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Unit 8 – Roman Vocabulary (Part 1 – 23 terms )

Term Definition Explanation A hero from the Trojan War to which all Romans The Romans believed Aeneas was Aeneas traced their ancestry. the first Roman and he was a link between the Roman and Greek cultures. Twins demigods who were credited with building the They were the twin sons of the and city of . Roman god of war, so the story Remus reveals war was a large part of who they were. republic Form of government where the people elect leaders This is the type of government we to govern them. have today. Ruler with absolute power. In times of emergency, Romans would give all power to one person for six months in order to get problems fixed quickly. He gave his power back willingly Cincinnatus Most famous Roman dictator. and as soon as the emergency was over instead of holding onto the power for the full six months. He became the example of what Romans thought a dictator should be. The common, regular, everyday people of Rome. They had few rights and were constantly fighting for more equality. They had all the power, and early patricians Wealthy landowners in Rome. on, were the only ones who could serve in the military. Most famous Roman poet who wrote the epic called This epic told the story of Aeneas, The Aeneid. the father of all Romans. magistrates Elected officials in Rome. These people were elected by the Romans to run the government. consuls The two most powerful magistrates in Rome. They were in control of the military and had input on making laws, including veto power. This made them similar to our modern-day Presidents. Council of elected officials who were patricians. They Most powerful group in the early made Rome’s laws. . Would alter lose power to consuls. Has a big influence on U.S. Senate. veto To prohibit, or forbid. Consuls and had the power to stop a law from becoming a law by use of their veto power. The President has this power today in our government. The language of the Romans. While no civilization used Latin as its primary language anymore, it is used in the fields of medicine, science, and history to name different species and time periods. Checks and Things put in place to make sure there is a balance of Checks and balances help make balances power in government. sure no one branch or any one official gets so much power they can become a king. Rome’s public meeting place. The Forum is where most of the activity in the city of Rome took place. legion Rome fighting group made up of 6,000 soldiers. The Romans fought in small and large units. This was the large group made up of about 60 centuries. centuries Roman fighting group made up of 100 soldiers. This was the small fighting unit that could break off of a legion at any time to accomplish a different objective on the battlefield. Gauls Group of people that attacked and took over Rome. This was the first of many attacks They forced the Romans to pay a large amount of gold on Rome. It forced Rome to focus on to leave. its military strength and led to its first era of expansion. A series of wars fought against , a city-state Victory in this war made Rome a in Africa. world power and led to a second, larger era of expansion. General of Carthage’s military. Defeated the Romans He basically became the Roman repeatedly and attacked the city of Rome directly. “boogy man.” The only reason he Known for his use of war elephants. was not able to destroy Rome was because he was unable to bring siege weapons over the Alps. Gaius Marius First consul to allow the plebeians to join the military. This move helped spread the wealth to the poorer class, but also led to some unforeseen problems. Lucius Cornelius Was consul along with Gaius Marius. They began to Would engage Marius in combat compete against each other for power. sparking a major civil war. A former gladiator who was the leader of the most This was yet another problem the Spartacus successful slave rebellion in Rome. Roman Republic would have to deal with. Spartacus took over large parts of southern Italy before being killed in battle.