Early Roman History

1. Chapter 5
Section 1
The Rise of Rome

2. Objectives:
• Identify the geographical location of Italy
• Define the Peoples of Italy
• Examine the Roman Republic

3. The Impact of Geography
• Italy is a peninsula.
– about 750 miles North to South and 120 miles
wide.
• The Apennine mountain range extends down
the middle of Italy that divides west from east.
• Large fertile plains for farming.
– Most important areas: the Po River valley, the
plain of Latium, and the region of Campania.

5. • The Apennines are less rugged than the
mountain ranges of Greece.
• Italy also had more farming land than Greece.
– The location of Rome was very favorable to early
settler.

7. • The Italian peninsula location important.
– Makes it an important crossroads between the
western and eastern Mediterranean Sea.
– Once Rome had unified Italy it easily became
involved in Mediterranean affairs.

8. The Peoples of Italy
– We know little about the Indo-European peoples
who moved into Italy between 1500 and 1000 B.C.
• One group was the Latins, who lived in the
region of Latium.
– Herders and farmers who lived in huts on the top
of Rome’s hills
• After about 800 B.C. other people began to
settle in Italy.
• Two most notable: Greeks and the Etruscans.

9. • The Greeks came in large numbers between 750-
550 B.C.
– Cultivated olives and grapes, passed on their alphabet,
and gave artistic and cultural models.
• Developments of Rome most influenced by the
Etruscans, located to the north of Rome in
Etruria.
– Launched a building program that turned it into a city.
– Organization of army was borrowed from the
Etruscans.

10. The Roman Republic
• Roman tradition maintains that early Rome
(753-509 B.C.) was under the control of 7
kings, and that 2 of the last 3 were Etruscans.
• What historians know to be true is that in 509
B.C., the Romans overthrow the last Etruscans
king, established a Republic.
– A republic is a form of government in which the
leadership is not a monarch and certain citizens
have the right to vote.

11. War and Conquest
– War was constant and continuous in the beginning
of the republic.
• In 338 B.C., Rome crushed the Latin states in
Latium and then turned towards the
Apennines.
• Turned towards the Greeks and conquered the
area by 264 B.C., and three years later
defeated the remaining Etruscan states.

12. • To rule Italy, Romans devised a Roman
confederation, which allowed some people
(especially Latins) to have Roman citizenship.
• Most of the remaining communities were
made allies.
– Free to run their own local affairs, but required to
provide soldiers to Rome.

13. Objectives:
• Identify the Roman State
• Examine the Roman Republic
• Explain the first and second Punic Wars
• Evaluate how Rome came to be the master of
the Mediterranean Sea

14. Why Rome was successful
• Romans believe that their early ancestors
were successful because of duty, courage, and
discipline.
• The historian Livy, who wrote in the first
century B.C., provided a number of stories to
teach Romans virtues that made Rome great.
– Account of Cincinnatus, a farmer who was chose
as a temporary ruler to save Rome from attack is
one example.

15. • Good diplomats.
– Extended citizenship, allowed states to run internal
affairs. However, they were firm, even cruel when
necessary.
• Excelled in military matters.
– Accomplished and persistent soldiers, and excellent
strategists.
• Practical
– Did not try to build an ideal government, but created
political institutions to respond to problems.

16. The Roman State
• Divided into two groups: patricians and plebeians.
– Patricians were great landowners, and only they could be
elected to government offices.
– Plebeians were less wealthy landholders, craftspeople,
merchants, and smaller farmers.
• Chief executive officers were the consuls and praetors.
• The Senate was a group of about three hundred
patricians who served for life.
– Had several peoples assemblies within the Senate, the
most important being the centuriate assembly.

17. The Struggle of the Orders
– Conflict between patricians and plebeians lasted for
hundreds of years, ultimately resulting in plebeian success.
• A popular assembly for plebeians, called council of the
plebs, was created in 471 B.C.
– New officials, known as the tribunes of the plebs, were
given the power to protect the plebeians.
• In 287 B.C., the council of the plebs received the rights
to pass laws for all Romans.
• By 287 B.C., all male citizens were supposed equal
under law.
– however, a few wealthy patricians and plebeian families
formed a new senatorial ruling class.

18. Roman Law
• First code of laws- the twelve tables
– Adopted in 450 B.C.
– Product of a simple farming society, proved
inadequate.
– Resulted in the development of a system of civil laws,
but these only replied to Roman citizens.
• A new body of laws developed called the Law of
Nations, which were universal laws based on
reason that applied to Romans and non-Romans.

19. Rome Conquers the Mediterranean
• After conquering Italy, the Romans were left
to deal with Carthage.
• Carthage was founded around 800 B.C. on the
North African coast by the Phoenicians.
– Their empire included the coast of Northern
Africa, southern Spain, Sardinia, Corsica, and
western Sicily.

20. First Punic War
• First war with Carthage began in 264 B.C. when
the Romans sent an army to Sicily.
– Romans were a land power, and realized they could
not win the war without a navy.
• In 241 B.C. Carthage gave up all rights to Sicily
and paid a fine to the Romans.
• Carthage vowed revenge, and added new lands in
Spain.
– The Romans encouraged Carthage’s Spanish allies to
revolt. This resulted in Hannibal, a Carthaginian
general, striking back in the Second Punic War.

21. Second Punic War
• Hannibal entered Spain, moved east and crossed
the Alps, which weakened the army.
• In 216 B.C. Romans decided to meet Hannibal.
– At Cannae, the Romans lost an army of about 40,000
men.
– Refused to surrender and formed another army.
• Rather than fight Hannibal in Italy, the Romans
decided to send troops to Spain and invade
Carthage.
– At the Battle of Zama in 202 B.C., the Romans crushed
Hannibal.

22. More Conquests
• Fifty years later, the third and final struggle with
Carthage was fought, the Third Punic War.
• In 146 B.C. Carthage was destroyed.
– City was burned, inhabitants sold into slavery, and
Carthage became a Roman province called Africa.
• During its struggle with Carthage, Rome also battled
the Hellenistic states in the eastern Meditteranean.
– Macedonia was made a Roman province, and Greece was
placed under the control of the Roman governor of
Macedonia.
– In 129 B.C., Pergamum became Rome’s first province in
Asia.

23. Closure:
• What did you learn today?

24. Classwork/Homework:
• Worksheet
• Homework Page 154
• Review for Quiz