Mr. S’s World of History

During the Republic, the Roman male citizen, of appropriate birth or connections, was groomed from childhood to follow the CURSUS HONORUM….or, the public life…This citizen was taught to honor the Roman constitution that was based on: the Senate, the rulings of the magistrates and the will of the popular Assemblies.

The Senate was a council originally made up of three hundred members, chosen among the leaders of the people, former judges, etc. It received foreign Ambassadors and signed treaties with the former foreign countries, appointed the Province governors, controlled the public administration and made the laws.
Given its great experience and authority, the Senate had been the main body of the Republican government for several centuries.

In order to avoid abuses, the MAGISTRATES held office only one year — the CENSORS eighteen months – and then were replaced through new elections. 

 They were divided as follows:
The CONSULS  (advisors), two in number, presided over the Senate and the Comitia. They introduced bills (proposals) that would become law and commanded the army in war. In Rome they ruled a month each; in the army they commanded a day each…this will get them into trouble…as you can guess.

The COMITIA CENTURIATA elected the consuls, the praetors, and the censors, they decided about peace or war; they judged criminal cases that involved death sentences for Roman citizens.
In the COMITIA TRIBUATIA the citizens met according to their tribe (according to the area where they lived), without discriminations: each tribe included patricians and plebeians who voted together. In each of the tribes were the majority of voters. The Comitia tributa elected the Aedili and Quaestors. They were the more democratic form of popular assembly and their importance increased with time. The Assembly of the plebs was mainly formed by plebians who elected the tribunes of the people.

YOU ARE A DICTATOR DURING THE EARLY REPUBLIC WITH THE POWER TO KEEP OR DELETE ANY OF THE TWELVE TABLES…WHICH DO YOU KEEP AND WHY?..WHICH DO YOU THINK ARE THE MOST IMPORTANT?  TELL HOW YOUR LAWS WILL HELP KEEP THE PEOPLE CONTENT….

REMEMBER HOW TO POST YOUR ANSWERS…FOR MAX POINTS, YOU NEED COMPLETE WELL THOUGHT OUT ANSWERS IN COMPLETE SPELL CHECKED SENTENCES…GIVE A GOOD ARGUMENT..

DO A GOOD JOB AND YOUR GRADE SHALL LIVE…GIVE ME NOTHING AND YOUR GRADE SHALL BE SCOURGED…

HAPPY WRITING!!

THE SINGLE MOST IMPORTANT LEGACY OF THE ANCIENT ROMANS IS THEIR GIFT OF WRITTEN LAW AND AN ESTABLISHED CONSTITUTION. MANY ITEMS LISTED IN THE TWELVE TABLES ARE INCORPORATED EVEN TODAY IN THE UNITED STATES AND BRITISH CONSTITUTIONS.

THE LAWS OF THE TWELVE TABLES ADDRESSED PROPERTY, FAMILY, CRIME, THEFT, MARRIAGE AND INHERITANCE. THE LAWS DID TRY TO BE FAIR.WHAT MATTERS IS THAT THESE LAWS WERE WRITTEN DOWN AND ACTUALLY ENGRAVED ON METAL PLATES AND POSTED IN THE ROMAN FORUM, SO THAT EVERYONE COULD SEE THEM. YOU PASSED BY THEM EVERY DAY. THE LAWS WERE THE SAME FOR EVERYONE, RICH OR POOR. NO ONE COULD SAY THEY DID NOT KNOW WHAT THE LAW WAS..IGNORANCE OF THE LAW WAS NO EXCUSE. (At the time, only adult free males were citizens. Women, children, and slaves were not citizens.) 

LIKE THE ROMAN CONSTITUTION, THE BRITISH CONSTITUTION IS UNWRITTEN..UNWRITTEN ? WHAT? SO HOW DOES THAT WORK? THE WORD “CONSTITUTION” TO THE ROMANS AND THE BRITISH MEANS A TRADITION OF LAW AND PROCEDURE THAT SHOULD NEVER BE VIOLATED. MANY DOCUMENTS OVER THE CENTURIES MAKE UP THE BRITISH CONSTITUTION AND PRESUMABLY THAT MEANS THE BRITISH CONSTITUTION WILL CONTINUE TO GROW.

 IN THE U.S. THE WORD “CONSTITUTION” MEANS ONE ACTUAL DOCUMENT ENTITLED “THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.” THIS DOCUMENT YOU MIGHT ACTUALLY TOUCH…(IT’S UNDER GLASS AND GUARD AT THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES IN WASHINGTON, D.C. OK, SO YOU CAN’T REALLY TOUCH IT.. BUT IT IS A DOCUMENT)

THESE CONSTITUTIONS FORM THE BASIS OF HOW THE PEOPLE LIVING IN ROME OR THESE LATER COUNTRIES AND THEIR COLONIES GOVERNED AND RULED THEMSELVES. IT WAS TO THE ROMANS A SACRED AND RELIGIOUS RESPONSIBILITY TO OBSERVE THESE LAWS. WHILE CHRISTIANS AND JEWS WOULD FOLLOW TEN COMMANDMENTS, THE ROMANS WOULD FOLLOW THE “LAW” ON THE TWELVE TABLES.

