Grandparents' Day

Today was Grandparents' Day at John Carroll.  We had so many grandparents in our classroom, Mr. Schick said it was a record.  In the middle of class, half the class left with their grandparents for a luncheon. 

We talked about Rome for the class.  I took some notes:

Etruscans

• came from the north-central part of the peninsula
• metalworkers, artists, and architects
• two foundation myths: Virgil's Aeneid (where Aeneas escapes from Troy), plus the story of Remus and Romulus

Greeks

• they had many colonies around the Mediterranean Sea
• Romans borrowed ideas from them, such as:
• religious beliefs
• alphabet
• much of their art
• military techniques and weaponry

Latins

• descendants of the Indo-Europeans
• settled on the banks on the River Tiber
• situated so trading ships - but not war fleets - could navigate as far as Rome, but no further
• a commercial port, but not susceptible to attack... built on seven hills

...they drained a swamp...

• many streams flowed into the Tiber
• there was a marshy area called the forum, between Palatine and Capitoline Hills
•  Tarquin the Proud's grandfather built the Cloaca Maxima (largest ancient drain), which channeled water into the Tiber

Now Tarqin's kinda proud, but he got a little loud...

•  Lucius Tarquinias Superbus
• the seventh and final king of Rome
• known as Tarquin the Proud (sometimes referred to as Tarquin the Arrogant)
• a true tyrant, in the old and modern sense of the word
• Tarquin seized power like an old school tyrant