ANCIENT ROME CIVILIZATION

By Ryan, Michael, Dewi, Kenneth

MMXIII2013

IntroductionRome is an old civilization. It has a great society and development. It really has a good architecture at buildings and statues. Rome is one of the first civilizations to create numerals. Rome is also the biggest empire in the ancient world.

Political System of RomeAt first, the Romans use kings as the leader of the

civilization; but they found it to be useless and decided to create a government democracy. The Romans separate the government system into three groups, the head government, the senates and the assembly. The government consist of two people that mostly lead the civilization.

• Mostly the lead government will control the citizens and army (gladiators).

• The senates are a group of wealthy Romans that created the laws of the civilization.

• Assembly are a bunch of normal people who helps the government and also gives suggestion to senates about the law (but they don’t have the power to change the law).

Political System of RomeThe senates created the law called “THE TWELVE TABLES”. It is called like that because, the laws are separated into 12 parts. The law talked about property, crime, family, theft, marriage and inheritance. It was written on tablets of metal with roman writing and placed in front of “city hall” so everyone could see it. The method of picking the leader is to choose. Only the assembly are allowed to choose. Rich people would pay poor people for their baths so the poor people will choose the leader who the rich people wants.

Health Roman people get diseases mostly from the lack

of hygiene of people. The government mostly like to PREVENT than to CURE. Still, the government placed several health rescues. Mostly people from the army will learn and study about the health. Roman get its techniques mostly from Greece. Roman conquered Greece for a long time and they got most of the ideas from them. The diseases mostly come from the from the “Roman Baths” that was scattered all over Rome. The government placed the price of the baths to a really low price so that all people will bath. A bath will contain lots of people and is rarely cleaned so the diseases can grow.

HealthSome towns in England get some Roman Influence; that is why in England there are many Roman Baths. Now, Roman Baths are open for public and for tourist to try. Romans really like to bathe. But the water supply in their houses are expensive so people created a public bath. It has furnaces below to make it warm. Before a bath people will go to a special room called a “Thermae” to warm up and exercise. Thermae is almost the same as Saunas today.

Social SystemRome has a connecting link from a roman to

another. People all around Rome would greet each other and act like they are his/her friend. Roman empire is also the biggest empire ever!. Even it is an empire it is still a growing and developing civilization. It colonized many other civilizations. Rome had colonized Greece, Egypt, Britain, and many more. Roman people have the behavior of normal people. They have parents, grandparents, child, etc. A woman’s job is to take care of the house and to have children. Long ago, children already go to school. They have a board made out of wax and some leather mix to create a book that has several pages to write. Long ago people already have pens made out of bamboo to write and ink for the writing.

ArchitectureRome has one of the best civilizations in Europe. They can

design and engineer good quality of buildings. Roman buildings gets the influence from Greece architecture. At that time they can already build and design the coliseums that can hold up to 50,000 people. The coliseum still holds up to now. Roman architecture has many curves and carving. Some examples of roman buildings are, the pantheon, St. Peter's Basilica, etc. The Pantheon is the first temple ever built. It is to memorize all the gods and also to remember the remains of the Roman Civilization. St. Peters basilica was built in 64 AD to memorize the first pope. It has a huge Dome on the middle.

TechnologyRomans are good in engineering because we can see it from their

architecture. Rome has got many unique architectures. The engineers mostly built roads, theatres, baths and buildings. Rome engineers used many various tools to build and fix things.

One of the technology: Antikythera MechanismIt is one of the technologies in Rome. It was found more than 100

years ago by divers at the bottom of the sea near the Antikythera island. It is a mechanical computer that tracks the cycle of the solar system. This mechanism can be seen in a museum in Athens, Greek. The museum is called the National Archaeological Museum. Now some people used it for watch.

Belief and Values • In Rome there are many god and goddess.• Jupiter or Zeus (name in Greece) is the king of the

gods. He is one of the oldest gods and the other god and goddess are terrified of him. His power is his thunderbolt. Jupiter’s messenger is the eagle.  Jupiter is Saturn’s son. Saturn has three sons Jupiter who rule air/sky, Neptune (Poseidon in Greece) who rule the sea and Pluto (Hades in Greece) who rule the underworld. This are the main gods. Jupiter has a wife called Juno. Juno is the queen of the gods and she is the goddess of women and marriage. Her bird is the peacock. Juno and Jupiter has a son called Mars. Mars (Ares in Greece) is the god of war. Romans belief that Rome is named after Romulus one of Mars sons. Roman people are mostly Christian. Theodosius I build the first church in Rome and Christianity quickly spread throughout Rome.

Belief and Values• One of famous myths about Rome is about “Romulus and Remus”. This

story shows how the country was named Rome and also how Rome has it’s right to rule.

