Text 1: The Rise of the Roman Civilization

Topic 6: Ancient Rome and the Origins of ChristianityLesson 1: Roman Republic

BELLWORK

Review the map and the text that detail Italy's location and geography. What do the text and the map indicate about the location of Rome? How do you think geography influenced the founding of Rome and its rise to power?

OBJECTIVES

Identify the geographical area that is Italy

Describe the ancestors of the Roman people

Explain how the various groups of people populated the Italian peninsula

The Rise of the Roman Civilization

Rome rose from a small city-state on the Italian peninsula to become the dominant power in the Mediterranean world

Roman law ruled over a vast, ethnically diverse empire

Rome's 1000-year history had many lasting effects, including the spread of important aspects of the civilizations of Greece, Egypt, and the Fertile Crescent into Europe

Italy is a peninsula that looks like a boot jutting into the Mediterranean Sea and kicking the island of Sicily toward Africa

The city of Rome sits toward the center of Italy

This location would benefit the Romans as they expanded—first within Italy and then into the lands bordering the Mediterranean

The Italian Peninsula

Italy was much easier to unify than Greece

Unlike Greece, Italy is not broken up into small, isolated valleys

The Apennine Mountains, which run down the length of the Italian peninsula, are less rugged than the mountains of Greece

Italy has broad, fertile plains in the north and the west

These plains supported the growing population

Early Settlements in Italy

800 B.C.E., the ancestors of the Romans, called the Latins, had migrated into Italy

The Latins settled along the Tiber River in small villages scattered over seven low-lying hills

There, they herded and farmed

Their villages would in time grow together into Rome, the city on seven hills

Legend held that twin brothers, Romulus and Remus, had founded the city

Romans regarded this tale highly because the twins were said to be sons of a Latin woman and the war god Mars, lending Rome a divine origin

The Latins shared the Italian peninsula with others

Greek colonists whose city-states dotted southern Italy

The Etruscans who lived mostly north of Rome

The origins of the Etruscan civilization are uncertain

One theory says they migrated from Asia Minor, while another suggests they came from the Alps

What is certain is that, for a time, the Etruscans ruled much of central Italy, including Rome

The Romans learned much from Etruscan civilization

They adapted the alphabet that the Etruscans had earlier acquired from the Greeks

The Romans also learned to use the arch in construction

Adapted Etruscan engineering techniques to drain the marshy lands along the Tiber

Over time, the Romans adopted some Etruscan gods and goddesses who became merged with Roman deities