Notes from Class

• 3 Punic Wars- Carthage vs. Rome over Cicily
• Rome wins first & second war
• Hannibal (28 year old Carthage general)
• Carthage lost many soldiers and elephants by trying to cross the Alps to attack Rome
• Rome swamps Carthage and crushes it and kills every adult male they could find or put them in slavery
• Women could not always keep care of the farm land when their husbands were gone at war- rich people would offer to buy it from them
• latifundia-  rich put all of the land together that they bought and make one big farm and put the people who previously owned the land, to work
• Gracchus Brothers had an idea to for the rich to give back some of the land to the poor- the rich refused and killed one of the Gracchus Brothers- almost caused a civil war 
• one of the first government welfare were introduced to give the poor just enough food so they would survive and not revolt
• activities (gladiators, Colosseum, etc) were built to keep the poor entertained and from revolting
• Circus Maximum could hold 100,000 people
• the Gladiators that fought in the fights were criminals, christians, or animals