Geography

location

• The Roman Empire was built on seven hills and was located near the Tiberius river. Rome was on the Italian Peninsula which stuck out into the Mediterranean sea.

• The western boundary of the Roman Empire was the Atlantic Ocean The southern boundary was the Sahara Desert.

• The region north of the Roman Empire was called Gaul. The body of water on the eastern and northern boundaries of Rome was called the Black Ocean

• One of the rivers that were the northern boundary of the Roman Empire was the Rhine and Daube river. One of Rome's two main hills were the Capitoline or the Palatine hill.

Origins

• One myth how Rome evolved was that there were two brothers named Romulus and Remus .their jealous uncle placed them in a basket and put the basket in the Tiber river.

• The twins were saved by a she-wolf when they were all grown up they set out to find a new city. The two couldn’t agree on a location so Romulus killed Remus.

• Romulus founded Rome on the Palatine hill. A legend states that was the place where the twins were rescued and raised

Expansion• The Roman Empire had conquered

Spain,Corsica,Sardinia,Macedonia Greece, and Sicily during the third Punic war. During the second Punic war the Roman Empire had conquered all of Italy. During the first Punic war The Roman Empire conquered Gaul,Syria, and the Asia Minor

• The Roman Empire expanded under the rule of Trajan. Trajan expanded the empire by starting two wars with Dacia and conquered their homeland.

• Trajan also expanded Rome by defeating the Parthian and the boarder of the Roman Empire went all the way from Syria to India. Defeating the Parthian extended the eastern boarder of the Roman Empire to Mesopotamia

Physical Features• Rome was near the Daube, Rhine, Rubicon,

and the Po river. Which were great water sources to have the aqueducts get the water from there and carry it to the citizens

• The Roman Empire was boarded by the Meditation Sea and the Black sea which was great during battle and war.

• The Roman Empire was surrounded by the Sahara desert which allowed as great defense during war because their enemies might travel through the desert and they would never have a good chance of survival

Religion

Christianity

• Roman Christians believed that it wasn’t good to sacrifice animals to their god because they would only eat bread and wine like Jesus did in the Last Supper

• The Christians believed that every living human was equal and shouldn’t be treated different for the way they look

• Christians worshipped their god in secret homes and they would allow different worshippers from different backgrounds in to worship

• Christians believed that musical instrument were horrible and they only played the lyre and did vocal music that would have a story behind the song

Jewish Beliefs

• Jews believed that cremating wasn’t good for the body because they wanted the soul to go to heaven

• The Jewish people only believed in one god

• The Jewish people believed that killing was against their religion

• The Jews only did paintings no statues because their paintings usually told a story from the Biblical story book

Greek Religion

• The Greeks were polytheists which meant they believed in more than one god

• They believed that their gods looked just like ordinary people and they couldn’t changer into any form of an animal

• They believed that all of their gods lived on Mount Olympus and Zeus was the supreme god

• Zeus had two brothers Poseion was one of the brothers and he controlled the sea. Hades was the second brother and he was in control of the underworld

Roman Beliefs

• Romans believed in more than one god and those gods were apart of nature or controlled nature

• Romans created statues to show their gods and maybe place in front of temples to show that u could worship that god there

• Romans would sacrifice people and animals to their gods to make them happy because if they were unhappy then their gods would punish them

Achievements

Republican Form of Government

• The republican form of government from Rome influenced other societies. Inn the year 509b.c. Rome sent up a republic form a government in which citizens vote to choose their leaders

• By 275b.c. no single class dominated the government. All of the classes had the same amount of power in ruling the government.

• The republican form of government had three branches the legislative,executive, and the judicial branch. Each branch had the same amount of power as the others

Network of Concrete Roads

• The Romans built concrete roads right after they learned how to make concrete They made concrete blocks and layered them down to create a road

• The Romans used the roads for trade they would bring their carts and drive them to different places

• By the year 100 a.d. there were over 250,000 miles in concrete roads. The Roman idea of roads influenced our idea for highways today.

Development of Aqueducts

• The Romans got the idea for the aqueducts from the Etruscans. The Etruscans had a well planned out water system.

• The Romans used the aqueducts to carry water to their cities from springs,wells,and distant lakes.

