Last Test

Today we took our final test. I got a 90 which I am happy with. Our last class is Monday, bittersweet. Thank God for Delaney because she reminded Mr. Schick about the 5 extra credit points for writing out something from the book. So that's kind of it, until Monday.

Kappel the Teacher

Review / test questions

• Medieval period; 476 - 1453 AD
• New society has roots in the beliefs of the Roman Catholic Church, classical heritage of Rome, and customs of various Germanic tribes.
• Germanic invaders overrun the western half of the Roman empire causing: disruption of trade, downfall of cities, and population shifts to rural areas.
• Effects of Invasion
• Decline in learning.
• Germanic warriors' loyalty is to the lord of the manor he provided them with food, weapons, and treasure.
• Clovis rules Gaul (Franks) until death in 511
• in 496 he has a battle conversion - him and 3000 warriors became Christians
• Church in Rome likes this
• by 511 the Franks are united into one kingdom, with Clovis and the Church working as partners.
• Church + Frankish rulers = rise in Christianity
• In 520, Benedict writes rules for monks:
• live simple
• no marital relations
• obedience
• Sister Scholastica writes similar rules for nuns.
• Pope Gregory 1 goes secular (worldly power)
• Bead wrote the history of England
• Church revenues are used to help the poor, build roads, and raise armies = theocracy.
• Clovis' descendants include Charles Martel, knows as Charles the Hammer.
• Hammer defeats a Muslin raiding party from Spain in 732.
• Charles Martel's son is Pepin the Short.
• Son #1 - Carloman - dies in 771
• Son #2 - Charles, known as Charlemagne, meaning Charles the Great.
• Charlemagne
• became the most powerful king in western Europe
• kept close watch on his huge estates
• Louis' three sons - Lothair, Charles the Bald, and Louis the German split up the kingdom at the Treaty of Verdun in 843 AD (they were weenies)

Germanic Kingdoms Unite under Charlemagne

• Medieval Europe is fragmented.
• Middle Ages = medieval period
• 476 - 1453 AD
• What happened in 476 AD?
• Romoulus Augustulus was told to step down. (no more emperor, no more Roman empire)
• This new society has roots in:
• Classical heritage of Rome
• Beliefs of the Roman Catholic Church
• Customs of various Germanic tribes
• Invaders overrun the western half of the Roman Empire causing:
• Disruption of trade
• Downfall of cities
• Population shifts to rural areas
• Decline of learning:
• Tribes had oral traditions, songs,couldn't read Greek or Latin
• Roman languages evolve (French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian)
• Few besides priests were literate
• Germanic Kingdoms emerge: 400-600 AD
• Germanic warriors' loyalty is to the lord of the manor he provides them with food, weapons, treasure, etc.
• Results:
• no orderly government for large areas
• small communities rule
• Clovis rules the Germanic people of Gaul, knows as the Franks (France)
• in 496 he has a battlefield conversion - he and 300 of his warriors become Christians
• the Church in Rome likes this
• By 511 the Franks are united into one kingdom, with Clovis and the Church working as partners.
• Church + Frankish rulers = rise in Christianity
• In 520, Benedict writes rules for monks:
• vows of poverty (live simply in monasteries)
• chastity (no marital relations)
• obedience (listen to church superiors)
• Pope Gregory 1 goes secular (worldly power)
• Church revenues are used to help the poor, build roads, and raise armies.
• This is a theocracy
• Gregory's spiritual kingdom (Christendom) extends from Italy to England, from Spain to Germany
• Clovis rules the Franks in Gaul until his death in 511
• Most of the rest of Europe consists of smaller kingdoms (7 in England alone)
• Clovis' descendants included Charles Martel, aka Charles the Hammer
• Hammer defeats a Muslim raiding party from Spain at the Battle of Tours in 732
• if he hadn't won, western Europe could have become part of the Muslim Empire
• Charles Martel's son is Pepin the Short
• He works with the Church and is named "king by the grace of God" by the Pope
• Pepin the Short dies in 768, leaving two sons
• #! Carloman dies in 711
• #2 Charles, aka Charlemagne meaning Charles the Great
• 6'4 of rocking ruling warrior greatness!
• Charlemagne's grandsons:
• Lothair
• Charles the Bald
• Louis the German
• Split up the kingdom at the Treaty of Verdun in 843 AD

Continued

• Essay Questions:
• How did Christianity evolve from a cult like group to one of the most practiced religions in the wold?
• A European Empire Evolves
• Franks control largest European kingdom
• The Roman province formerly known as Gaul
• Ruled by Clovis - The Merovingian Dynasty
• Major domo - mayor of the palace - ruled the kingdom
• Charles Martel - Charles the Hammer
• extended the Franks' reign to the north, south, and east.
• defeated a Muslim army from Spain at the Battle of Tours in 732 - historic battle

