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16 Ancient Rome Activities for Middle School

Ancient rome activities, ancient rome lesson plan .

If you are an Ancient Civilizations teacher and need some ideas for Ancient Rome Activities, you are in the right place! We’ve compiled our top free and paid resources to help you have a successful Ancient Rome unit. We want to help you succeed, whether you use these as an outline or to help supplement your existing unit! All links and resources below are what we personally use in our Ancient Rome unit.

Ancient Rome Activities for Middle School

Ancient rome introductory vocabulary activities.

As with all of our Ancient Civilizations, we love to start the unit with foundational vocabulary skills. With that, one of our favorite ways to do this is through our Google Drive Vocabulary Activities . There are 8 different Ancient Rome vocabulary activities included, and they’re an easy thing to incorporate throughout your unit. They are perfect for when you’ve got extra time left in class, introducing a new topic, or as warm-up activities.

Ancient Rome Word Wall

We always find that word walls are a great tool in addition to our vocabulary activities. Our resource includes 24 Ancient Rome vocabulary words ready to print and display on your bulletin board. And because images are included on every card, they’re also helpful for your visual learners!

Never used an ancient civilization word wall before? This blog post will teach you how to set up, organize, and use them effectively in your classroom!

Ancient Rome Unit Introduction

One thing we try to do is make our lessons relevant to students, so connecting present-day Italy to Ancient Rome is something we find important. To do that, we take a more modern approach to our unit and have students complete this unit introduction activity . Students research key details about modern Italy, and when we shift back to ancient times, that prior knowledge makes it easier.

Ancient Rome Slideshow + Note Sheet

We find it helpful to share background information at the start of the unit, so students can make connections during other activities. With this Ancient Rome Slideshow for Google Slides , teach your students about the GRAPES of Ancient Rome! This 59-slide Google Slideshow provides a detailed overview of Ancient Rome, including the Roman Republic, Roman mythology, the rise of Christianity, and much more! This no-prep resource also includes both printable and digital note sheets!

Ancient Rome Bell Ringers

If you’re looking to improve your classroom management and help students review material, these bell ringers are perfect! This set includes 20 Ancient Rome Bell Ringers for Google Drive that are 100% editable and ready to use. These warm-up prompts cover a variety of topics that come up in an Ancient Rome unit while also building helpful skills! Topics covered in this resource include patricians and plebeians, the Roman Republic, Augustus, the Roman Empire, the rise of Christianity, the fall of Rome, and more!

Ancient Rome Google Earth Field Trip

When it comes to geography, we’ve created a Google Earth Field Trip around Ancient Rome. Our students have loved using Google Earth in the past, and it really brings these locations to life. They get to visit different key sites of the Roman Empire and gain a better understanding of the geography. We’ve also included a puzzle element so students really retain what they’re learning.

What Did Ancient Rome Look Like?

We’ve discovered this really interesting animated YouTube video by New Historia that brings Ancient Rome to life. Overall it’s very well-made, and the 3D animations help students visualize Ancient Rome architecture and some geography. The same group also has similar videos for Ancient Greece and Egypt if that’s something you would be interested in.

Ancient Rome Timeline

If you’re looking to make your Ancient Rome Unit more hands-on and engaging, this printable Ancient Rome Timeline is the resource you need! In this interactive timeline project, students construct a timeline that features reading passages, maps, and images. The information included in these features covers the Roman Kingdom, Early Roman Republic, Late Roman Republic, Early Roman Empire (Pax Romana), and the Late Roman Empire. Not only will this activity give students the chance to physically build a timeline, but it will also become a learning tool that they can refer back to throughout the unit!

Ancient Rome Reader’s Theater

Rome’s society went through numerous changes throughout its history, and because of that we created something we hope would do it justice. We designed this Ancient Rome Reader’s Theater to help our students better understand the evolution of Ancient Rome. It covers the complete history of Rome in an engaging and humorous 19-page script and even includes a timeline activity. It includes topics such as the legend of Romulus and Remus, branches of government, the fall of Rome, and more.

The Legacy of Ancient Rome Google Slideshow and Activity

The one section we did not include in our Reader’s Theater was the Legacy of Ancient Rome. This slideshow and activity covers specifically the 12 different inventions that have influenced modern times. The activity has students analyze and make connections between Ancient Rome and modern society through those inventions. We like using this resource as it helps students recognize how our lives are still affected by the actions of the Romans today.

Roman Empire Archaeological Simulation

This no-prep, game-based Roman Empire Archaeological Simulation will be a highlight in your Ancient Rome unit! In this Roman Empire activity with printable and digital options, students will take on the role of archaeologists to look for artifacts in different locations from throughout the Roman Empire. This simulation features eight different rounds of competition, and in each round, students must make decisions about a certain topic or roll the dice to see what they might experience as an archaeologist who is investigating artifacts from the Roman Empire!

How Democratic Was the Roman Republic?

Another of our favorite free resources come from SHEG, as all of their resources are really high-quality. They have a very interesting resource that examines how democratic the Roman Republic was. It’s also a great resource to compare the Ancient Roman government to the US government today.

Roman Republic Government Slideshow + Activity

Are you looking for a thorough and organized resource and activity to help your students understand the three branches of government of the Roman Republic? Then this is the resource for you ! Cover key details about the Roman Republic with an editable Google Slideshow and assess your students with a printable and digital activity!

Ancient Rome Job Fair

We’ve found a way to combine teaching about the key people of the Roman Empire with job skills using our Ancient Civilizations Job Fair Activity !  For this specific unit, we include sample resumes for Cicero, Julius Caesar, Augustus, and Constantine. Students analyze each resume to decide who they would like to hire for various jobs. We love this activity as students are also able to gain some job experiences they wouldn’t normally get otherwise.

Ancient Rome Leaders Historical Baseball Cards

If you’re looking for more of a research activity or project, you might enjoy our Historical Baseball Cards Project . Students have a wider variety of Roman leaders to choose from, and it’s something they can work on independently. For each card, students include the leader’s name, an image, the dates that they ruled, their job title, three major accomplishments, and their legacy. Once students have completed their cards, you can even turn them into puzzle or guessing game if you wanted.

TED-Ed Colosseum Video

An Ancient Rome unit isn’t complete without discussing the Colosseum, as it’s one of the most iconic places in Rome. We’ve found a really cool TED-Ed video on the subject. It addresses how the Romans were able to have “sea” battles in the Colosseum, but also gives good background knowledge for students.

Colosseum Reading Passage and Graphic Organizer

We’ve come up with this reading passage and graphic organizer activity about the history and construction of the Colosseum. It helps students understand the specifics of the Colosseum and that what we know today is only a fraction of what it was. The organizer is actually in the shape of the Colosseum, and the activity is available with printable and digital options!

Pompeii Station Activity

Pompeii is such a fascinating topic for us that we created a Pompeii Stations Activity . It covers the history of Pompeii, geography, Mount Vesuvius, primary sources, and Pompeii’s future. The resource also includes some discussion questions that connect Pompeii to modern times. And with the activity having both printable and digital options, you have a few different ways to present it.

The Roman Empire and Christianity

While we do find this topic important, we don’t have much expertise or experience with it ourselves. However, we have found an excellent resource from SHEG on the subject. It discusses why the Romans were persecuting Christians at the time, so this could be a helpful option if you’re looking.

Ancient Rome Test

Save yourself time at the end of your Ancient Rome Unit with this Ancient Rome Test and Study Guide ! This ready-made test has printable and digital options, and all text is 100% editable. Each version includes 2 different testing options for Google Docs and Google Forms, so you have the flexibility to use whichever version works best for you! To help your students prepare for the test, this resource also includes an editable Ancient Rome Study Guide for Google Docs!

Ancient Rome Agenda Slides

Need a way to stay more organized during your Ancient Rome Unit? These Ancient Rome Daily Agenda Slides Templates will help you save time and better immerse your students in the unit! These slides for Google Drive are editable and each template features a photograph of Ancient Rome in the background, as well as Ancient Rome clipart. They can be used to share your daily agenda, bell ringers, and more!

Ancient Rome Bulletin Board Kit

Connect your bulletin boards to your course content in just five minutes with this effortless, ready-to-print Ancient Rome Bulletin Board Kit ! With this bulletin board kit, students have the opportunity to view artifacts used by those living in Rome thousands of years ago! If you want to incorporate more primary sources into your classroom but don’t know where to start, this is an easy way! The 25 artifact posters include the titles of the artifacts, when they were created or used, where they were found, and where they’re currently located.

Ancient Rome Bookmarks

These printable Ancient Rome Bookmarks are a fun addition to your Ancient Rome unit! This set includes four different designs that feature images and clipart that are related to Ancient Rome. The bookmarks are 100% black and white so that students can color in the images or personalize them as they wish! These coloring bookmarks make a great prize, short early finisher activity, or can even help students save time when using their textbooks!

