roman life
hannibal crosses alps
- one of greatest military acheivements of history
- happened during 2nd punic war
- took 16 days to cross
- many of their elephants did not survive the journey
- he thought crossing alps would give him better chance against the romans
- wars were faught over pure hatred for one another
roman trade
- vital to roman empire
- common items
- beef
- corn
- glassware
- iron
- lead
- leather
- marble
- olive oil, ect.
- main trading parteners were spain, france, middle east, and north africa
- made trade simple by using 1 form of currency
- used tiber river, mediterranean sea, and black sea for trading routes
- manufacturing of goods increased in the empires cities
- two way trade routes extended to other commercial centers in lands as far as egypt and china
- empires location around mediterranean made trade possible
roman agriculture
- used crop rotation
- sometimes had to import food because of mountains
- most crops raised on large estates called latifundias
- cicero considered farming the best of all roman occupations
- main crop was wheat
- bread present at every meal
- majority of work done on farm was by slaves
- farms created main source of income for romans
- certain types of food were given out to public for free
- mixed climate in empire allowed for broad variety of crops
slavery
- rome depended heavilly on slaves
- did not depend on race
- when freed, could work same jobs as plebians
- debt slavery was common
- some slaves were forced to become gladiators
- saturnalia - a christmas for the slaves in which the slaves and the masters switched places
- masters performed all tasks the slaves would
- way for masters to show appreciation and respect for slaves
- manual labor
- domestic services
- could be highly educated and skilled, teachers and physicians
- business managers
- public buildings
gladiators
- games fought between an armed man and a criminal, wild animal, or another soldier
- fought in coliseum in front of large audiences
- many risked their lives against criminals and wild animals for the glory
- had costumes and scenery set up as well
- at end of fight, emperor would either give a thumbs up or down, up was let him live, down was death
- generally crowds decided
- first event was animal hunt, emperor would shoot animals from his seat
- second the bestarii- gladiators traied to fight tigers and lions
- third criminals were sentanced to fight wild beasts without any skills, armor, or weapons
emperors
- tiberius- son of agustus, 22 years
- possibly assasinated by caligula
- cruel tyrant who put men to death upon suspicion
- caligula- great nephew of tiberius
- 3 years and 10 months
- assasinated in conspiracy involving senators and praetorian guards
- insane and once marched an army hundreds of miles to have them pick up seashells and bring them back to rome
- claudius I
- nephew of tiberius and uncle of caligua
- 13 years
- probably poisoned by his wife
- week and foolish emperor
- allowed crulest acts to be commited in his name
- invited people to dinner who he had just put to death
- nero
- 13 years
- stepson and adopted son of claudius
- monster of vanity and cruelty
- suspected of setting fire to the city and letting it burn so he could rebuild it finer than before
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