REMEMBER THAT OUR STUDY OF HISTORY IS OFTEN SOMEWHAT DEPENDENT ON THE SCIENCE OF ARCHAEOLOGY. I AM PROVIDING YOU WITH A TRANSLATION OF WHAT CAN BE FOUND “IN STONE” OF THE SACRED ROMAN ”TWELVE TABLES.” REVIEW THIS SECTION CAREFULLY…TAKE GOOD NOTES ON NOTECARDS AND BE COMPLETELY PREPARED FOR THE TWELVE TABLES QUIZ THIS WEEK.. 

Table I. 1. If anyone summons a man before the magistrate, he must go. If the man summoned does not go, let the one summoning him call the bystanders to witness and then take him by force. 2. If he shirks or runs away, let the summoner lay hands on him. 3. If illness or old age is the hindrance, let the summoner provide a team. He need not provide a covered carriage with a pallet unless he chooses.

 In the history of governments, the Twelve Tables occupy a special place. At once, they are the basis of the Roman Republic, the basis of Roman Law for centuries, and the germ of the idea that evolved into humanism, the philosophy of John Locke, and the Declaration if Independence. We’re talking about, of course, the protection of certain human rights. 

By about the 6th century B.C., Roman people (who weren’t slaves) could be divided into two classes: patricians and plebians. The former were wealthy, landowning citizens who had money and power and wealth and the right to vote. The latter were none of the above (or very little) but were not slaves. Since the patricians made up most of the ruling class and made the laws, they tended to make laws to protect their own interests. If the interests of the plebians got in the way, then the laws came first–at least that’s what the patricians thought.

The plebians had other ideas. They wanted certain basic rights, and they were willing to cause civil disturbances to get it. They even threatened to secede or leave and begin their own city-state, in 494. By this time, the large numbers of the plebian class made the patricians sit up in their governing chairs and take notice. The result was the Twelve Tables. The Tables themselves, which were finalized in the mid-5th century, were pieces of stone with writing carved into them. The main benefit of having laws written down was that the lawmakers and law-enforcers couldn’t change them to suit their whims. Once a law was made public (and carving it into stone was about as public as it got), the law was known to everyone. This also had the benefit for the lawmakers and law-enforcers of ruling out a lawbreaker’s protestation that he or she didn’t know that what he or she was doing was against the law. It also gave us the English saying “carved or set in stone”… meaning If a law was made public, then it was everyone’s responsibility to know and obey.

Of the fragments of the Twelve Tables we have remaining, here are some points of interest:

• Table I mandates that when a person is accused of something, both accused and accuser must be present at a hearing or trial on the matter. Also, if both parties don’t show up for a court date, the judge is free to rule in favor of the party that did show up.
• Table III gives debtors 30 days to pay off a debt. After that, a creditor is free to seize the debtor and make him or her a prisoner.
• Table IV makes a man’s will binding.
• Table VIII lists specific punishments for certain crimes. It also says that if a person fails to show up as a trial witness, then that person will never again be allowed to be a witness. Most importantly, it says that a person shown to have lied in court will be put to death.
• Table IX specifies capital punishment for judges who have taken bribes and for people who have committed treason. 

It’s also interesting to note that Table XI prohibits marriages between plebians and patricians. So, even though the plebians got some very important rights through the Twelve Tables, they couldn’t marry into the upper class. The ruling class had to keep the upper hand, after all.

Aeneas was raised by Nymphs and received his education from Cheiron, the King of the centaurs. During the Trojan wars, he served under the command of Hector, the Prince of the Trojans. Aeneas was encouraged by Apollo to challenge the Greek warrior Achilles. Poseidon removed Aeneas from the area to preserve him so that he could become the future leader of Troy. However, when Troy was destroyed, Aeneas began an odyssey very similar to that of Odysseus in Homer’s tales. Instead of trying to return home like Odysseus did, Aeneas tried to find a new home.

Aeneas went through a series of adventures trying to find a place to settle with his fellow Trojans. They encountered Harpies and bleeding bogs. At the urging of Juno, Aeneas and his companions were attacked by the god of the winds Aeolus. There were then protected by Neptune. who keep them from being shipwrecked and from other perils. Finally Aeneas arrived in Carthage where Cupid disguised himself as the son of Aeneas and influenced the Queen Dido to fall in love with Aeneas. Aeneas did fall in love with Dido. Mercury, the messenger of the gods, was sent to visit Aeneas twice to remind him of his destiny and to get him to break away from Dido, after which Aeneas resumed his journey to his new land.

