Journals Through History Rome Eternal City

Father says our political system is the foundation of our society. Emperor Hadrian is the most important man in Rome. Senators like my father advised him and helped to make the laws. He takes a lot of government officials to help run things. They have a huge responsibility to do a good job for the citizens of Rome. Father says the first step in meeting that responsibility is to get a good education. Which reminds me of school. We don't quite know. Just my luck. I was the first one teacher called on to read aloud. We studied the aeneid by Virgil. It's the most famous poem ever written by a Roman. Father says Virgil is Rome's greatest writer. Aeneas was a hero who fought a lot of battles and had many adventures before settling down in Italy. Teacher calls him aeneas the pious because no matter what happened, he always kept his faith in his God. He did everything he could to help his family and his people. According to Virgil, everything started a very long time ago and aeneas hometown of Troy. The Trojans and the achaeans, that's what they call the ancient Greeks. Had been at war for ten years, over a woman named Helen. 

Legend says she was very beautiful, but still fighting over a girl? Finally, one day the Keynes tricked the Trojans by hiding in a big wooden horse. And the Trojans pulled the horse into their city, the achaeans ran out and started burning everything. Aeneas escaped with his father and his son, and eventually led a group of refugees across the sea to start a new city. It took years and aeneas and his followers faced many hardships. Finally, they settled Lacey, a beautiful part of Italy. There aeneas married lavinia, the daughter of king latinas. Their family prospered and 400 years later, their descendants founded the city of Rome. Despite his struggles, aeneas never lost faith in the gods, and always looked out for all of his people. Teacher says that aeneas was the father of our civilization. Almost from the beginning, Rome citizens came from many lands, each group bought something special from its own culture to add to the strength of the growing city. The Greeks are almost distant neighbors. Grandfather says that they taught us more about art, literature, and math than any other people. Not only that, but their gods played a big role in our religion. The latins lived nearby. They gave us many ideas about fair government and they taught us their language, which is why we speak Latin. Not Roman. The sabines were terrific farmers and warriors. 

They believed in discipline and strength, qualities that have helped our empire grow strong. And the etruscans gave us beautiful artwork. They were also some of our first leaders. Want to trust in king, servius tullius did something no one had ever done before. He carried out the first Roman census. Father tells me that a census is the counting of a population by hundreds. Sento means 100 in Latin. Servius tullius had his workers carefully count all the people in Rome. He noted where they lived and how much property they owned. The census helped service figure out how much tax each man should pay and who should serve in the military. It was a great tool to help them organize the government. But service used the census to give something back to Romans too. He granted voting rights to every group that supplied men for the army. Servius ruled for 44 years until he was killed by his brother in law, tarquin the proud, who wanted the throne form self. Grandfather says the tarkin was such a mean and nasty man that the Romans finally rebelled and threw him out. After that bad experience, they vowed never to let a king rule them again. 

So who's in charge if there's no king? Teacher says that we should be very proud of the way we Romans answer that tricky question. The Romans formed a republic or government of the people. Our motto became SPQR, which stands for sonatas, puppy loose quay, romanus. The Senate and people of Rome. The Senate was an assembly of older men from rich land owning families. They recalled the patricians and they had a lot of money and status in Rome. The people were basically everyone else. The regular folks who didn't come from a nobler patrician family. They were called the plebeians. The Senate and the people knew they needed leadership to keep their country organized, but a king was not welcome. So we Romans decided to have two patricians called consuls, share the job of leading our country. The consuls served for just one year in order to limit their power even more. What a creative solution, but teacher says the plebeians had one big problem with this arrangement. If the councils were all patricians and they meet all the laws, then who was looking out for the rest of us. So the plebeian said, wait a minute here, were the people growing all your food and were the people fighting in your army. We need some rights too. But the patricians were not really interested in sharing their power. 

This conflict between the patricians and the plebeians was called the struggle of the orders. The plebeians finally got so frustrated that they just left Rome and set up their own camp outside the city. It didn't take long for the patricians to realize that life was much better with the plebeians around. So they struck a deal to give plebeians the right to elect their own representatives in Rome's government. But that's not all the plebeians demanded. Teacher says our 12 tables of law are one of the greatest Roman accomplishments. This afternoon, we learned how they came about. Way back in the early days, the patricians were in charge of the laws. They weren't written down and a lot of things were decided in secret. Not only that, but many legal decisions seem very unfair to the plebeians. So they insisted that the patricians and the plebeians decide the laws together and write them down publicly for everyone to see. Then the patricians just couldn't change the laws whenever they felt like it. And the criminals couldn't claim they didn't know they were breaking the law. Grandfather says the 12 tables made things clear for everybody. 

