5/31/11

Today we worked on a paper discussing Rome's empire declining and falling. I worked with Emily Waite on it. The paper reviewed how trade was disrupted in the Roman empire. The reason it was disrupted was because of the barbarian raids.  We listen to Mozart in class, which made us smarter! more smart? Umm, anyway! It was really hot in school today,  8 more days (including exam days) left!

Rome's empire declines and fell.

Commodus: Aurelius's son. He was an irresponsible Emperor. He became a cruel ruler and in A.D. 192, he was strangled in his bath. The decline of the empire, however, continued for almost 300 years. 


Diocletian- a strong willed army leader and son of a slave, became that new emperor in AD 284. He tried to restore order in the empire and increase its strength. 


Constantine- marched to the Tiber River to hight his cheif rival


eastern empire: Greek speaking, Greece, Asia, Minor, Syria and Egypt. Included most of the great cities and trade centers of the empire. 

western empire: Latin speaking, Italy, Gaul, Britannia,  and Spain.

Edict of Milan: man who made Christianity a religion that was approved  by the emperor. 

Constantinople: thus, the center of empire shifted from west to east, there was a new capital that was protected by massive walls and gleamed with stately buildings. They city even had a new name Constantinople. 

Huns: central people from Asia.

Attila:  under this new leader, The Huns became more dangerous. 

Leo I: the first powerful pope of Rome.


1. The economic problems the empire faced in the third century was  that trade was disrupted by barbarian raids and by bands of pirates on Mediterranean sea lanes. 


2. Rome's army changed since the days of the republic because Roman soldiers now fought strictly for money, not for patriotism. 


3a. The important religious change Constantine brought about in the empire is he out a Christian symbol on his soldiers' shields. 
3b. He brought about the end to the persecution of Christians. From Milan, he granted both to the Christians and to all men freedom to follow the religion that they choose. In 395, the emperor theodosius made christianity the empire's official religion. 

4a. The Germanic tribes invaded the empire in the 400's because  the Germanic tribes were terrified of the Huns, a nomadic people from central Asia. 

4b. When the Huns began to move west, they began the massive movement of Germanic peoples that eventually destroyed the western half of the Roman empire. 

5. Diocletian should be considered a successful emperor because he double the size of the Roman armies. He might be considered a failure because the wages for the new troops added to the already crushing load of taxes, price controls failed and even when he lived, his plans failed. 

5/24/11

Today in class we worked on our rough drafts for our essays. This essay is on the Roman Republic vs. the Roman Empire. It has to be around 500 words. I worked very hard on mine and Emily Kenedy checked it for me. My essay was too long so I have to work on it more for homework. I check Emily Kenedy's, Emily Stasuk's, Colleen's and Mark's essays'.

Roman Republic vs. Roman Empire

Today in class we worked on our essay. The essay compares the Roman Republic to the Roman Empire. Mr. Schick was not here today so we were with a sub. I spent my time wisely and got a lot of my paper done. The End. WEEKEND TIME! 

TEST DAY!

Today we took a test on the Ancient Roman Empire. I thought I did really well on the test, it was pretty easy. It was mostly questions about the Emperors we learned about. We also had time before class to review which helped. TEST DAY HURRAY! FUN FUN FUN.

Test tomorrow on Roman empire

Tomorrow we have a test, that we reviewed for today. We looked over the power point on Rome. It went over the important people we learned about like Augustus, Jesus, Paul, Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, and Julius Ceaser. There were some odd emperors back then, but i think learning about them was very interesting. Hopefully I will do well on tomorrows test.

5/17/11

Today in class we took notes on a power point and reviewed emperors and important people of ancient Rome. Augustus ruled during Pax Romana which was a period of peace and prosperity. Augustus concentrated on what was going on at the time. He built roads, aqueducts- great technological breakthrough (like public pluming.) Even had a postal serve back then. Augustus was emperor when Jesus was born. 

Jesus was a roman citizen practicing Jew. He lived in an area that was controlled by the romans. He was a roman citizen.  He focused on the poor, and talked to them and reached out to the outsiders. Pontius Pilate sentenced him to death  by crucifixion. Paul told the world about Jesus' life, death, resurrection and message.He was blinded when he was knocked off his horse and was blind for a few days, once he got his sight back he saw Jesus. He traveled as far as Rome, jerusalem, cyprus, anatolia, athens, corinth, macedonia and spread the word. 

Tiberius was Augustus' stepson and adopted son. He was not Octavians first choice for emperor. He was a great general, he was a dark, sober, reclusive, and reluctant emperor. He referred to the Senate as "men fit to be slaves." Germanicus started out as Tiberius' ally, but when it looked like he would suceed Tiberius had Germanicus killed. 

Caligul was Germanicus' son, he was Tiberius' adopted grandson , he was put in life for next emperor. He started off well, he granted bonuses to those in the military. He began to fight with the senate. He was considered to be insane. He claimed to be god. He slept with other men's wives and bragged about it, sex was a big part of his life and he even tried to make his horse a consul and a priest. He was assassinated by his own aids. 

When Claudius was a baby or was  young he had a disability that gave him a limp, somewhat deaf, possible speech impediment .He rose to the occasion, he conquered britain, built roads, canals, and aqueducts and he renovated the Circus Maximus. He has an awful marriage to Messalina, who was unfaithful to him. He had his wife killed, and his wife's lover. 

5/13/11

I was sick this day and was not at school.

Tiberius, Caligula, and Claudius.

