The Fall of Rome

Rome was the largest ancient empire, and its influence has been felt through most of history, even to this day. But Rome fell in 426 AD, leaving the Byzantine Empire. The empire of Rome ceased to exist, and, in its place, was the kingdom of Italy, ruled by one of the Gothic barbarians who sacked Rome. In this essay, I’m going to go over why Rome fell and how it did.

The first main reason Rome fell was that the barbarians attacked, and kidnapped the last emperor, and deposed him. This was the main event marked as the end of the western Roman empire, but several other events contributed. The Roman legions also could not meet the barbarians in battle because most of the army included recruited barbarians, and they were weaker against the defending barbarians. Barbarian attacks on Eastern Rome could also have been diverted to the west, making it more concentrated.

Another reason is that Rome had been almost constantly expanding, and slaves would be brought in from newly obtained territories. As the barbarians pushed in, Rome stopped expanding, which caused the inflow of slaves to cease. The citizens had been over-relying on slaves for business matters and were instead going to the gladiator games. This weakened the economy of Rome.

Rome had also been so large that Diocletian had had to split it into two halves just to make it more governable, and this failed. The two halves quarreled, and soon the east didn’t care about the west (or the other way around for that matter).

When Christianity became lawful and the state religion, that got rid of old culture, such as looking to the emperor as a god. This would have made the emperor less respected and also less relevant, as he is now nothing more than a leader. As emperors became more corrupt and weak, so did the empire, until it finally fell.

Tornadoes 🌪️

Tornadoes come from Supercell thunderstorms, really big and violent storms, when the updraft has a rotating motion. If the updraft goes down low enough, it will cause a wall cloud to form, and then a funnel cloud will come down out of it and when it touches the ground, boom, a tornado is born. Tornadoes can cause all kinds of damage, although they are mostly short lived. From picking up a house and turning it into kindling wood or picking up a boy, sending him flying for several miles, only to be found later (see the Little House on The Prairie Series. I can’t remember which book). Interestingly, if you are looking at it on a radar, a tornado might show up as a little dot of heavy precipitation, which is the radar picking up derbies. Also, as the tornado comes from an updraft and rain comes from a downdraft, there is usually not rain at the site of a tornado.

Roman Housing

Domus

The Domus was a house owned by rich Roman citizens. There was a front opening, and one could see all the way through a house to the rear garden. There would then be a shrine, and then a living room and a garden. On the sides of the house you would have private rooms, the kitchen, etc.

Villa

The Villa was a country house, usually owned by rich Roman who also owned a Domus. There was the Rustic Villa, with lots of farm work performed. There was also the normal Villa, which would usually have large gardens, maybe even with a diverted stream running through it. They would even be built in windy area’s to provide adequate airflow to the house.

Insula

The Insula was basically an apartment for poor people. The richer, middle class would live on the bottom floor with more comforts than the floors higher up. Oftentimes, each family would have one room with everything being performed in that room. There also would not be private bathrooms most of the time, and instead there would be public bathhouses nearby.

Trajan

Trajan served as a general of the Roman army under both Domitian and Nerva before he became emperor. He fought in the Dacian Wars, winning, and in the Parthian Campaign, which he lost. Trajan was born in Spain, being the first emperor born outside Rome. This pretty much meant to the rest of the empire that the wealthy class was eligible for for the office. The empire was the largest it would be, spreading from the southern borders of Scotland to Iraq and Iran. Trajan was one of the few emperors to satisfy both the senate and the army and the people. He was also one of the first rulers not to persecute the Christians. Trajan actually gave out cash during some of the festivals, and also built up more aqueducts and bridges and roads. Overall, Trajan was a good emperor, and set the standards for future emperors of Rome.

Indianapolis Climate

I live in Indianapolis, and I’m going to talk about the climate for my home city.

In the summers, you have temperatures reaching 90 degrees on a really hot day. Summer days can be humid or dry. In winter, you have mostly dry weather, and not much snow. At most, a few feet. In the spring and the fall especially, you have temperatures changing a lot. We have had snow storms in October and in April. It’s late April right now, and it’s currently 48 degrees outside. Earlier today, we had temperatures almost freezing, and a week or two ago, we were in the high 70’s! It tends to be colder in the fall months, and warmer in the spring months, but there is absolutely no guarantee that you won’t need to unplug the hose to keep it from freezing after you cool yourself off with it. The weather in Indianapolis is absolutely crazy, so be warned.