Grandfather is always telling me that good government and clear laws are the foundation of Rome's greatness because they bring out the best in our exceptional people. Cincinnatus is one of his favorite heroes. Way back in the early days of our republic, almost 600 years ago, Cincinnati served a year as consul of Rome. When his term was up, he went to live on his little farm outside the city. A few years later, Rome was in trouble. Enemies were approaching from the east and southeast. There wasn't enough time for two consuls to discuss things with the Senate. We needed one strong leader or a dictator. Someone said, hey, what about cincinnatus? He would be perfect for this job. Let's make him our dictator. The officials rushed to the country and found cincinnatus working in his field. We need your help, they cried. We want to make you dictator for 6 months to lead us against the threat from the east. Cincinnati was happy to come back to Rome. Where he quickly organized us to defeat the enemy in just 16 days. Then, he returned leadership power to the consuls and returned to his beloved farm. What a guy. 

Cincinnati could have been dictated for 5 and a half more months. A lot of people would have used that opportunity to take power and money for themselves. Grandfather says, if Rome had more people like cincinnatus, we would never have any problems at all. Over the centuries, Rome grew and prospered. He had such a well organized military that we won most of our battles with neighboring tribes. Most of the time we treated our former enemies well. Their people were allowed to become Roman citizens, we built roads and cities for them and protected their farms and businesses. One thing bothers me though, not all the conquered people became Roman citizens, some became slaves. Grandfather says that today nearly one third of the people in Rome are slaves. Families like mine use household slaves to take care of children, cook, clean, and run our businesses. Marcus tells me that even teacher is a slave from Greece. He's been saving up to buy his freedom, and then he can become a Roman citizen. But some slaves do really hard work in our workshops and farms. I asked teacher why Rome had so many slaves. We have enough money to pay everyone. Teacher told me to stop asking so many questions, right, end up like Tiberius gracchus. 

Tiberius gracchus was a patrician who lived about 250 years ago. During that period, patricians were taking a lot of land from Roman soldiers or legionnaires as we call them. Here's how it happened. In the early days of Rome, our wars were close to home, so men could leave their farms, fight, and get back in time to take care of the harvest. But in Tiberius gracchus time, the worst longer and were farther away. Our men were gone for years. The wives and children couldn't take care of the land themselves. So many small farms were taken over by patricians. The men returned to find their families without a home. And they couldn't even get a job on the patrician's large estates because slaves were doing all the farm work. Tiberius gracchus thought this was really unfair. He worked hard to get a law pass that would give land back to men who fought for Rome. This made a lot of wealthy Romans angry because they weren't interested in sharing the land. Grandfather tells me that one day some of them hit Tiberius on the head with a chair and threw his body in the river. I bet that isn't allowed in the 12 tables of law. Teacher says that killing Tiberius gracchus didn't solve anything. For the next 80 years, the senators fought with each other about who should be in charge. Until one man ended up changing everything. 

Father says that Julius Caesar represents the best and the worst of Rome. And personally, I think he has a very cool first name. Caesar lived about 80 years after Tiberius gracchus. And while the senators were arguing in Rome, Caesar was off winning wars. He was a brilliant military ruler. Loyal and fair to his troops, and brutal to the enemy. In just a few years he fought and conquered the gauls to the north. He was also a great writer and speaker, but he used his skills to brag a lot about his accomplishments. One of his most famous letters was about a battle he led. He wrote, I came, I saw, I conquered. Back in Rome, the people celebrated his victories and the senators worried about his popularity. Plebeians love Caesar because he was very generous. He gave free rein to people and donated some of his own property for public parks. Caesar had a lot of strong ideas about how to make room better. But he was a bossy person who liked to have his own way. He even got the Senate to name him dictator for life. But after a while, many senators felt that he was acting too much like a king. They wanted Rome to remain a republic, a government of the people. But some senators wanted Caesar's power for themselves. 

Father tells me that finally, while Caesar was presiding over the Senate, a group of men attacked him with daggers. Rome would never be the same again. I wonder what aeneas would think about Julius Caesar and all that has happened since the beginning of Rome. Our country is larger and richer than anything the world has ever seen. We created a new kind of government and legal system that tries to be fair to Roman citizens. No matter where they came from or how they started out. Our military is well organized and powerful. And I haven't even begun to write about the amazing accomplishments of our engineers and builders. I imagine that aeneas would be surprised at what he started. I can't wait to get back to school tomorrow to learn even more about my country. This dream of being emperor seems much more complicated than I realized.