When Octavian was 19 Julius Caesar was assassinated and in his will Octavian was anointed his successor. Julius Caesar had proclaimed himself dictator for life which made the Roman senate decide to assassinate him. After this the senate decided to rally around Octavian planning to take advantage of him because he was young, get rid of Mark Antony and then get rid of Octavian. Octavian realized that this was what the senate was planning so he rounded up two legions of soldiers with some of his inherited money. At first people did not know what Octavian was going to do with these soldiers. Then Octavian marched to Rome and successfully defeated Mark Antony there.

After the second triumvirate was established, which resulted in the death of Mark Antony, Octavian was faced with a difficult position. He knew that if things went back to the way had been, with the senate tribunes and consuls, that things would fall back into civil war. But if he took obvious dictatorship of Rome like Julius Caesar did, that the senate would be unhappy and could revolt. He decided to take the position as consul in the Roman government and was in that position for many years. Gradually more and more powers were given to him giving a more centralized government. During all this time the illusion was maintained that things had just gone back to the old days of the republic even though Octavian was the one in charge of the government. In 27 BC he was given the name Augustus by the senate which linked him to divinity. Augustus himself however preferred the name priceps or first citizen.

The struggle of the orders lasted from about 494 – 287 BC and was the struggle between the patricians and the plebeians. The patricians were the wealthy ruling class of Roman society. You could only be a patrician if you were born into a patrician family, and intermarriage was not allowed. Plebeians were the working class of Roman society. They did not know the law and had very few rights and privileges. But they realized that they had something that the patricians did not have. They had their own physical bodies that the patricians needed to do the work and defend the city since the patricians were a small percentage of the population. So in 494 BC the plebeians seceded from Rome ,which started the struggle of the orders.

At this the patricians told them that if they came back that they would have more rights. This started with the 12 stone tables being put up in the city so that the plebeians could observe the law. They were also given their own assembly called the Conchillian assembly or the counsel of the plebs. This was made to make laws that would govern the plebeians but would eventually also affect the patricians. The office of consul was opened for the plebeians. Eventually it was required for one of the two consuls to be plebeian, and the in 94 BC both consuls were Plebeian. Intermarriage between them was allowed. Though the plebeians gained many rights the patricians still had more privileges and wealth, and had increased social status into the 1^st century AD.

Plutarch was a Roman historian who lived from 46 – 119 AD. In Plutarch’s book , “The Life of Alexander” he compares Alexander to the Roman emperor Julius Ceaser. In one episode Plutarch tells about how Alexanders father, king Philip, bought a wild horse and went down to the pasture to see it. He quickly realized that the horse could not be ridden because it was so wild and fierce. But Alexander, who had gone with him, told the king that he would buy the horse instead. Philip agreed and Alexander went to the horse and faced him towards the sun because he had notice that the horse was scared of its shadow. Then he spoke gently to the horse and when the horse was calm he sprang on to the horses back and rode away. When they rode back the whole court congratulated him and king Philip then sent for the philosopher Aristotle to teach his son. This demonstrates the skill and cleverness that Alexander possessed.

The time after Alexander died and his kingdom was divided up between his generals is called the Hellenistic period, which means Greek ish or Greek like. One of the philosophic groups during this time were called the Epicureans. They believed that pleasure was the highest goal, but they were unlike the Cyrenaics in that they did not believe in pleasures of the moment. Such as they did not believe in getting drunk every night or over eating all the time because you do not feel good afterwards. Instead they believed in long term pleasures. They also did not believe in religion or if there were gods that they did not care about you. The leader of the Epicureans, Epicurus believed that the world was only materiel and that there were no immaterial things. But they did believe in free will unlike the Atomists.

This vase dates from around 700 BC during the geometric era. The geometric era lasted from about 800 BC to 600 BC. It is a black on red design where black shapes were painted on the red clay. It could also be done the opposite way where figures were drawn on the clay pot and then black was painted around the shapes. This era of art was known known for the geometric designs which adorned its pottery. Sculptures from this era usually had some geometric shape to it. You can see that the top of this vase is adorned with a geometric pattern. The horses on the vase have the two horse halves joined together by a cylinder. Vases are the most numerous artifacts we have from ancient Greece, though it seems that Ancient Greeks did not think very highly of vase painting. This is unfortunate since we have very little other Greek forms of art such as sculptures and bronzes.

Greek religion had two sides the domestic religion and the common gods of Mount Olympus. In every home there was an alter and this fire was thought to be that households god. The religious practices of every household were held secret and people outside the household could not participate. The prayers and ceremony’s of every home were different and the tomb of the houses ancestors was kept beside the alter. It was the responsibility of the head of the house to give offerings to their deceased ancestors to let them live happily in the underworld. There were also the head Gods of Mount Olympus which were worshiped in temples.

In 507 BC Athens sent an embassy to Persia to negotiate a pact between the two nations to subdue threats from Sparta. At first the Persian rulers did not know who the Athenians were because they had not heard of Athens. The Persians asked the Athenians to give them tokens of water and earth as a symbol of the Persians supreme authority over all the seas and earth before they would help them. The Athenians gave it to them not knowing what the symbols meant. After they returned from Athens and realized this they were horrified at what they had done. In 499 BC the Greek colony of Ionia, which was under Persian rule, began to revolt against their Persian overlords. They sent ambassadors to Athens and Sparta to ask for help. Sparta refused but Athens sent 20 ships of her 50 ship navy. The Ionian revolt ended in 493 with the Persians winning, but the Persians were furious that Athens had helped the Ionians and gone against their treaty. This lead to the beginning of the Persian war in 490 BC.

The city state of Athens was a democratic state. The beginning of Athenian law began under Draco with reforms under Solon until in the 5^th century BC we see the Athenian government that we see today. The Athenians had the assembly the counsel of 500 and the court of 600. The counsel of 500 decided what issues would be brought before the assembly and were chosen by lot from the citizens of Athens each year. Only Athenian citizens were allowed to participate in government, Which meant that you had to have two Athenian parents. Women, slaves and immigrants to Athens could not participate in government. From the court of 600, 501 were chosen to be jurors for a case, because it would be hard to bribe 501 people and so that there could not be a tie. In the assembly matters of politics would be decided and anyone who was a citizen could attend. To Athens democracy meant that the people would choose what to do instead of choosing the people to represent you.