Ancient Rome Early Finisher Activity

A final easy, no-prep activity is one of our Early Finisher activities for Ancient Rome. It includes two different activities, one that focuses on Roman Numerals, and the other reviews vocabulary. This activity sheet is an additional worksheet to have on hand in emergencies or students need something extra to work on.

Teaching Ancient Rome

When teaching any ancient civilization, it’s always important to have activities that make the content fun and engaging for students. If you liked any of our Ancient Rome activities, you’ll love our Ancient Rome Unit Bundle ! This bundle contains 13 resources and is a great way to supplement your textbook or curriculum materials about Ancient Rome! We’ve had great success with these resources, and our students had a blast!

As of 2024, we now have all of our Ancient Civilizations unit bundles available on our own website, which you can check out here. We believe the organization to be even better than how you can receive the files on TPT, and it also helps if your school district blocks Google Drive files from TPT!

Looking for ideas and inspiration when planning your Mesopotamia unit? If so, this  free Ancient Rome resource guide   can help! It showcases each of our Mesopotamia resources to help you decide which options will be best for your students. For more details about how we put fit these resources together and how long we spend on each activity, you can also download our  free Ancient Rome unit plan !

If you liked this list of 16 Ancient Rome Activities for Middle School, consider watching the corresponding video here.

Are you looking for some new teaching ideas to engage your students in your social studies class? If so, you’ll love our FREE guide: 5 Creative Projects to Ignite Student Engagement in Your Social Studies Class . These activities have both printable and digital options and can work for any social studies subject!

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World history

Course: world history   >   unit 2.

• Rise of Julius Caesar
• Caesar, Cleopatra and the Ides of March
• Ides of March spark a civil war
• Augustus and the Roman Empire

The Roman Empire

• Roman empire
• State building: Roman empire
• Ancient Rome
• The Roman Empire began in 27 BCE when Augustus became the sole ruler of Rome.
• Augustus and his successors tried to maintain the imagery and language of the Roman Republic to justify and preserve their personal power.
• Beginning with Augustus, emperors built far more monumental structures, which transformed the city of Rome.

Augustus and the empire

Imperial institutions, infrastructure, monumental building, foreign policy, want to join the conversation.

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40 maps that explain the Roman Empire

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Two thousand years ago, on August 19, 14 AD, Caesar Augustus died. He was Rome’s first emperor, having won a civil war more than 40 years earlier that transformed the dysfunctional Roman Republic into an empire. Under Augustus and his successors, the empire experienced 200 years of relative peace and prosperity. Here are 40 maps that explain the Roman Empire — its rise and fall, its culture and economy, and how it laid the foundations of the modern world.

1) The rise and fall of Rome

In 500 BC, Rome was a minor city-state on the Italian peninsula. By 200 BC, the Roman Republic had conquered Italy, and over the following two centuries it conquered Greece and Spain, the North African coast, much of the Middle East, modern-day France, and even the remote island of Britain. In 27 BC, the republic became an empire, which endured for another 400 years. Finally, the costs of holding such a vast area together become too great. Rome gradually split into Eastern and Western halves, and by 476 AD the Western half of the empire had been destroyed by invasions from Germanic tribes. The Eastern half of the empire, based in Constantinople, continued for many centuries after that.

2) The Roman Empire was vast

At its height around 100 AD, the Roman Empire stretched from Britain in the Northwest to Egypt in the Southeast. To get a sense for how big that is, it’s helpful to compare it to the contemporary United States. The Roman provinces of Britain and Egypt were about as far apart as the American states of Florida and Washington. One obvious difference is that the Roman Empire had the Mediterranean in the middle of it, which helped move people and supplies over vast distances. Still, it’s remarkable that emperors operating many centuries before the railroad and the telegraph — to say nothing of airplanes and the internet — were able to hold together such a vast domain for so long.

3) Traveling around the empire was excruciatingly slow

This map provides some perspective on just how big Roman territory was relative to the transportation technologies of the day. Created by researchers at Stanford , it estimates how long it took for someone leaving Rome to reach various locations around the empire. The Mediterranean was a big help in getting around — most coastal locations in the western Mediterranean could be reached in under a week, and even far-flung coastal cities like Alexandria and Jerusalem could be reached in two weeks. But traveling to the interior was more difficult. Reaching the most distant points in the empire, such as Britain, could take close to a month. And of course, going from one end of the empire to the other could take even longer. The researchers estimate that it took seven weeks to travel from Constantinople (at the eastern end of the empire) to London (in the far west).

4) The provinces of Rome in 117

The Roman Empire reached its greatest size under the reign of Trajan in 117 AD. To aid in administration, it was divided into provinces. The number of provinces changed over time as territories were gained or lost, and as larger provinces were divided into smaller ones. There were 46 provinces under Trajan, a figure that would grow to 96 by the reign of Diocletian (285–305). In Trajan’s time, provinces in the interior of the country were run by governors chosen by the Senate, a legislative body run by leading aristocrats. In contrast, border provinces were run by governors named directly by the emperor. This was a security measure. Border provinces needed armies to defend against invasion, and emperors worried that if these troops were put under the control of someone not personally loyal to the emperor, that person could try to seize power and proclaim himself emperor. This wasn’t an idle concern — coups and civil wars were a recurrent problem for the empire.

The rise of Rome

5) italy before roman conquest.

In its early years, the Romans shared Italy with several other peoples. The dominant power in the neighborhood of Rome was the Etruscans. We don’t know very much about these people, in part because we haven’t figured out how to read their distinctive language. But the evidence suggests that Rome was ruled by Etruscan kings until the Romans revolted and established a republic — an event that is traditionally dated to 509 BC. East of Rome were other tribes speaking languages related to the Romans’ native Latin. And by 400 BC, the prosperous and technologically sophisticated Greeks had established colonies at Italy’s southern tip.

6) Rome conquers Italy

Rome went from being one of many city-states in 340 BC to being master of the entire peninsula by 264. The conquest occurred in three phases. In 340, Rome came into conflict with its former allies, the neighboring Latins , and subdued them by 338. Beginning in 326, Rome fought the Samnites to the East, a conflict that would continue sporadically until Roman victory in 282. Rome also fought sporadic battles with Etruscans and Gauls to its North during this period. Rome then turned its attention to the Greeks in the south of Italy, fighting a war with the Greek king Pyrrhus . Pyrrhus won two major battles against the Romans in 280 and 279 , respectively. But he took such heavy casualties in those battles that he would eventually lose the war — giving rise to the term “Pyrrhic victory.”

7) The first war with Carthage

Firm control over Italy made Rome one of the Mediterranean’s major powers. The Romans began to come into conflict with another rising power located just across the water: Carthage. Located in North Africa near modern-day Tunis, Carthage was the capital of a seafaring empire, shown here in red, that dominated commerce in the Western Mediterranean. Rome fought three conflicts with Carthage, known as the Punic Wars, between 264 and 146 BC. The first conflict occurred after Carthage intervened in a dispute on the island of Sicily, just off the southern tip of Italy. While Sicily wasn’t Roman territory at the time, the Romans felt this was a little too close to home. They sent an army to expel the Carthaginian troops. The result was the First Punic War, which lasted for more than 20 years. This map shows the situation after the war: Rome gained control of the islands of Sicily, Corsica, and Sardinia, making it a significant naval power for the first time. (Click the image to see the full map.)

8) Hannibal attacks Rome with elephants

One of the greatest military minds of the ancient world was Hannibal . A Carthaginian born during the First Punic War, he bore a lifelong grudge against Rome. In 218 BC, he led an army — including, famously, a few dozen elephants — from Carthaginian-controlled Spain across the Alps to northern Italy, starting the second war between Rome and Carthage. Hannibal believed Italians were chafing under the Roman yoke; he hoped his arrival would trigger a broad rebellion that would break Rome’s control of Italy. Hannibal enjoyed an unbroken string of victories on the battlefield, including the total destruction of a Roman army at Cannae in 216. And after Cannae, a few Italian cities did revolt. But Hannibal didn’t attract enough Italian allies to bring about Rome’s defeat. The Romans were able to raise a new army to replace the one Hannibal had destroyed, and Hannibal’s army wasn’t powerful enough to capture Rome. So Hannibal spent 15 years skirmishing inconclusively with the Romans. Finally, Hannibal was called home to deal with a Roman counterattack on Carthage. He lost at the Battle of Zama in 202. Rome imposed harsh terms, seizing Carthage’s overseas possessions and dismantling Carthage’s navy. Then in 149 the paranoid Romans provoked a Third Punic War against the helpless Carthaginians that led to the total destruction of their civilization.

Rome’s military

9) rome’s powerful maniple formation.

