The Roman Empire is an amazing Empire that thrive from 753 BCE, but collapsed at 476 AD.
Now when you see the city Rome in Italy, you may wonder how was Rome ever such a big area, to Northern Italy, Mesopotamia, Northern Africa, and to Great Britain? Well Rome was founded in 753 BCE by Romulus. Rome had started as a republic, where there are three types of government, all the same powerful, just like the American government today. When Julius Caesar was killed by the other people in the government, his brother's son Octavian also known as Augustus took rule and made Rome a republic, and himself emperor.
During his reign, he created an army with 150,000 Roman citizens and another on with 9,000 citizens, but this army was to protect the empire. He had also conquered more land, all the way to Gaul and Spain! Such big land was hard to rule so Augustus made provinces, and in each province, there was a governor. Augustus would go to the provinces and see if a province is doing well or not. Augustus had also rebuilt the Roman buildings from brick to marble. He had imported food to people from Africa to prevent conflicts that might threat the empire. Last of all, he had made laws more fair to those that are not citizens of Rome, and because of all these Augustus did, Rome faced 200 years of peace called the Pax Romana which means Roman Peace in Latin.
When Augustus died in AD 14, his relative known as Tiberius came to rule. Tiberius and three other emperors, Caligula, Claudius, and Nero were known as the Julio- Claudian Emperors. Tiberius and Claudius ruled well, but disappointingly, Caligula and Nero were bad rulers. When Nero's term ended a period of confusion and fighting happened, until Vespasian, Nero's proconsuls took emperor and stopped the rebellions. During Vespasian's rule he started the construction of the famous Colosseum-a very large amphitheater that still stands today.
After Vespasian came five emperors known as the Good Emperors. They are not related to Augustus nor Vespasian, they are Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, Antoninus Pius, and Marcus Aurelius. During the rule of these emperors, agriculture grew, trade increased, and the living standards rosed. Under the rule of Trajan, the Roman Empire was at its largest, and his successor, Hadrian decided to pull back the size of the empire. People in east spoke Greek, people in west spoke Latin.
Marcus Aurelius died in AD 180, and his son, Commodus was emperor. Commodus was cruel and wasted money, as fighting as a gladiator at the Colosseum. When Commodus' bodyguard killed him in AD 192, and a long period of confusion and fighting followed. After Commodus died, a group of emperors known as the Severan leaders got control of Rome. They put down revolts, protected the Empire's borders, and paid army well, but ignored the problems of crime and poverty that were happening inside the Empire.
When the last Severan emperor died, many army generals fought for reign. During this period of fighting, Rome had 22 different emperors! There were many problems in Rome, from not worshiping Roman gods, to government bribing. These problems eventually lead to inflation, where the government put less gold in coins and forced the prices of goods to rise. Soon Romans figured out this change in their currency, and soon began bartering each other. However the government was not getting any money from this inflation, they forced unloyal conquered people to fight, which soon revolted against the government.
Finally, a ruler called Diocletian, ruled the Empire. He tried to make a new set of laws, but with all of the problems going on, he failed to get his people to follow them. So he divided the empire to four provinces, but that also failed to solve the conflicts in Rome. When he died, Constantine, another ruler came and divided the Empire into halves, and the second half of Rome known as Eastern Rome had its capital named Constantinople. This action was quite wise, but still the empire had its original conflicts, and that more and more invasions were happening. After Constantine, came Theodosius the First and he was the last Emperor to rule the Eastern and Western Rome together.
The fierce Huns from the north even came in the Roman Empire and defeated the Ostrogoth, a German tribe. Soon the Vandals, another group of Germanic tribe came and burned down old records, building, and damaged properties, after they invaded the empire. The Roman civilization ended, as many historians would call it the end of the Roman Empire, is when Odoacer from a Germanic tribe overturned the last Western Roman emperor, 14 years old, Romulus Augustulus. However, Eastern Roman Empire-known as the Byzantine Empire continued to thrive for another 1,000 years in advance.
The Roman Empire had fell down, but a lot of what they did now influenced us today. For example Latin-the common language spoke in Rome makes up a lot of the languages today, and that all living things have their own Latin names too! Another influence that Rome left for us today is the government, they believed that the best of a republic was that it was consisted its own citizens, and that in court, a person that is accused is innocent until proven guilty by someone. Architecture of colonnades, domes, arches, and concrete were left for architectures today. Even though the Roman Empire had suffered a lot, it had left a lot of awesome setups for the people today.
