Essay Ancient Rome

“The holy Roman Empire is neither holy, nor Roman, nor an empire. ”That quote was said about the Roman Empire by Voltaire. Rome began around 750 BCE as an unremarkable settlement. The roman army conquered from modern-day Scotland to Spain, the whole Mediterranean sea, and established colonies in North africa, Egypt, the Middle East and Asia Minor. Soon the empire began to go from a republic to more like a dictatorship.

Romans were a civilization that originated after the Greek culture. They, like Greeks, saw an extreme significance in the idea of a love for one’s country and loyalty. The Romans, however, were more concerned with public affairs such as education, sanitation, and health. They held a strong connection with their ancestors and wished to imitate what the ancient Romans did. Although Romans rejected the idea of a Rex, or king, they favored the common hero. They wanted a leader who a “regular Joe”, someone who was average and could still led an average life after doing extraordinary things. The Romans also had a very defined government that was broken into consuls, senate, and assembly. There were two consuls who served in place of the king as the leaders of the Roman Empire. Next in succession was the senate, comprised only of patricians who debated and passed legislation. Finally, there was the assembly made for the plebeians to approve laws.

The Roman Republic began in 509 B.C.E. with the overthrow of the Etruscan monarchy. In 27 B.C.E the Roman Empire began with Octavian Caesar becoming the emperor, this ended almost 500 years of republican self-government. There is much debate over why Rome became so powerful so quickly. Many think it had to do with Rome’s military strength. Others think that it was because Rome knew of and controlled most of the trade routes. Still others believed it had to do with the technology that was advanced during the Roman Republic. All of these factors played significant roles, but which one played the most important role?

     The Romans began their day at sunrise. Breakfast was usually a light meal of bread and cheese. Most Romans ate lunch just before midday. For wealthy Romans, it consisted of meat or fish and olives or fruit. Dinner, the main meal, began in the late afternoon so that it would end before sunset.

From the aqueducts of the Roman Empire to the pestle and mortar of Han, China, technology played a big role in ancient civilizations. From the 2nd century BCE through the 1st century CE, both the Han and Roman empires were dealing with the advancements in technology, whether the people liked it or not. There were many different approaches between the two empires, but there were also differences in views within the empires themselves. In the Roman Empire, people believed that technology unnecessary, but not rational, while other people believed it as a way to show how great the Roman Empire was. In the Han dynasty, some believed that technology was a vital part of an empire and needs government interference, while others saw it as an unnecessary and costly burden.

There were a lot of reasons rome fell apart, In 117 CE,it was a huge empire that covered parts of three continence. These are some of the most important reasons Rome fell. One is how big rome was, another is that over the course of 50o years they had 19 emperors, and that Rome’s soldiers were not all from Rome.

Although many historians and professors attribute the fall of the Roman Empire to excess and corruption, the role of shifting spheres of power, trade created a situation that made the fall of such a large cumbersome empire inevitable, the military played a role for not obeying protocol as well and an excess of things were happening in the government that also led to the fall of the Roman Empire. Each mistake made by the Romans contributed to their fall of their empire since after time of accumulation of their mistakes, it becomes a tremendous problem. Though the Roman Empire still did have their climax in history before everything came crashing down.

Rome has many achievements that led up to a successful empire. For example, Julius Caesar was a mighty emperor that altered Rome from a republic to an empire. But these success’ led to it’s “fall."

In 117 AD the Roman Empire was the most powerful empire in the world. Rome was a powerhouse! How can such an amazing empire suddenly turn into dust? The Roman empire reached north-western Europe all the way to the east at its peak. Once they had so much area to control, there was no room for error.

The Western Roman Empire was a very strong and dominant empire during its reign. It flourished from trade, had a strong military which led to having no major wars and traveling was safe and easy which ultimately made the 200 year span a relatively peaceful time. From the years 32 BC till 180 AD, which was called the Pax Romana, Rome was in a state of prosperity. When Marcus Aurelius was empire the Pax Romana slowly began to end which led to the fall of Rome. While the Western Roman Empire declined because of the spread of Christianity and economic breakdown, the Barbaric invasions was the main and ultimate cause of the fall of Rome.

How can a civilization that has been so powerful for a thousand years suddenly decline? This civilization was Rome. Rome was a Republic for five hundred years, and a Empire for five hundred years. During this time Rome did amazing achievements that we still use to this day. The Romans made buildings out of concrete, Olympics, drama plays, an arch , an a collision which we call a studium, their Empire expanded as far east as India.

Conquering three continents, Rome lacked the proper amount of soldiers required to protect the empire. This was due to its “immoderate greatness (Doc 2).” According to Document 2, the size of Rome played a great and inevitable role in the decline of Rome. Regarding the military, a large portion of the soldiers not only lacked discipline and training, but were not actually Romans. As seen in Document 5, “the Roman army was composed entirely of Germans.”

In the beginning of the Roman Empire, the economy was booming and Pax Romana came and went. Rome began in 750 BC, and soon bringing power with it. The leaders in Rome changed from being a republic to being more military control. Their attitude on how to improve Rome was very military based and with great rulers to lead them. However, when Rome was coming to its end it was hard to control the Roman people and they were invaded by the Germanic tribes, but this rooted from a series of problems. Leaving the Roman empire to fall because of their military problems, political assassinations, and foreign invasions.

If you were to step back and take a look at all of the problems America is facing, you would think we were falling apart. For instance, there is a lot of poverty because a lot of young men drop/flunk out of school which leads to little job openings causing them to not make a lot of money sending them into poverty. And with all these boys dropping out of school that creates a problem for our military since you need to have at least a GED to be enlisted. But with these and many other problems the U.S. is able to somehow keep their mojo on. Other countries are not quite as lucky, like Rome for instance.

During the ancient Roman time period, clothing was crucial in citizens’ status of either emperor, wealthy, middle class, poor, or slave. The emperor would have worn the toga trabea, which was, “formal differences in togas which denoted social rank” (Roman Dress). The emperor himself would wear a toga with a purple stripe to show his status. As emperor, he would also wear the latus clavus, tunica palmata, and the toga palmata. For wealthy citizens, “It was simply deemed improper for such a Roman citizen of