             Tiberius, Caligula, and Claudius. Tiberius was Roman Emperor from 14 AD to 37 AD. Tiberius would later marry Augustus' daughter Julia the Elder and even later be adopted by Augustus, bearing the name Tiberius Julius Caesar. The subsequent emperors after Tiberius would continue this blended dynasty of both families for the next forty years; historians have named it the Julio-Claudian dynasty. In relations to the other emperors of this dynasty, Tiberius was the stepson of Augustus, great-uncle of Caligula, paternal uncle of Claudius, and great-great uncle of Nero.He is remembered as a dark, reclusive, and somber ruler who never really desired to be emperor. 
          Caligula was also known as Gaius, was Roman Emperor from 37 to 41. Caligula's father Germanicus was the nephew and adopted son of emperor Tiberius. He was a very successful general and one of Rome's most beloved public figures. The young Gaius earned the nickname Caligula (meaning "little soldier's boot")  from his father's soldiers while accompanying him during his campaigns in Germania.
           Claudius was Roman Emperor from 41 to 54. Afflicted with a limp and slight deafness due to sickness at a young age, his family ostracized him and excluded him from public office until his consulship with his nephew Caligula in 37. Claudius' infirmity probably saved him from the fate of many other nobles during the purges of Tiberius' and Caligula's reigns; potential enemies did not see him as a serious threat. His survival led to his being declared emperor by the Praetorian Guard after Caligula's assassination, at which point he was the last adult male of his family.Despite his lack of experience, Claudius proved to be an able and efficient administrator. He was also an ambitious builder, constructing many new roads, aqueducts, and canals across the empire. 

Roman Empire

         Today in class we watched a movie called "The Roman Empire: In the First Century." We talked about Octavian aka. Augustus, who was a great and powerful ruler. When he ruled  for 40 years people liked him. Pax Romana is the time period when Augustus ruled Rome. In the movie it talked about how the areas surrounding Rome were considered part of Rome. This would explain why languages like Spanish, French etc. are so similar.         Augustus adopted a son named Tiberius. Tiberius was not Octavian's first choice as a new leader, but when Tiberius started to take over Rome, they started to see some problems. Tiberius was forced to marry Octavian's daughter, regardless of the fact that Tiberius was happily married. Dramaticus tried to fix the situation that Tiberius can't "connect with his people." Dramaticus had a wife and a son named Caligula "bootsie" Tiberius was paranoid that Dramaticus was going to take his rule so he had him killed.

Test Review 5/10/11

Today in class we reviewed over the Rome and Greek tests!  Emily Waite and I couldn't control our laughter because she couldn't pronounce "aristocracy" also, the fact that some of the questions on the Greek test started with "Hi there" also made me laugh, a lot. We are both easily amused. Overall i think today went pretty well. I did well on my Rome test, I got an A! So I am pretty happy about that. VOTE FOR RACHEL FOR PRESIDENT!

Today we took out test, I think I did well :) it wasn't too hard, however; there were a few tricky questions.

Today we took out test, I think I did well :) it wasn't too hard, however; there were a few tricky questions.

CINCO DE MAYO.

Today we looked at our power points, and reviewed for the test tomorrow. A Consul highest elected office of the roman republic and appointed office. A republic  is a form of government in which the people, or some significant portion of them, retain supreme control over the government. Democracy is a form of government in which all citizens have equal say.  An Aristocracy is form in government in which the rich and powerful ruled. A Monarchy which is similar to a consul  is when all political power is passed down to an individual (usually hereditary). 

A Tyranny is unrestrained exercise of power; abuse of power. The Punic wars were a series of 3 wars fought between Rome and Carthange from 264 to 146 BC. Carthage is in Africa. Soon after the end of the third Punic war between Carthage and Rome, Rome becomes very big in size. Therefore because of Rome's conquest and growth it became an empire. Rome's victory over Carthage put them in control over the busy trade routes that once were controlled by Carthage. Huge amounts of goods and wealth poured into Rome, but this wealth soon caused Rome to decline. 

There were huge socioeconomic effects from the huge change in wealth. The wealthy started "latifundia's" which were plantations run with slave labor. These were cheaper to run and forced farmers to sell their land and move to Rome. With these "latifundia's," the rich kept getting richer and the poor kept getting poorer. Of course the rich were happy, powerful, and greedy, but this created a corruption. The poor on the other hand were angry and caused riots.Out of these riots, rose the Gracchus brothers.These brothers led movements for public good and redistribution of land. They also wanted the government to supply food to the poor and create a sort of "welfare." The Gracchus brothers were soon seen as a threat and were killed along with their followers. This triggered a one hundred-year war.

The Rubicon is a stream in nor eastern Italy. Julius Caesar in 58 BC started his conquest of Gaul, he wanted to get as rich as possible. After his campaign he decided to stay in Gaul with his army until he would be chosen as the consul. Political opponents wanted him to get back to Rome and be prosecuted for the things he did when he was a consul.

The first triumvirate was the political alliance of Gaius divided up Roman provinces. The First Triumvirate was the political alliance of Gaius Julius Caesar, Marcus Licinius Crassus, and Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus.  Marcus Licinius Crassus was an influential Roman politician from the Late Republic.  Gnaeus Pomeius Magnus  was a military and political leader of the late Roman Republic.

 Julius caesar stabbed 23 times, last words were said to be "et tu brute"The assassination day was march 15,44 Bc. Learder of the conspiracy group against him was led by a man named Gaius Cassius.

 Octavian was the Grand-Newphew and adopted the son of Julius Ceaser.  Him and Mark Antony got revenge on the people who killed Julius. A war between octavian and mark eventually broke out. 

5/3/11

Today we talked about the death of osama bin laden, reviewed what we learned about Rome, and worked on a power point. Mr. Schick also let us retake the last quiz! I got a 9 out of 10  this time. Emily Waite and I worked on our power point. It's about latifundia and the Gracchus brothers. I really enjoy learning about Rome.

WOOO! OSAMA BIN LADEN IS DEAD!