The Flavian Dynasty

After the death of Nero, the last Julio-Claudian emperor, we had the year of the four emperors. Three, short-lived emperors came before Vespasian, who started the short-lived Flavian Dynasty. He and his two sons reigned, his sons’ names being Titus and Domitian.

Vespasian was the first ruler. He had served under emperor Nero, and was in Judea when Nero died. He was performing the siege of Jerusalem when he was called back to Rome to be emperor and defeat the rival. Vespasian started work on the Coliseum (or Flavian Amphitheater), which was then finished by his son, Titus. Vespasian helped the people recover from the fire of Rome that had occurred during the end of Nero’s reign as well.

Titus pretty much finished everything his father had started. He completed the siege of Jerusalem and the Coliseum. He was a good ruler, and unfortunately had a very short reign. He started his rule at age 40, and died at 42 to a fever. He completed the rebuilding after the fire as well.

Domitian was Titus’ younger brother, and was not really expected to be emperor, so he didn’t have much of an administrative background or training. He was viewed as tyrant by the senate, and that got him assassinated. There was another small fire in Rome at this time, and Domitian helped to rebuild that area of Rome.

Hannibal: History Week 25 Review

Hannibal was a was a young man when he went to fight in Iberia (Haspaina, modern day Spain and Portugal). There, with his father, he vowed never to befriend Rome. This was after the first Punic War had ended. A while later, his father was killed in battle, and his brother was assassinated. Leaving Hannibal in charge of a group of Carthaginian forces. He was a good general, and was soon sent on a mission to pillage Rome. He took a massive army, including 37 elephants, and took this route to Italy:

This is (approximately) Hannibal’s Path from Carthage to Rome

While Hannibal was pillaging in Italy, other forces were fighting in Hispaina and Sicily (the island just southwest of the tip of the Italian Peninsula, not labeled on this map). This kept Rome distracted. Hannibal could pillage the countryside of Italy, but could not conquer any large cities. Rome, on the other hand, could defend its cities, but not beat Hannibal in the field. So it was pretty much a 17 year stalemate. Rome finally decided to sail south and attack Carthage itself, and Hannibal finally had to retreat to protect the city. This was basically the whole of the Second Punic War.

History Week 24 Review

How the Roman Army was Constructed

The army was grouped into a few levels. The first was the legion. A legion had 5000 men. Those were divided into cohorts of 500 men, so there were 10 cohorts in a legion. Then there is a century of 80-100 men. There are 5 centuries in a cohort, so 50 centuries in a legion. The century was commanded by a centurion. An aquilifer carried the sliver eagle in front of each legion.

There were also auxiliaries, which were less trained men, sometimes from a different region that Rome had conquered previously. They would run ahead of the legions and get the enemy in confusion, or they would march behind the legions and fire arrows into the enemy lines.

Each soldier carried a shield, one or two javelins, a sword, and a dagger. They wore plate or chain mail over a leather tunic, and either sandals or boots on their feet.

The Romans also had battering rams, siege towers, and catapults for demolishing structures in the way. They would use the battering rams to break down walls, while the siege towers allowed the soldiers to gain the top of the walls. The catapults would fire boulders into a wall that was in the path.

In conclusion, Rome had several strategies which made them so powerful. They had a good attack strategy, they were well armed and protected, and they had methods for demolishing enemy structures in the way.

Things I Look Forward To

I feel like I always need something to look forward to, so here are a couple of events I can look forward to.

I look forward to holidays for one thing. Especially Christmas, which takes a lot of getting-ready-for. Picking out gifts can take me from Thanksgiving to the day of, which really extends the holiday sensation.

Birthdays are another thing I look forward to. I have a fairly large family, so there is always a cousin or other relative having one. There is usually a party or a sleepover or some such event.

There are also events on a daily scale that I look forward to, such as homeschool events with other homeschoolers. There will sometimes be workshops and things like that, or we’ll go to a museum or a park or something. There are also some rare events like a wedding, but I don’t like fancy clothes and don’t exactly look forward to that aspect of it.

I also look forward to the end of the school day, the end of my grammar video, my literature class, Dad getting home from work, Spring and Summer, the pools opening, and other little things like those.

Those were some of the things I look forward to, both on a monthly basis and a daily one. Thank you for reading my essay.

P.N. (please note) that today for Grammar lesson #120, I was to write about my favorite character, but I have written about that topic TWICE, meaning that if I wrote about it AGAIN, I’d be on my FOURTH favorite character. So, between Mom and myself, we decided to write about the topic above. So, in case one needs to know what lesson this assignment is for, it is for Grammar Lesson #120, although I did not include it in the title.