In the early years of the republic, the Roman infantry used a version of the Greek phalanx . In this formation, soldiers stand shoulder to shoulder in a tightly packed formation that can be more than a dozen soldiers deep. Soldiers in the front were protected by a wall of large shields, and they tried to reach around their shields with long spears to stab the enemy. While this formation worked well on level ground, the Romans found it was too brittle for the hilly terrain where they did much of their fighting. It became extremely vulnerable if a gap opened up in the ranks. To address this weakness, the Romans developed the maniple formation illustrated here, sometimes described as a “phalanx with joints.” Instead of a single line of men, the Romans divided their infantry into groups of about 120 men, each of which could maneuver independently, and arranged them in a checkerboard pattern. Maniples behind the front line can step into any gaps that open up in the front line. The Romans put their least experienced soldiers in the front line (the bottom in this picture), in hopes that the enemy would waste energy fighting them, making them too exhausted to put up a fight when they reached more experienced (and better-armed) soldiers further back.

10) The changing culture of the Roman army

Between 200 BC and 14 AD, Rome conquered most of Western Europe, Greece and the Balkans, the Middle East, and North Africa. One result was profound changes to Rome’s military. Previously, military service had been limited to Romans with property holdings, who would serve for a few seasons and then return to their farms. But in 107 BC, to cope with growing demands for military manpower, the Roman commander Marius opened the army to landless peasants and extended the length of military service. Over the next century, the Roman army was transformed into a full-time, professional fighting force. Marius also reorganized the Romans’ fighting formations, moving away from staggered maniples in favor of 10 larger formations called cohorts. Fighting effectively in this formation required greater skill, but the professionalized Roman legions had time to learn the necessary maneuvers.

11) How Augustus tamed the Roman legions

After the Marian reforms, Roman generals had to promise rewards — either booty captured abroad or land awarded to them on their return — to attract soldiers to their banners. Because commanders were responsible for making sure these promises were kept, the troops increasingly felt personal loyalty to these generals rather than abstract loyalty to the Roman state. As a result, in the late Republican period (107 BC to 27 BC), it became increasingly common for victorious commanders to march their armies back into Rome and seize power to ensure their troops received the land they had been promised. This led to recurrent civil wars, eventually transforming Rome from a moderately democratic republic into an autocratic empire. This map depicts the deployment of Rome’s legions when Rome’s first emperor, Augustus, died in 14 AD. Augustus and his successors distributed the Roman army along the frontier, ensuring that no single general had command of more than a small fraction of Rome’s troops at any one time. And emperors reduced the soldiers’ dependence on their commanders by paying them salaries from the imperial treasury. (Click the image to see the full map.)

12) A Roman warship

Rome wasn’t initially a major naval power, but when the Romans came into conflict with the Carthaginians, they realized they needed to play catch-up. They immediately built 20 triremes — so named because it had 3 banks of oars — and 100 quinqueremes — heavier ships with five rowers for each bank of oars. Beginning with the triumph over the Carthaginians in 201, Rome began to demand that defeated foes give up their naval forces, giving Rome undisputed mastery over the Mediterranean. For the first two centuries of the imperial era (beginning in 27 BC), Rome controlled the Mediterranean so completely that it wiped out piracy and didn’t have to fight any major naval battles.

The republic becomes an empire

13) julius caesar conquers gaul.

In 58 BC, Julius Caesar took command of Rome’s northern frontier and set out to conquer Gaul, which corresponds roughly to modern-day France. He was following in the footsteps of other ambitious Roman politicians who had led foreign conquests as a way to bolster their reputation at home. This map shows Caesar’s exploits, which took almost a decade and brought him to almost every part of modern-day France. Caesar wrote an account of this campaign that, remarkably, still survives today . While he was on campaign, Caesar’s enemies gained the upper hand in Rome and declared martial law. If Caesar had returned to Rome as a private citizen — without his army for backup — he would have faced trial for alleged misdeeds prior to his departure (the charges had some merit, but he was far from the first Roman politician to bend the rules). But Roman law forbade a general on campaign to enter Italy at the head of an army. In 49 BC, Caesar took the fateful step of crossing the Rubicon, the river that marked the northern border of Italy, with his army. That triggered the civil war that would destroy the Roman Republic. (Click the image to see the full map.)

14) Caesar wins the civil war

The forces opposing Caesar in the civil war were led by Pompey, a former political ally of Caesar who had once enjoyed a string of military victories in the East. This map shows Caesar’s movements as he defeated Pompey and then dealt with Pompey’s allies. Pompey initially fled to the east; Caesar consolidated control of Spain and Italy before following him. The decisive battle came on August 10, 48 BC, when Caesar defeated Pompey at the Battle of Parsalus , in the north of modern-day Greece. Pompey fled to Egypt, but officials there betrayed him and sent Caesar his head. At this point, Caesar’s rule over Rome was a foregone conclusion, but it took him another three years to mop up resistance from Pompeian forces. He returned to Rome for the final time in 45 BC. (Click the image to see the full map.)

15) Julius Caesar is assassinated

Julius Caesar wasn’t the first Roman military commander to march on the capital and take it by force, but he was the first one who didn’t even pretend that he was preserving the constitutional structure of the old republic. He had himself declared dictator for life and flirted with kingship. This ran afoul of a deep taboo in Roman culture. After all, Rome’s founding legend was about the citizens of Rome rising up to depose a despotic king. So on March 15, 44 BC, in perhaps the most famous murder in world history, a group of disgruntled senators surrounded Caesar and stabbed him to death. Brutus, one of the assassins, supposedly shouted “sic semper tyrannis” — “thus always to tyrants” — as he delivered the fatal blow, though this is probably apocryphal. Unfortunately, while the conspirators saw themselves as defenders of Rome’s republican system of government, they didn’t actually have a plan for bringing back the republic. Instead, Caesar’s death plunged the Roman world into yet another civil war.

16) The Battle of Actium makes Augustus Rome’s first emperor

Julius Caesar’s death would lead to a war between the two men who had the strongest claims to be Caesar’s heir. One was Caesar’s longtime deputy, Marc Antony. The other was Caesar’s teenage grand-nephew, Octavian, whom Caesar adopted posthumously in his will. Antony and Octavian initially fought side by side to avenge the death of Julius Caesar. But after Antony went east and became romantically involved with the Egyptian queen Cleopatra, he and Octavian had a falling-out, leading to war. This map shows the war’s decisive battle, the Battle of Actium , in 31 BC. Antony and Cleopatra tried to flee from Octavian’s advancing army by sea, but he was intercepted by a navy commanded by Octavian’s deputy, Agrippa. Octavian’s ships won the battle, and although Antony and Cleopatra escaped, they no longer had enough forces to pose a serious threat to Octavian. Antony and Cleopatra died a year later, leaving Octavian the sole ruler of the Roman world. Octavian changed his name to Augustus in 27; historians treat this as the year when the Roman Republic became the Roman Empire.

The lost city of Pompeii

17) the eruption of mount vesuvius.

One of our richest sources of information about ancient Rome comes from the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD. It destroyed several Roman towns, most notably Pompeii and Herculaneum. The existence of these towns was forgotten for many centuries, but the thick layer of ash deposited by the eruption preserved them for modern archeologists. This has given us information about daily life in a Roman town that would have been difficult to obtain from other sources. Inscriptions, graffiti, and frescoes provide insight into how various buildings were used and what people did in the town. Interestingly, we have a contemporaneous account of Vesuvius’s eruption from the Roman author Pliny the Younger, who witnessed the eruption firsthand, and whose uncle perished trying to rescue victims.

18) The excavation of Pompeii

The site of Pompeii was first rediscovered in 1599, but only a few artifacts were uncovered before interest in the site waned. Excavation began in earnest after the site was discovered a second time in 1748, and has continued to the present day. This map shows archaeologists’ progress. Some areas of the town have yet to be explored due to restrictions imposed by the authorities. In addition to archaeological teams, the site is visited by millions of tourists each year.

19) The erotic artwork of Pompeii

There is a surprising amount of erotic artwork on the walls of Pompeiian buildings, like this painting from a bedroom in the home of a wealthy Roman aristocrat. Similar artwork was found in buildings that archeologists believe were brothels. Prostitution in the Roman empire was legal and widespread. Paintings in Pompeii suggest that Romans enjoyed lively and varied sex lives, with illustrations of cunnilingus and sex with multiple partners . Sex was a topic of political controversy in ancient times just as it is today, with the Emperor Augustus trying — without much success — to crack down on adultery .

