Notes 3-8 (Rome/Roman Empire)

• Villa culture- lived in villas.
• The climate was temperate in Naples
• Subora
• The aristocratic patricians had the good life
• The plebeians were struggling
• This different were noticed by two brothers, the Gracchi. They argued on behalf of land rights for plebeians.
• There are a lot of people in the senate who do not like this "meddling". Both brothers are assassinated. This was the first political assassinations to happen in the city of Rome.
• Around 95 BCE, a war erupts where the states surrounding Rome begin to revolt against the dominance of the patricians, this is called the social war. 91-88 BCE. On the side of the Romans, there are two generals, Marius and Sulla. They put down the rebellions.
• Marius and Sulla have their own standing armies that are loyal to them only!- this is a sign of bad things that are coming......
• Marius is in Rome, and Sulla decides to march on Rome, and his army is bigger, so hew pushes Marius out of Rome. He could go for more power, but the senate diverts him by sending him on a war in the east. So the crisis of Sulla taking power in Rome is gone, but now it gives others the idea.
• Julius Caesar is born in 100 BCE. He is born into a patrician family who used to be a very well know and important family, and Caesar wants to make his family more well known again, so he runs for senate and becomes a senator. He decides to try for the highest spot in the senate.
• Consul- this is the high position Caesar was trying for. Men who ran for this need help from their patrician allies. Caesar just goes straight to the people of Rome, and gets the vote of the man on the street. He wins, and the senate is not happy. They try to make him miserable.
• After you were a consul, you were sent of to one of the provinces of Rome to be governor. you could be the governor of Greece(good) but Caesar was sent to Gaul. They laugh at him because it is the middle of nowhere, not that good.....
• Caesar says, well if i am going to be stuck here, at least i can take the opportunity to conquer it. He conquers the whole southern part of what the romans call Portania.
• He tells everyone of the power he gets.
• The senate says his wars in Gaul were illegal. They want him to come back and go to trial.
• He crosses the River Rubicon and he says in Latin "the die is cast" (like dice)
• He marches towards Rome. The senators freak out because they did not believe that he would do it.
• Pompey was said to be one of the finest general in Rome. He got this title by fighting off pirates. The senate turned to them to save him from Caesar.
• Caesar chases Pompey down into Spain, then Greece. They have a battle at Pharsalus, Greece. Caesar and his right hand man, Mark Antony, defeat them, but Pompey escapes to Egypt.
• An assassin kills him right as he lands in Egypt. When Julius Caesar finds out that Pompey was dead, he says it was disrespectful for Egyptians to do that to a Roman general. He had respect for him, even though he was going against him.
• Caesar then stays in Egypt for a bit because he meets Cleopatra, the ruler of Egypt. She is the last in the line of Ptolemaic rulers.
• Caesar gets more and more power, and is hailed as dictator for life.

Here is a video about the Rome and its governments that I found:)