Transformation of Rome from Republic to Empire Essay Example for Free

Transformation of Rome from Republic to Empire Essay Like so many agricultural cultures, Rome began as a city-state about 600 B.C. It was founded by descendants of Indo-European invaders from central Europe who merged with earlier Italian peoples. The Roman language and many basic social patterns were inherited from the local farmers who had populated the region long before the city was founded. But the city itself borrowed from an earlier Italian civilization, the Etruscan, slightly to the north, and to a lesser extent from Greek colonies in the south. This gave form to early Roman religion and also to political structure. Rome began as a kingdom under Etruscan rule. But about 509 B.C. the Roman aristocracy overthrew the king, and Rome became an aristocratic republic not unlike the Greek city-states. Intense local civic pride was part of this pattern, as in Greece, including a willingness to sacrifice self in the interest of the state. Heroic military action by a few individuals, such as the fabled Horatio holding the bridge over the Tiber river against an Etruscan army, gained Rome increasing independence. Roman family structure was the basis of this kind of culture. It emphasized obedience to the father, although the mother was honored as well. Even though the aristocrats competed for power, they could unite when loyalty to the state was at stake, because they had been trained to subordinate themselves to the common good, just as children were taught to yield to family interest. Religion was another binding force, as was the consideration with which aristocrats treated the common people of the city. In the early days of the republic there was much social tension, but uprisings gave the citizens of the lower class, whatever their wealth,   their own representatives, called tribunes, to oversee their interests in the government. The first law code, the famous Twelve Tables, was introduced about 450 B.C.; this restrained the upper class from arbitrary action. By the third century B.C., citizens of the lower class, called plebeians, could be elected to public office and pass laws. The Roman city-state was not like the Greek. The Roman people met in assemblies, but the assemblies were called and run by officers. There was no choosing of leaders by lot; two consuls were elected by the people each year to serve as executive and military leaders, and almost always these were aristocrats or wealthy plebeians. The consuls scrutinized each others activities so that neither could seize power; behind the scenes the aristocracy could usually run the show. Aristocratic power was formalized in the Roman senate which was composed of anyone who had held public office and who then served as senator for life. This group had only advisory powers, but, composed of experienced and prestigious men, its influence was considerable and it lent stability to the   state. The picture of the Roman state around 250 B.C. proved so attractive to many western political theorists long after the republic was gone that it was copied, at least partially, by a host of western political governments. What was particularly appealing about the Roman arrangement was its balance. Underwritten by definite laws which protected the rights of the citizens, the Roman government checked unlimited democracy without yielding to total upper-class rule; and it prevented executive dictatorship. The division between a popular assembly and an upper-class senate was to be imitated many times. Although legislative authority was predominant, there were separate judges and a separate executive; here was a hint of division of powers and it seemed to work well. Based on political stability, Rome prospered and began a pattern of conquest which none of the Greek city-states had been capable of. Internally, the population increased, which is always a creative factor if properly channeled. Conquest offered the means of distributing the surplus population and of providing wealth for the masses, which helped keep them quiet. Also, Rome was well situated, being in the center of Italy, for once the Etruscans had been beaten and their culture collapsed, there were few powerful rivals surrounding Rome. Finally, the Romans were lenient rulers. Nevertheless, over time the republic itself became unviable. The aristocratic Senate no longer provided consistent wisdom and the populace vied for favors from the rich, particularly the victorious generals. Rome had implicitly chosen between a balanced republic and an empire, in favor of the latter, and this made a military regime inevitable. By 31 B.C. Augustus had defeated his rivals. The Republic was dead, and the Roman Empire, a political structure governing Rome and all the colonies, was now to be created. The empire turned out to be Romes major contribution to the western arsenal of political precedents. Not surprisingly, given the major Roman interests, formal culture remained limited until the last century of the republic, when Greek models were copied and Greek artists and writers, some of them slaves, worked directly for Roman patrons. The Romans did not blindly copy; their painting, for example, differed from what we know of the Greek, showing more realistic portrayals of nature and the human form. Hence, Roman statuary, often busts of the great men of the day, reflects attention to individual facial traits more than the stylized approach of the Greeks. However, the central cultural contribution was to spread a Greco-Roman art and literature to the vast empire and particularly to Western Europe, where such products had never before been known.Textbook writing, increasingly important as Roman creativity waned in the later empire, helped preserve the rudiments of learning not only for the Romans themselves but for later ages. Bibliography Heitland, W. E. A Short History of the Roman Republic. Cambridge University Press, 1911.