• The Romans built their aqueducts out of concrete they also brought water to people in distant cities

Military Organization

• The Roman citizens that owned land would be required to serve in the army. The Roman army was made up of legions and the legions were made up of 6,000 heavily armed foot soldiers

• The Roman army traveled when they were to set up camp. One legion could put up the camp in one night. The legion was trained at the camp at the sound of a trumpet.

• The legions were also divided into even smaller groups called centuries. The centuries were able to move around quickly. The Roman army was able to split into groups and attack their enemies from all sides

Politics

Trajan

• Trajan became emperor by the present emperor adopted him as a successor. When the present emperor died then Trajan became the new emperor.

• Trajan encouraged blood sports he would make 10,000 gladiators fight till their death. The chariot races were made interesting by the driver would have to be dragged till their death

• He created special funds for poor people. He started a huge building project to improve to life in Rome he restored most of the roads and when the building was done it was five stories high and named Trajan’s Market

Nero

• Nero had promoted the society of Rome because of his passion for art,music, and ligature.

• During the time of Nero’s rule there weren’t any Civil Wars and he provided the basic needs for the people

• Nero would kill anyone that he thought was a treat to his rule.

• Nero killed Christians and forced a lot of people to kill or do something that they didn’t want to do

Hadrian

• Hadrian went to different parts of the empire to listen to the complaints of the Roman citizens

• Hadrian also divided the Italian Peninsula into four sections for legal rights

• Hadrian also killed some of his family members and many other people

• Hadrian worked on straighten the Roman Empire by building a wall on its boarder line

Spartacus

• Spartacus was born in Thrace a region north of the Aegean Sea. When the Romans captured his home land they enslaved him

• He was sent to military school to become a gladiator. During the time that he was there he felt like the slaves weren’t being mistreated

• Spartacus led a revolt that started out with 70 gladiators and ended up with 70,000 gladiators

• They traveled through the alps and eventually got captured by Marcus Crass us and him and his army were killed

Economy

Trade

• Some traders traveled from city to city selling products in local markets They used large wagons to transport large items

• Dozens of men powered merchant ships across the sea with maybe building supplies,animals for gladiator fights

• The most important trade item for Rome was grain which the Roman Empire got from North Africa

• Luxury items such as origins, bronze statues, and musical intrustments were shipped to Rome

Currency

• Augustus established a stable currency by using coins.The main coin was the denarius

• A stable currency made it easier to conduct trade over long distances

• A silver denarius was worth twelve times less than a gold denarius

• The coins were also used as an advirtisement the designs on the coins were often a picture of the emperor or a building project

Farmers

• Farming was the foundation of the Roman economy. The farmers paid their taxes in grain

• Provincial farmers grew rich from trade in Rome. Many used their wealth to help their regions out

• They used the money to build new schools, temples, and public baths

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

Housing

• Roman citizens were separated into two different categories The rich and the poor.

• The poor lived in easy to put up homes and that were very dangerous to live in. The poor Romans homes were usually put up by 10 people in one or two days

• The wealthy Romans homes were usually put up in a week because they were move lavish and more complicated to put up

• The wealthy Romans homes were usually made up of marble and stone and in the dinning room there were mosaics on every wall

Social Structure

Men

• The Roman family centered all around the men.The father or grandfather in a Roman family was called the paterfamilias or head of the household

• He owned all of the families property he had total control over his wife and children. He could sell his children into slavery

• When a father died and the family had no son then his wife and children would go under the control of his closest male relative

Women

• Women in Rome enjoyed a significant advantage over women in Greece because they were allowed to own land.

• The most important role of women were to bear the children and keep the household in shape

• Women gained more freedom they could g out in public and women were not allowed to vote

Patron and Clients

• The patrons were the wealthy plebeians and the clients were the poor plebeians. Patron offered the clients help in return for their political support

• The relationship began in the early years of the republican form of government . It offered a way that the patricians to help the less fortunate for something in return

• Patrons provided money and other forms of aid such as help in political career

Plebeians

• The plebeians had a little bit of power or influence in the government. They couldn’t hold political power nor could they serve as priest

• They also had little influence in Rome economic life. Most worked as poor peasant farmers and owned very little land

• If a plebian failed to pay their debt the Patrician that owned that loan then they could sell that debater into slavery

Conclusion

I believe that the republican form of government was the most important idea of Rome because the Roman society was very organized in their time with having the republican form of government. Today we use the republican form of

government and we were influenced by the Romans to use the republican form of government in our society today. In our society today we have a very well organized government like

the Romans did.