Germanic Kingdoms unite under Charlemagne

• Main Idea
• Many Germanic kingdoms that succeeded the Roman Empire were reunited under Charlemagne's empire.
• Why it matters
• Charlemagne spread Christian civilization throughout northern Europe, which is where many of us came from.
• Setting the stage
• Middle Ages = medieval period
• 500 - 1500 AD
• Medieval Europe is fragmented
• Invasions trigger changes in western Europe
• Invasions and constant warfare spark new trends
• Disruption of trade
• Europe's cities are no longer economic centers
• Money is scarce
• Downfall of cities
• Cities are no longer centers of administration
• Population shifts
• Nobles retreat to the rural areas
• Cities don't have a strong leadership. 
• Decline in learning
• Germanic invaders are illiterate, but they communicate through oral tradition
• Only priests and church officials could real and write
• Knowledge of Greek (and literature, science, philosophy) is almost lost
• Loss of a common language
• Dialects develop in different regions
• By the 800's French, Spanish and other Roman-based languages are evolving from Latin.
• Germanic kingdoms emerge
• The concept of gov. changes
• Roman society: loyal to public gov
• Germanic society: loyal to family
• Germanic chief led warriors
• During peace, he provided food, weapons, treasure, a place to live
• During wartime, warriors fought for the lord
• "The king? Who's that? You want to collect taxes from me? Who the heck are you?"
• Franks lived in the Roman province of Gaul - their leader is Clovis.
• The Franks under Clovis
• Another battlefield conversion (Constantine)
• Clovis and 3000 of his warriors are baptized by the bishop
• The Church in Rome approves of this "alliance"
• Clovis and the Church begin to work together
• Clovis' military expertise + the Church's support and money = a strategic alliance between two powerful forces
• Germanic peoples adopt Christianity 
• 511 AD - Clovis unites Franks into one kingdom
• 600 AD - Church + Frankish rulers convert many
• fear of Muslims in southern Europe spur many to become Christians
• Monasteries and convents
• 520 AD - Benedict wrote the rules for monks and monasteries
• Poverty, chastity (virgin), obedience, study
• His sister Scholastica did the same for nuns in convents
• 731 AD - the Venerable Bede wrote a killer history of England
• Monks opened schools, maintained libraries, and copied books (Bibles, Greek texts)
• (Pope) Gregory 1 expands papal power
• Papacy = pope's office
• Secular power = worldly power
• So... under Gregory the Great
• Papal power (power of the pope) is Political power, presented from the pope's palace.
• the Church can use church money to:
• Raise armies
• Repair roads
• Help the poor
• Gregory the Great began to act as mayor of Rome, and as head of an earthly kingdom (Christendom)

The Middle Ages

• Feudalism
• a political, military and economic system based on land-holding and protective alliances.
• the system based on personal loyalty to people who can help you.
• rich dudes; lord
• tough dudes; vassals (worked for the lord)
• Pyramid
• king
• the most powerful vassals (nobles and bishops)
• knights - mounted warriors who received fiefs for defending their lord's land)
• peasants (mostly serfs) landless, powerless, money-less, rights-less, just working for the land for "the man" (their lord)
• (very little middle class)
• Manor: the lord's estate
• a lord's manor house
• a church
• some workshops
• 15-30 families
• all on a few square miles
• Good news: its a self-sufficient community
• Bad news: its harsh if you're a peasant
• Peasants 
• poor and pay high taxes
• tax on grain
• tax on marriage
• church tax (10% of their income)
• they live in crowded cottages

Test Day

Today in western civ we took our last test on Rome before the final. Now we move onto the Middle Ages. Our homework for tonight is to read p. 151 and put the notes in your blog and for five extra points, copy the Chronology found on page 152.

• The first two early medieval centuries set the patterns for how this renewal would later take place in western and eastern Europe. 
• The Germanic kingdoms had taken over the western half of the Roman Empire.
• Roman institutions gradually stopped working.
• Cities ceased to be centers of trade and social life.
• Warfare became more important than education and culture. 
• Missionary-monks brought Christianity and Roman traditions to peoples beyond the empires's old frontiers.
• Both the missionaries and the Frankish rulers created precedents for spectacular later renewal in western Europe.
• The Roman Empire's surviving eastern half contributed to westerns Europe's chaos by efforts at reconquest.

