Notes pt 3 (patritians, government, punic wars)

how did the patricians dominate?

plebs had to serve in the army,

      but could not hold office

plebs were threatened with debt slavery

plebs had no legal rights

plebs were victims of discriminatory decisions in judicial trials

Rome had no actual laws, just unwritten customs

patricians could interpret these to their own advantage

So, plebs refused to serve in the military until…

laws were written out (The Law of the Twelve Tables)

these laws (on tablets) were posted in public (in 450 BCE)

tribunes (“tribal leaders”) were elected

SPQR - Senatus Populusque Romanum

designates any decree or decision made by “the Roman Senate and People”

brand new republic, ready to run

democracy (the people’s assembly and the tribunes

aristocracy (the Senate - approx. 300 members)

plus monarchy (the consuls)

not a tyranny (eww… too scary… a mistake the Romans did not care to repeat)

originally, the US modeled their new government on the model used by the ancient Romans

is it exactly the same?  not quite…

but both have three branches of government

executive

legislative

judicial

and both have a legal code

Executive- spqr

two consuls

one year terms

each has veto power

controls the military

could appoint a dictator in a crisis for a six-month term

Executive- us

President (plus VP)

four year terms

can veto proposed laws

Commander-in-Chief of the military

Legislative- spqr

Senate - 300 people - aristocrats - members for life

Assemblies (either Centuriate or Tribal) 193 members (later 373) - members for life

Legislative- US

Senate - 100 senators (two from each state) - six-year terms

House of Representatives - 435 members (55 from Cali; MD has 8; AK, DE, MT, ND, SD, VT, WY have 1) - two-year terms

Judicial- spqr

Praetors

chosen by the Centuriate Assembly

one-year terms

udicial

Supreme Court

nine members

lifetime terms

appointed by the President, confirmed by the Senate

Article Two of the United States Constitution requires the President of the United States to nominate Supreme Court Justices and, with Senate confirmation, requires Justices to be appointed. 

Twelve Tables

Publicly displayed in the Forum

gave rights to plebeians, not just aristocrats

only protected free-born male citizens (not women)

Bill of Rights

first ten amendments to the Constitution

1 - free speech/press/religion

2 - bear arms 

3 - no quartering 

4 - no search and seizure 

5 - no self-incrimination 

6 - right to fair trial 

7 - jury trials 

8 - no cruel or unusual punishment 

9 - right to privacy, +rights are assumed 

10 - states have power where fed doesn’t

5000 soldiers, not in it for pay (not yet)

the Roman army’s elite heavy infantry

recruited exclusively from Roman citizens

group of eighty’s a century

on horseback is the cavalry

shield, sword, dagger, and armor and tunic

The Punic Wars (264 - 146 BCE)

Rome vs. Carthage

three wars

First Punic War 

(264 - 241 BCE)

naval battles for control of the strategically located island of Sicily

Rome wins this one

Second Punic War (218 - 201 BCE)

29-year-old Carthaginian general Hannibal almost does the impossible: taking Rome

attacks Rome from the NORTH after crossing Iberia (Spain) and the Alps

lays siege to much of the peninsula for 15 years, but he never can get to Rome Rome 2, Carthage 0

Third (and final)Punic War (149-146 BC

Third (and final) Punic War (149-146 BCE)

Rome wanted to finally remove the threat of Carthage

Scipio, Tiberius Gracchus, and others mercilessly attacked the city

Carthage was burned for 17 days; the city’s walls and buildings were utterly destroyed

when the war ended, the last 50,000 people in the city were sold into slavery

the rest of Carthage’s territories were annexed, and made into the Roman province of Africa

slaves poured into Italy (50,000 Carthaginians, 150,000 Greek POWs, etc.)

by the end of the second century BCE there were over a million slaves in Italy

small farmers lost their land to aristocrats (for little or no money) if they couldn’t pay their debts, sometimes because the men of the farm were fighting battles

slaves did the work on the farms for the rich

the big farms became massive estates called latifundia 

How do you keep the plebs happy (or at least keep them from revolting)?

the poet Juvenal said Rome “anxiously hopes for two things: bread and