Hannibal crossing the Alps
- One of the greatest military achievements of ancient warfare
- Happened during the 2nd Punic war
- Hannibal crossing the alps was known to be one of the major achievements of the second Punic War
- Took 16 days to cross
- Many of their elephants did not survive the journey
- 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, marble, olive oil, perfumes, purple dye, silk, silver, spices, timber, tin and wine
- Main trading partners: Spain, France the Middle East, and North 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.
- Manufacturing of goods increased in the empire's cities, and many opportunities for commerce existed. Rome became on of teh empire's greatest commercial centers
- Two-way trade routes extended to other commercial center in lands as far away as Egypt, Germany, and China
- The empire's location around the Mediterranean Sea helped make all the commercial activity possible
Ag
- Used crop rotation
- Sometimes had to import food because of mountains
- Most of crops raise on large estates called latifundias
- Main crop was wheat, and the work done by slave
- Farms created main source of income for Romans
- Certain types of food were given out to the public
- 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 far management- work done by owner and family, tenant farming and other arrangements
Slavery
- 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 force to become gladiators
- Saturmalia- a Christmas for slaves
Emperors
- Tiberius- adopted son of Augustus- 22 years and 6 months- possibly assassinated by Caligula. He was a cruel tyrant who put men to death upon mere suspicion
- Caligula- great nephew of Tiberius- 3years and 10 months- assassinated in conspiracy involving senators and Praetorian guards
- he was insane and one 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
- 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 had just had put to death
- Nero- 13 years and 8 months- stepson 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
Comments