Now when you see the city Rome in Italy, you may wonder how was Rome ever such a big area, to Northern Italy, Mesopotamia, Northern Africa, and to Great Britain? Well Rome was founded in 753 BCE by Romulus. Rome had started as a republic, where there are three types of government, all the same powerful, just like the American government today. When Julius Caesar was killed by the other people in the government, his brother's son Octavian also known as Augustus took rule and made Rome a republic, and himself emperor.
During his reign, he created an army with 150,000 Roman citizens and another on with 9,000 citizens, but this army was to protect the empire. He had also conquered more land, all the way to Gaul and Spain! Such big land was hard to rule so Augustus made provinces, and in each province, there was a governor. Augustus would go to the provinces and see if a province is doing well or not. Augustus had also rebuilt the Roman buildings from brick to marble. He had imported food to people from Africa to prevent conflicts that might threat the empire. Last of all, he had made laws more fair to those that are not citizens of Rome, and because of all these Augustus did, Rome faced 200 years of peace called the Pax Romana which means Roman Peace in Latin.
When Augustus died in AD 14, his relative known as Tiberius came to rule. Tiberius and three other emperors, Caligula, Claudius, and Nero were known as the Julio- Claudian Emperors. Tiberius and Claudius ruled well, but disappointingly, Caligula and Nero were bad rulers. When Nero's term ended a period of confusion and fighting happened, until Vespasian, Nero's proconsuls took emperor and stopped the rebellions. During Vespasian's rule he started the construction of the famous Colosseum-a very large amphitheater that still stands today.
After Vespasian came five emperors known as the Good Emperors. They are not related to Augustus nor Vespasian, they are Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, Antoninus Pius, and Marcus Aurelius. During the rule of these emperors, agriculture grew, trade increased, and the living standards rosed. Under the rule of Trajan, the Roman Empire was at its largest, and his successor, Hadrian decided to pull back the size of the empire. People in east spoke Greek, people in west spoke Latin.
Marcus Aurelius died in AD 180, and his son, Commodus was emperor. Commodus was cruel and wasted money, as fighting as a gladiator at the Colosseum. When Commodus' bodyguard killed him in AD 192, and a long period of confusion and fighting followed. After Commodus died, a group of emperors known as the Severan leaders got control of Rome. They put down revolts, protected the Empire's borders, and paid army well, but ignored the problems of crime and poverty that were happening inside the Empire.
When the last Severan emperor died, many army generals fought for reign. During this period of fighting, Rome had 22 different emperors! There were many problems in Rome, from not worshiping Roman gods, to government bribing. These problems eventually lead to inflation, where the government put less gold in coins and forced the prices of goods to rise. Soon Romans figured out this change in their currency, and soon began bartering each other. However the government was not getting any money from this inflation, they forced unloyal conquered people to fight, which soon revolted against the government.
Finally, a ruler called Diocletian, ruled the Empire. He tried to make a new set of laws, but with all of the problems going on, he failed to get his people to follow them. So he divided the empire to four provinces, but that also failed to solve the conflicts in Rome. When he died, Constantine, another ruler came and divided the Empire into halves, and the second half of Rome known as Eastern Rome had its capital named Constantinople. This action was quite wise, but still the empire had its original conflicts, and that more and more invasions were happening. After Constantine, came Theodosius the First and he was the last Emperor to rule the Eastern and Western Rome together.
The fierce Huns from the north even came in the Roman Empire and defeated the Ostrogoth, a German tribe. Soon the Vandals, another group of Germanic tribe came and burned down old records, building, and damaged properties, after they invaded the empire. The Roman civilization ended, as many historians would call it the end of the Roman Empire, is when Odoacer from a Germanic tribe overturned the last Western Roman emperor, 14 years old, Romulus Augustulus. However, Eastern Roman Empire-known as the Byzantine Empire continued to thrive for another 1,000 years in advance.
The Roman Empire had fell down, but a lot of what they did now influenced us today. For example Latin-the common language spoke in Rome makes up a lot of the languages today, and that all living things have their own Latin names too! Another influence that Rome left for us today is the government, they believed that the best of a republic was that it was consisted its own citizens, and that in court, a person that is accused is innocent until proven guilty by someone. Architecture of colonnades, domes, arches, and concrete were left for architectures today. Even though the Roman Empire had suffered a lot, it had left a lot of awesome setups for the people today.
Greece was the first republic.
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