Andrew's Western Civ Blogs

Today, we took notes on the first eight slides of the Rome slideshow. A few different groups settled on Rome, and one of them was Etruscans. They came from the north-central part of the peninsula, and were metalworkers, artists, and architects. Next came the Greeks, who had colonies around the Mediterranean Sea. The Romans also borrowed some ideas from the Greeks, such as their religion and their alphabet. The ones who actually came first however were the Latins, who created Rome on the banks of Tiber. On that shore, Rome was built on 7 hills, including Palatine. Lastly, Lucius Tarquinias Superbus was the last king of Rome, and was a true tyrannt with his power.

   Today we are writing all about what we think of the hit song called Rome by rapper Chi Cago. You can definitely tell a lot of time was put into this song, and it actually doesn't sound that bad. It's a lot better than if I made one, so I'm not gonna complain about it. It also has a good rhythm to it as well, and the lyrics were pretty creative for what you had to sing about. I never really found garageband that easy to use, so it's neat how you got it to sound as good as it is. Overall, not bad at all, and pretty creative too.

    In Rome, the plebeians didn't have the respect that they deserved in government, and were being undermined by patricians. They kept taking laws that were created, and changing them so they were better for their personal gain. As a protest, many of the plebeians went on strike across Rome, resulting in the creation of the Tribune of the Plebs. These ten officials began to write down each and every law, so they can't be changed later. Laws were carved into 12 tablets, and were shown to everyone in the city. This led to the thought of all free citizens being given protection of the law.

A roman aqueduct was a piece of architecture in ancient Rome that not only looks pretty impressive, but it also served a very practical purpose. These series of tunnels, bridges, and ridges were used to transport clean water for everyday use in Rome. They were powered by gravity to carry water from bodies of water to inside cites, and even had enough momentum to travel uphill sometimes. There's even one that's still operational today, called the Aqua Virgo, which was around back in the days of the Roman Empire.

Today, I am going to explain some of the differences between the Patricians and the Plebians of Rome. First, the Patricians were very wealthy people, mainly men, and owned lots of land. Their power all came from inheritance, so they believed that gave them the right to make most of the important decisions. On the other hand we have the Plebians, who were the common folk of Rome. They wanted more power in government, but only had the right to vote, and couldn't really run for office. In Greece, an equivalent of Patricians would be the Aristocrats, which was government that was ruled by the rich. For Plebians, that would just be the regular citizens, who didn't have too much role in government other than voting.

Today, we were assigned to write vocab definitions for our Rome unit. Republic- a form of government where citizens have power, and can vote for their own leaders. Patrician- A wealthy landowner who had most of the power in government Plebeian- Commonfolk such as farmers, merchants, or artisans, who made up the majority of the population in Rome Tribune- Representatives who protected citizens rights from  politicians Consul- These were two main leaders of Rome, who one had a one year term. They directed armies and ran the government Senate- An Aristocratic branch of Rome's government, which had 300 members Dictator- A leader with absolute power in a crisis, who only lead for 6 months Legion- Large military units in Rome's army, which each had about 5,000 foot soldiers per legion Punic Wars- The war between Rome and Carthage that lasted from 264-146 BC. This was made up of three smaller wars, but eventually Rome won.  Hannibal- A military strategist...

For my essay question about Greece, I am going to write all about the war between the Persians and the Greeks. My first paragraph will cover the reason for why Persia attacked the Greeks to begin with, which was to add on to their massive empire. My second paragraph will be about the differences of the Persian and the Greek armies, including the navy and their formations. The third will focus on some of the specific battles that took place over the span of the war, including the battle of 300. The next paragraph will focus on the way that the war brought the city states closer together, and how they used it to their advantage. The final paragraph will take all of that information, and explain how the Greeks were ultimately victorious over Persia.