Was Macbeth A Traitor :: essays research papers

'Macbeth deserved to die because he was totally responsible for the betraying the Scottish king, Duncan, and the Scottish people';. Write an analytical essay in which you explore the forces behind Macbeth's murdering ways. Macbeth deserved to die for betraying the Scottish king, Duncan, and the Scottish people; however, he was not totally responsible for his actions. Lady Macbeth and the three Witches also played a major role. They were responsible for convincing Macbeth to begin the series of events, which eventually led to the destruction of order in Scotland. Once she had received news of the three Witches' prophecies, Lady Macbeth was intent that she would eventually become Queen of Scotland. Initially, Macbeth had decided not to murder Duncan, 'We will proceed no further in this business'; (Macbeth, Act I, scene vii). However, Lady Macbeth was determined to continue with her original plan. She repeatedly insulted Macbeth's manhood, provoking him to continue with the plans to murder Duncan, 'When you durst do it, then you were a man; and to be more than what you were, you would be so much more the man'; (Lady Macbeth, Act I, scene vii). She appealed to Macbeth's 'vaulting ambition'; so as to intensify the effect that the Witches' prophecies had on him, 'Great Glamis! Worthy Cawdor! Greater than both, by the all-hail hereafter'; (Lady Macbeth, Act I, scene v). She convinced Macbeth that the rewards of the murder would far outweigh the drawbacks and clear their conscience, 'A little water clears us of this deed'; (Lady Macbeth, Act I, scen e ii). Although Macbeth dearly loved his king, Lady Macbeth yielded such a persuasive power over him that he was convinced the Witches' prophecies of Duncan's murder and the resulting kingship were his rightful fate. The three Witches deceived Macbeth by proclaiming ambiguous prophecies, which led him to believe that he would be a powerful and loved king. The second apparition, 'Be bloody, bold, and resolute; laugh to scorn The power of man, for none of woman born shall harm Macbeth'; (a bloody child, Act IV, scene i) led him to believe that he would never be harmed, as nobody alive can be 'none of woman born';. Macbeth failed to realise that the apparition was referring to Macduff, who was born by caesarean. The third apparition, 'Macbeth shall never vanquished be until Great Birnam Wood to High Dunsinane hill shall come against him'; (a child crowned with a tree in his hands, Act IV, scene i) also fooled Macbeth into believing that he would not be harmed as king.

A Picture is Worth a thousand…Parts?

It is presumed that adults can not recognize a face in parts as easily as the complete facial structure.   It is presumed to be as such because adults recognize the features of an individual’s face more easily than the context of the facial patterns in isolation (762).This gestalt-like facial processing theoretically begins in infancy and has a developmental milestone that is disrupted if something delays or obliterates this phenomenon.   On television shows and in magazines I recall partial viewings of celebrities’ faces and I almost never got it right.   Such is the finding of Young et al in 1987 study in which adults found it difficult to recognize the top half of a celebrities’ face when it was aligned   with bottom half of a different face (762).   Some theorists believe there is an intimate ability to recognize faces.   However, this research study invalidates that theory.   A controlled experiment was done with patients that were born with or suffered from visual impairments at infancy.These participants were all less than seven months when visual acuity was affected.   Vision was later corrected and the experiment for holistic facial identification had commenced (765).To test for the gestalt-like effect, participants were asked to move a joystick forward if the top halves were the same and back if the top halves were different.   Composites were created by splitting face images horizontally across the middle of the nose, and then recombining the faces using the top and bottom halves of different individuals.   In the aligned position, the top and bottom were properly aligned.In the misaligned condition the top half was shifted horizontally to the left (764).   The results were astounding.   The group that had visual imperfections at infancy actually performed better than their control counterparts on same trials when faces were aligned (766).This group was also more accurate on different trials than on same t rials and did not vary with alignment (766).   This supports the theory that this ability is not innate.   Holistic face processing or a composite face effect was not a sustained ability of those with visual impairments at a critical time period.   Such patients fail to integrate facial features into a Gestalt (767).This experiment shows that early visual input is very critical for the normal development of facial processing.   It also raises the question of whether early vision is necessary to preserve the neural substrate that would allow training to induce the later development of holistic processing of non-face objects (767),   I find it rather interesting and this bizarre phenomenon begs the question of when the critical time period begins and ends.The article states that by age six, adult-like processing takes place.   It does not state if visual perception is disrupted after age six, if this ability for gestalt-like processing is still apparent.   Thus this expe riment does not prove that infancy is the critical time period or developmental milestone for this ability.To be sufficient, it would have to include a group of participants that had visual impairments later in life and the length of the impairment would have to be similar.   What about visual impairments for one and two year olds? This only mentions infancy from 3 to 6 months.This experiment is partial, at best.   I would also like to know how the control group compares to those who have visual impairments that have not been corrected.   Are such people able to recognize faces aligned and misaligned with similar circumstances? These are critical points to validate and substantiate the findings of this experiment.

