Ancient Rome

1. Ancient Rome Mr. Williamson

2. Describe the Republican Form of Government in ancient Rome.

3. Before the Republic • Rome continued to grow under the Etruscans, until Tarquin the Proud, the seventh and last Roman king, came to power.  He was a cruel ruler who ignored the Senate and terrorized the people. • In 509 B. C., the people rebelled against him and finally sent him into exile. • The Roman people decided that they would never again be ruled by a king.

4. Early RomanRepublic • When the last Etruscan king was thrown out of Rome in 509 B.C., Roman leaders decided to begin a very new form of government - a republic. In a republic, citizens elect leaders to run their government.  • In Rome, the leaders chosen to replace the king were called consuls.  These consuls were elected by a group of ordinary citizens known as an assembly, and the consuls were given advice by a group of rich people known as the Senate.  • Although the citizens elected their own representatives, the Roman Republic was not a democracy because not every citizen had equal power.

5. Roman Senate • The Senate was composed of leaders from the patricians, the noble and wealthy families of ancient Rome. They were the law makers. They controlled spending. • Members of the Senate were not elected. They were chosen by the Consuls. Once chosen, they served for life. • There were 300 seats in the Senate. When a seat opened, a new Senator was selected by the current Consuls. 

6. Roman Assembly • The Assembly was composed of all the plebeiancitizens of Rome, the common man. The Assembly did not have a building. It was the right of the common man to assemble in the Forum and vote.  • In the beginning, the Assembly had very limited power. They could vote for or suggest laws, but the Senate could block their decisions. • The Assembly could vote to declare war, but again, the Senate could override them. 

7. Roman Assembly • However, the Assembly had one power that was very impressive - it was the Assembly who voted each year on which two members of the Senate would serve as Consuls. • As a noble, if you wanted to rise to the level of Consul, the highest position in government under the Republic, you needed to gain the support of the plebeian class. • Since it was the Consuls who filled empty seats in the Senate, if the Assembly chose their Consuls well, they could slowly gain power in government by putting people in charge who were sympathetic to their needs.

8. Early RomanRepublic • As citizens, both patricians and plebeians had the right to vote.  • However, only patricians had the right to hold any political, military or religious offices.  • All power was in the hands of the patricians.

9. Plebeians Demand Change! • By 494 B.C., the plebeians had suffered long enough. They left  Rome and formed their own assembly, which was known as the Council of Plebeians. They also elected their own leaders, who were called tribunes. Tribunes were to protect plebian rights. • Patricians knew that Rome could not survive without plebeians. Who would do the work? Who would protect the Republic from enemy attacks? The patricians had no choice but to let the plebeians keep their tribunes. • The plebeians could vote against any unjust law passed by the Senate. Next, the plebeians demanded that the laws be changed . Rome’s laws had never been written down. The plebeians believed that patrician judges took advantage of this fact to rule unfairly against plebeians.

10. Plebeians Gain Rights • Finally in 450B.C. the laws were engraved on 12 bronze tablets called the Twelve Tables. The tablets were then displayed in the Forum, so all citizens could see the rights given to them, though few could actually read them. • During the 300’s B.C., the plebeians gained more and more rights.  Plebeians could now become priests in the Roman religion. Debt bondage was outlawed. Eventually plebeians could even become members of the Senate.

11. Plebeians Gain Equal Rights • But the plebeians and patricians still held their meetings in different places. The laws passed by the patrician senate applied to everyone. However, the laws passed by the plebian assembly applied only to plebeians • The plebeians demanded that the laws passed by their assembly apply to all citizens. • Once again, the plebeians forced the issues by leaving  Rome. This time the Patricians gave in and in 287 B.C. agreed to meet the demands of the plebeians.  Plebeians and patricians were finally equal under Roman laws.

12. Describe the Impact of the Roman Republic on ancient Romans

13. Two Classes • Patricians-The patricians were the upper class, the nobility and wealthy land owners. • Plebeians- The plebeians were the lower class. Nicknamed "plebs“ derived from plere, 'to fill up', the plebeians included everyone in ancient Rome (except for the nobility, the patricians) from well-to-do tradesmen all the way down to the very poor.

