Rome: Pre-Republic and Republic

Question 1

What are Consuls?

Answer 1

Chief Magistrates of the ancient Roman Republic

Question 2

What are the three parts that Rome’s history is divided into?

Answer 2

• Pre-Republic
• Republic
• Empire

Question 3

Who are the two brothers, according to legend, that are responsible for founding Rome?

Answer 3

Romulus and Remus in about 750 B.C.

Question 4

The lifestyle of ancient Romans centered on what?

Answer 4

• family

- the father was the absolute head of the home and master of his wife

Question 5

What was the difference between how Greece and Rome treated women?

Answer 5

• Greek women were kept in separate parts of the house and were not allowed a public life
• Roman women were active in their social lives, attended Forum meetings and did business in the city

Question 6

When did Republican Rome begin?

Answer 6

509 B.C.

Question 7

What were the upper and lower classes of Rome called?

Answer 7

Upper- Patrician Class

Lower- Plebian Class

Question 8

What was the difference between the Patricians and Plebeians in the early Republic?

Answer 8

• Only Patricians could hold public office and had full citizen rights
• Plebeians could not marry Patricians

Question 9

What were the Consuls in the early Republic?

Answer 9

• power to command was passed to two consuls appointed by the Senate for one-year terms
• they had authority over the army and other civil matters

Question 10

What are the two parts that early Roman Republic history is defined by?

Answer 10

• Plebeian struggle for political equality

- Rome’s expansion in Italy

Question 11

What was the Concilium Plebis?

Answer 11

A body of Plebeians that was not an official part of the government and were managed by the Tribunes

Question 12

What are Tribunes?

Answer 12

Officials of ancient Rome

Question 13

What was the principal enemies of Rome when they were extending their territories?

Answer 13

Etruscans

Question 14

What was the significance of the Gauls?

Answer 14

• They were Celts
• In 390 B.C. they attacked the Latin League
• They were interested in wealth more than conquest

Question 15

What was the significance of the Samnites?

Answer 15

• In 350 B.C. they went to war with Rome
• Able to control Campania which had the best farmland in Italy
• Were at war with Rome until 293 B.C. and were given a second-class citizenship

Question 16

What were the terms of peace that Rome settled on when they were making peace with their cities?

Answer 16

• self-government
• citizenship for some cities
• commercial privileges

Question 17

What are pyrrhic victories?

Answer 17

• Named after Pyrrhus, a general of Epirus

- refers to costly victories

Question 18

Who fought in the Punic Wars?

Answer 18

Rome and Carthage

Question 19

Why did the Punic Wars happen?

Answer 19

Rome and Carthage were fighting over the domination of Sicily

Question 20

What happened in the first Punic War?

Answer 20

• 241 B.C.

- Rome won

Question 21

What happened in the second Punic War?

Answer 21

• between Rome and Hannibal, a Carthaginian general

- Carthaginians were defeated at Zama in 201 B.C.

Question 22

What happened in the third Punic War?

Answer 22

Rome had provoked the third war, sieged Carthage, and burned it

Question 23

What was the Social Problem that Rome experienced in the late Republic?

Answer 23

• The availability of cheap slave labor and improved farming methods led to large-scale farming on estates called Latifundia
• They were owned by the wealthy and grew at the expense of small farmers

Question 24

Who and How was the Social Problem in the late Republic dealt with?

Answer 24

• Tiberius Gracchus proposed to the Tribal Assembly (Concilium Plebis) that land would be restricted to 300 acres per person
• And the remainder would be for the landless citizens

Question 25

Who was Gaius Gracchus?

Answer 25

• Tiberius Gracchus’ son
• best known for proposing a price-fixing scheme where the government financed a lower-than-market price for wheat to the population

Question 26

Who led the Senate and Tribal Assembly when they went into a civil war? And who won?

Answer 26

Assembly- Marius
Senate- Sulla
The Senate won

Question 27

What was the significance of Pompey?

Answer 27

• became a consul in 70 B.C.

- 49 B.C. He convinced the Senate to order Caesar to disband his army

Question 28

What was the significance of Caesar?

Answer 28

• Senate appointed him as ‘perpetual dictator’
• changed the solar calendar
• Ruled from 49 B.C. until he was assassinated on March 15 in 44 B.C. by supporters of the republic

Question 29

What were the Twelve Tables?

Answer 29

A written set of laws