20) Pompeii’s oldest public bath

Baths were an important part of Roman society, and all major towns and cities had at least one. Pompeii had three public baths, of which the Stabian bath, depicted here, was the oldest. Men and women bathed separately. In large facilities like this one, there were separate sections for men and women. In smaller facilities, men and women would use the same facilities at different times. The Roman baths included a number of facilities that would be familiar at a modern spa: changing rooms, pools with different water temperatures, and saunas. There was also an exercise yard where men (but only men) could play sports. Roman baths were communal spaces; Romans would talk business and share gossip as they washed themselves. Roman aristocrats would sometimes try to win favor with the masses by building more elaborate baths, and baths became larger and more elaborate as Rome became a wealthier and more sophisticated society.

21) Pagan temples in Pompeii

For most of its history, Rome was a pagan society. Romans worshiped a pantheon of Roman and Greek deities, including Jupiter, Apollo, and Venus. From the early days of the republic, the Romans built temples and made sacrifices to the gods, and would consult religious leaders to determine which days were auspicious ones for a wedding, military offensive, or other major undertaking. This map shows the temples in Pompeii. Notice that in addition to temples to traditional pagan gods, the map shows a Temple of Vespasian. This is an unfinished structure that some historians speculate was intended to honor the emperor who was in power at the time Mount Vesuvius erupted, destroying the city. Religion and state were closely intertwined in Roman society, and subjects were encouraged to think of their rulers as semi-divine figures.

The culture of Rome

22) the journey of aeneas.

Virgil, who lived from 70 BC to 19 BC, was one of ancient Rome’s greatest poets. And his epic poem The Aeneid became one of the most important works of Roman literature. It focuses on Aeneas, a Trojan who played a minor role in the Greek poem The Iliad . After the fall of Troy, Aeneas leads a group of surviving Trojans around the Mediterranean looking for a new home. This map shows Aeneas’s journey, with stops in Greece, Sicily, and Carthage before he finally made his way to the Italian peninsula. There, Aeneas fought a successful war with the area’s native Latins. This story, written early in the reign of Rome’s first emperor, Augustus, became one of Rome’s most important founding myths. And it continues to influence Western culture. For example, near the beginning of The Aeneid is the story of the Trojan horse, a subterfuge the Greeks used to take over Troy.

23) Ancient Rome was a slave society

Slavery was deeply woven into the fabric of Roman society. There are several ways that people in Roman society could fall into slavery. When the Romans prevailed on the battlefield, they would often take their defeated enemies captive and sell them into slavery. People could also become slaves due to failure to pay debts or as a punishment for crime. Roman slavery differed from American slavery in some important respects. Roman slaves could be of any race. And while American slaves generally performed manual labor, Roman slaves could sometimes be highly skilled. Educated slaves captured from the Greek world were highly sought after for tutoring children and performing clerical work. Of course, many slaves resented their subservient status, and some revolted. This map shows a portion of the most famous slave revolt in Roman history, in which the gladiator Spartacus led an army that eventually grew to 120,000 freed slaves. When the rebellion was finally crushed, 6,000 surviving slaves were crucified along the Appian Way, a major road leading into Rome.

24) Herod the Great, king of the Jews and Roman client

As Rome expanded, the traditional homeland of the Jewish people at the eastern end of the Mediterranean came under Roman control. Roman troops first invaded the area under Pompey in 63 BC, and after 40 BC it was ruled as a Roman client state (shown here in green) by King Herod. Not long after Herod died, the Romans created the province of Judea, which was under Roman control for centuries thereafter. The Jews had an uneasy place in the Roman Empire. Romans were suspicious of people who insisted on practicing minority religions, and between 63 AD and 135 AD Jews staged three major revolts against Roman authority. The third rebellion led to a brutal crackdown by Emperor Hadrian. One ancient historian estimates that the Romans killed 580,000 Jews to put down the rebellion, and many more were sold into slavery.

25) Christianity spreads throughout the empire

Jesus Christ’s birthplace in Bethlehem became part of the Roman province of Judea during Christ’s lifetime. As a result, Christianity emerged there and spread during the early Roman Empire, one of the most peaceful and prosperous eras of the ancient world. The early Christians, like the Jews, faced suspicion from Roman officials. The biggest problem was that, as the late historian Chester Starr put it , Christians were expected to “sacrifice to the emperor or to the gods for the emperor. To the Christian, this act was one of pagan worship; to the imperial bureaucrat, simply a profession of patriotism toward the figure who embodied the state.” So Christians faced persecution, off and on, from the reign of Emperor Nero in 64 AD until 313 AD. But as this map makes clear, persecution didn’t stop the spread of Christianity.

Roman Britain and the Roman economy

26) roman conquest of britain.

Throughout the classical period, Britain was at the fringes of civilization. Caesar invaded in 55 BC, but didn’t establish a permanent Roman presence on the island. Conquest of Britain began in earnest under the emperor Claudius in 43 AD. Over the next four decades, Roman troops explored the entire island, including the northernmost parts of Scotland. But the Romans only conquered an area roughly corresponding to modern-day England and Wales. The Romans would govern this territory until 410, when the declining Western Roman Empire was forced to abandon the remote province . (Click the image to see the full map.)

27) Hadrian’s Wall

Hadrian, who ruled from 117 to 138 AD, was one of Rome’s most interesting emperors. Most of his predecessors had sought glory by conquering new territory, steadily expanding the size of the empire. Hadrian had a different vision. He believed the empire was becoming overextended militarily, and immediately upon taking office he focused on consolidating Roman control of the territories that had already been conquered. He withdrew from a few Eastern territories conquered by his predecessor, Trajan, and he negotiated peace agreements with rivals such as the Parthians . One reflection of this shifting thinking was Hadrian’s Wall, whose construction was begun in 122. Over time, similar fortifications would be built all around the edges of the empire, transforming what had been a fluid frontier into a clearly defined border. The wisdom of Hadrian’s decision became apparent after 142, when Hadrian’s successor, Antoninus Pius, conquered additional British territory and ordered a second wall built farther north. The new wall was only manned for a few years before the Romans were forced to abandon the new territory and retreat to the border Hadrian had chosen.

28) Where Roman coins have been found in Britain

Protected behind Hadrian’s Wall, Roman Britain flourished. The island’s economy became more specialized and more integrated with the continent. The Roman empire provided its subjects with a reliable and standardized system of currency. Uniform money brings major economic benefits because cash transactions are a lot more efficient than those done by barter. This map, drawn from a database of amateur archeological finds, shows where Roman coins were found between 1997 and 2010. The fact that coins are still being found all over England and Wales, centuries after the empire’s collapse, suggests just how thoroughly Romanized these territories became during four centuries of imperial rule.

29) Roman trade with India and China

As Rome was rising in the West, the Han dynasty was consolidating power in China. These two great empires were too far apart to have a direct relationship. But they became linked together indirectly through trade networks. This map, based on geographical data recorded by a Greek writer in the early years of the Roman Empire, shows the trade route from Rome to India. Elites in India and China prized Roman-made glass and rugs, while Roman aristocrats enjoyed purchasing silks made in the Far East. Some Roman writers saw the increasing sums Romans were spending on silks for their wives as a symbol of Rome’s decadence and moral decline.

The decline of Rome

30) the third century ad was a bad time to be a roman emperor.

For the first two centuries after Augustus became emperor in 27 BC, the Roman Empire experienced a period of unprecedented political stability and economic prosperity. But the situation deteriorated rapidly in the third century AD. Between 235 and 285, Rome had more than 20 emperors, and as this map shows, most died violent deaths. Some were murdered by their own armies. Others died in civil wars against rival claimants to the throne. One died in battle against foreign foe; another was captured in battle and died in captivity. It wouldn’t have been surprising if this cycle of bloodshed had led to the dissolution of the empire. But in 285, Emperor Diocletian took power and managed to get the empire out of its tailspin. In a 20-year reign, he (temporarily) ended the cycle of bloodshed and instituted reforms that allowed the empire to endure until the late 400s.

31) Constantine takes power and Christianizes the empire

Diocletian set up an imperial structure called a “tetrarchy,” in which power was shared among four emperors. He wanted to provide more localized leadership for an empire that had become too sprawling and complex for any one man to manage. But after Diocletian’s death in 311 AD, the tetrarchy became a bloody tournament bracket for choosing Rome’s next emperor. The winner was Constantine, who made some profound changes to the empire after he became Rome’s sole emperor in 324. He created a new imperial capital at Byzantium and renamed it Constantinople, laying the foundations for an Eastern Roman Empire that would endure long after the West fell. Even more important, Constantine was Rome’s first Christian emperor. When he took the throne, he began the transformation of Rome into a Christian empire. While some of his subjects resisted Christianity, the change ultimately stuck. As a result, Christianity became the dominant religion of Europe for the next 1,500 years.