14. Patricians • Both classes could vote • Only Patricians could hold important positions in the military, government, or religious sectors (in early Republic) • Power rested in the hands of the Patricians

15. Plebeians • Some Plebeians were wealthy and believed that they should have the same rights as the Patricians. • Poor plebeians believed that the system was unfair. • Plebeians had fewer rights than the patricians they still had to serve in the army and pay taxes to the very people who oppressed them.

16. Women • Women citizens could not vote or take part in the government although they were protected by Roman laws.    • However, women could discuss matters with their husbands and attempt to influence their decisions. • Women’s guardian, her husband or father, had complete control over her activities. In most families, women could shop, visit a temple, or chat in public. But she could not participate in government. • Few women wanted additional rights.           

17. Women • During the 500 years that Rome was an Empire, women gained considerable freedom. • Under the Empire, it became legal for women to own land, run businesses, free slaves, make wills, inherit wealth, and get a paid job.  • Women were still considered to be under the guardianship of her father or husband. 

18. Slaves • Slaves which were war captives, were owned by citizens and had no rights. • Slaves were at the mercy of their masters and could be beaten or tortured. • Slaves could be set free or buy freedom

19. Provincials • Provincials who lived in territories conquered by Rome, citizens of Roman states and Roman allies could be given Roman citizenship. • To receive Roman citizenship Provincials had to speak Latin, worship in the manner the emperor chooses, and pay taxes.

20. How the Roman Republic is Related to Current Forms of Government

21. How the Roman Republic is Related to Current Forms of Government • Like Rome’s, the United States’ government is a republic, where citizens vote for other citizens who represent them in the government. • The ancient Roman republic was a model our “founding fathers” used to develop our modern Republic. • The “founding fathers” took several ideas from the Roman republic in the creation of our modern republic (see next slides).

22. How the Roman Republic is Related to Current Forms of Government • Checks and Balances- system to control the power so one branch doesn’t become more powerful than another. This was an important element of the Roman republic. • For example, The consuls were in charge of government and also of the army. • Only the Assembly could approve or disapprove of one of their laws and only the assembly elected Candidates for the office of consul. • The modern US constitution is based on these basic concepts of checks and balances within the ancient government of the Roman Republic. Whether it be the President, the Congress, or the courts, none can dominate the government.

23. How the Roman Republic is Related to Current Forms of Government • Veto – “I forbid” - action to stop passage of laws. • The Roman consuls and tribunes used veto power to no. The two consuls could block a military or civil decision by the other; any tribune had the power to refuse laws passed by the Roman Senate. • The writers of the Constitution gave the president the right to veto laws although that veto can be overridden by the vote of two-thirds of the House and Senate.

24. How the Roman Republic is Related to Current Forms of Government • Voting - The Romans voted to choose their leaders, the way we vote for United States President and Congress do today. • In the beginning of the United States only certain male property owners had the right to vote. The “founding fathers” followed these rules from ancient Rome. • Remember in ancient Rome, only men had the right to vote and only landowners could serve in the Senate.

25. How the Roman Republic is Related to Current Forms of Government • The idea of Bicameralism came from the ancient Romans. • Bicameralism means consisting of two legislative chambers – upper and lower Houses. • The Upper House in ancient Rome was the Senate and in the US it is also the Senate. • The Lower House – in ancient Rome was the Assembly and in the US it is the House of Representatives.

26. How the Roman Republic is Related to Current Forms of Government • The Roman Legal System gave us the Professional Lawyers, Rules of Evidence, Rights of Defendants, and concept that one is innocent until proven guilty. • The founding fathers copied the Roman Republican past, and paid respect to Rome's , Twelve Tables which codified the rights of Roman citizens before their government. Our Bill of Rights was modeled after the Twelve Tables.

27. How the Roman Republic is Related to Current Forms of Government • What is in a name? Capitoline Hill is the Roman Capital and Capitol Hill is the US Capital. • The United States Senate is named after the Roman Senate and has the same functions as Roman Senate. • The head of the Roman republic was the two Consuls which had the same function as a US President.

28. How the Roman Republic is Related to Current Forms of Government • Benjamin Franklin himself, during the Constitutional Convention of 1787, would refer to the nation he was helping create as both a “republic” and an “empire.” • Is the United States not an empire?

