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Dear Future Me

Dear Future Me, Well I guess I can say my first year of high school has been...interesting. I mean I experienced a global pandemic at age 15! I remember a few months ago I was doing pretty well in school, I had all A's, some great friends, and I couldn't wait to see what the rest of freshman year had in store. Little did I know, soon I would be stuck at home doing 4 hours of work a day, isolated from the people I hold dear to me. All of the school work is pretty awful and annoying to do and sometimes I wish I could just go to school instead of working on essay after essay each day. However, I've kept my spirits up. I mean, it can't go on forever, right? Back in March or April if you'd have asked me what I thought about online school, I would've said I hated it and that it was a burden, but now I realize that a few hours of work each day is a small price to pay for America to get back to normal. Moving on from school, one of the worst parts of this pandemic is n...

Emperors

The Second Triumvirate: -Octavian begins this triumvirate with Mark Antony and Lepidus  -Octavian is Caesar's grand nephew -This triumvirate doesn't go over well, Lepidus is forced by Octavian to retire and he and Mark Antony also become rivals -Mark Antony begins to fight with Cleopatra and Egypt and he is defeated at the Battle of Actium After the Triumvirate/Octavian's Rule : -Octavian became the ruler of Rome and was given the titles "Augustus" (exalted one) and "imperator"(supreme military commander) -Rome is now an empire -emperor comes from imperator -During his 4o year rule, Octavian began a 207 year long era of Roman peace called pax Romana Octavian's Accomplishments: -He expanded the Roman Empire further into Africa -set up civil service to help run the empire -built roads -collected taxes -established a postal service -administered grain supply -built new buildings and aqueducts -set up a police department -created a fir...

Caesar

Yes, I will be taking the test at 8:55-9:45 on June 2nd. After the Punic Wars, the plebeians were treated very poorly so, Romans wanted free grain from the state and a source of entertainment (colosseum or circus) to keep them happy. Eventually, the plebeians were treated better as military generals such as Tiberius Gracchus attempted to court the plebeians in war to help them conquer and gain land. However, this was one factor that caused the fall of the Roman Republic because the soldiers were loyal to their military leaders instead of their country. Using this strategy, Caesar took advantage, he was a great general (conquered all of Gaul), allowing him to have the trust of the Romans. This trust led to Caesar forming a triumvirate with Pompey(a successful general) and Crassus (the richest man in Rome).  Eventually, Caesar became more powerful. He became one of the consuls of Rome and became governor of Gaul. However, all the power Caesar was receiving made Pompey jealous causi...

Question choice

I choose question A,  Compare and contrast the government of ancient Rome with the government of the modern-day United States.

Notes on Rome

After the Punic wars, 1/3 of Rome was occupied by enslaved persons, causing the rich to have bigger estates and leave the poor homeless and jobless. Many of these poor farmers joined a group called the urban poor in order to find work. In fact, 1/4 of Rome was in this group. It seemed as if the poor Romans would never have a good life again until Tiberius and Gaius Gracchus came along. These brothers were tribunes for the lower class people of Rome and attempted to help the poor by limiting the land people could own and splitting it with the poor. However, the brothers failed and died horrible deaths. After they died, civil war broke out. During the civil wars, generals would use the people's economic struggles to their advantages so they would fight for them instead of for Rome. Julius Caesar used this strategy in order to become ruler of Rome. First, Caesar, Crassus, and Pompey formed a triumvirate with Caesar as the consul. After his rule was up, Caesar became governor of Gaul a...

Punic Wars

The Punic Wars were very monumental wars in Rome's history. There were three wars, lasting from 264- 146 BCE and the wars were all fought between the Roman soldiers and the Carthage soldiers. The first punic war occurred from 264-241 BCE. During this war, the Carthage's and the Romans fought for Sicily, an island in Rome. Rome luckily is victorious against Carthage, but will this victory continue? In the second punic war, occurring from 218-201 BCE we are introduced to Hannibal. Hannibal was part of the Carthage army and his goal of this war was to take Rome. He almost succeeds by using elephants to cross the Alps and Iberia so he can take a different way into Rome by going north. However, Rome is still too strong and won't go down that easily. The most Hannibal succeeds at is sieging Rome for 15 years. After these first two wars, Rome was fed up with the Carthage's. The goal of this final Punic war (149-146 BCE) was for Rome to get rid of them once and for all. The Rom...

Tarquin and the republic

Tarquin was the last king of Rome, and his family and rule was pretty messed up. After Tarquin's grandfather died, his widow named Servius Tullias. Servius has two daughters. Each daughter married a husband, however, Tullia (one of the daughters didn't like her husband so she killed her sister and husband to date Tarquin). Then, Tarquin kills Servius Tullias and becomes king. However, the story of how Tarquin came out of power is even more messed up. His son threw himself on Lucretia. When she denies him, he threatens to tell everyone that she had relations with a slave. After this encounter, she kills herself and tells her family what happened. The event got out to the people who were so disgusted they banished him and never had another king. Tarquin's awfulness sparked the republic. In a Roman republic there were two patrician consuls who could rule one year terms and they were very powerful, they acted as judges, lawmakers, and military commanders. However, each consul c...