32) The empire is divided between East and West

Constantine ruled over a unified Roman empire, but this would be increasingly rare. Upon Constantine’s death in 337, the empire was divided among Constantine’s three sons, who quickly began fighting among themselves. This cycle would repeat itself several times over the next half-century. It became clear that the empire was too big for any one man to rule. The last emperor to rule a united empire, Theodosius, died in 395. This map shows the result: an empire permanently divided between east and west. Why had the empire become too big to govern? The empire never fully recovered from the political crisis of the third century, or from a plague that began in 250 and killed millions of people. Rome’s economy was hit hard. By 400, it simply wasn’t possible for a single emperor to raise a large enough army to protect a domain that stretched from Spain to the Middle East.

33) Germanic invasions

As its financial health deteriorated, the empire became increasingly vulnerable to invasion. That started a vicious cycle. Rome’s wealthy and weakly defended interior became a juicy target for raiders. Frustrated provincials began fortifying their towns and organizing their own local militias for self-defense. People were increasingly forced to stay close to fortified towns for safety, making them less productive and more dependent on local lords. Provincials became less willing and able to pay taxes to a central government that wasn’t protecting them anyway. And so the Roman army grew weaker, and the empire as a whole became more vulnerable to barbarian attack. A symbolic turning point came in 410, when Aleric, king of the barbarian Visigoth tribe, sacked Rome for the first time in 800 years. It was a psychological blow from which the Western Empire would never really recover.

34) Attila the Hun

Probably the most famous of the barbarian invaders was Attila the Hun, who built an empire in Eastern Europe between 434 and 453. The Huns were a nomadic people who originated somewhere in Eastern Europe or Central Asia. Their style of warfare centered on mounted archers, who could fire arrows with deadly accuracy while on horseback. They prized speed and the advantage of surprise. The Romans proved unable to defeat Attila on the battlefield, and the Huns even forced the Romans to pay them tribute for several years. However, the Huns were unable to sustain prolonged sieges, which made them incapable of taking large cities such as Constantinople or Rome. Nor could they consolidate their gains and build a long-lived empire. When Attila died in 453, his sons squabbled over how to divide his empire, which quickly disintegrated.

35) The end of the Western Empire

Historians generally date the end of the Western Empire to 476 AD. That’s the year that Emperor Romulus Augustulus was deposed by the barbarian general Odoacer, who declared himself the King of Italy. But it’s misleading to focus too much on any specific date. The last few emperors before Romulus Augustulus were increasingly emperors in name only. Starved of the tax revenues they needed to raise a serious military, their control over nominally Roman territory was increasingly tenuous. When Odoacer and other barbarian generals carved the Roman Empire up into kingdoms, they were largely just formalizing the de facto reality that the emperors had little actual power over their distant domains.

Rome’s legacy

36) the barbarian kingdoms of europe in 526.

This map looks dramatically different from the map of the Western Roman Empire as it existed a few decades earlier. But it’s important not to overstate the extent of the change. Western Europe was populated by largely the same ethnic groups in 526 as they had been a century earlier. Long before it finally collapsed, manpower shortages had forced the empire to incorporate barbarian peoples into the legions. So the barbarian tribes who carved up the old empire — the Franks, Visigoths, Ostrogoths, the Vandals, and so forth — were much more Romanized than the tribes that had menaced Rome centuries earlier. The rulers of these new kingdoms generally sought to co-opt Roman elites that still held significant wealth and power across the former Western Empire. So while Romans certainly found it jarring to be suddenly ruled by outsiders, Western Europe in 526 was not so different from how it had been in 426.

37) The East becomes the Byzantine Empire

Historians generally refer to the Eastern Roman Empire after 476 as the Byzantine Empire. But this is an arbitrary distinction invented for the convenience of historians; it wouldn’t have made sense to people living in Constantinople, the Eastern Capital, at the time. People in the Byzantine Empire continued to think of themselves as Romans, and their empire as the Roman Empire, for centuries after 476. In 527, the Emperor Justinian took power in the Byzantine Empire and began a campaign to reconquer the Western half of the empire. By his death in 565, he had made significant progress, retaking Italy, most of Roman Africa, and even some parts of Spain. While his successors wouldn’t be able to hold these new territories, the Byzantine Empire would endure as a Christian empire for another thousand years, until it was finally overrun by the Ottomans in 1453 .

38) The Holy Roman Empire

In 800 AD, Charlemagne, the king of the Franks, persuaded Pope Leo III to name him emperor, a title that hadn’t been held in the West in three centuries. Charlemagne’s successors built what came to be known as the Holy Roman Empire. Between 962 and 1806, it would control most of modern-day Germany and portions of modern-day France, Italy, and Central Europe. In practice, the Holy Roman Empire didn’t have very much to do with the original Roman Empire. The empire was ruled by Germans rather than Italians, lacked traditional Roman institutions such as the Senate, and was more decentralized than the Roman Empire had been at its height. Still, the enthusiasm with which some of Europe’s most powerful men claimed the mantle of the old Roman emperors is a sign of just how deep an impression Rome’s accomplishments had left on later generations.

39) The Papal States

After Constantine made Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire, religion and state were closely aligned — just as they had been under earlier pagan emperors. But that began to change after the Western Empire collapsed. Most of the barbarian kings who became the new masters of Western Europe were themselves Christians, and they recognized the authority of the church in Rome over religious matters. This set a precedent for the modern separation of church and state, and it allowed the church to thrive even as the Western Roman Empire crumbled. Indeed, popes began stepping into the power vacuum Rome had created. This map shows the papal states, sovereign territory that was governed by the popes from the 700s until secular Italian authorities annexed most of it in the 1800s. Today, the Catholic Church still operates in Latin from Vatican City, a tiny sovereign state inside the modern city of Rome.

40) Rome’s linguistic legacy

One of the most obvious ways Rome shaped the modern world is the languages people speak today. This map shows where people speak Romance languages such as Spanish, French, Italian, and Romanian that are descended from Latin. Notice that the line between the French-speaking and German-speaking parts of Europe looks a lot like the line between those portions of Europe that were conquered by the Romans and those that remained beyond the Roman frontier. The other notable thing about the map is that most people in what used to be the Eastern half of the Roman Empire do not speak Romance languages. That’s because when Rome conquered the East, there was already a sophisticated civilization there based on the Greek language. While Latin became the language of government, commoners continued speaking Greek. And as the Western Roman Empire collapsed, Greek became the dominant tongue of the remaining Eastern provinces.

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Correction: The article originally stated that Constantinople fell in 1452. It actually fell in 1453. It originally stated that Constantine made Christianity the official religion of the Roman empire, but he only began the process of Christianization. And it originally stated that triremes have three rowers per oar, but in fact they have three banks of oars, with one rower per oar. I also tweaked my description of quinqueremes.

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• Prof. William Broadhead

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• Ancient History
• European History

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The ancient world: rome, lecture slides.

The table below contains select lecture slides from the course.

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Roman Empire

Our Roman Empire lesson plan explores the rise and fall of the Roman Empire, including the most common historical events and significant contributions of its people.

Included with this lesson are some adjustments or additions that you can make if you’d like, found in the “Options for Lesson” section of the Classroom Procedure page. One of the optional additions to this lesson is to plan a “Roman Empire Week”, with each day focused on a different aspect of Ancient Rome and the Roman Empire.

Description

Additional information, what our roman empire lesson plan includes.

Lesson Objectives and Overview: Roman Empire lesson plan explores the rise and fall of the Roman Empire, including the most common historical events and significant contributions of its people. At the end of the lesson, students will be able to describe and identify the Roman Empire, and its events and people during its period in history. This lesson is for students in 4th grade, 5th grade, and 6th grade.

Classroom Procedure

Every lesson plan provides you with a classroom procedure page that outlines a step-by-step guide to follow. You do not have to follow the guide exactly. The guide helps you organize the lesson and details when to hand out worksheets. It also lists information in the orange box that you might find useful. You will find the lesson objectives, state standards, and number of class sessions the lesson should take to complete in this area. In addition, it describes the supplies you will need as well as what and how you need to prepare beforehand.

Options for Lesson

Included with this lesson is an “Options for Lesson” section that lists a number of suggestions for activities to add to the lesson or substitutions for the ones already in the lesson. One optional adjustment to the lesson is to u se the homework assignment as a class activity and group students in 3s or 4s to discuss the implications if a similar problem occurred today. You can plan a “Roman Empire Week”, with each day focused on a different aspect of Ancient Rome and the Roman Empire. You could also assign each student a different aspect of the empire to research and report to the class, like emperors, Roman Mythology, The Colosseum, Rome, Pompeii, daily life, and more. Finally, you could organize a class period for students to play games like the Roman children.

Teacher Notes

The teacher notes page includes a paragraph with additional guidelines and things to think about as you begin to plan your lesson. This page also includes lines that you can use to add your own notes as you’re preparing for this lesson.