29. Describe the Scientific and Cultural Advancements

30. Utilities • As Roman towns got bigger, in the course of the Roman Republic, it got too hard for the people who lived in the towns to get drinking and washing water. • Because raw sewage was draining into the rivers, people who drank river water often got very sick or died. • Local governments, first in the city of Rome and then elsewhere in the growing Empire, decided to build long stone channels to carry clean water from nearby hills to the towns.

31. Utilities • These were called aqueducts, from the Latin word for water (aqua) and the Latin word for channel (ductus). • By the time of the Empire, most Roman towns had at least one aqueduct to bring in fresh water, and big cities like Rome had ten or more.

32. Utilities

33. Utilities • These aqueducts were quite a challenge to build. The engineering had to be just right in order to get the water to run through the channels and get to the city without stagnating in the channel or coming too fast into the city. • They had to keep the slope the same all the time, so sometimes the aqueducts had to run on high arches, and other times along the ground in stone channels, or even under the ground in tunnels.

34. Utilities • They also built public bathrooms and systems of sewage pipes to carry sewage out of the streets and dump it into the river. • This was a big improvement on Greek sewage arrangements, where people just poured their waste into the street however they wanted.

35. Roman Sewer

36. Utilities • There were also big public toilets that had room for lots of people at the same time.

37. Utilities • Roman people usually didn't have hot baths in their houses, because it was too hard to heat up the water. • So instead they used to go to public baths. • Public baths were something like our community centers today, or like a health club. They had swimming pools fed by aqueducts, and hot tubs, and exercise equipment, and often gardens and libraries and theaters as well.

38. Utilities • But unlike most community centers today, Roman baths were made to be really impressive, beautiful buildings. • They had high, vaulted ceilings, and the walls were decorated with marble and frescoes or painting is done on fresh, wet plaster walls . • The floors had complicated mosaics.

39. Utilities

40. Transportation • The Romans built thousands of miles of wonderful roads, to connect every part of the empire back to Rome. • The Romans were the first ancient civilization to build paved roads, which did not prevent travel during or after bad weather. • The Romans built roads so that the army could march from one place to another. They tried to build the roads as straight as possible, so that the army could take the shortest route. • Of course, the roads were used for trade, connecting parts of the Roman Empire to itself and the rest of the known world.

41. Transportation

42. Transportation • To help people find their way, while traveling these roads, the Romans more or less invented the milestone which grew increasingly wordy, and increasingly tall, to be easily readable from a vehicle. Some are 6 feet tall. • The milestone usually gave the mileage to the nearest large city, sometimes to an intermediate place as well; and the date and perhaps who paid for the road.

43. Transportation • Up until about a hundred years ago, people were still using these roads, as roads! In recent years, instead of building new roads, modern engineers simply covered many of the old Roman roads with a coat of asphalt.

44. Arts • Roman art did not get a start until 500 B. C. Before this the Romans copied the art of the Etruscans. • About 200 B. C. the Romans conquered the Greeks and began copying their art style. During their conquest of Greece, the Romans looted the towns. They brought the art home. • They also captured sculptors and brought them to Rome as slaves.

45. Arts • Beginning with the Roman Republic the Romans started making statues that really looked like one particular person. • The Romans were far more realistic than the Greeks with their statues. The Greeks tried to build statues to illustrate the "ideal" person. • The Romans believed that having a good image of somebody's face kept its ghost happy.

46. Arts • They made statues and portraits too. Statues were life-like and of gods, goddesses, emperors, and important people. • Many statues are just the head and shoulders of an emperors. They were called portraits.

47. Arts • Frescoes, painting on plaster, became popular during the first century A. D. The paintings were painted on a specially prepared wall with three layers of plaster and three layers of a special coating. • Colors were applied to the top layer while it was wet. This made the fresco durable and able to hold up well over a long period of time.

48. Arts

49. Arts • The Romans painted murals. • These showed everyday scenes around Rome. • They also painted mythological scenes such as the heroic deeds of Hercules, Achilles, Ulysses, and Theseus.

50. Arts • Roman pottery began with Etruscan-style pottery, but soon developed a tradition of its own. • In general, pottery in Italy tended to be made in one color, and the decorations were molded into the clay rather than painted.