4/2/14 west civ notes

Ancient Rome/Italy Notes

• First people to settle in Italy was the Latin's, other people to settle in Rome was the  Etruscans and the Greeks
•  Italy was centrally located in the middle of the Mediterranean sea
• Rome was on seven hills and right on the Tiber River right in the middle of Italy which was right in the middle of the Mediterranean sea
• Romans were able to divert water and rivers into a bigger water mass to get rid of swampy, marshy areas, because of this they had more useful land
• The last king that Rome/Italy ever had was Tarquin the Proud, the Romans just ran him out of office and out of town because they had enough of him
• Romans loved the way Greeks did things, they based a lot of things off of Greece tradition, EX: Gods and Goddesses, Architecture, Art,......
• What Romans did differently then Greeks was that they elected different people to represent them, instead of voting as a whole and not making much progress
• 3 parts to the Republic: Democracy, Monarchy, Aristocracy
• In the monarchy part, the Romans had two CONSULS, they both had an equal amount of power and could veto each others ideas, its like the president today but there is two of them
• The aristocracy was kind of like the Senate today
• The democracy is like the House of Representatives today
• The American government is almost exactly like the Roman government back then
• There were two main groups of people the Plebeians and the Patricians
• The Plebeians were middle classed, normal people
• The Patricians were the rich aristocrats with power
• There was another group of people in Rome, Slaves, they made up a lot of the population in Rome

For the project I will be working with Brad Hubbard and Phil Prevosto