HW #2-3 Period 6

Rome Elections Primary Document

Background:

          Ancient Rome was a republic.  It did not have a king, and it was not a democracy.  Only men who belonged to a small group actually held office.  For many years, ordinary people tried to get some voice in government.  They won some rights, but power stayed with just a few.

          Roman officials did, however, need the people’s support.  Like modern politicians, they tried different ways to get it.  This reading is from a letter written in 63 B.C.  In it, Quintus Cicero tells his brother how to get elected.

Primary Document

          Whoever gives any sign of liking you, or regularly visits your house, you must put down in the category of friends.  You must take great pain that these men should love you and desire your highest honor as, for example, your tribesmen, neighbors, clients, and finally your freedmen, yes even your slaves; for nearly all the gossip that forms public opinion emanates from your own servants’ quarters.

          In a word, you must secure friends of every class, magistrates, consuls and their tribunes to win you the vote of the centuries (that elect the consuls);  men of wide popular influence.

           

 

Name:  _________________           Period:  ______

Written Document Analysis Worksheet

1. TYPE OF DOCUMENT:  ______________________

 DATE(S) OF DOCUMENT:_____________________

2. AUTHOR (OR CREATOR) OF THE DOCUMENT: ___________________

3. FOR WHAT AUDIENCE WAS THE DOCUMENT WRITTEN?
_____________________________________________________

What is 3 main things that the author is trying to say:

      4. ________________________________________________

      5. ________________________________________________

       6.________________________________________________

7. Why do you think this document was written?
_____________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________

8. What evidence in the document helps you know why it was written? Quote from the document.
_____________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________

List two things the document tells you about life at the time it was written:
9. ___________________________________________________
10. __________________________________________________