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Transcript
Athens and Rome were run in a different way. The cities were not ruled by single leaders. Instead, many citizens participated in running the government. In Athens, this form of government lasted 170 years. In Rome, it lasted 480 years. The effects of these two civilizations are still felt today. Location The Athenians built their city on the southern coast of modern-day Greece. There was a lot of silver near the city. This made them very rich. They used the silver to pay for wood from Italy. They used the wood to build boats and take control over the seas. Rome was founded on the western side of what is now Italy. Romans built their city on seven hills by the Tiber River. Rome was not directly on the seashore. It was 18 miles inland. Athens and Greece Around 800 BCE, small, competing city-states were forming in the mountains of southern Greece. Each contained about 500 to 5,000 male citizens. Overall, there might have been 2 million or 3 million Greeks. The city-states shared a common language and religion. Athens was one of the strongest city-states. Power over the government of Athens was shared among the people. Rich men could vote to choose leaders. Women, children, slaves, and foreigners had no vote, however. Around 500 BCE, Athens won a war against the Persian Empire. The Athenians then enjoyed a golden age for about 150 years. During this time, participation in government was at its highest. Athenian scientists, philosophers, and playwrights came up with bold new ideas. These would later spread across Europe. Yet the Greek city-states could not live peacefully with each other. Athens was defeated by another city-state called Sparta in 404 BCE. All of the Greeks were weakened by the fighting. In the mid-300s BCE, Macedonia conquered the Greek cities. Meanwhile, the Romans were growing stronger. Unlike the Greeks, they were not split into different city-states. Between 215 and 146 BCE, they gradually conquered the Greek cities in Italy. They absorbed Greek thinking into their own. Rome and empire In 509 BCE, Roman landowners overthrew their king. They set up a new kind of government called a republic. In a republic, the government is run by leaders who represent the people. Rome started to grow. It had conquered Greece, Egypt, and the Middle East by 133 BCE. The republican form of government, however, had some drawbacks. It caused fighting among Rome's military leaders. The leaders competed for power, each with his own army. Julius Caesar (100–44 BCE) emerged as the winner. He declared himself ruler for life, ending the republic. Two years later, he was stabbed to death. The killers hoped to bring back the republic. Instead, Caesar’s adopted son Augustus took power and ruled for 45 years. Rome reached its height in the first 200 years of the Common Era. The years between 27 BCE and 180 CE became known as the “Pax Romana,” or "Roman Peace." Roman leaders controlled about 130 million people. Rome's lands stretched across an area of about 1.5 million square miles. The Romans came up with many new ideas. They were master builders, creating roads and aqueducts for carrying water. They also came up with new systems of law. They adopted many Greek ideas and helped to spread them across the world. Even the Roman gods were based on Greek gods. The rise of Christianity and the fall of Rome In a far-off corner of the Roman Empire, a new religion was born: Christianity. Jesus grew up in Judea, which is now part of Israel and the Palestinian territories. Christians believe him to be the son of God. Judea was under Roman rule. The Romans allowed Jesus to be killed in the early 30s CE. They believed he was calling for other Jews to rise up against the Romans. Christianity soon spread in Judea and beyond. At first, Rome tried to stop people from becoming Christians. By the 200s CE, though, Rome had become the center of the Christian Church. Little by little, however, the Roman Empire started to come apart. Some historians say that Rome finally "fell" in 476. Connections and legacies The actions of the Athens and Rome can still be felt around the world today. Both societies came up with many new ideas. Perhaps the most important was the idea of people ruling themselves rather than being controlled by a single leader. This idea later reappeared in Europe and the young United States. It has helped to shape the world's modern governments.