Nero

Today in West. Civ. class we learned about Nero. He was a crazy emperor of Rome. He was definitely a little messed up in the head. He wanted money and power and to make a name for himself. He ordered men to steal from temple's and killed anyone who tried to make them stop. the Senate tried to stop him but he wouldn't so they planned to kill him at the chariot race. One of the men told Nero they were going to try and kill him so they the plan got ruined. We did not get to the part of the Chariot race, but right when we were about to leave class, Nero killed someone. and we did not get to see the rest of what happens. we will probably finish it tomorrow

Julius Caesar

*Famous last words written by Shakespeare "et tu, Brute?" which means "even you Brutus"
_______________________________________________________________________________

*Octavian takes the power- Caesar's nephew
-ends up being known as Caesar Augustus (honorific)
-nearly a God in their eyes
-took over at the age of 18
-Caesar's power went to Octavius
-no direct descendant
-ruled for 58 years

*Switches from a republic to an empire, run by emperors

*Augustus was known as the first emperor
-begins the pax romana (a period of peace and prosperity) 
-built roads, aqueducts
-set up civil service to take care of roads, to grain supply, even a postal service
-Augustus dies at age 76 in A.D. 14 and passes the power to Tiberius 
_______________________________________________________________________________

*From Jesus to Christianity
-Jesus was a Roman citizen and a Jew
-at 30, began his ministry and preaching to the poor in the empire and reaching out to the outsiders
-statements like "my kingdom is not of this world" made the Romans (and the Jews) nervous and they began to plan his execution
-The governor of the Roman Province of Judaea, Pontius Pilate sentences Jesus to death by crucifixion
_______________________________________________________________________________

*The word spreads about the risen Jesus
-Paul is instrumental in telling the world about Jesus' life, death, resurrection, and message
-he travels far and wide
-he writes letters to many of those he spoke to- these epistles are a part of the New Testament
-if not for the efforts of Paul, it is likely that Jesus remains an obscure preacher, instead of the central figure of the world's largest religion

Julius Caesar Video

Today in West Civ class, we attempted to watch a video, the video wasn't working so we all had to watch it on our own. The video was pretty short so there weren't a lot of notes to be taken. Below are the notes I took from the video

_______________________________________________________________________________

Alesia, Gaul- 52 BC 

Titus Labienus- the general in Caesar's army 

Caesar's troops were surrounded by a quarter of a million Gauls 

Gaius Crastinus- Veteran Centurion

Mark Antony- General 

the victory is regarded as still the most brilliant victory in war history

Caesar wasn't just a military leader but a powerful politician

Everyone seemed to love Caesar until he got too much power 

 

 

Today

In class today, all we really did was take notes. We talked for a little bit and underlined different facts about Rome in the book. We took a few notes and really did not do anything else during the class period. It was really hot in the room which made it hard to concentrate on what Mr. Schick was talking about.

Presentations

Today I went to two west civ classes. the first was section 1 and i presented my project with Erica and Leah, we did okay i guess, i hope we get a decent grade. The food was weird but it wasn't too bad. Then i went to my own west civ class and first Ellie, Carly, and Hailey presented. They did really well and the food was pretty weird but didn't taste that bad. Then Zack, Jevan and Matt presented. There's was good too. Both people of today brought food. We are so used to processed sugars and sweeteners that a lot of us may have not liked the food. Back then, they used honey to sweetened everything so it was a lot different and we aren't used to it.

TEST

Today in Western Civ class, we had a test.  It was only 25 questions and almost everyone failed except for Carly who got an A. I got an 80% so I didn't do awful but it was pretty hard i thought. i hope i get a good grade on the project. So most of the class, we took the test, then Mr. Schick graded them and then we didn't do anything. Mr. Schick was on a roll for being mean.

Rome Notes

• Roman Legion
• army, police force, all soldiers 
• divided into smaller units
• one legion was 5000 soldiers 
• some were just in it for a paycheck 
• others actually cared about their country
• Century 
• 80 people are in a century
• like a Greek Phalanx 
• Infantry 
• people on foot
• ground troops
• all men, no women 
• Cavalry 
• people on horses
• many advantages of horses
• faster 
• easier with spears 
• Punic Wars
• 3 of them 
• First war- was fought over Sicily 
• Second war- Hannibal
• Third War- Romans attacked Carthage 
• Rome won all three 
• Some used elephants which was very helpful 
• Carthage managed to go up and down the peninsula, but never could crush Rome
• Latifundia- Latin word to estate
• When the men are at war, the women most likely sell the farm to one man and one man would have all the land
• the families most likely will move to Rome to try and find work in the city
• Gracchus brothers
• both tribunes
• the rich are getting richer and the poor is getting poorer, the middle class is disappearing 
• suggestion: give the land back to the people they bought it from and fought for it 
• Law passed- the rich had to give some of their land back to the poor
• People attacked then, beat with them with a chair and threw him in the Tiber River 
• Tiberius 
• Civil War started because of this

Roman Project

Today in Mr. Schick's class, we went over the rubric for the project on Rome that we are going to do. Then he gave us time to work on the projects

Rome Notes

Rome- 

• Etruscans- set up a grid section
• Tarquin the Proud- last king of Rome
• Roads- used stone roads to be dependable  
• Had gladiators and entertainment
• made them forget about their awful life

Architecture-

• copied from the Greeks 
• detailed 
• Roman Arch 
• Aqueducts- able to move water into the town 
• Colosseum- series of arches
• held 60,000 people 
• statues in the arches
• able to flood field of play 

Government-

• Patricians- higher class, money, wealth, land 
• Plebeians- lower class, no power
• Consuls- two people, 
• came up with ideas and both have to agree before the law can be set
• didn't like only one person 
• Senate- patricians (aristocrats) 
• Twelve Tables- written down laws, Plebeians gained from this 
• Plebeians needed a voice in government 
• Assemble- like the senate, but for Plebeians, 
• if elected --> called a tribune
• if something bad happened, they would give one person all the power, dictator
• only dictator for 6 months
• then back to senate or consul 
• only one person to be able to make decisions
• consuls were in power for one year 
• did not want one person to get too much power

Punic Wars

• fought between Rome and Carthage 
• The punic wars took place between 264 to 146 BC
• Rome was victorious in all of the punic wars

Book Information

Today, Mr. Schick told us to bring our book to class. In our book, we highlighted all of the important stuff that was going to be on the test for Rome. Other than highlighting in the book, we really did not do anything else. We talked about the new schedule that could be coming when we are juniors and how many different options there were.

Rome Notes

The Latins- first to live on the Tibet River

Rome- first to live on the peninsula, city was on a swamp that they drained

Myth- they thought that the city started when Romulus and Remus were born and had the mother of a she-wolf.

Rome was named after Romulus

Tarquin the proud- he was the last king of Rome before they came up with their own form of government.

Roman Government- combined 3 different kinds of government

• Democracy
• Aristocracy
• monarchy

Patricians- upper class, richer people who had the most power

Plebians- lower class,

Consuls- had the most power (2 people)

Republic- came from the latin word res publica which means the people's business

Rome Project and Chi-cago

Today in Mr. Schick's class, we learned about what we were going to be doing in order to learn about Ancient Roman empire. I think Erica, Leah and I are going to make food to feed to the class. Leah found some good recipes and I think it would be interesting. Also, in the beginning of the class Mr. Schick rapped as Chi-cago and everyone got to video tape it on their phones, i think it will be on a lot of social media tonight.