Notes from 4/4/14

• The romans not only imitated Greek civilization but also improved on it, at least so far as government and warfare were concerned (pg.89)
• 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 time, larger armies
• The Indo-European  settlers formed various tribal groups, among then the Latin people of central Italy. Some of the Latin's 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 ninth century B.C.  
• The Greek city-states had begun to plant colonies in southern Italy as early as the eighth century B.C.
• Latin`s first learned the alphabet and gained knowledge of the life of Greek city-states
• The king would be advised by a council of elders called the senate (Old men)
• Around 500 B.C. Rome over threw its Etruscan rulers and the monarchy was also abolished.
•  The government of the Roman city-state became officially the "people's business" in Latin, res publica, form which the word republic is from.
• Neither a Greek-style democracy nor an oligarchy, but  a mixture of both
• The "People`s business" was in practice run by the Senate, an assembly of about three hundred heads of patrician families.
• Consuls, wielding for a year at a time the military and government power that had formed formerly belonged to the kings.
• The consuls now appointed senators, and they also chose their own successors 
• , though they were careful to choose men who would be acceptable to the Senate
• Senate, could appoint a dictator, with full power to give orders and make laws for a maximum period of six months
• Republic developed a government system they both maintained the leadership of the Senate yet also admitted the Plebeians to power
• Among the chief complaints of the Plebeians was that they lacked legal protection
• 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 twelve slabs of wood or bronze and mounted in the chief public square, the Forum, for all to see.
• 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