英语演讲泡泡堂 Culture in Ancient Rome 罗马文化.pptVIP

Culture in Ancient Rome The Roman Rise to Empire I. Rome’s Early History Rome’s origins are to be found among tribes of Iron Age folk called Latins, who invaded the Italian peninsula just after the beginning of the first millennium B.C.E. By the mid-eighth century B.C.E., these people had founded the city of Rome in the lower valley of the Tiber River, a spot strategically located for control of the Italian peninsula and for convenient access to the Mediterranean Sea. While central Italy became the domain of the Latins, the rest of the peninsula received a continuous infusion of eastern Mediterranean people-- Etruscans (以特鲁里亚人):established themselves in northwest Italy, were experts in the arts of metallurgy (冶金), town building, and city planning. (From them Romans absorbed the fundamentals of urban planning, chariot racing, the toga（参议员职位）, bronze and gold crafting, and the most ingenious灵巧的 structural principle of Mesopotamian architecture – the arch. ) Greeks: colonized the tip of the Italian peninsula and Sicily, were masters of philosophy and the arts. (From them Romans borrowed a pantheon of gods and goddesses, linguistic and literary principles, and the aesthetics of the classical style.) Phoenicians: settled on the northern coast of Africa, brought westward their alphabet and their commercial and maritime skills. II. The Roman Republic (509-133B.C.E.) For three centuries, Etruscan kings ruled the Latin population , but in 509 B.C.E. the Latins overthrew the Etruscans. Over the next two hundred years, monarchy slowly gave way to a government “of the people” (res publica). The agricultural population of ancient Rome consisted of the patricians贵族: a powerful class of large landowner. They were life members of the Roman Senate and controlled the lawmaking process. Plebeians平民: a more populous class of small farmers. They constituted the membership of a Popular Assembly. They had little voice in government. Step by step, the plebeians gained increasing pol