CIVILIZATION OF ROME
ROMAN PERIODS
EARLY PERIOD (1000-616 BCE)
The Italian Peninsula is populated by different tribes/peoples. The most popular/strongest were the Etruscans and the Latins. The Etruscans were a highly developed people and soon took over the other areas in the Peninsula.
MONARCHY (616-509 BCE)
The Etruscans took over Rome and established the Tarquin Monarcy.
The Tarquins ruled Rome from 616 BCE to 509 BCE.
REPUBLIC (509-27 BCE)
A popular rebellion in 509 BCE overthrew the Tarquin Monarchy and
Rome became a Republic with a representative democracy. The people of Rome become involved in the daily running of the City and
Government Officials administered decisions. A great deal of change occurs during this time period in all areas of society. Rome begins to take over the areas surrounding it and physically spreads over a great territory. The period ends with Julius Caesar’s assassination and the resulting power struggle between Octavian (Augustus) and Marc
Antony.
AGE OF EMPIRE (27-476)
Augustus Caesar becomes emperor in 27 BCE. This is the longest time period in Ancient Roman History. A whole host of Emperors led Rome, expanding and reforming the empire. The Empire was divided into two parts, East and West, by Diocletian in 293 The Western Empire falls in
476 CE. The Eastern Empire, known as Byzantium, would continue until 1453 CE.

FROM CITY TO EMPIRE
Rome under the Etruscans
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Various Etruscan kings conquered parts of Italy and held it as empire. And sometime around 600 BCE, Etruscan chieftains led an army southward and conquered Rome and areas beyond.
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By the time that Etruscans had conquered Rome, the Romans had already been divided between common folk called plebeians and aristocrats called patricians -- modern scholars estimating the patricians to be from ten to five percent of Rome's population.
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Most patricians were from the families of successful farmers, but a few were not very wealthy. Like other aristocracies, the patricians based their superiority on their family name, even if the family's success in farming and wealth had declined.
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As happened in China and elsewhere, the aristocrats of Rome cooperated with their conquerors while maintaining their higher status and privileges over the plebeians.
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Some patrician families adopted Etruscan names. And patricians held onto priestly positions -- which were denied to plebeians.
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Rome under the Etruscans resembled a Greek city. Like Greek cities, it had a senate : an advisory council of elders who were mainly patricians.
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Rome's most important temple and meeting place was a building like a Greek acropolis, called the capitol . The capitol had a Greek-like public assembly called the comitia -- where plebeians were a minority and outvoted.
Roman Republic
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In 509 BCE, a group of Roman nobles (The Gracchi), who were fed up with their
Etruscan king, Tarquin, drove him from Rome and into early retirement.
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Leading patrician families among the Romans took power and ruled as members of the Senate. Without a king, Rome had become a republic. The Senate, or council of elders, had long been accustomed to watching developments and advising the king at his request, and now the Senate was ready to serve as the supreme organ of government.
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It was common among the nobility of Greek cities in southern Italy to choose one among them as an executive -- a president. And in place of a king, the Senate chose not one but two as executive administrators in order to avoid the unreliability of a single administrator. Each executive was a patrician, and each was called a consul . Each was to serve one-year -- as among the Greeks -- and each was given the power to veto a move by the other.

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In freeing themselves from Etruscan rule, the Romans lost trade with the Etruscans and with Greek colonies in southern Italy. What little there had been in imports ended. Rome's plebeian merchants and craftsmen suffered, and Rome experienced economic depression and grain shortages. Economic distress exacerbated conflict between patricians and plebeians. Involved in this conflict was the rise of debt slavery among the plebeians.
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Unrest among the plebeians resulted in the plebeian members of one of Rome's returning armies threatening to found their own city. Rome's farmer-soldiers and farmer veterans demanded a bigger share in the distribution of lands, and they demanded the abolition of veterans' debts. They advocated the creation of an assembly that spoke for their interests and the interests of all of Rome's plebeians.
They wanted the plebeians to elect men to preside over this assembly and to keep watch on the Senate and to have the power to veto Senate proposals. And they wanted plebeians to be able to elect a plebeian to one of the Senate's two consul positions.
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A strike by plebeians was followed by patricians acknowledging that it was no longer as it had been in the days when aristocrats alone were the warriors. They were willing to compromise.
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Although the Senate did not give the plebeians exactly what they wanted, it did create military tribunes . The tribunes were to be elected by small farmers and by the patricians, and the tribunes could be either plebeians or patricians. The farmersoldiers were encouraged by this increase in their participation in government. It gave them more of a sense that in war they were fighting for their own interests, and this enhanced their morale and strengthened Rome as a military power.
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By 450, there were incidents of plebeian tribunes serving as military commanders in place of a consul -- which might have been the result of the Senate wanting to use men of extraordinary military talent.
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Also by 450, the number of tribunes had been increased to ten, and another assembly was created: a military assembly (Comitia Centuriata), consisting of both plebeians and patricians. This assembly was presided over by the consuls. It met to consider the names of patricians who would be candidates for the positions of consul, to elect the consuls, to enact legislation, to listen to appeals of those convicted of capital crimes, and to decide whether Rome should go to war.
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Up to this time Roman laws had been unwritten and connected with religious lore, and the patricians were interpreters of the law, the patricians believing that only they had knowledge of the mysteries of religious lore that was sufficient for proper interpretation. To avoid arbitrary decisions concerning the law, plebeians demanded that laws be put into writing, and this resulted in the creation of what became known as the Twelve Tables, laws written on twelve bronze tablets. Unlike the laws of
Moses, these laws were to be open to legislative change. They were laws that adjusted to life, to develop through precedence and experience -- a heritage for modern times beyond that derived from Judaism.