Last Day

Today was the last day of class. I was a bit disappointed but we spent the whole class writing the essays for the exams. We had to pick 3 essay topics to do out of the 5 essay topics. I picked the one about the entertainment, culture, and art. I also picked the quote. I don't remember the last one but i know that I picked a d and e.

Rome Test

Today during class, we had test on Rome. I thought that the test was ok. I didn't remember about 10 questions but I think I guessed them alright. I thought the the section with the governments were going to be trickier. I got most of them right I think. But some of the questions on the government I got confused. The one about the assembly I didn't remember. I thought it was something with the senate. I also didn't remember how many slave were in Italy.

Project presentation day

Today during class, we had three groups present their projects today. The first group had Roman food brought in. I thought everything was really god. I liked the salad, pasta, and the apple juice. The cheese cake was good but I can't eat hard stuff. They also had a power point with the recipes for each dish they have made and a picture at the end of the power point because Romans usually had some picture hung on the wall while they ate. I was surprised that the apple juice had some cinnamon in it. I was expecting just apple juice but cinnamon taste came into my mouth. It was really delicious. I was also wondering why they didn't pass out the drinks because I was getting thirsty. They said that Romans ate their meal first then they would drink in the end. The second presentation was a Roman song. The Roman song was cover of the song Iggy Fancy. The was really hilarious. The song was amazing. The last presentation was a powerpoint about the coliseum and the circus Maximus. The power point wasn't as creative as the others but it did provide a lot of information.

Rome Project

Today during class, we got to work on out projects. Caitlyn and I decided that we are not going to do the song because we wouldn't have enough time to work on it. Instead we decided to just focus on making the dairy. We also changed up the plan about the diary. We decided that if we were to just read the diary to the class, we would get points off of creativity because all we would do is sit and read. Instead we decided that we are going to dress up like the character we wrote about and then reenact what we wrote about. We will also include a powerpoint so that everyone can read along to what we are reading out of the diary.

Rome Notes #6

poor plebs

• the poet Juvenal said the people “anxiously hopes for two things: bread and circuses”
• bread and entertainment, partly to keep them alive, and partly to keep them quiet
  
  
  a change in rule
  • Tiberius Gracchus recognized the advantages of courting the plebeians
  • military generals worked that angle - lead an army that conquers a land, then give them a share in the spoils
  • soldiers’ loyalty was to their military leader, not necessarily to Rome or the Republic
    
    
    nobody did that better than Caesar
    • Julius Caesar (100 - 44 BCE)
    • successful general
    • conquered the huge territory of Gaul

Pop Quiz

Today during class, we took a pop quiz on Rome. The pop quiz was easy except for the legislative, executive, and judicial branch. I was stupid enough to put the president and vice president as the answer for the legislative branch. I don't know why but I thought for a moment that there were four branches in the government. I thought the last question was a trick question. All the other answers I didn't recognize except for the "just grab some land". I didn't trust the answer but it was the only one I  was familiar with so I picked it. And I was surprised I got it right. I thought it was a trick question. The rest of the class we got to use that time to work on our projects with our partner. Caitlyn and I worked on our part of the diary. I got through the background of the persons diary and Caitlyn is working on the cook book.

Rome Video #2

Today during class, we finished the video we had watched yesterday. The video was about patricians taking the plebeians land. Mr. Schick kept replaying the "just grab some land". The video summarizes the topic that we have covered in class.

Rome Video

Today during class we watched a video that summarizes the notes that we took about Rome. The video sound was not working again. Mr. Schick says he wants to commit crimes because the laptop was not working. We spent the whole class watching the video.

Rome Notes #5

Roman Legion
- 5000 soldiers, not in it for pay
   ~ The Roman army's elite heavy infinity
   ~ recruited exclusively from Roman citizen

• group of eighty’s a century
• on horseback is the cavalry
• shield, sword. dagger, and armor and tube

The Punic Wars (264-146 BCE)

Rome vs. Carthage

Three different wars

First Punic War

• 264-241 BCE
• Naval battles for control of the strategically located 
• Rome wins this one

Second Punic War

• island of sicily
• Carthage loses. He travels at the back of Rome and attacks for 15 years but never reaches Rome
• Carthaginians attacks from he North
• Brings along elephants, some die along the way

Last Punic War

• Rome wanted to finally remove the threat of Carthage
• Scipio, Tiberius Gracchus, and others mercilessly attacked the city
• Carthage was burned for 17 days; the city’s walls and buildings were utterly destroyed
• When the war ended, the last 50,000 people in the city were sold into slavery
• The rest of Carthage’s territories were annexed, and made into the Roman province of Africa

Economic change, social upheaval

• Slaves poured into Italy (50,000 carthaginians 150,000 Greek POWs, etc.)
• By the end of the second century BCE there were over a million slaves in Italy
• Small farmers lost their land to aristocrats

Rome Notes #4

Rule of kings is replaced by rule of two consuls

• consuls are elected officials
• term of office: one year
• always aristocrats (patricians)
• patricians traced their descent from a famous ancestor, or pater (“father”)
• duties: dealing justice, making law, commanding the army
• one consul could veto the other (reducing the power of the individual)

  
  

  a challenge from the “regular folks”

  • fifth century BCE - patrician dominance of the government was challenged by the plebs (“people”)
  • plebs were 98% of the population
  • plebs had to serve in the army,

        but could not hold office

  • plebs were threatened with debt slavery
  • plebs had no legal rights
    
    
    “no legal rights,” you say?
    • plebs were victims of discriminatory decisions in judicial trials
    • Rome had no actual laws, just unwritten customs
    • patricians could interpret these to their own advantage
    
    
    So, plebs refused to serve in the military until…
  • laws were written out (The Law of the Twelve Tables)
  • these laws (on tablets) were posted in public (in 450 BCE)
  • tribunes (“tribal leaders”) were elected  
    
    
    SPQR - Senatus Populusque Romanum
  • designates any decree or decision made by “the Roman Senate and People
    
    
    res publica
    brand new republic, ready to run
  • democracy (the people’s assembly and the tribunes
  • aristocracy (the Senate - approx. 300 members)
  • plus monarchy (the consuls)
  • not a tyranny

  
  

  
  

  
  

Free mod

Today during class, we got to do whatever we wanted. We got to work on homework because we were ahead of the other classes.

