th

10 grade World History

Term 3
Term 3 grading
• 30% - Weekly notes
• 20% - Term essay (Due March 19th) Analyze the cultural and political changes and
continuities in Roman civilization
• 20% - Assignments (textbook questions or quizzes)
• 30% - Exams (2 exams in Semester 1)

• Hand in weekly notes/homework/projects/quizzes on Google Classroom

• Late work results in -10% per week
• Poor behaviour results in deductions from classwork grade
• Plagiarism results in a mark of 0
Rome
The founding of Rome
• According to legend, the city of Rome was founded in
753 B.C. by Romulus and Remus, twin sons of the god
Mars and a Latin princess.
• The twins were abandoned on the Tiber River as infants
and raised by a she-wolf. The twins decided to build a
city near the spot.
• In reality, it was men not immortals who built the city,
and they chose the spot largely for its strategic location
and fertile soil.
The First Romans
• People had been living in Italy for thousands of years. By 700
B.C., three groups of people inhabited the region
• They were the Latins, the Greeks, and the Etruscans.
• The Latins built the original settlement at Rome, a cluster of
wooden huts atop one of its seven hills, Palatine Hill. These
settlers were considered to be the first Romans.
• The Greeks established colonies along southern Italy and Sicily.
The cities became prosperous and commercially active. They
brought all of Italy, including Rome, into closer contact with
Greek civilization.
• The Etruscans were native to northern Italy. They were skilled
metalworkers and engineers. The Etruscans strongly influenced
the development of Roman civilization. They boasted a system
of writing, for example, and the Romans adopted their
alphabet. They also influenced Rome’s architecture, especially
the use of the arch.
The start of the Republic
• To begin with, Rome was ruled by kings, and it grew to be a
large city
• The last king of Rome was Tarquin the Proud. A harsh tyrant,
he was driven from power in 509 B.C.
• The Romans declared they would never again be ruled by a
king.
• Instead, they established a republic, from the Latin phrase
res publica, which means “public affairs.”
• A republic is a form of government in which power rests with
citizens who have the right to vote for their leaders.
• In Rome, citizenship with voting rights was granted only to
free-born male citizens.
Politics in the Republic
• The citizens of Rome were divided into 2 main
groups:
• Patricians, the wealthy landowners who held most
of the power.
• Plebeians, the common farmers, artisans, and
merchants who made up the majority of the
population.
• Political affairs took place at the Forum, a square
where parades, elections, public speeches,
criminal trials, and gladiatorial matches took place
Which group do you think held most of the important political positions? Why?
Plebian Representation
• The patricians inherited their power and social status. They claimed
that their ancestry gave them the authority to make laws for Rome.
• The plebeians were citizens of Rome with the right to vote. However,
they were barred by law from holding most important government
positions.
• In time, Rome’s leaders allowed the plebeians to form their own
assembly and elect representatives called tribunes.
• Tribunes protected the rights of the plebeians from unfair acts of
patrician officials.
Why did patricians want to prevent plebeians from holding important positions?
The Twelve Tables
• A struggle between the patricians (ruling class) and the
plebeians (‘common’ people) results in the introduction of
the Law of the Twelve Tables, designed to protect the legal,
social, and civil rights of Roman citizens.
• With laws unwritten, patrician officials often interpreted
the law to suit themselves.
• In 451 B.C., a group of ten officials began writing down
Rome’s laws. The laws were carved on twelve tablets, or
tables, and hung in the Forum. They became the basis for
later Roman law.
• The Twelve Tables established the idea that all free citizens
had a right to the protection of the law.
What laws might be included in the
12 tables?
Do you think these laws are fair? Which
ones?
• If you’re called to go to court, you must go. If you don’t show up, you can be taken to court by force.
• If you need a witness to testify and he won’t show up, you can go once every three days and shout in front of
his house.
• A space of two feet and a half must be left between neighbouring buildings
• When a man's land lies adjacent to the highway, he can enclose it any way that he chooses, but if he neglects to
do so, any other person can drive an animal over the land wherever he pleases.
• Should a tree on a neighbour's farm be bent crooked by the wind and lean over your farm, you may take legal
action for removal of that tree. If it’s your tree, it’s your fruit, even if it falls on another man’s land.
• If the theft has been done by night, if the owner kills the thief, the thief shall be held to be lawfully killed. It is
unlawful for a thief to be killed by day unless he defends himself with a weapon.
• A person who had been found guilty of giving false witness shall be hurled down from the Tarpeian Rock.
• No person shall hold meetings by night in the city.
• Putting to death of any man unconvicted is forbidden. (One exception – a thief in the night on your property.)
• A dead man shall not be buried or burned within the city.
• (Marriages) should not take place between plebeians and patricians.
 How did the Government operate?
• It was important to the ancient
Romans that this new government
be a fair government, and that all
laws applied equally to all the
citizens of Rome, be they rich or
poor.
• The main laws, whatever they
were, were on display at the
Forum throughout the entire time
Rome was a Republic.
• They called their new government
SPQR. The letters SPQR stood for
Senatus Populus Que Romanusa -
the Senate and the People of
Rome.