-
The Etruscans had power and society was divided between plebeians and patricians.
-
The patricians wanted to start their own republic, so they rebelled against the Etruscans. However, the plebeians still made up most of the population and had no power. The senate and consuls were only patricians, and the plebeians had to fight in the army but couldn't decide when to go to war.
-
The plebeians finally rebelled against the patricians. They left to camp on a nearby hill, and as they were the farmers, laborers and most of the army, this posed a serious problem for the patricians. They had no food, army, or laborers, so they had to compromise.
-
The plebeians gradually gained power. They got their own lawmakers, but they could only make laws for plebeians, not patricians. They kept making protests, gradually gaining power.
-
Romans make allies of their neighbors, the Latins.
-
The patricians agreed to carve the laws in stone so that they couldn’t be changed at will
-
Most of the people fled the area and the republic nearly ended right then.
-
Plebeians are allowed to be consuls. Former consuls could be on the senate, so the plebeians could be on the senate too.
-
The Romans conquered the Etruscans and other neighbors and battled with the Samnites in the south and some Greek cities.
-
Plebeians could make laws for all Roman citizens. They had the same amount of power as the patricians
-
Rome is an empire and has control over all of Italy.
-
The first war was fought almost completely overseas. The Romans copied and improved upon the Carthaginians' powerful navy, and the war ended in a decisive Roman victory. They took over Sicily and other islands.
-
Carthaginian general Hannibal made his famous surprise crossing of the Alps. The unsuspecting Romans battled his troops for 15 years before he had to go back to Carthage to defend it against another Roman army, where he was defeated in battle. The Second Punic War ended with Carthage giving Rome Spain and enormous sums of money.
-
Roman senator Cato wanted Carthage to be burned to the ground, so the Romans went and did just that. They also killed many Carthaginians and sold others into slavery. At the end of the war, Rome was officially the greatest power in the Mediterranean. It controlled North Africa, much of Spain, Macedonia, and Greece.
-
Rome's allies grew tired of serving in the army without enjoying citizens' rights, so they finally rebelled. Rome had to let all free Italians become citizens.
-
A slave named Spartacus led his famous revolt, but his army was crushed and he was killed in battle. Thousands of the surviving rebels were hung on crosses.
-
Pompey and Julius Caesar, two famous and powerful generals, both wanted to control Rome. Pompey, however, was backed up by the Senate and he got them to banish Caesar.
-
Caesar disobeyed the Senate and returned to Rome with his army. He wages war with Pompey.
-
Caesar defeats Pompey in battle. They frightened Senate names him Dictator for Life.
-
Caesar gave work to the poor and kept them happy by making free gladiator contests. He also started the modern calendar. He offered citizenships to the people in Gaul and Spain and made new colonies. Caesar dreamed of Rome as a huge empire.
-
Marcus Brutus and his conspirators killed Caesar as he was entering the Senate one day. They hoped that they could stop the empire and bring back the republic.
-
After more than 10 years of civil wars and chaos, Octavian, Caesar's grandnephew and adopted son, stood above everyone else as the ruler.
-
Octavian defeated general Marc Antony and his wife, Cleopatra of Egypt. He told the Romans that he was restoring the republic, but he was in complete control. The Senate named him Augustus, or "revered".
-
Augustus fixed ruined temples, encouraged literature, art, and education, and established the city's first firefighters, police force, and library. He got the empire on its feet.
-
The Roman empire is at its maximum power and the greatest empire in the Mediterranean, controlling modern-day Spain, Italy, France, southern Britain, Turkey, Israel, Egypt, and northern Africa.
-
The Empire's power declines from causes such as: the politicians and rulers growing more and more corrupt, inner fighting/civil wars,
and attacks from barbarian tribes such as the Visigoths, Huns, Franks, and Vandals. The Praetorian Guard, a set of personal bodyguards for the emperor established by Augustus Caesar, was murdering so many emperors that almost 20 men took the throne in 75 years. -
Emperor Diocletian decided that the Empire was simply too big. He split it in two, but that wasn't the end of it: over the next hundred years, it would be merged into one, split into three, and finally, much later, permanently split in two.
-
The army grew less dominant as it was full of people who were strong fighters, but had little to no loyalty to the Empire. The Empire itself was simply too big to govern properly, and the coffers were quickly emptying from spending on the military, which grew with the Empire and needed more funds as it did so.
-
Throughout the 300s, barbarians penetrated the Empire, sacking cities and killing people.
-
The starving Goths, who had been forced by the Romans to give their children into slavery in exchange for dog meat, finally rebelled. They routed a Roman army and killed emperor Valens in the battle of Adrianople.
-
Constantine split the Empire permanently in two: the Western Empire, ruled by Rome, and the Eastern Empire, ruled by Constantinople.
-
The city of Rome, thought to be impenetrable, was successfully sacked by the Visigoth barbarian king Alaric.
-
The Vandals, led by King Geiseric, sacked the city again
-
Germanic leader Odoacer knocked the last emperor, Romulus Augustulus, off the throne and claimed the city for his own tribe, and the Western Empire (the one controlled by Rome) fell to barbarism. Then the Dark Ages began. The Eastern Empire (the one controlled by Constantinople), lived on much longer.