The Rise and Decline of the Roman Republic

R. Griffin Professor Terry HIST 101 26 May 2010 The Rise and Decline of the Roman Republic To this day, there have been few governmental declines comparable to that of the Roman Republic. Once a thriving republic with an established system of government, Rome was the first society in which any free citizen could have a say, directly or indirectly, in governmental actions and decisions. For years, this stability of the government corresponded to several conquests, and the future of the Republic appeared to be very bright; however, increasing economic, social, and political issues tore apart a government, which appeared to be flawless.The events that directly led to Rome's relapse from a thriving republic years ahead of its time, with divided power and stability, to a chaotic system of government consisting of dictators and frequent turmoil provide a clear example of the misuse of power by several individuals. This research will explain the events and circumstances that directly lead t o the decline of the Roman republic. By 287 B. C. Rome had created a governmental system years ahead of it's time. Rome modified this political system several times over the years in order to deal with internal conflicts and managed to establish a complex, yet organized government. The Romans had a clear concept of executive authority, embodied in their word, imperium, or ‘the right to command'† (Spielvogel 117). Atop the chain of command were the two consuls and praetor. These elected officials served one-year terms, with the consuls having a military focus and the praetor having a political focus. As the Roman republic expanded, pro-praetors and pro-consuls, who previously served as consuls and praetors, were also appointed to govern the Roman provinces. Furthermore, Administrators, or officials with specialized duties helped assisting the Consuls and Praetor. Quaestors were in charge of overseeing financial affairs.Aediles supervised the games. Also, Censors were appo inted to gather an assessment of the population. The main purpose of establishing this position was to aid in formulating taxes. A major modification that solidified Rome as a governed republic was the addition of the senate. It consisted of three hundred advising elders who served life-long terms. Since they did not have legislative authority, they could not make laws. Finally, the Centuriate Assembly contained high ranking Roman army officers functioning in a political role. â€Å"By any reasonable standards the constitution worked smoothly.There was no interruption in the annual election of office holders, and not a single Roman is known to have been killed, or even injured, in political violence during the period† (Millar 2). The Roman population consisted of the Patricians and Plebeians, with the plebs being the majority. The Plebeians, who were underprivileged and poor, opposed the aristocratic patricians because they did not have the same rights as them. Moreover, the patricians controlled the entire government, and the hard-working farmers and small landowners of the plebeian group could not hold office and have someone to represent them politically.When the plebs became tired of the inequality of the government they essentially went on strike and left Rome. â€Å"The patricians, realizing that they could not defend Rome by themselves, were forced to compromise. Two new officials known as the tribunes of the plebs were instituted. These tribunes were given the power to protect the plebeians from arrest by patrician magistrates. Moreover, a new popular assembly for plebeians only, called the council of the plebs, was created in 471 B. C. † (Spievogel 118). This allowed the plebs to make governmental proposals, but they still did not have a true voice in the government.For the next two hundred seven years, more rights were granted to plebeians, and â€Å"by 287 B. C. all Roman citizens were equal under the law, and could strive for politic al office† (Spievogel 120). By now the republic had adopted the Plebiscite, which were laws created by the plebs. For the next one hundred fifty-four years, the Roman Republic thrived, making several conquests, while also establishing allies. Rome and its neighbors of the Italian peninsula were seemingly in a constant feud, which eventually led to a series of battles and wars and â€Å"by 267 B. C. the Romans completed their conquest of southern Italy. After crushing the remaining Etruscan states to the north, Rome had conquered all of Italy, except the extreme north, by 264 B. C. † (Spievogel 120). Rome also established many allies along the way: â€Å"To rule Italy, the Romans devised the Roman confederation in 338 B. C. Under this system, Rome allowed some peoples (especially the Latins) to have full Roman citizenship. Most of the remaining communities were made allies† (Spievogel 120). With the use of these allies and the powerful Roman army, the Romans faced little opposition in conquering Italy. In the course of their expansion throughout Italy, the Romans pursued consistent policies that help explain their success. The Romans excelled at making the correct diplomatic decisions†¦. Though firm and even cruel when necessary, rebellions were crushed without mercy† (Spievogel 120). Incorporating similar strategy that they used in conquering the Italian peninsula, the Romans success continued in their conquest of the majority vast Mediterranean islands and coastlines. Among these conquests were the islands of Corsica and Sardinia, Spain, Macedonia, Carthage, and Pergamum.At this point, almost the entire Mediterranean Sea was controlled Roman Republic, while the government and military continued to be run effectively, But things would soon change. According to Spievogel, due to a snowball effect of social, economic and political issues the decline and fall of the Roman Republic began around 133 B. C. As previously stated, the ple beians and patricians were eventually made equal in all aspects of Roman government and livelihood; however â€Å"the magistracies and senate were increasingly controlled by a relatively select circle of wealthy and powerful families – both patrician and plebeian – called the nobles.From 233 – 133 B. C. , eighty percent of the consuls came from twenty-six families† (Spievogel 134). The voice of the public was becoming muted, which is always a gateway to rebellion and uprising. Like most civilizations before them, the Romans were built on agriculture and farming by individual landowners. These farmers made up the majority of the Roman army as well. â€Å"In order to win the Punic wars, Rome had to increase the term of military service to six years.Now when the soldiers returned after many years of service abroad, they found their farms so deteriorated, that they chose to sell out instead of remaining on the land† (Spievogel 136). The aristocrats als o began to accumulate this land and hired slaves to produce a variety of crops that the independent farmers couldn't compete with. Farmers continued to lose money and property. Consequently, the cities became crowded with these ex-farmers, serving as day laborers. â€Å"This new class of urban proletariat formed a highly unsustainable mass.Thus Rome's economic, social, and political problems were serious and needed attention† (Spievogel 136). Tiberius Gracchus wanted to fix the growing problem of landless farmers in Rome, thinking it would solve many of the issues causing Rome's decline. When he was elected as one of the tribunes of the plebs, he passed a bill whereby the government would divide the public land, used by large landowners, among the landless farmers. â€Å"Many senators, themselves large landowners whose estates included tracts of public land, were furious, and a group of them took the law into their own hands and assassinated Tiberius† (Spievogel 136).T he death of Tiberius marked the beginning of the end of the Roman Republic. For the next one hundred years, the chaotic Roman government saw more assassinations, dictators, and rebellions. An excerpt from â€Å"Julius Caesar† reads, â€Å"Our first glimpse of Caesar's Rome shows the tribunes, whose ancient office had been established to protect the people against the nobility's arrogance, now apparently forced to defend the republic against the people themselves† (Blits 42).Although Rome revolutionized government with a complex, and effective system that is still used as a basis for many governments, it proved to be vulnerable to increasing economic, social, and political issues, which brought about the republics destruction. These events that directly led to Rome's relapse from a thriving democracy years ahead of its time, with divided power and stability, to a chaotic system of government consisting of dictators and frequent turmoil provide a clear example of the ove rzealous quest for and misuse of power by several individuals.Sources Blits, Jan H. â€Å"Caesarism and the End of Republican Rome: Julius Caesar, Act I, Scene I. † The Journal of Politics 43. 1 (1981): 40-55. JSTOR. Web. 25 May 2010. Millar, Fergus. â€Å"The Political Character of the Classical Roman Republic, 200-151 B. C. † The Journal of Roman Studies 74 (1984): 1-19. JSTOR. Web. 25 May 2010. Spielvogel, Jackson J. Western Civilization. 7th ed. Belmont, CA: Thomson Wadsworth, 2009. Print.

