Today in western civ, Mr. Schick read from the text book.  He explained a lot of key points as we read and told us the important things to underline.  Some things that he told us were important were that the Latin’s were the first to settle in Rome and the Etruscans settled.  Another thing was that the Romans borrowed directly from the Greeks.  The Latin’s also learned the alphabet and gained knowledge from the Greek city-states.  The roman government consisted of a king who was advised by the council of elders called the Senate.  They usually chose among the patricians who were men with fathers who already belonged to this heredity group of leading families.  Around 500 B.C., Rome over threw its Etruscan rulers, and the monarchy was abolished.  They developed a system called a Roman Republic which was a government that was neither a Greek style democracy nor an oligarchy, but a mixture of both.