Rome Notes #3

Who settles in Rome?

Etruscans
- Came from the north-central part of the peninsula
- metal warkers, artists, architects
- Two foundation myths: Virgil's Aneid plus the story of Remus and Romulus

Greeks
- They had many colonies around the Mediterranean Sea
- Romans borrowed ideas from them, such as:
   ~ Religious belief
   ~ Alphabet
   ~ Much of their art
   ~ military techniques and weaponry

Latins (first to settle)
- Descendants of Indo-Europeans
- Settled on the banks of the Tiber
- Situated so trading ships - but not war fleets - could navigate as far as Rome, but no further

They drained the swap
- Many streams flowed into the Tiber
- There was a marshy area called Forum, between Palatin and capitoline hills
- Tarqin the Proud's grandfather built the Cloca Maxima (largest ancient drain), which channeled water int he Tiber

Train the Proud
- Lucius Tarquinia Superbus
- The seventh and final king of Rome
- Known as Tarqin the Proud
- A true tyrant, in the old and modern sense of the word
- Tarqin sized power like and old school tyrant.

Project Day #1

Today during class, we got to meet up with our partner to start on our Rome project. My partner is Caitlyn. We are decided that we are going to do two project. Caitlyn and I decided we were going to make a diary. We will make two diary's. One is going to be about a Roman women and the other Roman man. We are going to write about their lifestyle and what they do. We will make them get married and then write about their lifestyle as a married couple. We decided that we are not going to make a song because I couldn't stay after school to practice. Caitlyn really wanted to do it so I changed my mind and also decided to do it with her. I won't practice at school but I can practice at home. I will probably use my violin to play along with Caitlyn. During class, Caitlyn got to start on the lyrics and I started gathering notes for the diaries.

Baltimore Riot

Today during class, we had a discussion about the Baltimore riot that happened yesterday. We took the whole class talking about it. The people in baltimore were looting stores and fighting policemen. They were also burning down buildings. The riot might come to Harford Country. Caitlyn said this and she said she heard it from someone that heard it from their parents. We are not sure if this will happen.

Rome Notes #2

Notes
- Tarqin the proud ruled from 534-530 BC
- Last of the Roman King
- Matrins: Women in their 40s or 50s that are very well respected.

We didn't take a lot of notes. We got donuts at the beginning of the class.

Essay's Returned!

Yay!!!! The essays are now finally returned. Mr. Schick, you took way too long to grade this. It felt like years. I was so excited for my grade because my group put all our effort into this essay. We got the essay and we received a 91% on our essay. I thought we did a really good job but I messed up our essay the most because I didn't write the number in word form out. I wrote the actual number and I got a lot of points off because of it. Now for every next essay, Im going to write the number word out.

Rome Notes

Rome
- Ninth century - Etruscans, Greeks, Latin

City-State and Empire: The Roman Republic
Italy and Its People
- Remus and Romulus born by a god and a human. They didn't want them so they put them into the Tifris River. A mother wolf took them and raised them. Once they were adults, they were adopted my real people. They grew up and they wanted to build a city. They argued on the location of where the city should be. Romulus kills Remus and Romulus makes his city and names it Rome
- The Etruscan People, originally from the east, had settled in the north of Italy and were an early influence on the Romans.
- The Romans were influenced by the Greek settlements to their south and learned the alphabet.

The Roman Republic
- Originally, Rome was a monarchy on the Etruscan model with a council of elders call the "Senate".
- C.500 B.C., the Romans overthrew their monarchy and established a "Republic"
- Since the Senate was populated only by patricians (aristocratic men) the plebeians (ordinary citizens) fought for a vote for the senate elected two rulers, "conculs" who each serve a term of one year.
- As in Greek city-states, the Romans would appoint a single dictator in time on war or conflict.

Field Trip

I wasn't in class because I went on a field trip for orchestra.

Rome Projects!

Today during class, we did nothing but talk about what Rome project we should do. We got to choose what projects we could do. There were many ideas around the room. There were ideas of bringing in a horse, having war with Mr. Teeters class, create a movie, create a clay animation, dress up as Roman gods, make commercials, go on the turf field and have war, create human columns, bring in Roman food, and create bored games. We could also choose what groups we could be in.

Video

Today during class, we had difficulties with the video. The sound wasn't working so we had to use someone else laptop. The video that we watched was about 5 people that were locked inside of a cave and tied onto a bar. They were there their whole lives. The only thing they could see was shadows of figures on a wall. These figures on the wall was clay figures in front of a fire high up so that the the 5 people are able to see the shadows. The 5 people would ask questions and guess what the figures are. One day, there was  man that came into the cave and let loose one person. He told that person the truth behind what he was seeing on the wall. He was then free and was able to go out into the world and see what the world was really like. When that person returned to the cave, his eye sight got worse and he couldn't see the shadows clearly like he used to. The others laughed at him and made fun of him.

My thought on the video is that people who are always locked in are not able to learn the truth. Those who go out and look at the world logically, we are able to learn the truth.