•Romulus and Remus

• Rhea, a princess was married to Mars the Roman god of war. They have got two twin sons who were named Romulus and Remus. For the god and goddesses this will harm Mars, his wife and also his sons. To protect her sons Rhea decided to set them adrift on the river. She hope that someone would take them. Romulus and Remus were found by a She-wolf who fed them. Then a shepherd and his wife decided to adopted them. The boys grew up and didn’t want to take care of the sheeps. They wanted to be kings. So they decided to built a city near the shore. Both of them are the only king. One day they both started to fight and argue. So one day Romulus picked up a rock, then killed his brother Remus.

Agriculture• In Rome, many people lived in the countryside in the ancient times.

Most people grew crops to be sell in the city for food materials. Some farmers grew plants for herbs or herbal medicine to heal the people in the countryside or the city. One of the plants that were most planted were rosemary. They are mostly used to heal sickness. Roman farmers also grew grapes to produce wines. Some grapes were imported from France, Spain, Portugal and other regions. Wines are one of the Romans favorite beverages. Romans mostly drink wines not tea or coffee. For the poor people they drank low quality of wine called ‘Acetum’. The farmers and farm slaves smashed the grapes to create the wines. After it is done it will be send to the cities to get the money. Farm slaves are the one who helped the farmers planting the crops and taking care of the farm animals. Farm slaves are mostly children's and women. Farmers use various farming and cropping tools. Some of the tools were rake, scythe, turf cutter, simple plough and improve heavy plough.

Protection• Rome’s military might enabled the Roman Empire to protect

civilizations from barbaric raids better than previous regimes. Plus, the advanced Roman road system, and centralized currency/trade laws, enabled free trade throughout the empire, increasing the export markets and access to diverse and more affordable goods. Therefore, most conquered peoples enjoyed greater prosperity under Roman rule compared to their pre-Roman economic systems (or lack thereof). By today’s standards, Rome was still a society rife with inequality, as slaves comprised about a quarter of the population. Weapons that Romans have mostly came from the ideas of Greece. The most common one is the catapult and the tower. Ancient Rome also has boats with canons to invade in the sea.

Geography• Rome has a geographical position of 41° 54' N and 12° 29' E. Rome

climate very broadly is of the 'Mediterranean' variety. The summer months are warm to mild, and the winters are cold. The rainfall occurs during the winter months between October to January. The summer season lasts from June to September with temperatures ranging between a maximum of 30° C to a minimum of 14° C. The daily range of temperature averages at 14° C. The winter season extends from December to March with temperatures varying between 3° C to 16° C. The months of April, May, October and November are very pleasant with temperatures varying between 7° C and 23° C. Rome is located in the southern part of Europe. It has a perfect temperature to grow grapes and make wines. Rome is situated close to the city and has a Mediterranean climate.

Sport Roman people really like the sport of GLADIATORS. It includes wild

animals and a man that is willing to play.Gladiators were condemned criminals, prisoners, and slave. a

professional gladiator is a free man that volunteered to play the game, each time they fought they will be paid and will be well equipped. Normal Gladiators players will fight a wild animal like a lion and fight it until one of them dies (the player dies or the animal dies). Criminals who had committed other crimes were trained in special gladiator schools, called ludi, and they fought with weapons of their choice. They could earn their freedom if they survived 3-5 years of combat. Another Roman sport is the “Biga”. Biga is a sport that needs horses and a chariots. The one who crosses the finish line first will win. There is a choice of two horses or four horses.

EconomyThe people of ancient Rome traded with others (like

Egypt). The Romans traded goods throughout their Empire. By importing goods from other countries they raised their standard of living. The Roman trade a whole variety of materials: beef, corn,, iron, lead, leather, marble, olive oil, perfumes, purple dye, silk, silver, spices, timber, tin and wine. The main trading partners were in Spain, France, the Middle East and North Africa. The Romans made trade as easy as possible. There was only one currency used and there were no complicating customs dues.

CultureThe Culture of Rome refers to the arts, high culture, language,

religion, politics, libraries, cuisine, architecture and fashion in Rome

• Romans was one of the first civilizations that invented how to write numbers and letters. Even now, numbers gets most of its shape from roman numbers. Low class peoples already live in apartment shaped buildings and high class people lived in private houses. People also wear normal clothes (usually made out of tunic) all day long. Men wear togas on top to create a fancy look. Women will look normal. In the Imperial Age, the poorer roman houses were built out of sun dried brick. Poor people ate vegetarian

Culture• At the time of Roman civilization, it was alreables,

fish, salt, cheese, fruits, nuts, and olive oil. Meat, especially beef, was usually not eaten. Wine was often mixed with water as drinking, pure wine was thought to be barbaric.

• Poorer people in Rome have an inexpensive wine called “Acetum”. As there was no refrigerator the roman have hard time keeping fish and meat fresh, but only the wealthy (Rich) people can afford the complicated system required.