The Contrast of B2B with B2C Marketing - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 7 Words: 2244 Downloads: 3 Date added: 2017/06/26 Category Marketing Essay Type Essay any type Did you like this example? This assignment explores how business-to-business (B2B) marketing differs from business-to-consumer marketing. It will define marketing for the purposes of this assignment and then explore how it is approached generally. From there, this assignment will consider how B2B marketing is differentiated from consumer marketing, and finally it will investigate the similarities between the two marketing approaches. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "The Contrast of B2B with B2C Marketing" essay for you Create order Baines, et al, (2008:5) cite The Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM 2001) definition of marketing as the management process of anticipating, identifying and satisfying customer requirements profitably. Marketing is often thought of as a three stage process of identifying the market segments, choosing a segment to target and the establishing a market position relative to competitors in the same market (Jackson, 2015). However, it is helpful to think of the customer as not necessarily being the ultimate consumer, since in order for a consumer transaction to take place, numerous business-to-business transactions will have taken place prior to this (Brennan et al, 2014). Business-to-business (B2B) marketing is, therefore, focused on satisfying the requirements of other businesses within the supply chain. And thus, firstly, one needs to consider how to segment the business market. These businesses can be classified by type of organisational customers. For example, global or natio nal; public or private sector; small, medium or large enterprises (Macfarlane, 2002) or broadly into commercial, governmental and institutional organisations (Baines et al, 2008). Commercial organisations can be further divided into: distributors, original manufacturers, users and retailers. Each of these make purchases in different ways. For example, distributors priorities are the smooth progress of products along the marketing channel from manufacturer to consumer. Thus, they can buy in bulk and then break down the goods into relatively small quantities for re-distribution in the market place, providing both storage space and buyer power whereas users purchase goods or services for immediate consumption within its production processes (Baines, 2008). Manufacturers buy parts, be they finished or unfinished and rebrand them into their own products whereas retailers purchase products to sell directly to consumers. Thus, organisational buying is more likely to be highly cost-sensi tive: for the ultimate business to maximise their profits, they will want to source the most suitable supplier for their needs, whereas the consumer is more likely to be influenced by image and product appearance (Jackson, 2015). Of more considerable importance, B2B marketing is concerned with creating long-term mutually beneficial relationships between the two businesses. This act as a brake on adversarial competitive behaviour, particularly when the ultimate consumer becomes more sophisticated and familiar with the products or services. This happens as markets become more competitive and this in turn affects the organisational buying behaviour (Swinder and Seshadri, 2001). Organisational buying behaviour is the defined as the the purchase of product or service to satisfy organisational rather than individual goals (Parkinson and Baker, 1994:6). Thus marketing to other businesses requires the marketer to adopt processes which take into account the needs of several people rather than just a single individual. However, an alternative approach is supplied by Webster and Wind (1972:2) who define organisational buying as the decision-making process by which formal organisation establish the need for purchased products and services, and identify, evaluate and choose among alternative brands and suppliers. From this perspective, the B2B marketer is concerned with the processes of buying, and as such buying is not considered a one-off isolated event to satisfy wants. The phrase Buyphases, devised by Robinson et al (1967), refers to the sequential activities that organisations engage in when purchasing products. First, the organisation identifies the need for a product or service, or there is some notion of recognising a problem. There is a gap between the benefits it is receiving now and the benefits it would like to have in future. As a result of this, thought is given to the product specification à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" the characteristics of the product needed to resolve the problem. Following this, there an active search for information to find products which meet the specification and some assessment of its performance standards, which are then formerly evaluated and then a product or service is selected. However, some of these stages may be ignored or compressed according to the buy-class of the products and services being sought. The buy-class is the term used to describe how the nature of the product or service, the frequency of purchase and its relative value and strategic impact (if any) can vary (Baines et al, 2008). New Task purchases refer to a first-time buying situation, with higher risks as there