Re: topic 3 -- Early World History, Level I

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Date Posted: 12:42:31 03/08/02 Fri
Author: Skyler Chick
Subject: Re: topic 3
In reply to: j curboy 's message, "topic 3" on 05:21:40 02/26/02 Tue

During the time of the Romans, they were the most powerful civilization around the Mediterranean region. Like all civilizations, the Romans had a vision of lasting for a thousand years, and succeeded. The Romans were able to last for a thousand years because of their government, social classes, revengefulness, and their thirst to conquer all surrounding lands.
For the first five hundred years of their existence, Rome started as a Republic and later reformed its government into an empire. The government supplied a strong and well-trained army. Because of Rome�s thirst to conquer surrounding lands, they often succeeded. The Punic wars were mainly in the favor of the Romans. Although the first and second Punic wars were started by the Carthaginians, The third and final Punic war began due to the Romans. This last war was started out of revenge. The Romans crossed the Mediterranean and over to Carthage in northern Africa. There the killed the men and took the women and children back to Rome as slaves. In addition, the Romans salted the fields of Carthage so that it would be impossible to grow anything for many years.
Because people were now afraid of the gruesome war tactics of the Romans, many regions sided with Rome. One example was Greece. This was a good thing on their part because the people of Greece had little worry of Rome attacking them. This also gave Rome more land to add to its empire.
Another factor that helped contribute to Rome�s success is the social classes consisting of the Patricians and the Plebians. Although the differences between these two groups led to civil war, it helped Rome set up a government to keep them on their feet. Government was a very important thing to lead to the success of a civilization. When Rome became an empire it succeeded because of its limitations and laws on people. Many of the Emperors seemed cruel but because people were limited to the things they could do, there was a lower risk of rivalry and revolts. In addition, the government was well organized with the first five emperors of Rome but the next twenty-three years after the death of the last of the first five emperors, Rome had twenty-eight different emperors during that twenty-three year period. Sometimes there were more than one emperor at a time. This caused great disorganization in the government and later led to the downfall of the Roman Empire.
Many of the more modern civilizations were not able to succeed in lasting for a thousand years. I think that disorganization in the government is a cause of this. Also, I think that because many laws in modern civilization are in small favor of the citizens, there is more room for disagreement. I also think that many kings and emperors of modern civilizations have too much power and should have allowed some to the public, while still keeping it limited.

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[> Re: topic 3 -- Colin Martin, 14:29:33 03/08/02 Fri

The Romans were so successful and actualy did succeed in lasting for 1000 years. They had their up and their downs but mainly they were able to keep standing. When they ran into a situation were the Emperor would be in trouble or in some way hurt or slow down the progress of rome, such as when Ciliqula was in power and he started ot go crazy. He would stage public assasinations of people just for the entertainment. Yet the government kept on moving because it was set up so well. Rome would enter a political problem or struggle and would continue to keep the empire going. One of the first things that I think led to the downfall of Rome was slavery. Every now and then a group of slaves would try to revolt. This is always a threat and can not be good. Sparticus led one of the greatest. He gathered slaves arevolted. This lasted for about 3 years or so. In America's earlier days there were slave revolts that were luckey to have lasted 3 days let alone 3 whole years. But unlike America, Rome never stoped slavery and it continued untill Rome's end. One key thing that led to their downfall more towards the end of their rein was the Teutonic tribes who were positioned outside of Rome and became more and more powerful untill Rome could no longer hold them off. Another thing is, back then there were very few areas of the world that cometitive contries were even civilized. Therefore there were very little competitive powers that would want to take over Rome, especaily once Rome reached its full size and completly surounded the meditaranian. Compared to today when the entire planet is full of countries that would love to be known as the most powerful civilization of its time. A modern culture that rose up and fell would be England. England before America was even around was the most powerful country in the world. People will argue that France was, but I'm sure that it wasn't. England had an Anarchy with a King's and Queens. England came over and took over most of the eastern shore of North America. They called the land America. In time over a coarse of about 150 years the American colonies of Britan rose in power and population. Eventualy the colonies were sick of England so they tried to leave. This spart the Revolutionary War. The colonies won over the greatest power in the world. This showed that England would not last forever. They slowly went down hill but never quite fell, they just slowly became less powerful than the countries around them.

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