Semester Exam Essay (Chapters 4 & 5) – Compare and Contrast Greece with Rome
There were many factors that lead to the Rise of the Roman Republic and the fall of the Roman Empire similarly to Greece. The first factor that led to the rise of roman republic and democracy is geography. Greek’s geography started out as a mountainous peninsula with many islands, and they had no major unifying river; therefore, people were isolated in small communities, which allowed people to participate in politics. This made people became fiercely independent rivalries. Unlike Rome, the Roman’s geography was different. Rome started out as an Italian peninsula with the Apennine mountain range on the East, so they had large fertile plain on the west. They also had the Tiber River as their major unifying river. Since the people were not isolated by mountains, the Greeks, the Latin, and the Etruscans were mixed together, and so Rome was unified into the ‘Roman Confederation’. Both Greece and Rome’s geography was the start that led to the development of democracy.
The Greeks value Arête or ‘heroic excellence’ the most. Therefore, this made the people want to have courage, honor, and heroism, and for them to strive for immortality which benefited themselves only. The Greeks’ value made people compete against each other, so people were more independent individuals. Example of a Greek hero is Achilles in Homer’s Epic. The Romans valued duty, courage, and self-discipline. It is mainly the idea of ‘fulfilling your duty/responsibility’; and this is how Rome got its democracy back. An example is how Cincinnatus (Livy’s history of Rome) led Rome to victory, and then he resign. This taught the Romans to be independent and a responsible person, unlike Achilles who only strive for his own immortality, but rather for the Roman Republic.
Greek’s war included the Peloponnesian war (Sparta vs. Athens) and the Persian war (Athens vs. Persians). The wars in Greek encouraged people to compete between city-states, which therefore lead to the development of democracy. For the Romans, they had the Punic wars (Rome vs. Carthaginians/Phoenicians). The Romans were defeated by the Carthaginians in the first and the second Punic wars by Hannibal’s strategy. But the third Punic war the Romans burned and demolished all of the
After the wars, the Roman Confederation turned into the Roman Republic. This is when they were a unified country under a central democratic government. They had 2 counsels and 2 Praetors, the Patricians and the Plebeians. The Patricians were the upper house aristocrats, and they had 300 senators and central assemblies. The Plebeians were the commoners, and they had tribunes, which are the officials who protected the Plebeians. They also had the council of Plebs to elect officials.
The Gracchus brothers (Tiberius and Gaius) led reform in Rome, this is a top down reform; they wanted lands from the aristocrats for the poor. The wars led to them believing that everything was deteriorating because farmers did not own land, and could no longer farm, so the Gracchus brothers wanted to give land to the poor. But the senators were corrupt and they disagreed, so they killed the Gracchus brothers. So the legion started the coup, and Sulla won, and took over military, then gave democracy back to Rome. This therefore leads to a dangerous precedent, so it foreshadows the fall of the Roman Republic.
Caesar competed for power after Crassus died, and fought until he won, and made himself the dictator. Caesar did some good deeds by giving land to the poor, but he also increased the Senate to 900 members, so this leads the power to be weakened, therefore democracy began to fell. When Octavian ruled during “the Age of Augustus”, they started new political system, which is for them to be able to choose the next emperor, so it was no longer democratic anymore! There were also 4 bad emperor (Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, and Nero), and followed by 5 good emperors (Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, Antoninus Pius, and Marcus Aurelius). The military dictatorship and triumvirates led to the fall of Roman Empire because after Caesar’s rule and the new political system that came up, it was no longer democratic. The expansion of empire by the next emperors also led to trading, and allowing Roman citizenship, this therefore separated the rich and the poor (no middle ground, no middle class).
The idea of ‘Bread and Circuses’ was another feature of the falling part of democracy in Rome. They believed that by giving them enough food and entertainment, and then the people will be satisfied and they won’t rebel anymore. Their ‘slaves’ came from “the spoils of wars”, therefore the labors didn’t have jobs anymore because they could hire slaves at cheaper prices. The Romans also had gladiator shows such as in ‘circus maximus’, where they would let the two slaves/gladiators fight until one is killed, and chariot races. So from these examples, it showed how the government doesn’t care about the people at all. Therefore this also showed how the Romans had lost the capacity to govern themselves, because they were distracted by self-satisfaction (bread and circuses) only, so the senate bankrupted the treasury and no one worked in the army to help protect the empire and led to the fall of the Roman Empire.
The Romans believed in Christianity. Christianity was led by Jesus the messiah and his 12 Apostles also help spread. It offers the people a sense of salvation and belonging, this gave people a purpose in life, and it benefited people especially the poor, because it accepted people no matter what sin they had done in the past, you are forgiven as long as you believe in Christianity. The rich senators and old priests did not approve the idea of people calling Jesus “the King of heaven’, therefore they crucified him on a cross and persecuted Christianity. However, Constantine himself even converted to Christianity. So this led to the loss of cultural dominance. This proves that “When in Rome, not all everyone do as the Romans do.”
During the Economic Crisis and Invasions in Rome, there were labor shortages led by plagues or diseases that killed vast amount of people. There were farm production decline, because invaders took over their farmlands, this affected both the military and economy. There were also inflations, where the price of goods and services were increased. Many invaders took advantage when the Rome was in trouble and started to invade Rome. The Huns moved in from Asia, then the Visigoths crashed Rome, and the Vandals also sacked Rome at last. This was when Rome collapsed and separated into Western Roman Empire and Eastern Roman Empire. The WRE fell first, and the ERE lasted a thousand years later until it eventually fell. Therefore, this also proves that “Not all roads lead to Rome”.
*Thailand has many similar factors that led Thailand to being democratic and possible predictions of the falling of democracy. Thailand’s geography, with some mountains in some areas, and having the Chao Phraya River as the major unifying river, therefore it makes it similar to Rome. The river unites the people, and is the basic living of people.
Thailand also had wars when we date back to its history, the war with the Burmese. At first Thailand was defeated by Burma, and they took over Ayutthaya, but Thailand got King Taksin started a new war, and took over our land back from the Burmese. It was similar to Roman’s Punic Wars, where they got back their land at last.
There were also coup from last year, where the military army took over the government, people were not satisfied with elections, and they start to fight against each other in many groups. This also led to a dangerous precedent, therefore it is possible that dictatorship might step over and take control instead.
(3/4 Rising)
Thailand also had dictatorships for several periods, when the coup starts, and chaos comes in, a new dictator step out to claim for power correspondingly to Caesar. People were also affected by many entertainments and new technologies that they forget about the work or their duty, which is the reason why Thai people are mostly lazy and always take shortcuts in completing a work. There were also times when economic crisis occurs, when inflation comes in, farm productions get shortened and there was a big economic crash. Invaders (such as the Burmese or the others) could take advantage of this, and defeat Thailand more easily. Because Thailand also had economic crisis and invasions (possibilities), a prediction might be that Thailand could be separated into two parts/countries, in order to settle all the political problems Thailand is facing now.
(3/4 – Falling)
*Thailand has 3/4 factors that lead to democracy, but on the other hand, it also has ¾ factors of the falling of democracy possibilities, therefore it can be concluded that there is a 50/50% chance of Thailand rising as a democratic country and falling as a dictatorial country judging from the Rome’s criteria of developments of democracy.
CREDIT: เจนนี่คนทำแต่โจโจ้เปนคนแจก 555
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment