Hannibal crossing the Alps
- Greatest military achievements of ancient warfare
- 2nd punic war
- Took 16 days to cross
- He thought that it would give him a better chance against the Romans if he came down with all of his war elephants
- Wars were fought because of hatred.
Roman Trade
- Manufacturing of goods increased in the empires cities, and many opportunities for commerce existed. Rome became one of the empire's greatest commercial centers.
- Two way trade routes extended to other commercial centers in lands as far away as Egypt, Germany, and China.
- It's location around the Mediterranean Sea helped make all this commercial activity possible.
Roman Agriculture
- Used crop rotation
- Sometimes they had to import food because of mountains
- After conquering Egypt, they were able to import lots of wheat.
- Most of crops raised on large estates called latifundias
- Cicero considered farming the best of all Roman occupations
- main crop was wheat. bread was present during almost every meal
- Work was done by slaves and servants.
- Farms created main source of income for Romans
- Certain types of food were given out to the public for free (corn, wheat)
- Since Roman Empire stretched through a lot of land, there were different climates to allow for a mixture of crops produced
- Romans had 4 systems of farm management - work done by owner and family, tenant farming and share cropping forced labor (slaves), and other arrangements in which farm owner leaded farm out.
Slavery General Info
- very dependent on slaves
- foreigners and unlike most places it did not depend on race
- not uncommon for Romans to sell their children into slavery
- When freed, they could work the same jobs as the Plebeians
- Debt slavery was common.
- Slaves were forced to become gladiators
- Saturnalia - a Christmas for the slaves in which the slaves and masters switched places.
- Showed respect for slaves.
- Manual labor
- domestic services
- could be highly educated and skilled, worked as teachers and physicians
- Business - managed shops for store owners, in charge of shop keeping, lending of money and selling of merchandise
Gladiator games
- fought between an armed man and a criminal, wild animal, or another soldier
- Fought in the Coliseum in from of large crowd
- Risked lives for glory
- thumbs up means save the gladiator, thumbs down means let him die
- Order of Events
- Animal hunts
- The Bestiarii - gladiators trained to fight tigers and lions
- Criminals fought wild beasts without armor or weapons.
Emperors
- Tiberius - adopted son of Augustus possibly assassinated by Caligula. He was a cruel tyrant who put men to death upon mere suspicion
- Caligula - great nephew of Tiberius - 3 years and 10 months - assassinated in conspiracy involving senators and Praetorian guards. Very insane and once threatened to have his horse made consul. Marched a great army hundreds of miles only to have them pick up shells on a beach.
- Claudius I - nephew of Tiberius and uncle of Caligula - 13 years and 9 months - probably poisoned by his wife. He was a weak and foolish emperor who allowed the cruelest acts to be committed in his name, and then forgot them, and invited the persons to dinner whom he head just put to death
- Nero - 13 years and 8 months - stepson and adopted son of Claudius. He was a monster of vanity and cruelty; suspected of setting fire to the city and allowing more than 2/3 of it to burn up, in order that he might rebuild it finer then it had been before.
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