Who Settled Rome?

Etruscans

• came from North- Central part of the peninsula
• metalworkers, artists, architects

Two foundation myths

• Virgil's Aeneid
• where Aeneas escapes from Troy- sound familiar?
• Story of Romulus and Remus

Greeks

• had Colonies around the Mediterranean Sea
• Romans borrowed ideas from them such as:
• religious beliefs
• alphabet 
• much of their art
• military techniques and weaponry 

First Settlers

• Latin
• descendants of Indo- Europeans
• settled on the banks of Tiber river
• situated so trading ships- but not war fleets- could navigate as far as Rome, but no further
• a commercial port, but not susceptible to attack 
• and... build on 7 hills (especially Palatine)
  

7 Hills

• Remus wanted Aventine
• Romulus chose Palatine
• Rome is named after Romulus
• many streams flowed into Tiber River
• marshy area called the Forum between Palatine and Capitoline Hills
• Tarquin the Proud's grandfather built the Cloaca Maxima (Largest ancient drain)
• channeled water into Tiber 
• Urban legend says DC was built on a swamp- only 2% was really swampland
• Constitution Avenue is located on what used to be called Tiber Creek

"If you don't learn from history you're doomed to repeat it"

Lucius Tarquinius Superbus

• 7th and final King of Rome
• known as Tarquin the Proud (sometimes referred to as Tarquin the Arrogant)
• A true tyrant in the old and modern sense of the world

The people's shock at this horrible family and their terrible behavior made them NEVER want to be subject to the rule of Kings EVER again- this was an attitude that lasted for centuries.

Rule of Kings

• Replaced by rule of two consuls 
• "gotta be better than one"
• consuls are elected officials 
• term of office: one year
• always aristocrats (patricians)
• patricians traced their descent from famous ancestor, or pater ("father")
• duties: dealing, justice, making law, commanding the army
• one consul could veto the other (reducing the power of the individual)
• 5th century BCE- patrician dominance of the government was challenged by the plebs ("people)
• plebs were 98% of the population 
• how did the patricians dominate?
• plebs had to serve in the army but could not hold office
• plebs were threatened with debt slavery 
• plebs had no legal rights

"No Legal Rights,"You Say?

• plebs were victims of discriminatory decisions in judicial trials
• Rome had no actual laws, just unwritten customs
• patricians could interpret these to their own advantage

Plebs refused to serve in military until...

• laws were written out 
• The Law of the Twelve Tables
• these laws (on tablets) were posted in public (in 450 BCE)
• tribunes ("Tribal Leaders") were elected

SPQR

• Senatus Populusque Romanum
• designates any decree or decision made by "The Roman Senate and People"