Punic Wars:
- Series of 3 wars
- Rome vs. Carthage
- 1st war - over control of Sicily
- 2nd war – when Hannibal became general of Carthage and he wanted to avenge first defeat. Hannibal attempted a sneak attack thru the alps to attack and capture Rome
- 3rd war – Scipio attacked Carthage and Hannibal retreated and fought back at native city
- Hannibal (Carthage general for 2nd/3rd wars) tried elephant warfare using elephants to stomp through opposing army
- Rome defeated Carthage in all 3 wars – each war was harder for them to win though
- War 1-2, Rome was on the defensive. War 3- Aggressor in the war
- Key players – Hannibal (C) Scipio (R) & Cincinnatus (R)
Lasting Effects:
- Showed Mediterranean civilizations that Rome was dominant force
- By 70 BC, Rome had conquered a lot of land around Mediterranean Coast
Roman Republic:
- Shortly after victories in Punic Wars, the quick/rapid expansion began to hurt Roman empire
- Land was going to large estates, and small farmers not making any money/out of jobs
- One of the reasons that led to civil war
Julius Caesar:
- Another civil war broke out due to his death
- Debate info
Avengers of Caesar:
- Octavian, Mark Antony, Lepidus avenged Caesar and became the 2nd triumvirate
- Even jealousy here, Octavian forced Lepidus to retire his power
- Octavian and Mark Antony became rivals
- Mark Antony fell in love with Cleopatra and followed her to Egypt
- Leaving Octavian to be sole leader of Rome
Augustus:
- The term given to Octavian meaning “exalted one”
- Rome was at the peak of its power and at peace thru out Augustus’ Rule and even to 180 AD
- Pax Romana – “Roman Peace”
Rome’s Agriculture
- Used geometric system to lay out crops
- Used crop rotation
- Full of mountains so sometimes it was very hard to farm
- Sometimes had to import food because of mountains
- After conquering Egypt, able to import lots of wheat
- Most of crops raised on large estates called latifundias
- Good amount of rain for crops during winter, so had to be saved for summer planting
- Realized that they were over-farming & causing soil depletion so one of first civilizations to use manure to revitalize soil
- Cicero considered farming the best of all Roman occupations
- Farms were small and family owned
- The main crop was wheat, and bread was present during almost every meal
- Unfortunately by end of empire, used up most of the land
- Majority of work done on the farm was by slaves and servants
- Farms created main source of income for Romans
- Cows provided mile, oxen and mules did a lot of the heavy work, Sheep and goats were used as cheese producers
- Sugar productions were centered around beekeeping.
- Some farmers raised snails as luxury food
- Certain types of food were given out to the public for free (corn, wheat)
- Since Roman Empire stretched through a lot of land, there were different climates to allow a mixture of crops produced
- Agriculture was basis of survival!
- The more land a person owned, the more important they were in the city.
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