Ancient Rome
Ancient Rome was founded in 753 B.C and was the largest city in the then world. There are thoughts that Rome’s population was over one million people where Rome reached its highest height of power. Rome itself has many vast buildings within the city which few still exist to this day, but not in the best of shape. The most famous is the Colosseum where thousands of Roman citizens would gather for their entertainment: animals fighting or gladiators fighting to the death. Within the city, there were rich and poor areas. The poor could not afford much to live in luxury, so they can only afford to live I wooden houses with serious risks of house fires in a hot country like Italy. The wealthy life in the most beautiful houses often on the hills outside Rome away from noise and smell. They lived an extravagant life style. (Jonathan Pham) |
Roman Army
The Roman army was the most advanced of its time. The vast armies of Rome created what we know as today the Roman Empire, a huge part of Western Europe. Rome benefited from victories of their armies as they conquered the territories they fought upon returning with many riches. As the Armies of Rome continued to grow so did the fighting techniques developing tremendous training regimes. All recruits went through harsh winters of training, punishments, and other things that created the perfect soldiers. During battles, many of the new recruits were placed in front for three reasons: build confidence as behind them were experienced soldiers, secondly it stopped the new recruits from running away from battle, finally they were most likely to be killed first in the phase of battle. The experienced warriors were placed at the rear of the army for their knowledge and volubility in battle. During battle, the Romans used a very tested attacking technique. Legionnaires would run towards their enemies then throwing their Pila’s and then fighting one to one combat with their Gladius each attack was well planned and practiced- hence why they were so victorious. Rome used many tactics to win battles like Cavalry and as well as part time soldiers. The weaponry that the Romans used gave protection to their men and also allows them to smash through forts. Battering rams were often used by the Romans to bring down an object like a wall. Romans also developed catapults also another way to break down a wall. Each of these tactics were well planned and practiced to perfection, all things were actions carried on by one of the most important people which were Centurions or also called commanders of the Roman Army. Each Leader (Centurion) ensures that his century was capable to fight the good fight. If a Century did not perform well on the battle field that Century would be ‘Decimated’ the whole unit would stand in line and every tenth man would be killed. This was warning to all other units the capital punishment of not doing your duty in battle. The Roman Army was very important in explaining the success of the Roman Empire. The army conquered what we now call England/ Wales, Spain, France, most of Germany, Northern coast of Africa, the Middle East, and Greece. The Roman Army is known to historians as an effective fighting machine. Ironically, with all the success that the Roman Empire achieved it also led to their fall. (Harvey Eteaki) |
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Cultural Advances
The great empire of Rome shared many characteristics of the ancient Romans, and ultimately influenced our society today. They had modern medicines far advanced from their time, advanced irrigation systems, and made Christianity as bigger than any other empire. From the time of the first emperor of Rome Augustus in 31 BCE roman already had an advanced culture more advanced than any previous dynasty or kingdom. Early Romans believed in the same god’s the early Greeks but with their own roman twist to it. From Jupiter, to Venus, to mars every god had a specific role. These gods were followed for hundreds of years until Emperor Constantine made Christianity the official state religion of Rome. This was a huge different and influenced modern religion of today such as Catholicism and other branches of Christianity. Another aspect that made Rome so advanced was there irrigation system and water aqueducts, if you were a well of family you had running water, indoor plumbing, fresh drink water, and all of this was possible because of modern advances created by architects such as Sextus
Julius Frontinus. The irrigation systems would gather water from rivers such as the Indus River and would us gravity to move the water from the rivers to the cities. Roman medicine was also very far ahead of its time they had developed medicine and techniques that saved lives. They would perform surgeries and would have a high success rate unlike any other. Roman also contributed to more than just technological advances they also contributed to cultural advances like theater and gladiator battles. There was never a dull moment in Rome. The great theaters of Rome would have play, great battle reenactments and would please the public. Rome often had many exciting battle where gladiators would fight to the death, have chariot races, fight the deadliest animals know to man, and all this was live in person. Although the scenes were bloody and violent the crowd loved it. The great roman coliseums were often packed with thousands of people who loved the great theater and battles. Roman contributed in so many ways and that is why we study their culture to this very day. (Jeremy Impecoven) |
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Works Cited
Header Picture:
Roman Roads . Fine Art. Encyclopædia Britannica ImageQuest. Web. 26 Jan 2015.
http://quest.eb.com/#/search/108_252640/1/108_252640/cite
"The Roman Army and warfare". HistoryLearningSite.co.uk. 2014. Web.
"Ancient Rome". HistoryLearningSite.co.uk. 2014. Web.
"Water supply system." Britannica School. Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 2015. Web. 28 Jan. 2015. <http://school.eb.com/levels/high/article/76242#286104.toc>.
Header Picture:
Roman Roads . Fine Art. Encyclopædia Britannica ImageQuest. Web. 26 Jan 2015.
http://quest.eb.com/#/search/108_252640/1/108_252640/cite
"The Roman Army and warfare". HistoryLearningSite.co.uk. 2014. Web.
"Ancient Rome". HistoryLearningSite.co.uk. 2014. Web.
"Water supply system." Britannica School. Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 2015. Web. 28 Jan. 2015. <http://school.eb.com/levels/high/article/76242#286104.toc>.