Homework for last week

Rome: Rising Power

Carthage and Rome were constantly fighting each other. At the time that we begin to follow Rome's journey to fame, Carthage is behind in the war that they are fighting.

Rome (nicknamed the Eternal City) was very much into Shintoism (if you read my last paper on the Japanese you would know what I am talking about). They drew into themselves the best of the world and mastered it. The problem with this is that a lot of the influence that they received was pagan...taken from pagan cultures. From the Greeks they took religions, they had Slavic morality, Egyptian hierarchy, and Parthenogenic military.

280 BC: Rome conquered and took over central Rome.
250 BC: Rome conquered an area in southwest Sicily. A Carthaginian city named Lilybaeum was targeted and taken.
200 BC: Rome defeated the Gauls of Cisalpine in the Battle of Cremone. Greece is also brought under the sway of Rome.
160 BC: Egypt was brought under the sway.
130 BC: Near East was brought under the sway also.

Even after all of this, Rome was not a true and official city. It remained in it's republic stage. In fact, the Roman Republic began in 509 BC and lasted for 450 years. There were 200 years of growth. But today, we will focus on the Republic period of history for the Romans.

Rome was a very freedom-oriented city. Sovereignty came from the people and not any one leader or ruler. There was no king or emperor. They worked together like a household. But there were a couple problems. One was that people were constantly wanted to go to Rome for the freedom. This would, of course, bring about the problem of too many people. And second is that having such a free city would create an ambitious place for expansion, and bring with it better commerce, military, art, etc. This would no longer make it so free. True, it brought about many good changes, but not always for the benefit for everybody.

If you give any small country with few resources the opportunity to have freedom, they could possibly rule the world. It is truly amazing what freedom brings about.

And it is also amazing to see how people are attracted to freedom. Whole territories attached themselves to the little city of Rome, merely for freedom. This is the cause for the expansion and power of Rome. So, if you look at it logically, Rome grew by accident and not by planning at all. When there is freedom like there was in Rome, people and indeed whole countries want it so bad that they will move there or combine themselves to that no matter what the cost. And with that freedom comes prosperity. Of course, it quickly became rather complex and awkward for this little city to rule over these much larger and more powerful cities attached to them.

It was because of this that there arose patricians. The patricians were the rich landowners. They would often have a house in the city and a villa in the country that was run by slaves. Those who were well-off lived in townhouses with central courtyards know as atriums.They would overlook and govern the city.

There was another group called the Plebeians. This was mainly everyone else other than the patricians and the slaves. Plebeians were the working class of Ancient Rome. They typically lived in three-or-four story apartment houses called insulae. The insulae were often crowded where two families would have to share a single room. The apartments were built from wood and often badly constructed. It was not unheard of for a building to collapse or start on fire. Slaves in patrician households often lived in better conditions than was found in plebeian apartments. There were constant wars between the patricians and the plebeians.

Finally, a concession arose between these two distinct people groups. And so the Roman constitution began. The year was 500 BC. They drew up the constitution in order to balance the powers between the plebs and the populous and between the populous and patricians. They did this so that every voice could be heard equally.

Soon after this, they invaded more Italian and Latin countries and even went beyond Italy.

The Constitution assumed shared views and virtues. Their military also had a separate command structure. So the powers were diffused among the people. Populous was the civilian power. You must answer to the Populous and/or the Imperium power. The Imperium power was military power and rulings.

Over the course of 100 BC - 500 BC, there were 60 civil wars fought between the Populous and the Imperium. They could never come to an agreement on anything.

Despite the Roman Republic coming to an end eventually, the Roman citizen's liberties never really dissipated. This is shown clearly if we look at the Apostle Paul's trial. So Roman citizens kept their rights even after Rome becomes an empire.

There were two types of Roman assembly. The first was the committee (The Comitia), which was an assembly of all Roman citizens. Here, Roman citizens gathered to enact laws, elect magistrates, and try judicial cases. The second type of assembly was the council (The Concilium), which was an assembly of a specific group of citizens. For example, the "Plebeian Council" was an assembly where Plebeians gathered to elect Plebeian magistrates, pass laws that applied only to Plebeians, and try judicial cases concerning Plebeians. That is the definition of the assemblies according to Wikipedia.

My definition is that with the Comitia, everyone has a representative for them. All citizens have a voice. Each region elects regularly a new representative for them, and that person goes to the Comitia to present that region's interests and beliefs. If that representative doesn't represent the region well enough for the people's satisfaction, he is kicked out.

They had town militaries too. Every city would have a military and small militias would gather to a commander in dire situations. The commander was chosen by the people and there was no drafting. This was due to every person in the community realizing that every man was a commander, a solider, etc. Every person had a duty to their land and country. In time of war, however, there was an experienced commander chosen. In peace, though, the role of commander was rotated between the men of the town or city. One of the most important things that we must realize is that military was very essential for the Roman empire.

We haven't spoken much about the populous, so we will spend a little while talking about them. There were special offices over the populous. The highest office was drawn form Comitia. These people are given much longer terms then normal. This began as more democratic, but around 200 BC, it turned out to be more elite. Only the best and the smartest got a position. Laws by Comitia were brought to Senate and were altered if it was wanted and then put into place. Sound familiar?

Consuls: the consuls were the highest civil and military magistrates, serving as the heads of government for the Republic. New consuls were elected every year. There were two consuls, and they ruled together. However, after the establishment of the Empire, the consuls were merely a figurative representative of Rome’s republican heritage and held very little power and authority, with the emperor acting as the real supreme leader. Consuls came from the Senate. As many as 5 could be in authority or as few as 2, but normally there was 3. They were an exclusive committee. They stood mainly for the military. They had offices like, president, vice president, treasurer etc.

Under the Senate is the Treasury and the Pro-consuls. Under the regular Consuls were the Practors and Equestrians.
-The Treasury took care of money, budgets, etc
-The Pro-consul took care of lower level bureaucrats, and had guidance in the Providences.
- Practors had the protection of the State. This would be the FBI and the CSI
- Equestrians were the business class and the workhorses (hence the name). They were the local administrations and the merchant class.

Now, keep in mind that this was not an ideal government, but it was a true one of sorts. About 1/4 of the people were actually free. The rest of them were slaves (you do the math!). But it wasn't only here: in Athens it is averaged that 9/10 of the people were slaves and the rest were free. The way to determine whether or not you are a slave or free is easy -- if 50% or more of your income goes to the government, then you are a slave. Hmm...it'd be interesting to do the statistics on America on how many are slaves and how many are free.

Many people look at the economic growth and military stats for the flourishing. But really, it was the stability of the culture that will produce a good military and economics. And even looking farther back from that, it is the religion or theology. The sate doesn't come from society. Society come from a the state and the state comes from theology. A good and strong theology will produce a good state which will produce a good society which will make the whole culture flourish highly.

In 100 BC, the Romans were in possession of the whole Mediterranean areas. Eventually though, this became so expansive that it was a hassle. It was bulky and awkward to try and manage. Nations were not made to be that large. They cannot continue with freedom with that large of a country. You cannot have a shared people that way.