Thursday, February 28, 2008

Cincinatus

People came and were wrecking the Roman people's things and robbing them and burning their houses. The people wanted to kill the men and take the women and children as slaves. The Romans weren't afraid because they though it would be easy to drag the bad people back to their places. The Romans sent almost every fighting man to fight the bad guys. Then the Roman soldiers went to fight them, but the bad guys threw boulders in their way and made a trap. Some soldiers ran back to Rome and told the people what had happened and they said, "go to Cincinatus and he shall help you." They went to Cincinatus, a man who used to be a rich consul but he was only a poor farmer now, and they gave him the power of a King. He sent orders to boys and guards so that they could destroy the bad guys and drive them back to their places. 16 days after, they appeared with good news, they drove them back to their places. Then Cincinatus gave the power back to the Senators and he went back to his plow and his farm.

New Roman Government

Who were the leaders, how many were there?

2 leaders called consuls

Who were the people who helped rule Rome and how many were there?

300 men from important families called senators

What was the job of the senators?

advise the consuls

What do we call Rome's new kind of government?

Republic

Tell me about who could vote and be in the government.

People who owned land could vote and just men could run the government. But, they did not get paid, so rich people (an important family), were the only people who could run the government.

Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Horatius


The story begins a long time ago when the last Roman king was cruel. They got so mad at the king and then finally, they kicked him out. The king of the Etruscans heard of this and decided he wanted to rule Rome too. The Romans did not want a king at all, "No more kings!" The Etruscan King, who lived across the Tiber River, made a great big army to attack Rome. The Romans were not strong enough and did not have enough people, so they set soldiers to watch all the places, especially the bridge over the Tiber River. The rest of the people hid inside the walls. One morning, some guards saw the Etruscan army nearby, very close, comming towards the bridge. Horatius, a brave Roman soldier, was guarding the bridge. He told them to cut down the bridge as fast as they could. He said, "me and two other soldiers, guarding the bridge, will keep the army away." They cut down the bridge and the other soldiers ran back to the other side while Horatius fought the soldiers. The bridge collapsed and Horatius knew that the city of Rome was safe. Then a soldier threw a dart and hit Horatius' eye and got his eye out. Horatius jumped in the water because he saw his house and it encouraged him. He sank because his heavy armor was on. The people thought that they would not see Horatius again. But Horatius made it across because he was the best swimmer in Rome. The Romans felt really happy that their friend made it across the Tiber River and they gave him as much land as he could plow in a day and they made a statue to honor him. They called him One-Eyed Horatius.

I thought this story was very nice. I think Horatius was a very good man and he was a strong, saving man. If I was Horatius I would take my armor off first or while I was under the water.

Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Romulus and Remus

The story sounds a little bit like the story of Moses. Romulus and Remus were going to be thrown into the Tiber River, but instead they got put in a basket because the servant couldn't bear having them be dead. He put the basket in the river and it was found by a wolf, but the wolf did not eat them, it instead took care of them as if they were it's own. Then, it became summer and a farmer found them in a cave and took them home and showed them to his wife. They named them Romulus and Remus. They grew up to be strong men and fought with robbers.
They wanted to build a city on 7 hills so they got every shepherd they knew to help them. Everything was well until Romulus decided he wanted to be king. Then his brother said, "I will show you how silly a wall this is" and he leaped over it with one bound and when his feet touched the ground, an angry shepherd pounded him with his shovel and he died. So, his brother named the city Rome after himself. There were 7 kings of Rome and Romulus was the first king.
We do not know if this is a true story or not.

What I think is silly, is that Romulus wanted to be King, but, Why don't they both be king? I think most of it is true.