is little collective experience of the suppliers/products. Modified Rebuys refers to lower risks with some experience and Straight Rebuy are routine, familiar purchases. The higher the buy-class, the greater the range of people who may be involved in the process, unlike with the ultimate consumer, who is more likely to decide unilat erally. Within an organisation, those who initiate the decision-making process may not be the ultimate decision-makers nor indeed users of the product. In high-value, high risk purchasing, influencers may help set the technical parameters, and from a marketers perspective, how to target, and indeed to who to target, may be constrained by gatekeepers who have the potential to control the type and flow of information within the organisation (Fill and Fill, 2005). Taking into account the above, it can be seen that B2B marketing is about its role within the supply chain, and therefore constitutes a potential source of competitive advantage for the ultimate seller. For example, cost advantages can be obtained for those with high buying power, as they are able to benefit from greater discounts that can be obtained for the purchaser and which can then be passed on to the ultimate consumer (Jackson, 1985). From a marketing perspective, therefore, B2B marketing is about the trading rel ationship between two businesses, and organisational buying may involve more complex decision-making processes à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" particularly when there are low levels of familiarity of the product/service being sought. Thus, it can be said that organisational buying behaviour is context-specific and varies according to what is being bought and the number of people involved in the process. However, it must also be situated within the dynamics of the environment the organisation operates within (Fill and Fill, 2005). Organisations vary in their purchasing behaviour, for example, decentralised purchasing will emphasise the geographical importance, but highly centralised purchasing departments will focus on tighter controls, reduction in costs and greater consistency (Baines et al, 2008). The external influences are those forces outside of the organisations control, for example an economic change affects exchange rates, encouraging or discouraging the purchase of commodities from o ne country to the next, or a political disruption can affect the distribution channels. At other times it can be social changes, for example consumer preferences for fair-trade and an increasing focus on corporate social responsibility can affect organisation decision making (Nichols, 1993). These influences are depicted below: Source: Fill and Fill (2005) They key issue for the B2B marketer, therefore, is they must be knowledgeable not just about the products and services they proffer from a technical perspective, but also have a great deal of specialist knowledge of their customers influences and how that affects buying behaviour. It stresses the importance of careful management of the customer both prior to, during and after the sale has been completed. The investment of time and energy to establish and maintain the relationship between the two businesses forms a process described as the key account relationship cycle (Millman and Wilson, 1995). This relationship, pa rticularly in large organisations, emphasis a great deal of care and interaction between the two organisations so it is not unusual to have entire teams dedicated to providing services and support to the client (Ojasalo, 2001). Therefore it can be said that, in practice, that B2B customers are much fewer in number but wield much greater buying power than found in ordinary consumer markets, although this is not always the case, it does stress to the marketer the importance of the supplier and customer relationship (Brennan et al, 2014). From the analysis above, it demonstrates a number of key differences between the B2B and B2C buying characteristics, which are summarised in the table below (Baine, 2008:660). Consumer buying characteristics Organisational Buying characteristics No. of Buyers Many Few Purchase Intention Self Others Evaluative criteria Social, ego and level of utility Price, Value and level of utility Information Search Normally short Normally long Range of Suppliers used Small number of suppliers considered Can be extensive Importance of supplier choice Normally limited Can be critical Size of orders Small number of suppliers considered Large Frequency of orders Light High Value of orders placed Light Heavy Complexity of decision-making Light to moderate Moderate to high Range of information inputs Moderate Moderate to high Although there are many differences between the two sectors, there is some convergence too. All markets have a consumer orientation that emphasises customer needs, and both require the marketer to gather, process and use information about customers and competitors in order to successfully compete (Baines et al, 2008). In addition to this, both types of supplier desire positive relationships with the customers à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" the profits of all organisations is linked to the mutually beneficial rewards obtained. Wilson (2000) also argues that the belief that organisational decision-making is more rational, and consumer decision-making is more emotional, is a fallacy. For