Download The Legacy of the Roman Empire

Bell Work Questions
• 1. Was the Roman Empire peaceful, or dangerous?
• 2. How do you think they paid for their armies?
• 3. What language did they speak?
What are we doing today?
• Today we are talking about the following:
• The Legacy of The Roman Empire
• The problems in the late Empire
• We will also be doing a handout about mindset
Mindset handout
• You will have 5 minutes to complete this handout
The Legacy of the
Roman Empire
Chapter 1
All Roads Lead To Rome
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For 500 years from 27 B.C.E. TO 476 c.e. The City of Rome was
the capital of the greatest empire the world has ever seen
Road markers for thousands of miles showed the distance to
Rome
More than roads connected the empire’s 50 million people
They were connected by Roman Law, Roman Customs, and
Roman Military
At its height
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The Roman Empire spanned the whole of the Mediterranean
world, from Northern Africa to the Scottish Border, from Spain
to Syria
During these years, the empire was generally peaceful and
prosperous due to these:
1. One language spoken throughout the entire empire
2. Roman soldiers guarded the borders and kept order in the
boundaries
3. They where a very proud people
The End of the Roman Empire
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Caesar Augustus ended 100 years of civil war to start the
Roman Empire
People had no idea that 500 years later it would violently
collapse
Here are some of the reasons why:
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3.
Political instability
Economic and Social Problems
Weakening frontiers
Planner
• Monday- about Political instability, and Economic and
Social problems that led to the downfall of Rome
• Tuesday- Roman Art
• Wednesday- Roman Architecture and Engineering
• Thursday- Roman Language and Writing
• Friday- Roman Philosophy, Law, and Citizenship (getting
books from the library)
Bell work questions
• 1. What where the three reasons why Rome fell?
• 2. Who was the Roman general who officially started the
Roman Empire
• 3. What is the best way to peacefully transfer power from
one leader to the next?
The Top Three Reasons Why Rome
Fell
Political instability
Economic and Social Problems
Weakening frontiers
Political Instability
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They never solved the issue of how to peacefully transfer political
power to a new leader
When one leader died, the two parties would fight to decide who
became emperor
They never figured out a good system for transferring power,
sometimes, the emperor’s private army would select the next
emperor.
Seat Partner QuestionHow would you decide who became emperor?
Economic and social problems
• The Roman Empire faced problems other than political
instability
• These include both economic and social problems
• These included:
• Paying the armies by heavily taxing it’s citizens
• Unemployment
What life was like for the city
people
• Unemployment was a serious issue in the Roman Empire
• Wealthy families used slaves as cheap labor to work their
large estates
• When small farmers could not compete against the
wealthy, they fled the countryside to find work in the city
Other Social problems
• Social problems in the empire included:
• Growing corruption
• Decline in the spirit of citizenship
• Emperors wasting large amounts of money
• Rise in crime made the empire’s cities and roads unsafe
Weakening frontiers
• The huge size of the empire made it hard to defend
• Communication between leaders in Rome and the Generals
sometimes took weeks
• By 300 c.e., Germanic tribes were beginning to push on the
western boarders of the empire
• The people who moved into these area had very little
loyalty to the Empire
The Fall of Rome
• In 300 c.e., the Emperor Constantine moved his capital 850
miles to the east to the ancient city of Byzantium
• After his reign, the power of the emperor was divided
between two emperors
• One in Rome and one in Constantinople
Invading tribes
• In 410 c.e., one of the Germanic tribes attacked and looted
Rome
• In 476, the last emperor in the west was driven from his
throne. The western half of the empire began to dissolve
into separate kingdoms ruled by different tribes
Bell Work Questions
• 1. How did the Roman Empire transfer power from one
leader to another?
• 2. Who held most of the power in the Empire?
• 3. Why were people unhappy with the Empire?
The Legacy of Roman
Art
1..3
Roman Art
• The Romans adopted many aspects of other cultures and
blended them into their own culture. This was true Roman
Art
• They were influenced by the art of the Greeks
• Rome played a big part in passing on the Greek style of art
• They added in their own tastes and talents, but mostly,
they stole from other cultures
Patrons of Art
• Wealthy families decorated their homes with statues and
colorful murals and mosaics.
Frescos
• Roman artists where very skilled at painting Frescos
These where scenes that were painted on moist plaster of
walls or ceilings with water-based paints.
Sense of Style and Luxury
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The Roman brought a sense of style and luxury into everything
they did
This includes:
Blown glass
A bottle of wine shaped like a cluster of grapes
Gem Cutting and metalworking
Cameo which was a carved decoration that showed a portrait
or scene
Roman Art today
• Roman art has continued to influence painters and
sculptors.
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Americans imitate Roman styles to give their art dignity
and nobility
Bell work
• 1. How did Rome blend their art and culture into the
culture that they had conquered?
• 2. What are some examples of how Rome added style to
their art items?
• 3. What modern day buildings can you think of that are
similar to Roman buildings?
The Legacy of Roman
Architecture and
Engineering
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Roman Architecture
• They borrowed ideas from the Greeks and other peoples
• They learned how to use the arch, the vault, and the dome
to build huge structures
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Roman baths and other public buildings often had great
arched vaults.
The Pantheon was a temple that was famous for its
dome
Roman Architecture
• Even though they did not create concrete, they were the
first to use it for everything
• This material helped them to build bigger arches than
anyone has done before them
• They also created a new kind of stadium. A large open aired
structure that could seat thousands of people.
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They used concrete to build this massive structure and
also to build tunnels inside the colosseum
Architecture
• The Roman styled inspired architects through the centuries
including the Medieval architects who used their designs in
churches and cathedrals
Engineering
• They also changed the way that people designed other
things such as roads, bridges and aqueducts in the ancient
world
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They build over 50,000 miles of roads with layers of
stone, sand, and gravel
These techniques set the standard for road building for
2,000 years
Aqueducts
• The Romans also set new standards for building aqueducts.
• They created system for aqueducts for Roman that brought
water from 60 miles away to the homes of the city’s
wealthiest citizens, as well as to the public baths and
fountains
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They also built aqueducts in other parts of the empire as
well
The Legacy of Roman
Language and Writing
Roman Language
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After the fall of the Roman Empire, Latin continued to be
used by scholars and the Roman Catholic Church.
Church Scribes wrote in Latin to write down important
documents
• Educated nobles (the rich) learned Latin so they could
talk with other nobles in other countries
Roman Language Today
• Other European Languages came from Latin
• 1. Italian
• 2. Spanish
• 3. French
• Latin Proverbs are still in use today
• U.S. Penny
• Roman Numerals
The Legacy of Roman
Philosophy, Law and
Citizenship
Philosophy
• Roman Philosophy was called Stoicism
• They Believed that a godly intelligence ruled all of nature
• They believed that you need to live right so that it would
agree with nature
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Having good character was the most important thing in
the Roman Empire
Question
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Do you think that you have good character?
Write down 5 things that show that you have good character
1. Do you follow school rules?
2. Do you respect your teachers?
3. Do you complete your class work?
4. Are you respectful to your parents?
5. Do you turn in your work?
Law and Justice
• Roman law covered many things:
• 1. Marriage
• 2. Inheritances
• 3. Contracts
• 4. Many other parts of daily life
• Romans believed that there was a universal law of justice
based on Nature
Questions
• 1. Why do you deserve the most money
• 2. What would you do with the money?
• 3. What do you think of Izzy?
Law and Justice
• Every person had rights
• Judges tried to be fair and make right decisions
• The courts did not always treat the poor or slaves as equal
to the rich
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Emperors often made laws simply because they had the
power to do so.
Citizenship
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To be Roman