Rome
- Geography
- Built on 7 rolling hills around the Tiber River, near the center of the Italian pininsula
- Midway point between the Alps and Italy's southern tip
- First Romans
- From 1000 to 500 BC, 3 groups inhabited the region and fought for control of it
- Latins, Greeks , Etruscans
- Latins built the original settlement at Rome. It was a cluster of wooden huts on top of one of the seven hills.
- Greek Influence
- Between 750 and 600 BC, Greeks established colonies along the southern part of Italy and Sicily
- Cities became very prosperous and commercially acitve
- They brought all of Italy, including Rome, into closer contact with Greek civilization
- Etruscans
- They were native to northern Italy
- Were skilled metal workers and engineers
- They were very influential in the development of Roman civilizations
- Romans adopted their alphabet
- Also they adopted some of their architecture especially the arch
- Republic
- Republic-is a form of government in which the power rests with citizens who have the right to vote for their leaders
- In Rome, citizenship with voting rights was granted only to free-born adult male landowners
- Patricians and Plebeians
- In the early republic, different groups of Romans struggled for power
- Patricians- the wealthy landowners who held most of the power
- Plebeians- the common person, but could still vote, usually farmers and merchants
- Patricians inherited their power and social status and claimed that they had the right to rule due to their ancestry
- They barred the Plebeians from holding high offices in the government
- In time, the leaders of Rome, allowed the Plebeians to form their own assembly and elect their own representative to protect their rights from the Patrician officials, they called this their tribunes-form of assembly.
Comments