Anna's Human Geo Blog

        Today we took our test and it was open blog. I feel confident in how I did. My grade in this class is currently not a good grade. I'm hoping this test will bring my grade up. It was aslo jillian's birthday. I recognized all the information on the test, but for some questions a few details slipped my head and I took an educated guess. I also have some notes from last class that I didn't fit into my last blog. Pax Romana was a time of piece that lasted two hundred seven years. Ofcourse this roman peace was a struggle to obtain. There was forty years of stability and peace while Ceaser Augustus ruled as emporer. Next there was an age of emporers. During this time their was some good, some bad, and some insane emporers. Tiberius ruled as an excellent general, yet a reluctant leader. After his sin died he left Rome and quit the job. He died at age seventy seven. We had a good class.

        Today in class we learned about Ceaser and  Octavian. Ceaser's Reforms consisted of granting citizenship to people in provinces, expanding senate by adding friends, created jobs through the poor especially through public work, increased pay for soldiers, started colonies where those without land could own property, and much more. As you can see Ceaser was an excellent ruler that gave equality to all, yet the snobby rich people did not like getting less authority, thus they stabbed Caesar. He was betrayed by his fellow friend Brutus. And unfortunately the senators did not even get punished for it. After his death, Octavian, who was like a son to him took over as sole heir. And that was the end of the republic. He also had a triumvirate and it consisted of mark antony, and lepidus. But, Mark and Octavian became enemies and Mark formed a personal and political alliance with Cleopatra. Also Lepidus retired. This started the Battle of Actium. Octavian won, yay ! Those are just s

        Today in class we learned about the Circus Maximus. The Circus Maximus was the largest stadium in the world. This phenomenal form of architecture was the go to place for all Roman citizens. This was the prime source of entertainment for all the plebs and and government officials. In order to reach the highest amount of entertainment, they would starve the animals, and get them annoyed before they released them to "battle" a gladiator or a criminal. I use the term battle loosely because it was not a fair match. I find it frankly unethical to find amusement through the killing of another human being. Additionally, Julius Ceaser came along. He had  triumvirate known as "the rule of three men". Caesar was known as an amazing leader because he made the common folks happy, and not just the rich aristocrats. We learned a lot today and had a great class.

       Today in class we continued learning about the different branches of the government and the similarities between the Romans and the United States. The Roman Legislative branch of the government has a senate that consists of three hundred people! These people were always aristocrats, of course. Additionally, once you become a member of the Senate, you are part of it for life. They had assemblies that were either centurion or tribal, this had one hundred ninety three members and they were members for life as well. The United States Legislative brach of the government has a senate of one hundred people, there are two senators from each state. The senators serve a six month term. The legislative branch also includes the house of representatives too. It has 435 members, they serve a two year term. We learned a lot of information about the legislative branch of government concerning romans, and americans!

        Today in class we learned about different types of government and their similarities to our government in the United States today. Res new Republica is Latin for the people's affairs. Rome had a brand new republic. In Roman times there was democracy, aristocracy, and monarchy. Ofcourse there was NO TYRANNY because it was too scary and didn't want to repeat their mistakes. The U.S. originally modeled their government on how the Romans government was. Although, they weren't exactly the same. They both had three branches of government. They were executive, legislative, and judicial. They also both followed a legal code. The roman executive government consisted of the requirement of two consuls in order to balance power, one year terms, each consul has veto power. Additionally, it was a rule that they controlled the military. Lastly they only used a dictator when in a serious crisis, and they could only rule for 6 months. The U.S. executive government has a president an

        Today in class we took more notes on Rome. Because of the recent terrible reign of the king (mentioned in last blog) and his terrible behavior, the people decided they would never be subject to the rulings of a king ever again. This attitude lasted for about four centuries. The rule of kings was replaced with consuls. Consuls were elected officials. Their term of office was one year. They were always patricians. Patrician is the roman term for aristocrat. The consuls duties consisted of dealing justice, making a law, and commanding the army. The Plebs (people) challenged the Patricians. The plebs were 98% of the population. They were angry that there was no actual laws, just unwritten customs. They said they would not return to the army until laws were formed. We learned a lot today.