Geography

Rome’s Location

• Rome was located on seven hills. Ancient Rome relied on their axis to the sea for the international trade.

• The Tiber River went through Ancient Rome.

• Most people lived on the steep Seven Hills.

Expansion

• Rome was first a collection of tiny villages.

• By 600 B.C. the villages formed a city covering Seven Hills.

• Rome’s population increased to around 80,000 people.

• The location of Rome played a major role in its growth.

Urban Decay• Most of the people in Rome

were not wealthy.• Some Romans lived in crime

infested streets.• Because people were living

on the streets, cities started to decay. Many believed that this lead to the falling of the empire

• Although most were poor, there were few wealthy Romans who lived in a domus with marble walls, beautiful tiled floors and small pains of glass windows.

Punic Wars• Rome sent troops to Sicily which

caused the first Punic War.• After 20 years of fighting Carthage

finally agreed to turn over Sicily to the Romans

• Most of the first Punic War was fighting over a country.

• A general launched a second Punic War, he brought with him a lot of men and a couple elephants.

• The Roman leaders vowed to end the power of Carthage forever.

Religion

Priests

• All the top officials of the government also served as priests to the people.

• The priests performed services and religious rituals at important events.

• Just as people rebelled against the government, they rebelled from the priests as well.

Worshipping of Gods

• The Romans were known for worshipping a hundred Gods.

• Several of these Gods came from the Greek and Etruscan religion.

• The Roman people also believed that gods lived in sacred spots.

• Jupiter, Juno, Mars, and Minerva were the main gods of Rome.

Temples

• Although Romans had shrines in their homes, they liked to worship in public at the Great Temples.

• It was known that Romans prayed to the household spirits because they thought they shaped their daily life.

• One of the spirits they prayed to was called Lares, and Lares were the spirits of the family ancestors.

• The Roman’s had faith that the Lares could protect their homes from evil things.

Rise in Christianity• Peter and Paul helped the

church spread its boundaries beyond Jerusalem, until it included more non-jews than jews.

• Historians say that Christianity made its followers start to oppose the war and this made it more difficult to defend Roman lands from the barbarians.

• Historians also say that the Church attracted many leaders who were qualified to deal with the problems of the Empire.

• In the end, it was the historians theory that money that would have been used to maintain the empire was used to build churches and monasteries instead.

Achievements

Aquaducts• It was the ingenuity of the

Roman engineers who designed the aquaduct.

• Aquaducts supplied towns with clean water.

• Romans built hundreds of miles of canals and aquaducts that moved water from the mountain springs, rivers and lakes to the plains.

• The Roman aquaducts look like long bridges with water running on one level.

• The idea of the aquaduct taught us how to bring water from one place to another, to where people need it.

Concrete Roads

• Roman architects invented a new building material called concrete.

• They invented it by mixing small stones and sand with limestone clay and water.

• The concrete was easier to work with because it was lighter than stone.

• The workers did not have to be as skilled to pour concrete as they had to be to carve stone.

Arts• Romans were very realistic

with their forms of art and used real people as subjects in their art.

• Romans were known for their art sculptures.

• Romans also used mosaics as another art form.

• A lot of Roman art and architecture was modeled on Greek works.

Greater Freedom for Women

• Women gained more rights in Rome.

• They are now able to own land.

• Women are also able to own their own businesses.

Politics

Political Corruption

• Choosing new emperors was one of Romes serious problems.

• The Roman’s did not have an effective system to choose who would be the new emperor.

• Due to the fact that they did not have an effective system of electing a new emperor choosing a new emperor, was always open to debate with the old emperors, the Senate, the emperors private army or the army.

Roman Government

• The Roman type of government has had a great influence on the way our political and legal system is today.

• Romans believed that the people could and should rule themselves.

• When the constitution was written for the United States they borrowed many ideas from Ancient Rome.

• The idea of checks and balances was also borrowed from the Romans.

• The Roman constitution helped citizens get rights.

Citizenship• The Roman’s believed in

giving citizenship to most people living across the empire.

• Citizenship was not given to women and slaves.

• As the empire grew the Roman’s made special laws for dealing with people that did not have citizenship.

• These laws were known as The Law of Nations.

• Today we call them international laws.

The Rule of Law

• The Roman’s set up a court system with judges, lawyers and juries.

• The Twelve Tables issued in 451 B.C. set the foundation for Rome’s first law code.

• After some time the civil law grew. As the law code changed it continued to be based on the idea of justice.

Economy

Inflation• When the emperors tried to

increase the money supply by giving coins made of less valued metal, inflation arrived.

• After merchants and people realized that the coins were being made with less precious metal they raised their prices and this caused inflation.

• Inflation hurt their businesses and they did not have the money to pay their taxes.

Diocletion Divides the Empire

• Diocletion reorganized the Imperial Government from top to bottom.

• Diocletion made the army twice the size.

• Diocletion split the empire into two parts.

• Diocletion raised taxes to pay for the added soldiers and officials.

Unemployment

• Due to slave labor that was used on large estates, unemployment rose.

• Farmers could not afford to pay their workers and produce goods as cheaply as a slave-owner.

• Slave-owners sold their crops for lower prices.

• As a result, many farmers could not compete with these low prices so they lost or had to sell their farms.

Trade

• Roman’s controlled the Mediterranean so shipping goods by sea was safe.

• Ships carried wine, olive oil, and pottery to Europe and the Greek Islands.

• The Roman’s also connected their empire with many paved roads.

Social Structures

Patricians

• Rome was divided into two main groups called orders.

• One of the orders was made up Patricians.

• The Patricians were the upper-class of the Roman society.

• The Patricians felt proud to belong to noble families.

Plebians

• The other order included the Plebians.

• The Plebians were the common people of Rome.

• The Plebians made up 90% of the population.

• Some Plebians were wealthy, but most were farmers.

Role of Men

• The Roman family centered around men.

• The father or grandfather in a family was the head of the house.

• He had absolute and unlimited power.

• He owned all of the family’s goods and property.

Role of Women

• Women could own their own property in Rome.

• Roman law required that women have male guardians throughout their lives.

• Even though they had to have a male guardian, they still had a great deal of control over their property.

• Bearing and raising children to honor traditional values was the most important role of woman.

What I Learned About Ancient Rome

Rome’s location along the Tiber River was an essential part of why it grew into a large city. It had access to major trade routes.

Conflicts between social classes brought changes in the government to the Roman Republic.

Family relationships were a significant part of Rome’s social structure.The Roman’s built their empire on a powerful military force and

diplomacy.For centuries the Roman Empire was wealthy and strong.Greco-Roman culture spread throughout the empire, but with the end of

the Pax Romana, the proud empire started to grow dim.Even though there was a lot of resistance from the Roman officials,

Christianity still spread across the Roman Empire.