DÜNYA MEDENİYETLERİNE GİRİŞ

The plebeians were the non-aristocratic, ordinary class. In the early years, roughly 80 % of the citizens were not patricians but rather plebeians, the lower classes. The plebeians themselves were gradually differentiated by stratification. Those who could not afford to serve as soldiers because they did not have the money to purchase weaponry were called the proletarians. Below them were the poorest of the plebeians, simply considered as numbers, without families or money. The correct choice is D.

An interesting feature of the Roman government was the post of dictator. If there was a crisis at hand, the Romans could appoint a dictator, but his power could only last for six months. This, combined with the allocation of powers to plebeians as well as patricians, helped to guarantee stability while enabling Rome to handle crises. As an example, in 458 BCE Cincinnatus, a poor patrician was working on a small farm when the call from his country came. Although he questioned why he was being chosen, he accepted the request of delegates and was appointed temporary dictator so that he could rescue an army that had been surrounded by the enemy. Cincinnatus formed his army, engaged the enemy, and defeated it – all in fifteen days, seeing Rome through the emergency. He then resigned and returned to the farm, interested only in doing his duty, public service, not in grabbing political power or becoming rich or powerful. The correct answer is A.

Hannibal was a Carthaginian general who became important in Roman history with the second Punic War. Carthaginian victory in Spain was followed by a dramatic drive of the great general, Hannibal, sweeping on from Iberia up through the south of France. He led his army in a huge attack on Italy, flanking the Roman heartland from the west and north. Hannibal brought with him an immense military force, complete with elephants, crossing the Alps. He then descended into Italy, winning huge victories at Lake Trasimene and Cannae, where he destroyed a Roman army twice his size. Rome barely survived because the military cleverly attacked Hannibal’s supply lines back in Spain and France – stretched thin as they already were – and disrupted those lines, keeping reinforcements from reaching Hannibal in Italy. The correct answer is E.

Rome, while not a cultural desert, did not innovate in art, drama, or philosophy. However, Romans were leading in architecture by building beautiful cities and buildings, massive water works, roads that ran long distances, bathhouse, arches and domes. There also came the Roman rule of law, a gift that keeps on giving to civilized humanity to the present day. A uniform system of administration came with the spread of Rome’s domains, bringing tax collectors and others over the huge distances that often separated the capital from the provinces. Similarly, Roman sculpture was frequently found, especially in busts connected with worship of the emperors. The Romans imitated Greek sculpture but wound up with a unique mix, reflecting the huge growth of the empire. Some of their creations of stone and bronze were of the first rank. As Rome grew, did its sculpture, with ever larger works. They grew to be immense and often out of proportion. So, while the Roman civilization did not advance architecture or sculpture notably, it brought construction on a huge scale and built upon Greek and other antecedents, bringing beauty, form and function to the masses. The correct answer is B – Drama.

The leading citizens were able to exclude masses from politics. Besides fighting foreign wars, the masses could be kept occupied, entertained, with the horrible public displays of savagery that occurred in the Circus. There, the masses were appeased through “bread and circuses,” matches in which people were thrown to fight for their lives against wild beasts; or contests in which gladiators fought to the death or were viciously murdered in front of the crowds, often because of a frivolous gesture by spectators; or displays in which conquered people were killed in the public. The correct answer is C.

The Second Punic war gave way to Rome to extend its direct control over much of Italy. The correct answer is A.

The correct answer is C. A and B are about the second stage whereas D and E are related to the third stage.

The correct answer is D, "in 380".

The correct answer is B: "They could check the power of the patricians."

The correct answer is E: "Virgil".

The city of Rome was born at a ford upstream from where Italy’s Tiber River empties into the Mediterranean Sea. Originally a market town dominated by the Etruscans, migrants who most likely were originally from Anatolia, the city state in 509 BCE overthrew the last of the ruling Etruscan kings and created the Roman Republic as a replacement.

Western Roman Empire vanished when the last emperor was forced by a Germanic leader, Odoacer, to abdicate in 476 CE. Rome fell.

Latin went on to become mother to dozens of Romance languages spoken to this day (such as Italian, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Catalan, Rhaeto-Romansch, Romanian, and Ladino); it is also related, if distantly, to other Indo-European languages such as Russian and other Slavic languages, and such as Sanskrit and its offshoots across South Asia. "Amazigh" is not one of these Latin-rooted languages.

The Etruscans were a people with probable origins in Anatolia, in Asia, perhaps migrating west at the end of the Hittite empire, but of whom little is known to this day.

The defeat of the old enemy Carthage brought Spain and northern Africa under Roman control. And, following the rule of the Emperor Augustus, additional provinces were subjected to the thumb of Rome.

First, in the early years of the Republic, Romans believed in ancient myths and worshipped spirits that they thought governed their households. Generally, the deities were agricultural in nature, such as Robigo, the averter of plant rust.

Mithraism, probably brought back to Rome by soldiers who traveled to the east and perhaps related to astrology; only men were admitted as members. The cult believed in a powerful god who could move the heavens, it advanced the idea of fatalism and avowed a lack of personal responsibility for what happens in life. Bulls were slaughtered at the Mithraic ceremonies and in the caves where the followers met are found depictions of scorpions, dogs, snakes, and lots of blood.

In 314, seven years later, his Edict of Milan ensured tolerance for Christians throughout the Roman Empire. In 330 CE Constantine renamed Byzantium the New Rome and made it his capital. And then, in 380 CE, Christianity became the sole authorized official religion of Rome and its empire. Roughly a decade after that, in 391 CE, Emperor Theodosius forbade the practice of all religions except Christianity. No longer was the Roman Empire to tolerate all non-threatening religions.

Certainly, the Punic Wars were the most important institution underlying Rome’s
expansion to include societies east and west. Of all the wars involving Rome, none were more important than the three on-and-off outbursts of fighting known collectively as the Punic Wars. This series of battles began in 264 BCE and ended almost a century later, in 146 BCE.

Cicero, who held political and legal positions at an early age, was a prolific writer. A successful and courageous lawyer, in his speeches, letters, and treatises he drew upon Greek Stoic thought, arguing that pursuing justice was the highest public duty; further,
we are to live in accordance with nature and duty, virtue and service. Able to translate Greek philosophy into elegant Latin, his command of prose, his well-organized and clear writing, set a high level for students of philosophy that lasted generations.