Global Perspectives Essay

1. Globalization can be demonstrates a way towards a well-developed economy, cultural, political and technological interdependence through the national institution and economics. As countries reduce barriers to trade and investment, globalization force their industries to grow more competitive if they want to survive. Globalization is different from internationalization but it is characterized by denationalization. When the internationalization is higher in a country it can import and exports good, services, money and people across the national borders of the company. 2. Globalization of markets can be demonstrated as covering buyer preferences in markets around the world. This method covers in many products such as consumer goods, industrial products and business services. The globalization of markets is important to international business because it offers some benefits for these companies. There are few benefits have been described in follow. * Firstly it reduces marketing costs. This has mainly focused on companies which sell Global products, it can reduce the cost by standardizing their certain market activities. * Another benefit is it creates new market opportunities, because of this a global product can explore opportunities abroad if the home market is small or becomes saturated. * Levels uneven income streams, Accompany which sell their products all over the world, but seasonal appeal can use international sales to level its income stream. 3. Technology speed up the globalization process by introducing new technological aspects to the society. It ease the people to communicate with in the country and make and effect toward the globalization. Introducing new technological instruments encourage the community to use the new aspects and survive the need of the society. Introducing new technology low the barriers of the culture in a country it encourage the community to explore the world as it knows as globalization. As an example wireless internet connection has changed the world. Anyone can explore the world by their smart phone tablet etc. that speed us toward globalization of the country. Task 2 * I interviewed a security officer. His age is 43 and he got this job when he is 21. He has been given his service to the company for 22 years. * Before 22 years ago he had to travel 2 hours towards his working place because the condition of the train system is different from present. * In his working place 20 years ago if an employee, employer or a customer entered to the office this security officer had to check his bag manually by opening all the pockets of the bag, he had to check his all the belongings and he had check his clothes. * Then he had to write down the name and the Id number of the person. But in present these whole process is done by machinery. * Now this security officer has to look at the computer screen in his office computer and check all these things. * If there is anything suspicious the computer will identify it immediately. * Then he has to type the ID number of the person in the computer all the detail will come to the screen with in few seconds. * This demonstrates the way how technological improvements have changed the way the security officer work compared with 22years ago.