ROMAN EMPIRE LESSON PLAN CONTENT PAGES

What is an empire.

The Roman Empire lesson plan includes four pages. If the countries of the United States, Canada, Mexico, and more came together and a single person ruled over them all, it would be an example of a modern-day empire. We don’t have any empires today, but there have been several major empires throughout history.

Empires are groups of nations and/or people ruled by an emperor, empress, or a powerful government, who the people saw as a supreme authority. Today, some people disagree about whether or not we still have empires, though we all agree that there are no empires like the ones that used to exist. The Roman Empire was a particularly important and powerful civilization which included Ancient Rome and most of Europe.

The Roman Empire

More than 2,000 years ago, the city of Rome was the largest city in the world. It was also the heart of the Roman Empire, which included territories from Europe to Asia to Africa. The Roman Empire lasted for about 1,500 years, from 27 BC to 1453 AD. Ancient Rome’s culture spread throughout the territory and, today, we credit it with influencing many modern things, like our governments, engineering, architecture, language, literature, and more.

Caesar Augustus was the first emperor of the Roman Empire. There were many other emperors after him, like Nero, who was not concerned when the city burned to the ground; Vespasian, who built the Colosseum; Constantine I; Theodosius I; Basil II; and many more. Augustus became the first leader after the assassination of Julius Caesar. Augustus built a strong military, institutions, and lawmaking to help himself become a single ruler. He also laid the foundation for 200 years of peace.

Roman leaders had extensive power, overseeing the senate, setting rules and regulations, holding religious authority and conducting ceremonies, controlling the calendar, punishing and pardoning citizens, and vetoing senate decisions.

The empire grew over the years and became difficult to manage from Rome, so the leaders decided to split it into two empires. The Western empire ruled from Rome, while the Eastern ruled from Constantinople, which we now know as Turkey. The Eastern Roman Empire became known as the Byzantine Empire later on.

Roman Life: Jobs, Family, Food

Rome became famous for the amphitheaters, coliseums, and other places where they held gladiator fights, chariot races, performances, plays, athletic contests, and other events. We also know it for its art, architecture, and other innovations. Today, you might consider New York City a modern Rome. Life back then was very different, though some things have stayed the same.

Romans had many different jobs. In the countryside, farmers grew wheat, which they used to make bread. Poor people often joined the Roman Army in order to earn a regular wage. Merchants and craftspeople made, bought, and sold items in Europe. Craftsmen made dishes, pots, jewelry, weapons, and more. They also had entertainers, like musicians, dancers, actors, chariot racers, and gladiators. Educated Romans, on the other hand, often became lawyers, government workers, teachers, and engineers.

The Romans placed lots of importance on their families. They called the head of the family, the father, the paterfamilias. The father had most of the power, but wives also made some decisions and handled the household finances. Boys went to school while girls stayed home.

Romans began their day with a small breakfast. They ate most of their food at dinner, which started around 3:00. Their dinners were social events that lasted a long time. They ate bread, beans, fish, vegetables, cheese, and dried fruit rather than meat. Wealthy Romans would lie on their sides while servants fed them.

Roman Life: Clothing, School, Religion, and Leisure Time

Romans often wore togas, or long white robes made of wool or linen. Some togas had special colors that indicated the wearer’s status in society. they usually only wore them in public because they were uncomfortable to wear. Poor Romans wore tunics, which looks like an extra long t-shirt. Later on, tunics became popular with all Romans because of how comfortable they were.

Poor children didn’t go to school. Wealthier boys went to school starting at age seven, while tutors taught some girls at home. Schoolmasters, or tutors, were strict. They took education very seriously. Many of the subjects they had were similar to the subjects we have today. They used Roman numerals for math. They also learned weights and measurements, philosophy, and public speaking.

Religion played a big role in people’s everyday lives, though they did not visit temples or churches. Instead, they had small shrines in their homes dedicated to Roman gods and goddesses, who they believed lived on Mount Olympus.

After dinner, people did activities. They enjoyed music, art, dancing, reading, and sports. They  attended plays, the chariot races, and gladiator fights. Men and boys went to Roman baths to wash, sit, and talk. These baths also included gardens, gyms, libraries, and other recreational activities, like modern recreation centers.

The Fall of the Roman Empire

You’ve probably heard of the Fall of the Roman Empire. This refers mostly to the fall of the Western Roman Empire. The Roman Empire was the world’s biggest superpower for many years. We have several different theories and factors about why it ended.

Tribes defeated the Empire’s military and took control of some territories within the Roman Empire. The slave trade also began to decrease, and Roman society depended greatly on slave labor. The Empire also divided itself in half; this caused problems between the east and west as they fought over resources, territories, and military aid.

The military weakened because they did not have enough soldiers to support the growing Empire and protect its territories; new soldiers also did not care about Rome. Christianity grew in popularity and became the state religion in the late 300s; this lessened the god-like status of the Roman Empire. They also had frequent internal and political issues, leading to instability; this gave their enemies the ability to take over.

The city of Rome is the capital city of Italy today, and is located in the same place as the ancient city. Many original buildings from that time still exist today, like the Roman Colosseum and Forum. The Circus Maximus could hold 150,000 people in its time, and pieces of it still exist in Rome.

Ancient Rome and the Roman Empire had a lot of influence on our lives today, and historians consider it to be one of the most significant periods in history.

Here is a list of the vocabulary words students will learn in this lesson plan:

• Empire: Group of nations or territories ruled by one person or group
• Emperor: The male leader of an empire
• Empress: The female leader of an empire
• Roman Empire: Includes territories throughout Europe, Africa, and Asia
• Ceasar Augustus: The first emperor of the Roman Empire
• Julius Ceasar: Emperor assassinated prior to the Roman Empire
• Byzantine Empire: The name later given to the Eastern Roman Empire
• Paterfamilias: The name the father was called in a Roman family
• Toga: A long white robe made of wool or linen
• Tunic: A T-shirt-like shirt worn mostly by poor Romans
• Schoolmasters: Teachers were referred by this name in Roman schools
• Circus Maximus: A stadium for chariot races, which held 150,000 people

ROMAN EMPIRE LESSON PLAN WORKSHEETS

The Roman Empire lesson plan includes three worksheets: an activity worksheet, a practice worksheet, and a homework assignment. You can refer to the guide on the classroom procedure page to determine when to hand out each worksheet.

A DAY IN OUR LIFE ACTIVITY WORKSHEET

Students will work in pairs to complete the activity worksheet. Each pair will plan their day using the provided information about family life in the Roman Empire, including as many details as possible.

Students can also work alone to complete the worksheet.

MATCHING PRACTICE WORKSHEET

The practice worksheet asks students to match 15 terms with their definitions. They will also answer five questions about the lesson material.

ROMAN EMPIRE HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENT

For the homework assignment, students will review each reason attributed to the fall of the Roman Empire and tell how that reason could cause problems for a modern city, state, or country.

Worksheet Answer Keys

This lesson plan includes answer keys for the practice worksheet and the homework assignment. If you choose to administer the lesson pages to your students via PDF, you will need to save a new file that omits these pages. Otherwise, you can simply print out the applicable pages and keep these as reference for yourself when grading assignments.

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You are here, hist 210: the early middle ages, 284–1000,  - transformation of the roman empire.

The Roman Empire in the West collapsed as a political entity in the fifth century although the Eastern part survived the crisis.. Professor Freedman considers this transformation through three main questions: Why did the West fall apart – because of the external pressure of invasions or the internal problems of institutional decline? Who were these invading barbarians? Finally, does this transformation mark a gradual shift or is it right to regard it as a cataclysmic end of civilization? Professor Freedman, as a moderate catastrophist, argues that this period marked the end of a particular civilization rather than the end of civilization in general.

Lecture Chapters

• Introduction
• Catastrophe
• The Roman Army and the Visigoths
• Another Kind of Barbarian: The Huns
• Accomodation

Chapter 6 The Roman Empire

The decline and fall of the roman empire, learning objective.

• Analyze, broadly, the causes of the fall of the Roman Empire
• Throughout the 5th century, the empire’s territories in western Europe and northwestern Africa, including Italy, fell to various invading or indigenous peoples, in what is sometimes called the Migration Period.
• By the late 3rd century, the city of Rome no longer served as an effective capital for the emperor, and various cities were used as new administrative capitals. Successive emperors, starting with Constantine, privileged the eastern city of Byzantium, which he had entirely rebuilt after a siege.
• In 476, after being refused lands in Italy, Odacer and his Germanic mercenaries took Ravenna, the Western Roman capital at the time, and deposed Western Emperor Romulus Augustus. The whole of Italy was quickly conquered, and Odoacer’s rule became recognized in the Eastern Empire.
• Four broad schools of thought exist on the decline and fall of the Roman Empire: decay owing to general malaise, monocausal decay, catastrophic collapse, and transformation.

