Monday, June 13, 2011

Roman Post 4



Augustus was the first emperor of Rome. His real name was Octavian but he was given the name 'Augustus' by the senate as an honour for his great achievements. He avenged the death of Caesar together with Mark Antony, before falling out with him. He defeated Mark Antony together with the famous Egyptian queen Cleopatra and thereafter, together with the senate of Rome, created a new constitution for the great empire. Augustus stood at the head of this empire as the emperor. He used his ruled wisely and built roads, aqueducts and buildings. Not only was Augustus the first, but he was most certainly one of the best emperors Rome ever had.

It has been said that the life of the first Roman emperor was really the life of two men - Octavian and Augustus. In the years when, as Octavian, he was fighting for the rule of the Roman world, he did many mean and treacherous things to bring about his ends. He thought nothing of sacrificing his friends in order to win over powerful enemies. But after Octavian became the emperor Augustus, a ruler with no serious rivals, there was a great change for the better. In general he showed a kindness and a generosity that had been almost entirely lacking in former years.

Roman Post 3

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Roman Post 2

I don't believe we should use any of the resources. I feel these online activities are hindering our ability to understand Western Civilization. In my opinion I do not feel these sites are providing a basic or advanced level of understanding of the material. With online work, students can just copy off of the internet without actually being able to grasp the true details. Technology, especially new technology, always has some sort of bugs or errors that occur. The amount of time wasted to fixing these problems take away from the possible time to learn. This is why I feel these resources should not be used.

Monday, May 16, 2011

Roman Post 1

SECTION 1
1. Censors - Officials who appointed candidates to the Senate and oversaw the moral conduct of all citizens.
2. Legionaries - Citizens who made up the major unit of the Roman army.
3. Forum - Center of all government business.
4. Republic - Government in which voters elect officials to run the state.
5. Praetors - Officials who oversaw the Roman legal system.

SECTION 2
1. Carthage, a powerful city on the north African coast, was a great commerical power that Rome feared would control the Mediterranean.
2. Historians call the conflicts between Carthage and Rome the Punic Wars
3. Spartacus , a Roman slave, led a revolt in 73 B.C. in which more than 70,000 slaves took part.
4. Trade within Rome's empire created a class of business people and landowners called equities.
5. After losing the First Punic War, Carthage was forced to give up Sicily.

SECTION 3
1. Julius Caesar - "I led my troops across the Rubicon and declared war on the Republic."
2. Triumvirate - "I am a political alliance that means "rule of three."
3. The Grachhi - "We were brothers who attempted to save the Roman Republic through reforms."
4. Five Good Emporers - "We ruled for almost a hundred years and spent much time fortifying the provinces and defending the empire against invaders."
5. Augustus - "I called myself 'first citizen' and was the first emperor of Rome."

SECTION 4
1. The Pax Romana was one of the longest periods of peace and stability the world has ever known.
2. The Code of 12 tables, or Roman laws, changed to help unify the empire.
3. Early Roman gods included, lares, or ancestral spirits, and Vesta, the spirit who guarded the fire and hearth
4.  In one type of Roman entertainment, trained fighters—often slaves—called Gladiators fought wild beasts and other men in front of huge crowds.
5. Galen wrote several medical volumes that summarized all of the medical knowledge of his day.

SECTION 5
1. The rise of Christianity and its gradual spread across the empire changed the culture of the Romans.
2. The Roman governor Pontius Pilate tried Jesus for being an enemy of the state.
3. The Council of Nicaea proclaimed the existence of the Trinity—three persons, or forms, in one God.
4. The Roman emperor Constantine declared his support for Christianity in A.D. 312.
5. In the late Roman empire, Christian church councils collected and spread Chrisitan beliefs which helped establish Christianity as a major religion and stabilized the church.

SECTION 6
1. Inflation , a rise in prices caused by a decrease in the value of money, became so severe that people stopped using money.
2. In AD 324 Constantine became the sole emperor again and built a beautiful capital city in the East.
3. The Vandals,  a Germanic tribe, proved to be a serious threat and sacked Rome around A.D. 455.
4. The Hun , nomadic people from central and southwestern Asia, posed an ever-growing threat to Rome in the late empire.
5. Growing divisions between the rich and the poor, a loss of values, and a loss of patriotism are social explanations of why the empire fell.

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

GREEK POST #5

Government
Sports
Philosophies
Mathematics + Sciences
Architectual designs

The first known democracy was created in Greece and gave political power to the citizens. This culture has continued, and the power to elect continues to be held by the people of the modern world. In terms of sports, Greece hosted the very first Olympic Games, which is still held today every four years. Many of the sports found in the modern day Olympics closely resemble those competed in at the first Olympics. Not only did the Greeks provide the Olympics but they also had a wide range of philosophies. Their philosophies and theories have helped to shape generation after generation. The Greeks also made gigantic leaps in the fields of math science, and medicine, some of their ideas still hold true today. Lastly, architectural style is a big thing that Greece gave to the modern world. Many designs based off of ancient Greek architect are still used today.

GREEK POST #4

GREEK COVER

This image would serve as a great cover for the Greek Unit because it expresses a lot of the history in one picture. The greeks were once a prosperous empire that believed in polytheism or the believe in multiple gods. The temples were large and beautiful buildings where Greeks went to pray. Religion was not seperated with culture as can be told by the picture. The building was created with hard work time and great engineering. It seems to be quite obvious that religion would have been a large part of the Greek lifestyle. This image would be a great cover for any ancient Greek history textbook.