After landing in Italy, Aeneas was tried to determine where to settle. Aeneas visited Cumaean Sibyl, a prophetess who had access to the underworld through a cave with a hundred openings. Sibyl agreed to be the guide and directed Aeneas to take an item from a nearby magical bough which was sacred to Proserpine, wife of Pluto. Charon, the ferryman of the river Styx, allowed Aeneas to pass because of the item from the magical bough. In the underworld, Aeneas spoke to his father Achises and was told where to settle. He returned from the underworld and sailed again to the Tiber River in a land called Latium.

Aeneas, after beating a rival tribe who had been pitted against him by Juno, began to rule the area where he settled. For twelve generations the throne was passed peacefully down until the thirteenth king, Numitor. Numitor was removed from the throne by his own brother Amulius. Amulius tried to make sure that none of Numitor’s descendents could challenge him for the throne. Amulius killed both of his nephews and appointed his niece Rhea Silvia a Vestal Virgin. This position forced Rhea to stay a virgin, which would eliminate any prospect of Numitor’s children to challenge Amulius.

Mars, the god of war and farming, became enamored with Rhea, and depending on the account, seduced or raped her. She became pregnant and gave birth to two sons, Romulus and Remus. Amulius had Rhea imprisoned. He put the two boys in a basket and tossed it into the Tiber River. The boys were saved by their father Mars, who sent two animals to feed them. A she wolf fed the boys until they were discovered by a shepherd named Fausulaus. The boys were sheltered by the sheppherd and his wife until they had grown. The boys were united with their grandfather Numitor, and they then planned revenge on Amulius. The three, along with a band of shepherds, stormed the palace and killed Amulius and restored Numitor to the throne.

Alba Longa:

Aeneas, son of the goddess Venus and the mortal Anchises, left the burning city of Troy with his son Ascanius. After many adventures, which the Roman poet Vergil describes in the Aeneid, Aeneas and his son arrived at the city of Laurentum on the west coast of Italy. Aeneas married Lavinia, the daughter of a local king, Latinus, and founded the town of Lavinium in honor of his wife. Ascanius, son of Aeneas, decided to build a new city, which he named Alba Longa, under the Alban mountain.

Aeneas as Founder of Rome: Aeneas is sometimes credited with the founding of Rome, but the version of the Roman foundation myth that is most familiar is that of Romulus, the first king of Rome.

The Family of Romulus and Remus: Romulus and Remus were twin brothers, the sons of a vestal virgin named Rhea Silvia and the god Mars, according to legend. Since vestal virgins could be buried alive if they violated their vows, whoever forced Rhea Silvia to enter the equivalent of an ancient convent assumed that Rhea Silvia would remain childless.

The grandfather and great-uncle of the twins were Numitor and Amulius, who between them divided the wealth and kingdom of Alba Longa, but then Amulius seized Numitor’s share and became sole ruler. To prevent retaliation by offspring of his brother, Numitor made his niece a vestal virgin. When Rhea (also called Ilia) became pregnant, her life was spared because of the special pleading of Amulius’ daughter Antho, but Rhea was confined.

When the twin boys were born, Numitor wished to have them killed, and so bid Faustulus, a swineherd, expose the boys. Faustulus left the twins on the river bank where a she-wolf nursed them, and a woodpecker fed and guarded them until Faustulus took them into his care again. The two boys were well educated by Faustulus and his wife, Acca Larentia. They grew up to be strong and attractive.

As adults, Remus found himself imprisoned, and in the presence of Amulius, who determined from his age that Remus and his twin brother could be his grandsons. Learning of Remus’ predicament, Faustulus told Romulus the truth of his birth, and sent him off to rescue his brother.

Numitor was despised, and so Romulus drew a crowd of supporters as he approached Alba Longa to kill the king. The twins re-installed their father Amulius on the throne and freed their mother.

The Establishment of Rome: Since Numitor now ruled Alba Longa, the boys needed their own kingdom and settled on the area in which they had been raised, but the two young men couldn’t decide on the exact site and started building separate sets of walls. Each twin claimed his was the city and used omens to support his claim. An angry Remus jumped over Romulus’ wall and Romulus killed him.

Rome was therefore named after Romulus.

Points to Note About the Founding Legend:

• Rome was founded on 21 April 753 B.C., according to tradition. It was celebrated in Rome with the festival of Parilia.
• Because a woodpecker tended to the twins, the woodpecker was sacred to Rome.
• In some versions of the story, Rhea was drowned and then married the river god Tiber.
• When Faustulus first let the twins go, they floated into the river and then washed ashore at the base of a fig tree. This was the site where they built their city.
• In some versions, Acca Larentalia was a prostitute.