Maddie's Western Civ Blog

Maddie,     Today marks the second to last day of my freshman year. At the beginning of the year, I imagined the last week of school to be really relaxing and fun. I don't think I had ever imagined that a pandemic would cause us to miss our last three months of freshman year! For awhile, it felt like the whole world shut down. Everyone was just inside their houses, doing nothing but school and work. I can't believe that we have been doing cyber school for three months. It all went so fast.     Right now, I am sitting on my couch thinking about all the assignments I still have to do. I have been working on my final English essay all day. I have an art project, Spanish slideshow, and religion homework due tomorrow. I am extremely tired. Every night this week, I have gone to bed really late because I have been up trying to finish my work. Every morning, I get up at 6:45 to run. For three hours every day, I have Driver's Ed. This week, by far, has been the busiest week of all o

The Second Triumvirate Octavian takes over at age 18 Mark Antony experienced general Lepidus powerful politician Oct forces Lep to retire, Oct and MA rivals, MA partners up with Cleopatra, Oct defeats them Octavian Oct now unchallenged ruler of Rome, named "Augustus" and "imperator"  now Rome is an empire rules for 40 years, established an era of peace--> Pax Romana (207 years) expanded Roman empire further into Africa, set up civil service to run government/empire died of natural causes The Emperors Tiberius amazing general, reluctant emperor death of son--> exiled himself from Rome and left prefects in charge Caligula ruled only 4 years, very cruel and extravagant--an insane tyrant! assassinated by Senators, praetorian guards, and the imperial court trying to re-establish the empire Claudius suffered from many infirmities took over because last adult male in the family ruled well, built roads, canals, started conquest against Britain died by poisoning from w

Next week, I will be taking the short answer portion of the Ancient Rome test from 1:25-2:15 on June 2. Poor plebs Rome hopes for two things: bread and circuses bread = free grain from the state, entertainment (Circus Maximus, Colosseum) both keep them alive, quiet, docile and distracted A change in rule Tiberius Gracchus recognized the advantages of courting plebeians --> unsuccessful mil generals lead army that conquers land, give them a share of the spoils soldier's loyalty was to mil leader, not Republic Julius Caesar (100-44 B.C) conquered huge territory of Gaul, made common folks happy, friends w/ Pompey and Crassus--> formed First Triumvirate "crossing the Rubicon": crossing the point of no return serves as consul, governor of Gaul--> Pompey jealous--> JC's armies crash w P's in Greece, Asia, Spain, and Egypt (JC winning) 44 B.C. --> named dictator granted citizenship to people in provinces, expanded the senate, created jobs for the poor, in

For my essay topic, I chose option B: Analyze the factors that contributed to the fall of the Roman Republic.

Republic Collapses large estates--> small farmers find it hard to compete, most farmers sold their farms and became homeless brothers Tiberius and Gaius (tribunes)--> tried to help the poor, senators felt threaten by their ideas, both died violent deaths military--> generals start to seize power for themselves, now a military leader (w troops) could take over by force Julius Caesar, Crassus, and Pompey join forces, JC elected consul, dominated Rome as a triumvirate  Caesar: appointed himself governor of Gaul, Pompey ordered Caesar to come home, Caesar doesn't listen, defeats Pompey's army, named dictator for life, dies in 44 B.C. governed as an absolute ruler granted Roman citizenship to many people in the provinces  expanded the senate created jobs started colonies After Caesar's death--> civil war--> Octavian, Mark Antony, and Lepidus formed the Second Triumvirate Oct forces Lep to retire, Oct and Mark are now rivals, Oct accuses Mark of

The Punic Wars were fought between 264-146 B.C. The Punic Wars were three wars fought by Rome and Carthage. The first Punic War started in 264 B.C and ended in 241 B.C. This war consisted of lots of naval battles for control of the island of Sicily. After almost 20 years of battle, Rome wins. The second Punic War started in 218 B.C. and ended in 201 B.C. In this war, a young Carthaginian general named Hannibal ALMOST takes Rome! He does this by attacking Rome from the north after crossing Iberia (modern day Spain) and the Alps. He laid siege to much of the peninsula for 15 years, but he could never get to Rome. Rome wins the second Punic War. Finally, the third Punic War began in 149 B.C and ended in 146 B.C. Rome wanted to once and for all remove the threat of Carthage. Scipio, Tiberius Gracchus, and many others attacked Carthage. After the attack, Carthage burned for 17 days and everything was destroyed. After the war, the last 50,000 people in the city were sold into slavery. The re