Migration Period

Also known as the period of the Barbarian Invasions, it was a period of intensified human migration in Europe from about 400 to 800 CE, during the transition from Late Antiquity to the Early Middle Ages.

A soldier, who came to power in the Western Roman Empire in 476 CE. His reign is commonly seen as marking the end of the Western Roman Empire.

The Fall of the Western Roman Empire was the process of decline during which the empire failed to enforce its rule, and its vast territory was divided into several successor polities. The Roman Empire lost the strengths that had allowed it to exercise effective control; modern historians mention factors including the effectiveness and numbers of the army, the health and numbers of the Roman population, the strength of the economy, the competence of the emperor, the religious changes of the period, and the efficiency of the civil administration. Increasing pressure from barbarians outside Roman culture also contributed greatly to the collapse. The reasons for the collapse are major subjects of the historiography of the ancient world, and they inform much modern discourse on state failure.

By 476 CE, when Odoacer deposed Emperor Romulus, the Western Roman Empire wielded negligible military, political, or financial power and had no effective control over the scattered western domains that could still be described as Roman. Invading “barbarians” had established their own polities on most of the area of the Western Empire. While its legitimacy lasted for centuries longer and its cultural influence remains today, the Western Empire never had the strength to rise again.

It is important to note, however, that the so-called fall of the Roman Empire specifically refers to the fall of the Western Roman Empire, since the Eastern Roman Empire, or what became known as the Byzantine Empire, whose capital was founded by Constantine, remained for another 1,000 years. Theodosius was the last emperor who ruled over the whole empire. After his death in 395, he gave the two halves of the empire to his two sons, Arcadius and Honorius; Arcadius became ruler in the east, with his capital in Constantinople, and Honorius became ruler in the west, with his capital in Milan, and later Ravenna.

Rome in the 5th Century CE

Throughout the 5th century, the empire’s territories in western Europe and northwestern Africa, including Italy, fell to various invading or indigenous peoples in what is sometimes called the Migration Period, also known as the Barbarian Invasions, from the Roman and South European perspective. The first migrations of peoples were made by Germanic tribes, such as the Goths, Vandals, Angles, Saxons, Lombards, Suebi, Frisii, Jutes and Franks; they were later pushed westwards by the Huns, Avars, Slavs, and Bulgars.

Although the eastern half still survived with borders essentially intact for several centuries (until the Muslim conquests), the Empire as a whole had initiated major cultural and political transformations since the Crisis of the Third Century, with the shift towards a more openly autocratic and ritualized form of government, the adoption of Christianity as the state religion, and a general rejection of the traditions and values of Classical Antiquity.

The reasons for the decline of the Empire are still debated today, and are likely multiple. Historians infer that the population appears to have diminished in many provinces (especially western Europe), judging from the diminishing size of fortifications built to protect the cities from barbarian incursions from the 3rd century on. Some historians even have suggested that parts of the periphery were no longer inhabited, because these fortifications were restricted to the center of the city only. By the late 3rd century, the city of Rome no longer served as an effective capital for the emperor, and various cities were used as new administrative capitals. Successive emperors, starting with Constantine, privileged the eastern city of Byzantium, which he had entirely rebuilt after a siege. Later renamed Constantinople, and protected by formidable walls in the late 4th and early 5th centuries, it was to become the largest and most powerful city of Christian Europe in the Early Middle Ages. Since the Crisis of the Third Century, the empire was intermittently ruled by more than one emperor at once (usually two), presiding over different regions.

The Latin-speaking west, under dreadful demographic crisis, and the wealthier Greek-speaking east, also began to diverge politically and culturally. Although this was a gradual process, still incomplete when Italy came under the rule of barbarian chieftains in the last quarter of the 5th century, it deepened further afterward, and had lasting consequences for the medieval history of Europe.

In 476, after being refused lands in Italy, Orestes’ Germanic mercenaries, under the leadership of the chieftain Odoacer, captured and executed Orestes and took Ravenna, the Western Roman capital at the time, deposing Western Emperor Romulus Augustus. The whole of Italy was quickly conquered, and Odoacer’s rule became recognized in the Eastern Empire. Meanwhile, much of the rest of the Western provinces were conquered by waves of Germanic invasions, most of them being disconnected politically from the east altogether, and continuing a slow decline. Although Roman political authority in the west was lost, Roman culture would last in most parts of the former western provinces into the 6th century and beyond.

Romulus Augustus Resigns the Crown. Charlotte Mary Yonge’s 1880 artist rendition of Romulus Augustus resigning the crown to Odoacer.

Theories on the Decline and Fall

The various theories and explanations for the fall of the Roman Empire in the west may be very broadly classified into four schools of thought (although the classification is not without overlap):

• Decay owing to general malaise
• Monocausal decay
• Catastrophic collapse
• Transformation

The tradition positing general malaise goes back to the historian, Edward Gibbon, who argued that the edifice of the Roman Empire had been built on unsound foundations from the beginning. According to Gibbon, the fall was—in the final analysis—inevitable. On the other hand, Gibbon had assigned a major portion of the responsibility for the decay to the influence of Christianity, and is often, though perhaps unjustly, seen as the founding father of the school of monocausal explanation. On the other hand, the school of catastrophic collapse holds that the fall of the empire had not been a pre-determined event and need not be taken for granted. Rather, it was due to the combined effect of a number of adverse processes, many of them set in motion by the Migration Period, that together applied too much stress to the empire’s basically sound structure. Finally, the transformation school challenges the whole notion of the ‘fall’ of the empire, asking instead to distinguish between the fall into disuse of a particular political dispensation, anyway unworkable towards its end; and the fate of the Roman civilization that under-girded the empire. According to this school, drawing its basic premise from the Pirenne thesis, the Roman world underwent a gradual (though often violent) series of transformations, morphing into the medieval world. The historians belonging to this school often prefer to speak of Late Antiquity, instead of the Fall of the Roman Empire.

The Ostrogothic Kingdom, which rose from the ruins of the Western Roman Empire.

• Boundless World History. Authored by : Boundless. Located at : https://www.boundless.com/world-history/textbooks/boundless-world-history-textbook/ . License : CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike

