Notes:
Roman Life
Hannibal crossing the Alps:
- One of the greatest military achievements of ancient warfare.
- Happened during the 2nd Punic War.
- Took 16 days to cross.
- Many of their elephants did not survive the journey.
Why did he cross the Alps?:
- He thought that it would give him a better chance against the Romans if he came down with all of his war elephants.
- The wars were fought over pure hatred by one side against the other.
Roman Trade:
- Very vital to the Roman empire.
- Most common trade items: beef, corn, glassware, iron, lead, leather, etc..
- Main trading partners: Spain, France, the Middle East, and Norh Africa.
- Made trade very simple by only using 1 form of currency.
- They used the Tiber river, Mediterranean Sea, and the Black Sea for a trading route.
- Two way trade routes extended to other commercial centers in lands as far away as Egypt, Germany, and China.
- The empire's location around the Mediterranean Sea helped make all this commercial activity possible.
Discussion: I believe it wasn't the greatest idea for Hannibal to cross the alps with elephants.
Discussion 2: I would prefer to be on land trading because I wouldn't want to get sea sick, and you are able to prevent some things.
Roman Ag:
- Used crop rotation
- Sometimes had to import food because of mountains.
- After conquering Egypt, able to import lots of wheat.
- Most crops raised on large estates called latifundias.
- Cicero considered farming the best of all Roman occupations.
- The main crop was wheat, and bread was present during almost every meal.
- Majority of work done on the farm was 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 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),
- Other arangements in which farm owners lended farm out.
Discussion: I would put more money into smaller farms because they will need it. Plus smaller farms they will handle the crops better than bigger farms where as bigger farms will just try and sell and get money.
Slavery General Info:
- Ancient Rome depended on slaves.
- Most slaves were foreigners and unlike most places it did not depend on race.
- Not uncommon for desperate Romans to sell their children into slavery.
- When freed, they could work the same jobs as the Plebeians.
- Debt slavery was common, where a person could work off a debt by becoming a slave for a certain period of time, depending on the debt.
- Some slaves were forced to become gladiators.
- Saturnalia - a Christmas for the slaves in which the slaves and masters switched places.
- During this celebratin the masters performed all the task a slave would.
- It was a way that masters would show appreciation and respect for slaves.
Slavery:
- Manual labor.
- Domestic services.
- Could be highly educated and skilled, worked as teachers an physicians.
- Slaves task include working on farms - produced food and materials the cities depended on.
- Businesses- managed shops for store owners, in charge of shop keeping, lending money, and selling of merchandise.
- Public buildings - worked on aqueduct systems, builts roads and bridges and arenas.
Discussion: I would prefer on being a small farmer that is poor. I would choose that because I really any thing that deals with AG. Also I wouldn't want to be told what to do.
Gladiator:
- The gladiator games were games fought between an armed man and a criminal, wild animal or another soldier. They were fought in the Coliseum in front of large audiences. Many of the people who fought the criminals, and wild animals risked their social standing and their lives for the glory. They had costumes and scenery which had to be put up as well.
Gladiator Games:
- Thumbs up means save the gladiator that's down and thumbs down means let him die.
- Order of Events at the Gladiator games:
- Animal hunts- they had a scene and the Emperor would use a bow from his box seat and shoot them.
- The Bestiarii - these were gladiators trained to fight tigers and lions.
- Criminals were sentenced to fight wild beasts at the games but without any skills, weapons or armor.
Discussion: I would probably rather fight in the Coliseum instead of getting killed in a dark alley. Fighting in a Coliseum you might have a chance to live.
Emperors:
- Tiberius - adopted son of Augustus - 22 years and 6 months. Possibly assasinated by Caligulia. He was a cruel tyrant who put men to death upon mere suspicions.
- Caligula - great nephew of Tiberius. 3 years and 10 months. assassinated in conspiracy involving senators and Praetorian guards.
- He was insane and once threatened to have his horse made consul, and at another time raised a great army, and marched it hundreds of miles, and then commanded the soldiers to gather the shells on the beach and carry them back to Rome.
- Claudius I - nephew of Tiberius and uncle of Caligula. 13 years and 9 months. Probably poisoned by his wife Agrippina.
- He was weak and foolish emperor who allowed the cruelest acts to be committed in his name, and then forgot them, and invited the people to dinner who he had just put to death.
- Nero - 13 years and 8 months. Step son and adopted son of Claudius. He was a monster of vanity and cruelty; he was suspected of setting fire to the city and allowing more than two-thirds of it to burn up, in order that he might rebuild it finer than it had been before.
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