Chronology:

• Fifth century:
• Angles and Saxons invade Britain.
• 486
• Clovis leads Frankish confederacy against Romans and rival Germanic invaders in Gaul
• 527-565
• Reign of Emperor Justinian in the Eastern empire
• 542
• Plague hits Egypt, then spreads throughout the Mediterranean area and much of western Europe.
• 568
• Lombard's conquer most of northern Italy
• 570-632
• Life of Muhammad
• 595
• Missionaries sent by the pope begin to convert the pagans of England
• 711
• Muslim invasion of Spain
• 800
• Slavs occupy almost all of eastern Europe

Pre Test Day

Today we had a day to study for other classes or the test tomorrow. The test will be on everything that we have learned about Rome. Test tomorrow, until then..

Rome Fades Away

• Diocletian
• he rules from 284-303
• its cool to persecute Christians
• Rome needs a big army (400,000)
• Rome needs a big gov (20,000 officials)
• had the idea to split Rome into two empires.
• Constantine
• rules from 306-337
• its cool to be a Christian
• conversion to Christianity via a cross in the sky
• 313 - his Edict of Milan proclaims freedom of worship
• built a new capital in the East
• Byzantium, soon to be known as Constantinople.
• The Edict of Milan
• a proclamation that gave religious toleration to Christianity within the Roman empire. 
• It was the outcome of a political agreement concluded in Milan between the Roman emperors Constantine I and Licinius in February 313. 
• The proclamation, made for the East by Licinius in June 313, granted;
• all persons freedom to worship whatever deity they pleased
• assured Christians of legal rights
• including the right to organize churches
• directed the prompt return to Christians of confiscated property.
• Peasants
• life in the Fourth Century
• getting bankrupted by endless tax collection
• new farming system: peasants work for elite landlords on large farms
• peasant can avoid paying taxes, but get just as hard by landlords
• paying off debts and being "allowed" to live on the land, in exchange for endless back breaking work.
• landowners hold local power as counts and bishops, wielding more real power.
• foreshadowing feudalism.
• Western Empire crumbles
• Rome's power decreasing
• too poor and begins to be neglected
• Huns migrate from China to eastern Europe
• Visigoths take over Spain, and actually capture the loot Rome itself in 410
• Vandals control Carthage and the western Mediterranean
• Ostrogoth's in Italy
• Franks in Gaul
• Angles and Saxons in Britain
• End of an Era
• 500 BC - the monarchy was abolished
• 450 BC - the Twelve Tables are established
• 44 BC- end of the line for Julius Caesar
• 27 BC - 180 AD - the Roman Peace (Pax Romana)
• constant fifth century invasions by barbarian tribes left the western Roman Empire shattered and crumbling
• the last emperor was a teenage boy installed in 475 by his father
• barbarians deposed Romulus Augustulus without bothering to kill him

The Decline of the Roman Empire

Today in class we went over the test and took notes:

• Rise of Christianity 
• Jesus spent 3 years teaching
• Killed by Roman leaders
• Followers believe he was the Messiah
• Saul becomes Paul and spreads Jesus' message
• Christianity evolves from cult status to established, official structure
• Monotheistic - Jews and Christians 
• Conflicted with Roman beliefs
• Persecution against both was common
• Christianity appealed to the poor
• Some Roman leaders embraced Christianity
• 313 AD: Constantine had a battlefield conversion
• He issues the Edict of Milan
• No more persecution
• Approval of Christianity, eventually making it the official religion of Rome
• The Roman Empire and Christianity are linked in power and influence

• Homework: write notes on page 123
• The greatest change that began among the people was the spread of Christianity.
• The Germanic barbarians of northern Europe became wealthier and more organized.
• From 200 AD they became such a large threat that emperors could only hold them off by building up the army.
• The empire was still strong enough to bring about the last and greatest change in civilization.
• Eventually, the burden of government and the army became too heavy to bear, the barbarian attacks grew too fierce to be resisted, and the empire began to collapse.

Test Day

Today we took our final Rome test. There were 40 questions, I thought I did well. The last part on the back page was about the emperors and that was challenging but everything else was fine. I hope I got a good grade.

Everything on the Test

Today we took notes again on everything that will be on the test.

