Geography

Location

• Rome is located near the center of the Italian Peninsula.

• Rome was built on the 7 hills on the banks of the Tiber.

• Rome is surrounded by the Apennine Mountains, the Tiber River, & the Mediterranean Sea.

Expansion

• In 264 B.C. the Roman Empire spread over the Italian Peninsula.

• In 146 B.C. the Roman Empire spread over Spain, Carthage, Sicily, Corsica, & Sardinia.

• In 44 B.C. the Roman Empire spread over Gaul, part of northern Africa, Syria, & Asia Minor.

The Punic Wars• The First Punic War began in 264

B.C. when Rome sent troops to Sicily, after 20 years Carthage handed over Sicily.

• The Second Punic War started when Hannibal decided to invade northern Italy.

• When Hannibal failed, Scipio had the Carthaginians driven out of Spain and brought it under Roman control in 218 B.C.

• Decades after, the Romans decided to destroy Carthage, this began the Third Punic War.

• The Romans soon attacked the Carthaginians, they burned Carthage and plowed salt into the ground.

Barbarian Invasions• For years, the Roman army kept the

barbarians of Germany in check, but when the Roman soldiers left the Rhine-Danube frontier to fight in civil wars, Rome was open to attack.

• Germanic hunters and herders from northern and central Europe began to raid and take over Roman lands in Greece and Gaul.

• When a German general overthrew the emperors of Rome the western part of the Empire was ruled by Germanic tribal chiefs.

• Roads and bridges were left in disrepair and many fields were untilled.

Religion

Christianity

• Christians believed in one-and only one God.

• They believed God is the creator of the earth and the guide and guardian in their life.

• They believed art should portray religious ideas rather than aspects of human society.

• They believed when a person died, they should be buried, so they could reunite in the next life.

Greek Mythology

• The myths about Gods and Goddesses functioned as religion to the ancient Greeks.

• Greeks conducted elaborate rituals and sacrifices to ensure the favor of their Gods.

• They believed Greek Gods and Goddesses controlled all aspects of their lives, including founding cities, healing the sick, and winning battles.

Etruscan Mysticism

• Etruscans believed that gods gave them signs in nature.

• They tried to interpret lightning before they went into battle, and they thought they could predict good harvests by studying bird flocks.

• They used stars to plan the layouts of the cities and they read animal organs before conducting burials.

Roman Beliefs

• The Romans worshipped hundreds of gods.

• As the empire grew, they began viewing their emperors as gods.

• They believed when a person died they should be cremated and the persons ashes should be kept at home with their family.

Achievements

Greek Ideas

• Romans developed Greek architectural features such as columns and arches.

• The Romans learned Greek language, studied art, and literature.

• After they used the Greek ideas , people came to see their 37 monumental buildings, 500 fountains, and 36 marble arches

Latin Language

• Latin was the written and spoken language of Rome.

• Poetry, histories, fictional stories, and drama were mainly written in Latin.

• Latin was the language of the Roman Catholic Church.

Freedom for Women

• In early Roman times women had few legal rights.

• As the empire expanded women had the right to own property.

• They also had the right to own businesses and participate in politics.

Concrete Roads

• They built highways with concrete blocks set in layers of crushed stones and pebbles.

• They built roads to help them travel from place to place.

• The roads made travel faster and easier.

Politics

Nero• Nero reduced taxes, banned capital

punishment, and forbade contests involving bloodshed.

• After about half a year, he started eliminating family members whom he thought were threatening or interfering with his rule.

• He managed to maintain a certain level of stability throughout the empire.

• After a devastating fire burned a good bit of the city, he spent the money for the damaged city, on a beautiful dining room.

• Nero blamed the Christians for the fire and began killing them, many were crucified or set on fire and served as human torches.

The Twelve Tables

• The Twelve Table listed the rights and duties of the Roman citizens.

• Some laws concerned family, property, crimes, and punishment

• One rule is: “A father shall have absolute power over his children.”

• Another rule: “A person committing burglary in the night may be lawfully killed. A thief in the daytime may not be killed unless he carries a weapon.”

Hadrian

• He listened to the concerns of the inhabitants of each province.

• He encouraged the spread of Greek culture throughout the empire.

• He concentrated on strengthening the empire’s borders with physical defenses.

Political Corruption

• The difficulty of choosing new emperors was one of Rome’s most serious problems, the choice of a new emperor was usually open to debate between the Old emperor, the Senate, and the Praetorian Guard.

• When the army strangled the new emperors, they began selling the throne to the highest bidder.

• Beginning in A.D. 186, Rome went through about 37 emperors- 25 of those emperors were assassinated.

Economy

Inflation

• Once the Romans stopped conquering new lands, the flow of gold into the economy decreased.

• When the amount of gold in coins decreased, the coins became less valuable.

• Once coins lost value, merchants raised the prices on goods.

• Many people started trading goods for goods.

• Taxes were collected in fruits and vegetables.

Unemployment

• Farming was done on large states that were owned by wealthy men who used slave labor.

• Slave owners could sell their crops for low prices and farmers could not compete with these low prices, so they began selling their land.

• At one time, the emperor had to import grain to feed over 100, 000 unemployed people.

• The amount of unemployed people began increasing and the amount of jobs began decreasing.

Farming

• Farming was the foundation of the Roman economy.

• The most important crop was grain.

• They used grain to pay their taxes.

• The city of Rome was a huge market for grain, olive oil, and other farm productions.

Stable Currency

• Stable Currency was more quickly and widely accepted in trade and commerce.

• After taking power, Augustus issued a new currency in coins.

• The main coin was a gold denarius and a silver denarius was worth five times less than a gold one.

• The coins often had designs picturing the emperor on the front and on the back they had designs of the emperor’s building projects.

Social Structure

Patricians

• The patricians ran the government through their control of the Senate.

• They acted as the leaders of Rome’s social and economic life.

• The patricians often lived in townhouses with central courtyards called atriums.

Plebeians

• The plebeians had little influence on the government and on Rome’s economic life.

• Most plebeians worked as peasant farmers and owned very little land.

• If plebeians failed to pay their debt, the patricians could sell them into slavery.

Family Life

• Roman men provided for their wives and children and the women ran the households.

• After a baby was born, the father would inspect it to see if he would keep the baby or leave it outside to die.

• The parents usually gave their children a lucky charm necklace called a bulla for good luck.

Education

• Before children were 7 they were tutored by their fathers.

• By the age of 7 they would go to school till they were 16.

• They wrote all their lessons on scrolls with a tool called a stylus.

• They learned metalworking and leatherworking to help earn money for their families.

Conclusion

• I think the most important idea of ancient Rome was the concrete roads because the roads helped the Romans get from place to place. The concrete roads made travel faster and easier.