Snickerdoodles

Around 500 Bc, just as democracy was getting started in Athens, the Roman aristocrats (the rich people) decided they didn't want to be ruled by Etruscan kings anymore. The kings were doing okay for the poor people, but the rich people wanted more power for themselves. But the rich people couldn't get rid of the kings all by themselves. They needed the poor men to fight for them. So they promised the poor men that they could have a lot of power in the new government, if they would help get rid of the kings. The poor men agreed to help, and together the Romans threw out the Etruscan kings. But once the kings were out, the Roman aristocrats didn't want to give the poor men any power. They said no way! So the leaders of the poor men moved outside the city and went on strike. They refused to work any more unless they got some power. The Roman aristocrats had to give in, and they let the poor men (but not the women or slaves) vote. Still the poor men of Rome did not get as much power as the poor men of athens. Instead of voting about what to do themselves, the Romans voted to choose leaders, who decided for them, the way the United States President and Congress do today. But the only people who could be elected to the Roman Senate were the rich people! After another few years, the poor people of Rome still felt they were not being treated right. They made the aristocrats agree that the poor men could also elect tribunes. Tribunes had to be chosen from the poor people, and they went to all the meetings of the Senate. They could veto anything the Senate did which would be bad for the poor people. Veto means "I forbid it" in latin, and it meant that the tribunes could forbid any law that was bad for the poor. The poor people also made the aristocrats write down the laws and put them in a public square where anyone could read them (though not very many people could read). These were called the Twelve Tables. Like the Babylonian code of Hammurabi, this stopped the aristocrats from pretending that there was a law about something when really there was not. Meanwhile, the Roman army had been little by little conquering the cities around them. Now most people at this time, when they conquered a city, just took all the stuff they wanted, wrecked some buildings, and then went home and left the city alone. But the Romans, when they conquered a city, did something new: they made that city part of the Roman Empire. The people who lived in that city got the right to vote in Rome (at least sometimes), and they paid taxes to Rome, and they sent men to be in the Roman army. Because of this new idea, the more the Romans conquered, the richer they got, and the more men they had in their army, so that made it easier for them to conquer the next city. Soon the Romans had taken over most of the middle of Italy.

Cicero to Brutus (Ad Brut. 7) Apr. 21, 43 B.C.
....Of Caesar, truly a boy, marvelous is the innate quality of his manliness! If only so easily now that he is flourishing due to his office and his patronage I could direct and hold him, as easily as so far I have held him! This is wholly a more difficult thing, but nevertheless I have not lost faith; for the young man is persuaded—and mostly by me—that by his work we have been saved. And certainly, unless he had turned Antony off the city, all would have been lost.... [|Roman_Republic_in_40bC.svg]‎ (SVG file, nominally 800 × 520 pixels, file size: 769 KB) ██ Roman Republic ██ Mauritanian Kingdom ██ Egypt ██ Cappadocia ██ Nabataeans ██ Parthia ██ Armenia ██ Caucasian Iberia ██ Thrace ██ Dacia ██ Bosporan Kingdom

After forcing through his own political agenda in Rome the situation with Antony was still precarious Antony had reached Gaul and gathered strength from the legions stationed there Together with Lepidus in Spain the two were a formidable force. Octavian, despite having considerable strength himself would be hard pressed to meet that challenge alone. By passing a law that found all the members of Caesars assassination plot to be guilty of a capital crime he certainly couldn't count on any support from that quarter not that he wanted it. Decimus Brutus for so long holding the support of the Senate against Antony now found himself sandwiched between Antony Lepidus and Octavian and decided to flee to the safer eastern territories He was not so lucky however and was captured and executed en route becoming the first of the major players in Caesar's murder to pay for his crime Octavian decided that the prudent course of action was to reconcile with Antony and stabilize the Caesarean faction He marched north and met with Antony and Lepidus on a small river island near Bononia For two days the three political leaders of the western Roman world hammered out the details of an agreement that would set them up as the official government of Rome In establishing the triumviri rei publicae constituendae the three men divided the western empire between them

Marius and Sulla: Marius was a popular military general. He began to recruit people that were poor. Before he became a general, you had to be a land owner to be able to be in the army. But he said that he would pay the poor if they beat other armies. Sulla, which was Marius's rival, ended with Sulla's capture with Rome. Sulla became dictator for two years, even though you are only allowed to be dictator for two years.

In 60 BC three ambitousans and wealthy military heroes banded together in what was known as the first triumvirate. the tree was Gnaeus Pompey and Julius caesar known as one of the riches man in rome. the few had many aims in common except their oppsition to the senate. each one of them was jealous of each others power. The first Triumvirate knowing caesar had to make a army to succeed in politics then he had to command of the romanRoman Republic Timeline __Time Line__

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 * 509 BC || Expulsion of last Etruscan king;beginning of Roman republic ||
 * 295 BC || Rome extends rule north to Po Valley ||
 * 265-241 BC || __First Punic War__
 * 264 BC || All of Italy under Roman control ||
 * 218-202 BC || [|Second Punic War] (Hannibal Barrca and Scipio Africanus Major) ||
 * 149-146 BC || [|Third Punic War]; Carthage destroyed. ||
 * 136-132 BC || [|First Sicilian Slave War] ||
 * 133-121 BC || [|Gracchi] reform programs ||
 * 91-82 BC || Social War and civil war (Marius vs. Sulla) ||
 * 79-27 BC || Era of civil wars ||
 * 63 BC || [|Cicero] elected consul;Pompey conquers eastern Mediterranean ||
 * 60 BC || [|First Triumvirate](Pompey, Crassus and Caesar) ||
 * 49-48 BC || Civil war (Caesar defeats Pompey) ||
 * 44 BC || [|Caesar] murdered ||
 * 43-32 BC || [|Second Triumvirate](Antony, Lepidus and Octavian) ||
 * 31 BC || [|Octavian] defeats Antony and Cleopatra at the Battle of Actium ||

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