Nuisance and Tresspass Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Nuisance and Tresspass - Essay Example This has caused David and his family to lose sleep through noise from the factory operations and noise from wagons coming to and leaving the factory. This is the background situation in this case where recent developments like the winning of many contracts for Harrington & Nephew Company has resulted in interference with the normal life for David and his family. David’s family has suffered a lot of harm from these recent developments. They include The rose tree that they were given on the day of their wedding has dried up. David’s wife has developed an allergy due to the dust that is emitted fro the factory. David’s family cannot sleep due to the noise that never ends day and night. The paintwork on David’s car has been destroyed because of the chemical smuts emitted from the factory’s chimney. As a result of the happenings described above, Wally, David’s son has stormed the factory and goes around searching for the manager so that he may giv e him apiece of his mind. Finding that the manager absent, he causes chaos and in the process a window breaks. The secretary insists that he leaves the factory but he defies. This paper is going to look at the liabilities that the construction company may have to David and his family and whether there may be any defences or remedies for the same. It is also going to explore whether the company may have any case against the family. The major concerns of the paper will be nuisance and trespass. After having explored what these two entail, we will advise Harrington & Nephew on any liabilities that they may have on David’s family. Nuisance Nuisance can be classified into either private or public. Private nuisance is committed where one person who is usually the defendant substantially and unreasonably interferes with another person’s right to use and enjoyment of their land. In our case, this is what happening to David’s family. Unlike trespass, interference can amo unt to a private nuisance even if it is not direct or intentional. A person’s use and enjoyment of their land might be interfered with by things such as dust, noise or vibration (Lemmon V. Webb (1894)). However, claims relating to an interference with privacy do not amount to nuisance as only Complaints about ordinary and reasonable uses of land are held viable. Private nuisance is therefore not available where the land is used for a particularly sensitive purpose or the one claiming to be affected is usually sensitive. In order to determine whether the interference is substantial and unreasonabl

8.6 case study Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

8.6 case study - Coursework Example In the perspective of the second meaning, organizations promote corporate ethics so as to define a set of corporate values, to meet consumer expectations and employee demands, and to deal with economic pressures effectively (p.620). When it comes to IT practices, the first definition (meaning) implies that firms must develop improved IT policies and procedures to operate in well compliance with federal laws and regulations. From the same viewpoint, the second definition implies that organizations need to maintain well established IT practices to ensure that consumers enjoy the benefits of convenient shopping and consumers’ tastes, and specifications are adequately addressed. The firm’s economic environment can have a great influence on these practices. Companies have more choices when economic conditions are favorable but choices may have to be limited under the situations of economic downturns. 2. The advancements in IT greatly benefit corporate enterprises to address ethical issues effectively, and to take advantages of emerging opportunities with regard to corporate governance. The case study tells that IT can contribute significantly to corporate strategy. CIOs can identify the misuses of those IT capabilities, and they will be also able to flag those issues timely and thereby prevent the firm from becoming exposed to scandals. The case described about the business fraud committed by marketing workers at a large telephone company can be cited as a good example. The company executives had identified the fraud before the marketing department actually executed it. Then they developed a comprehensive IT system to monitor the use and prevent the unauthorized access to such sensitive information in future. Similarly, Intel’s IT system helps the company meet its legal and regulatory requirements in addition to enhancing its own corporate values and ethical principles (p p.620-621). 3. In my personal view, organizations should pursue high ethical standards in

Economics Policy Public Goods Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Economics Policy Public Goods - Essay Example If education is provided by the private market alone, it would result in imbalance, and hence, the market mechanism would not be able to match demand and supply. The reason for this is the fact that private forces are not concerned with the public interest; they are concerned about their own returns and nominal benefit. Therefore, the private market forces will only produce those goods which would lead to maximum profits. The private market forces ignore social costs and benefits, and therefore, will not produce the optimal quantity of merit or price-excludable public goods. Education would be under-produced by the private sector. All merit goods are considered good for the people, and the government desires to provide them in abundance. Merit goods have more social benefit than private benefit. Therefore, the private sector would not provide them optimally. Education has large external benefits relative to private benefits, that is, social benefits are greater than private benefits. Under the price mechanism, there would be few firms willing to provide education, and they would charge high prices. High prices would reduce consumption because some or many people might not be able to afford education.

