cyber day #22

Slides 9-12: In ancient Rome, Tarquin was a tyrant. Tarquin’s grandfather ends up dying making his widow name Servius Tullias king. This is because she liked him more than her own sons. S.T.’s daughters them marry two brothers, one of them being Tarquin. Tullia, one of the daughters, kills her husband and her own sister leaving her free to marry Tarquin. Tullia then persuades Tarquin to seize the throne from her father so he can sit on the throne and declare himself king. However, S.T. objects, and Tarquin throws him down the steps and into the street, then has him assassinated. Tullia hails Tarquin as the new king, but then he sends her home for safety. But on her way home, she sees her father's lifeless body, stops, and drives her chariot over his corpse. Tarquin refuses to bury his body, and assassinates senators who object his idea. Years later, Tarquin’s son, Sextus, and his friends are drinking when Sextus tries to force himself on a matron, Lucretia. She obviously refuses, but then he sadly threatens to kill her and says he will say he found her with a slave. Although, she gives in to the blackmail, then confesses the ordeal to her family, and commits suicide. Tarquin tried to cover it up and act like it never happened, but the people rose up against the son and the father and had the whole family expelled from Rome.
Slides 13-22: Because of the events that took place, rule of kings is replaced by rule of two consuls.  Consuls are elected officials that serve a one year term of office. Those who are elected are always aristocrats or patricians. In the fifth century BCE, patrician dominance of the government was challenged by the plebs which were 98% of the population at the time. Plebs always had a disadvantage in life with certain things, such as serving in the army, not being able to hold office, being threatened with debt slavery, not having legal rights. Plebs were victims of discriminatory decisions in judicial trials. Rome had no actual laws, just unwritten customs and patricians could interpret these to their own advantage. So, plebs refused to serve in the military until laws were written out. These laws were posted in public in 450 BCE. Tribunes were then elected elected. Originally, the US modeled their new government on the model used by the ancient Romans. Although they are not the same, both have three branches of government: executive, legislative, and judicial as well as both having a legal code.