example, consumers also use a wide-range of inputs, discussing buying decisions with others, and seeking out extensive information searches, especially now that Internet-buying permits so much more comparison between products and services, and thus the group buying dynamics are not atypical. Furthermore, the rati onality ascribed to organisational buying is overstated, but rather organisational culture dictates adherence to due diligence and other such similar bureaucratic procedures. It is often said that branding is of less significance in B2B marketing than it is in consumer markets (Baines et al, 2008), however, Zimmerman and Blythe (2013) argue that it is becoming increasingly difficult to distinguish between products. More importantly, organisations do not buy products, but rather people do, so although the type of media selected to communicate the products may differ à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" the need for strong branding is imperative irrespective of the market. As in consumer markets a strong brand can be a source of competitive advantage. Furthermore, ingredient branding (e.g Intel Inside, or trading logos such as the Red Tractor) which promote the suppliers of the product are themselves becoming sources of marketing (Bengtsson and Servais, 2005). Perhaps, therefore, the two most dis tinguishing differences between B2B and B2C marketing is the approach to segmenting the market. In B2C marketing, the approach is more frequently top-down: beginning with a mass of possible customers and then breaking them down to into groups, usually with reference to the psychological, geographical, demographical or behavioural dimensions (Jackson, 2015), and then the marketing mix of place, product, price and means of promotion devised once target markets have been determined. However in B2B marketing, the process is more bottom-up with a much greater emphasis of the characteristics of the organisations already known to the marketers, and then aggregating them into segments which is more likely to emphasis the behaviour dimension above any other (Zimmerman and Blythe, 2013). As a result of this, organisation marketing is more likely to explore the customer portfolio matrix to determine where best to allocate their marketing resources. The customer portfolio matrix assesses the potential attractiveness of a group of customers to the strength of relationships relative to competitors, as the grid below demonstrates: Customer attractiveness/potential High Low High Customers must invest resources Good to have customers allocate resources selectively Low Need to have customers maintain resources Do not need customers, reduce resources Source: Baines et al, (2008:654) To conclude, therefore, consumer marketing and business marketing differ in some buying behaviours and the approach of marketing towards is the significant difference, although the principles of marketing are largely similar. This assignment has found there is significant convergence between the two groups but that business-to-business buyers are more demanding and require a strong emphasis on relationship building, and to a lesser extent branding. References Baines, P, Fill, C and Page, K (2008) Marketing, Oxford: Oxford University Press. Brennan, R, Canning, L. E and McDowell, R (2014) Business to business marketing, London:Sage Bengtsson, A and Servais, P. (2005) Co-branding in industrial markets, Industrial Marketing Management, Vol. 34 (7), p 706 -13. Fill, C and Fill, K. E (2005) Business to Business Marketing, Harlow: Prentice-Hall. Jackson, J. (2015) Marketing, E-book Partnership. Jackson, B. (1985) Build customer relationships that last, Harvard Business Review, Vol 63 (6) page 120 à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" 128. Macfarlane, P (2002) Structuring and measuring the size of business markets, International Journal of Market Research, Vol 44 (1), p 7 à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" 31. Millman, T and Wilson, K (1995) From key account selling to key account management, Journal of Marketing Practice, Applied Marketing Science, Vol 1 (1) p 9 à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" 21. Nichols, M (1993) Third-World Families at Work, Child labor or child care? Harvard Business Review, January à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" February, p 2 10 Ojasalo, J (2001) Key account management in the business-to-business field: the key accounts point of view, Journal of Selling and Sales Management, Vol 17 (4) p 17- 26. Parkinson, S. T and Baker, M (1994) Organizational Buying Behaviour, Purchasing and Marketing Management Implications, London: MacMillan Press. Robinson, P.J, Faris, C.W and Wind, Y (1967) Industrial buying and creative marketing, Boston: Allyn and Bacon. Swinder, J. and Seshadri, S (2001) The influence of purchasing strategies on performance, Journal of Business and Industrial Marketing, Vol 16 (4), p 297 à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" 306. Webster, F. E and Wind, Y (1972) Organizational Buying Behaviour, Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall. Wilson, D.F (2000) Why divide consumer and organisational buyer behaviour? European Journal of Marketing, Vol 34 (4), p 780 à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" 796. Zimmerman, A and Blyth, J (2013) Business to Busi ness Marketing Management, Abdingdon: Thomas Learning.