Class Lecture
What were the differences between the environments faced by the Romans when the characteristics social and political institutions of their state were forming and those of the Greek world when the polis was taking form? How did the Romans react differently to the conditions they faced? What social institutions formed in Rome as a result, and how did these help Rome to create a large and stable empire?Romans created a civilization that has shaped subsequent world history for 2,000 years. The remains of vast building projects, including roads and bridges, enormous baths and aqueducts, temples and theaters, as well as entire towns in the North African desert, still mark Rome's former dominion. Cities throughout Western Europe stand on Roman foundations. Rome grew from a tiny settlement to an emerging empire while developing from monarchy to a republican form of government.The land and environment of Italy provided the Romans with a secure home from which to expand. Roman republic started with their conflict against the Latins, who tried to break away from Rome and fought a war. At that time Romans feared the Samnites, another group of people and they stopped fighting with the Latins and offered them to join in. In doing so Roman
Greeks on the hand didn't have any plans for expansion. In the Roman republic, the Senate played only an advisory role, but because it contained mostly former civil officials, called magistrates, it was respected as the repository of Roman wisdom and tradition. The Roman aristocrats provided the leadership for the establishment of the Roman Republic, and they continued to dominate it for centuries. The Greeks associated citizenship only with birth in a Greek family and no foreigners were given Greek citizenship with a few exceptions, and only Greek men were able to be Greek citizenship holders and they would be the ones who would vote in the elections. During the five centuries of the republic, Rome grew from a small city of 10,000 into a great cosmopolitan metropolis of 1 million whose empire of 15 million subjects encompassed the entire Mediterranean basin. The Greeks, unlike the Romans, thus were politically disunified and were also spread over a large portion of the Mediterranean, but still did share a number of things in common. And as time passed by at one point in history everyone under the Roman Empire got Roman citizenship. Wherever the Greeks went they always tried to capture the land; and either drove away the locals or tried make them into slaves. There were offices of 2 Consuls, 8 Praetors, 10 Tribunes and 20 Quaestors, which overlooked the functioning of the Roman Republic. These offices and the Senate went a long way in the growth of the Roman Empire. The Greeks and Romans hence faced different environments when they were developing their culture. s came up with the idea of latin citizenship, and then gradually as the Romans expanded their territory to the whole of Italy after some internal conflicts everyone in Italy was granted Roman citizenship, slowly as the Romans defeated other lands in the Mediterranean basin, they never tried to impose their rule on captured lands but made them states, which were allowed to rule under the Roman umbrella by paying taxes and provide services to the Roman Army accepting the Roman superiority. Each polis was independent and autonomous, and had its own political system. The Senate had such great authority that magistrates consulted it on all-important issues, and it became the dominant force in the areas of religion, foreign policy, and public finance.
Common topics in this essay:
Western Europe,
Wherever Greeks,
Greeks Greeks,
,
Greeks Romans,
Roman Republic,
Plebs Tribunes,
North African,
Empire Roman,
Roman Army,
roman republic,
social political,
greek citizenship,
mediterranean basin,
main polis,
roman citizenship,
rome grew,
polis greeks,
greeks developed,
greeks tried,
|
Acceptance Essays
