and let the plebeians know the laws so they could stop getting arrested for something they didn't know what they were getting arrested for.