The Effects of Globalization and Foreign Direct Investment Essay

The Effects of Globalization and Foreign Direct Investment - Essay Example This has served many companies in producing cheaper goods by taking use of the low cost of labor and machineries involved, from different countries. The other side of globalization that is also prominent is the decline in product quality, by outsourcing cheaper equipments and low cost of the unskilled labor (Pragmatic Outsourcing, 2012). Employing the trend of globalization has increased significantly in the industrial sector of the European countries. The increase in population and global competition has narrowed the profit margin of many industries and has ignited the need of producing more volume of products, to beat other competitors (Isidro, 2011). Hence, many European industries utilize the cheap labor, fuel and low government taxes of under developed nations to produce bulk quantity of their products within the limited budget for it. A flashback of the European industries would lead to the fact that globalization started from the textile industry in the early 20th century and then it was adopted in electronics, furniture and books publishing sectors (Blass, 2005). With the change in policy by Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID) of trade tariffs and eradicating the concentration rule in Europe, monopolization in industrial sectors was broken to a great extent. It allowed several new companies to enter into the corporate market and intensify the business competition (Blass, 2005). In this respect, the Italian footwear industry is considered to have gone through considerable changes in its managerial and production strategies, by implying globalization in its system. Historical trade data of Italy suggest that its footwear sector that has a prominent contribution in its overall GDP and has a high impact on the international footwear market (Milan, 2010). However, present market position and sales figures present a different scenario of prominence of the Italy’s footwear industry. Pressure of the international market and emerging entrants has forced Italy’s footwear industry to delocalize their resources, which has resulted in losing their distinct image. The vertical integration methodology of these industries was replaced with a global supply chain network, which resulted in less flexibility and control over the finished product. This paper aims to provide hypotheses of the effect of globalization on Italian footwear, based on the understanding and evaluation of sales figures and current standing in national and international market. The will use the academic and theoretical data to compare other footwear industries with the Italian, to justify the hypothesis presented (Larch, 2005). Theoretical Overview The pattern followed in the Italian footwear industry involves foreign direct investment in the production cycle. Since, Italy footwear sector is largely delocalized several of its resources are involved in production and designing is being outsourced (Amighini & Rabellotti, 2003). This brings the ownership of foreign investors in different production units carried out in other countries. One essential thing to consider is the formation of several business groups, which is the result of market fragmentation. Such business groups act as the middle man between the actual producer and the company been outsourced. Therefore, there are

Research Paper on Programming Roles Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

On Programming Roles - Research Paper Example However in order to successfully achieve the roles of software, both the programming and the non programming skills are required to be balanced together. In such organizations, agile decisions work more suitably. The working environments being healthy, the software developers tend to perform and achieve better (Alberto, 2009). The present study focuses on the programming skills that are associated with the software development teams discussing about the different roles in such teams. Also, the study would reflect on some historical discussion on how software development teams and roles have changed over time and how programming roles might be expected to change over the next ten years. Software Development Team Roles: Software being flexible, often irrational, as well as incomplete, the need for agile software development teams has been considered, that is based on the basic changes required in the roles and teams. This enables development of teams that are agile and hence know how t o remain agile in order to understand and manage the changes (Wells, 2009). There are different elements that constitute such agile software development teams. These include practices, values, roles, techniques, and tools. The specifications of the roles vary depending on the different software development teams (Dubinsky & Hazzan, n.d.). Software development is conducted in different ways at different organizations, and in all home office all over the globe. The practice that an organization or an individual employ to build up software might work for their definite surroundings and state of affairs, however it may be unsuccessful in another set of conditions (Breaking Down Software Development Roles, 2006, p.1). The common roles that exist within software development teams and their respective responsibilities are hereby discussed. The different roles of a software development team are Subject Matter Experts (SME), Functional Analysts (FA), Solutions Architect (SA), Development Lea d (DL), Developer (Dev), Quality Assurance (QA), Deployment (Deploy), Trainer, Project Manager (PM), and Development Manager (DM) (Breaking Down Software Development Roles, 2006, pp.1-2). Critical Skills of the Different Roles in Software Development Teams: Role of SME: These people are responsible for providing all the necessary information that requires for building up. SMEs are primarily required for the articulation of the different organizational needs (Breaking Down Software Development Roles, 2006, pp.3-4). Thus the direct role or skill of programming cannot be associated with this function. Role of FA: The role of a functional analyst is to capture, combine and communicate information from the SMEs to the rest of the team of software development. Although they may not require the same skills as that of the development team, yet at times they are found to be more skilled with regard to basic processing of word, spreadsheet, and general office tools that support their jobs (Br eaking Down Software Development Roles, 2006, pp.5-6). Thus this function too does not associate the skill of programming directly even though certain knowledge may be applicable. Role of SA: The programming skills may be associated with this function since the role of solution architect involves conversion of the team requirements into an architecture and design that can be used as the outline for the