• Where did the first Indo-Europeans settle around 750 BC?
• On the shores of the Tiber River
• What three groups of people dominated the culture of early Rome?
• Latin
• Etruscan's
• Greeks
• Who was Tarquin the Proud, and what was so significant about him?
• The last of the Roman kings.
• His son raped a women and got away with it.
• 534-510 BC
• Rome: monarchy to republic 
• Ruled by Etruscan kings (monarchy)
• After Tarquin (no more tyranny) the government became res publica.
• Patrician vs Plebeian 
• Patrician: upper class, land establishing, powerful, connected.
• Plebeian: common people, workers, farmers, some wealthy non-patricians.
• Senate
• governments assembly of 300 (unpaid) patricians, appointed for life, first by kings.
• Consuls
• two senators who led the government and military for one year terms.
• Tribunes
• leaders of the plebeian assembly: first rather powerless but gaining ground over the years.
• Why were the 12 tables so important?
• The first time laws were written down in Rome.
• Protect plebeians who were getting pushed around.
• Publicly displayed in the Forum 450 BC.
• The Roman Republic serves as a model for what modern document, and what modern government?
• The Constitution of the US and its separation of powers:
• Senate / Assemblies - US Senate / House of Reps, Consuls / Dictator - President of the US, Senate could act like judges - like our Supreme Court.
• Why could only the rich serve in the Senate?
• Members were not paid, but worked their way up from low-ranking magistrates to higher ones. They needed to spend a lot of money to look good, popular, and powerful, making them electable. Plebeians couldn't afford it. 
• The kings who ruled between 600 and 500 BC ordered the building of the Forum, Rome's political center.

Test Wednesday

Today we went over our old Rome test and went on the material that will be on the test Wednesday.

• Old Rome test
• Octavian
• AKA Caesar Augustus.
• First real emperor.
• Begins the Pox Ramona - roman peace.
• Built roads and aqueducts.
• Set up civil service to take care of roads, grain supply and postal services.
• Died at age 76 in 14 AD.
• Passed his power to Tiberius.
• Jesus 
• a Roman citizen practicing Jew.
• At 30 he began his ministry. (31-33 AD)
• Statements like "my kingdom is not of this world" made the Romans and Jew's nervous.
• The governor of the Roman province of Judaea, Pontius Pilate, sentenced Jesus to death by crucifixion.
• Paul
• Was very important in telling about Jesus. (life, death, resurrection, message)
• Traveled; Cyprus, Anatolia, Athens, Coeinth, Rome, Jerusalem, Spain, Britain, Macedonia.
• Wrote letters to the people of the places he visited.
• Without Paul, Jesus was just an obscure preacher.
• Caligula
• Germanicus' son
• Tiberus' adopted grandson - next in line for emperor.
• Granted bonuses to military, made the governments spending a public matter.
• First 7 months of his reign were "completely blissful"
• He began to fight the Senate
• Claimed to be a god
• Cruel and insane; indulged in too much spending and sex. tried to make his horse a consul and a priest. slept with other mans wives and bragged about it.
• Assassinated by his own aides in 41 AD (age 28)
• Claudius
• isolated from his family because of his disabilities (cerebral palsy or polio)
• rose to the occasion; conquered Britain; built roads, canals, aqueducts, and renovated the Circus Maximus.
• awful marriage to Messalina, who was unfaithful to him, plotting to serve power for her lover Silius, - so Claudius killed them both.
• Religious Troubles
• Christianity and Judaism; monotheistic 
• Rome; many gods - some emperors viewed as gods
• 66 AD; Jews called Zealots tried to rebel. (Rome beat them and burned their temple)
• the Western Wall today in the holiest of all Jewish shrives.
• 1/2 million Jews died in the rebellion.
• Persecution and Christians
• Romans were harsh to worshipers.
• Christians were viewed as a cult.
• Often used for "entertainment" purposes.
• despite the oppression, Christianity grew quickly.
• by 200 AD around 10% of Romans were Christians.

Rome Notes

In class Mr. Schick wasn't here, we took notes in the book;

• With the changes in Rome's society and politics, the character of its armies and their commanders also changed.
• Instead of the farmer-soldiers of old, it was now landless and property less proletarians who were drafted to fill the ranks of the legions.
• The government by supreme warlords was bound to be brief and unstable - unless one of them could turn military dictatorship int legitimate power.
• Julius Caesar
• Came from on old patrician family.
• He entered the politic world young.
• He sided with the poor people.
• In 60BC he began to collaborate with Gnaeus Pompeius.
• Won an appointment to have control of the southern regions of Gaul. 
• Conquered Gaul and even made forays into Britain and Germany.
• Crassus had led an army to a crushing defeat by the neighboring empire Parthia.
• With Pompey's support, the Senate ordered Caesar to disband his army and return to Rome.
• But instead he decided to come back with part of his army, in defiance of Roman Law.
• Pompey was hastily commissioned to defend the Senate, but his forces were not match for Caesar.
• The Father of the Fatherland - Caesar.
• Supreme pontiff - minor branch of government.
• Rubicon - northern Italy River: Rome and Rubicon.

50BC most of western Europe was under Roman Control.