1. Alps form a wall to the north (barrier) 2. Peninsula 3. Traded with Greece, Egypt, and others a. influenced by a variety of cultures

1. Mediterranean Sea 2. Shaped like a boot; toe on the west - kicking Sicily 3. Apennines a. runs down center from north to south b. made travel difficult 4. Volcanoes a. Mount Etna in Sicily b. Mount Vesuvius – destroyed Pompeii in A.D. 79

5. Fertile plains a. Po River valley b. Latium i. west coast of central Italy ii. The Tiber River runs through the center. 6. Tiber River a. Rome (start of Italy)

1. Earliest people = Etruscans B.C. – Etruscan kings kicked out and Roman Republic was founded. 3. Republic – government leaders voted into office

1. Patricians – powerful group from Rome’s wealthiest families 2. Plebians – poor farmers and shopkeepers who could not hold office 3. Both = citizens a. person who is born in a country or who becomes a member of a country by law

4. Military power – conquered most of Italian peninsula 5. Citizens a. paid taxes b. males – served in army

6. Consuls a. elected 2 leaders i. prevented forming of dictator (an oppressive ruler) or taking advantage of power b. both had to agree, but one could veto (turn down) other consul’s plan c. needed Senate body to approve plans

1. Citizens – who felt patrician government was unfair B.C. – went on strike a. refused to open shops b. serve in the army c. farmers refused to bring their crops into Rome 3. Result – plebeians were given a plebeian assembly to elect reps. called tribunes a. could veto laws and review judges’ decisions

4. 50 years later – new demand a. no idea of laws because never posted 5. Result – placed on display in Rome’s public marketplace 6. Laws = Twelve Tables (carved on stone tablets)

1. 3 rd group in Rome 2. Captured during wars 3. Anyone could become a slave 4. Some legal rights a. could even buy freedom 5. Hard life especially for gladiators

6. Gladiators a. fought each other or wild animals to the death in large arenas (colosseums) B.C. – 70,000 slaves joined gladiator, Spartacus in a revolt a. Spartacus and the slaves were defeated, and they were put to death.

1. Carthage a. Phoenician city in northern Africa 2. Punic Wars a. between Carthage and Rome

B.C. Carthaginian army invaded Italy and defeated Rome a. Hannibal – Carthaginian general 2. Rome invaded northern Africa and Hannibal returned 3. Rome defeated Carthage in 146 B.C. a. sold survivors into slavery and burned buildings b. Rome ruled Mediterranean world.

1. Civil War between wealthy Romans and powerful generals a. civil war – war between groups within a country 2. Julius Caesar a. armies conquered Gaul, present-day France b. led soldiers into Rome and made himself dictator

2. Caesar’s changes a. revised Roman calendar b. gave land and grain to the poor c. increased the number of people in the Senate d. granted citizenship to foreigners 3. Caesar had many enemies. (March 15 th )