Today in West civ class Mr.Schick told us what to highlight in our textbook.
- The Romans not only imitated Greek civilization but also improved on it, at least so far as government and warefare were concerned
-They arrived in a Mediterranean land with farming resources that were basically similar to those of Greece or Palestine, but able to support a larger population
- In addition, Italy was situated astride the Mediterranean
- The Indo-Europeans settlers formed various tribal groups, among them the Latin people of central Italy
-Some of the Latins settled near the mouth of the Tiber River
- The Etruscans were non-Indo-European immigrants who arrived in Italy from somewhere  to the east about the 9th century
- The greek city-states had begun to plant colonies in SOuthern Italy as early as the eighth century B.C. and these spread northward up the coast almost to the borders of Latium
- It was from these neighbors that the Latins forst learned the alphabet and gained knowledge of the life og Greek city-states
- The king was advised by a council of elders called the Senate, whose memebers he appointed
- Usually, he chose from among the patricians or "men with fathers"- that is, with fathers who already belonged to this hereditary group of leading families
-When a king died, his successors was chosen by the Senate from among its own members, subject to approval by an assembly of all male citizens.
- The assembly's approval however, was automatic, for apart from the king, it was the Senate and the patricians who dominated the city-state
- Around 500 B.C. Rome overthrew its Etruscan rulers, and the monarchy was also abolished
-Forum= Roman Agora
- The result however, was a system of government that was neither a Greek-style democracy nor an oligarchy, but a mixture of both
-Plebeians- means common people
- Everyone who did not belong to patrician famalies, including workers, small farmers, and even quite wealthy citizens
- In the earliest times of the Republic, the "peoples business" was in practice run by the Senate, an assembly of about 300 heads of patrician families
- 2 among the senators functioned as consuls("colleagues"), wielding for a year at a time the military and governament power that had formerly belonged to the kings.
- On the advice of the Senate, could appoint a dictator, with full power to give oders and make laws for a maximum period of 6 months
- Among the chief complaints of the plebeians was that the lacked legal protection
- About 450 B.C., in response to the plebeians demand, the laws of Rome were set down in writing.
- The new code was said to have been engraved on 12 slabs of wood or bronze and mounted in the chief public square, the Forum, for all to see. they were called the "12 tables"
- Served as the foundation for the elaborate system of roman law that grew up in later centuries
- One of the new bodies, in which residents of the city of Rome predominated, won the rihgt to elect consuls subject to confirmation by the Senate. The other, in which farmers from outside the city had a larger say, began electing their own magistrates, called tribunes. The tribunes eventually gained the power to initiate laws in their assembly and veto laws passed by the senate.
-The separation of powers in The U.S. constitution derives ultimately from the checks and balances between different branches of government in the Roman city-state
-The senators set long-range policies and made immediate decisions on pressing matters, appointed and instructed the military leaders of the republic, received foreign ambassadors, and concluded treaties. they supervised finances and investigated high crimes
-By the time of the republic, rome had a special relationship with 3 deities
-These deities were the sky-god Jupiter, whom the Romans believed was the same as the Zeus whom nearby Greek city-states worshiped; his consort, the fertility goddess Juno; and Minerva, goddess of skill and wisdom
- The romans shared other values specifically with Greek city-states. these values included the belief that it was the right and duty of the men of the community to fight its wars, and hence also to share in its government; and the community solidarity that came from the fact that high-born as well as low-born citizens bore the burden of war.
- The women of rome no right or duty to share in politics and government, and that women needed guardians for all legal transactions- "because of their light-mindedness," as the 12 tabels declared
-Instead of devoting his life directly to the city state as in Sparta, a Roman man belonged first of all to a family and a clan. Clans and families, in turn, were held together by fathers- in particular by men who had the status of paterfamilias or "Family father"
-The paterfamilias wielded unlimited power-including the power of life and death- over everyone in his household, as well as over sons and daughters who left his household upon marriage. Only his wife might not be completely subject to him- if she was still subject to the authority of her own father
-Motherhood, too, was revered in Rome. A married woman bore the title of matron in latin matrona or lady mother. Her "Juno" the divine force of fertility and nourishment that she embodied- was worshiped in the houehold alongside her husband's genius. She was supposed to live in subordination to her husband, but through strength of personality and authority with her menfolk, she was also expected to contribute to the community as well as the family. The founding myth of the republic itself told how rome's uprising against its Etruscan king began when a matron, Lucretia, was raped by the king's son and killed herself
- Women were expected to help make sure that men had the qualities they needed to keep the republic strong