149 Roman Empire Essay Topic Ideas & Examples

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• Greek and Roman Civilizations’ Input to Modern World The Greek and the Roman civilizations are two of the most influential civilizations that have ever graced the face of this world and two civilizations started in the cities of Athens and Rome.
• Christianity in the Roman Empire and Its Spread Factors Towards the end of the first century, Christianity had spread in the Roman Empire to the extent that the government officials’ attention was drawn by this new religion. We will write a custom essay specifically for you by our professional experts 808 writers online Learn More
• Ancient Rome: The Birthplace of Modern Sports The popularity of sporting competition in the modern society reflects that of the ancient Roman Empire’s vision for its society. Chariot racing was one of the most popular sports in ancient Rome, it later spread […]
• The Comparison of Roman and Mongol Empires Silk road supported the economy of the whole empire and was important in the transportation of porcelain, silk and tea to the outside world.
• Christianity in the Roman Empire The subjects of the Empire enjoyed a high standard of living due to the accumulated wealth and the expansionary success of the Empire.
• Germanic Invasions and the Fall of the Roman Empire As a result of unbearable conditions from the Roman administration, the Visigoths revolted and conquered the Romans and killed their emperor Valens in Adrianople in the late 4th century.
• Slavery in the Roman Empire The elite were the rich people, and majority of the population that comprised of the common farmers, artisans, and merchants known as the plebeians occupied the low status.
• Rise of the Roman Empire Romulus Augustulus who was the last emperor of the Western empire was deposed in the year 476 and this marked the end of the empire.
• The Roman Empire and the Roman Republic Among the similarities is the use of the same language, Latin, and the worshipping of Gods. As for the fundamental distinction between the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire is that the republic was a […]
• World History: The Roman Empire Understanding the document first requires one to understand the historical background of the Roman Empire: the formation of the Republic and its collapse.
• Religion in Ancient Rome, the Byzantine Empire and the Holy Roman Empire Religion in the Holy Roman Empire was a far contrast to the religion in ancient Rome. In the Byzantine Empire religion is the lifeblood of the whole society.
• Suffering in the Ancient, Roman and Greek Periods It can be noted that in all cases suffering was seen as evil in some quarters of the ancient world as is seen today.
• Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire With this insight into the fall of the Roman empire, we realize that there’s still a cultural line between ancient Rome and the contemporary world.
• Multicultural Roman Empire History Furthermore, the Romans were influenced by the Etruscans, a neighboring tribe to the northwest of Rome, who were allied with and then conquering the newly formed city-state.
• Public Speaking in Ancient Greece and Roman Empire With this in mind, investigation of some main peculiarities of the development of art of public speaking public can help to understand its peculiarities better.
• Ancient Greek vs. Roman Sculpture in the Late Classical Period The left-hand drops her clothes onto the jar of water, the head is turned to the left, and the right hand is extended in front of the pudenda.
• Inventions of the Ancient Romans The Romans built some of the most impressive buildings in the world, including the Pantheon and the Colosseum. Thus, the Romans were ahead of their time, and their legacy continues to shape modern engineering and […]
• The Roman Empire and Its Fall in 476 A.D. The Byzantine Empire, which emerged in the East, claimed to be the legitimate successor of the Roman Empire, and its rulers continued to use the title of ‘Emperor.’ The Byzantine Empire maintained much of the […]
• The Ancient Roman Aqueducts and Their Structure This work focuses on the principles of building aqueducts, the materials utilized in the process, the key uses, and the specifics of the repair.
• The Democracies of Ancient Greece and the Roman Republic Any democracy which, at least formally, is based on the power of the majority, equality of citizens, protection of their rights and freedoms, a system of separation of powers, and electability of authorities implies a […]
• Roman Republic and Empire to 31 BC The era of the Roman Republic began in 509 B.C.E.after the last ruler of Rome, the Etruscan king, was overthrown. The Senate was the governing body of the Roman Republic.
• The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire The purpose of this essay is to examine the rise and fall of the Roman Empire, including the influence of the Catholic Church and Kings in the secular and religious activities of the Europeans.
• The Significance of the Colosseum to Ancient Rome: Image Commentary The image shows only what survived of the arena after the collapse of the Roman empire and the end of the games.
• The Roman Empire’s Sources of Knowledge Among the sources of ancient Rome stand out the civil conflict between Catilina and Cicero; the depiction of everyday life and cultural values in the poems of Catullus; Caesar’s work Gallic wars; Virgil’s poem Aeneid.
• History of Perpetua and the Roman Empire Successes in the military operations facilitated the development of the African province and fortified the influence of the Roman Empire’s culture and religion.
• Silk in Ancient Rome: Annotated Bibliography In addition to the tunica, ladies wore a loose piece of clothing known as a stola to cover the remainder of their bodies. The book covers all of these women’s costumes in detail for each […]
• Decline of the Roman Empire The decline of the Roman Empire in the West that began in the 5th century had multiple interconnected factors. However, the economic and military rise of Constantinople led to the crisis in Rome.
• History Aspects of the Roman Empire The Colosseum was a symbol of victory for Christians over pagans, and the reason behind it preserving it is because of the martyrs who died in it.
• History: Roman Values in the Ancient Empire They thought that these entities had a part in the formation of Roman civilization and shaped the events of people’s everyday lives.
• Herodian’s “History of the Roman Empire” Since the Death of Marcus Aurelius After that, two senators, Pupienus and Balbinus, were elected as the rulers of the Roman Empire. Hence, the fall of the Roman Empire was caused by several factors that influenced both the economy and the […]
• The Catholic Church in the Roman Empire In its ethical concepts, the Roman Catholic Church developed from Stoicism, which was in great harmony with the public mood of the Roman Empire.
• Christianity During the Roman Empire By leveraging the western idea of piety through the prism of equality and freedom of thought, the Christian church was able to outlive the Roman Empire and succeed as a culture-maker of the Middle Ages.
• The Roman Empire: Globalization and Religious Power The Roman Empire is the first-ever experience of world globalization, the creation of a universal multinational society, in which the main directions of historical development with its ups and downs, unprecedented progress, and wild barbarism […]
• The Fall of the Roman Empire in the 15th Century The most significant one is the fusion of the Germanic mercenaries and fighters into the Roman troops. Leadership challenges emerged, leading to instability and the eventual fall of the empire.
• Roman Republic to Roman Empire Despite existing laws, the politics of Rome were at the time dominated by a few Roman leaders. This unstable alliance gave rise to a series of civil wars.
• Women in Ancient Greek and Roman Art The ancient Greek and Roman art, both textual and visual, are a rich source of information on the social history of women in these cultures.
• The Roman Empire and Its Fall Soon after the death of Marcus Aurelius, the last of five good emperors in Rome, the empire began to crumble. According to Longo, some of the measures that Diocletian implemented included the division of the […]
• The Ancient Greek and Republican Roman Architects The ancient Greek and Roman architects sought to express cultural and aesthetic perspectives guided by the adoration of classical qualities such as maturity, moderation, order, balance, and harmony.
• Roman Empire Entertainment Venues The theaters were free to the public and as a result the audiences were huge in numbers and noisy at times.
• Women’s Position in Ancient Rome and India Of course, in both of these civilizations, women were oppressed and limited in their rights and freedoms. Both in Ancient Rome and Ancient India, women were considered to be the centers of the household.
• Law and Society in Ancient Rome In the Roman law, the man is recognized as the head of the household owning the entire property under the family’s name.
• Medieval Europe History: Western Roman Empire The effect of this was the mobilization of tens of thousands of Europeans citizens which led to the capture of Jerusalem and the surrounding regions.
• The Eastern Roman Empire Decline In historical importance, the Great Roman Empire was one of the very important chapters. There was also the cause of deforestation.
• Roman Civilization, Christianity, and Judaism The growth and success of Christianity came from the conversion and patronage of Constantine. The early Christians of Rome were received with contempt and suspicion.
• Ancient Civilization of Rome and Athens The city of Rome and the city of Athens had great influence and authority over their neighbors and allies. The city of Athens had great influence throughout the Aegean and the influence lasted for about […]
• Roman Civilization and Its Military Power The Roman Empire used the first systems of the republic to conquer a lot but for the interest of a few who included those living within the cities as well as those who were close […]
• Economic Situation of the Later Roman Empire It signifies that the problem of inflation and pricing crisis were the major economic problems that were the most significant signs of economic decay of the Empire at the beginning of the fourth century.
• Ancient Rome: Augustus Caesar The main measures that he employed in the endeavor to restore religion include; regulation of private behavior, reconstruction of public monuments and public religion and creating awareness by the use of literature that discussed the […]
• “The Fall of the Roman Empire” by Anthony Mann The plot of the film depicts the historical personalities, events and trends during the period 180 to 192 AD which is taken as the period during which the Roman Empire stopped growing and witnessed a […]
• The Control of Women’s Sexuality in the Roman Empire They were mostly confined to their homes, were under the authority of a male member of the family, could not work outside the house, and could not be as educated as the men.
• The History of Roman Empire We know that the closeness of buildings and unawareness of people in the question of how to prevent people’s houses from fire is the basic reason, I think, in cases of every fire hazard in […]
• Etruscans and the Art of the Roman Republic and Empire At the time of Rome’s foundation the highest civilizations in Italy were those of the Greek in southern, and of the Etruscans in central, Italy.
• Western Humanities: Early Roman Empire and Christianity The Latin language was one of the features of the Roman culture that the church adopted. Even after the collapse of the Roman Empire, Christianity was still widely spread and the church still insisted on […]
• Ancient Rome: Historical Era This has led to widespread abuse of his power to the detriment of his country and its people as a whole.
• Life as a Soldier During the Roman Civilization The following paragraphs describe the characteristics of the Roman Civilization. This was the main entertainment of the Roman Civilization.
• From the Fall of the Holy Roman Empire to Feudalism This remnant from the past reflects the time when the Franks took over the Burgundians and influenced both the language and culture of the Burgundians.
• Ancient Civilization of Rome Through innovation, town planning was very important in Rome, the roman in the city plans considered factors like the climate, purpose of the town, and the environment.
• Slaves and Slavery in Ancient Rome The revolt of slaves under the direction of Spartacus 73-71 BC is considered the most significant event of the period of crisis of the Roman republican regime in the first century DC and is estimated […]
• Marcus Aurelius Fourteenth Emperor’s of the Roman Empire Life History The only glaring blemish was Marcus’ inordinate hatred of Christians; he considered them devious and dangerous, and as a result, subjected them to rigorous persecution.
• Roman Civilization’ Analysis This paper will describe the Roman civilization, some important moments in its history, and how it interacted with Islamic civilization. Some of the most important parts of Roman history are related to the changes in […]
• Ancient History: Polybius on the Roman Republic As Polybius states himself, he is so interested in the Roman Government because he wants to explain to his readers how “almost the whole world fell under the rule of one power, that of Rome”.
• Stylistic Features: Ancient Middle East and Roman There are several peculiarities of design indicating that the contemporary dress can be viewed as the adaption of the ancient stola. In Ancient Rome, this type of clothing was used to conceal the sexuality of […]
• Stoicism Employed in Ancient Rome Remus and Romulus were twins, the children of Rhea and Mars. Romans argue that their republic developed based on a mythical story of the Romulus and Remus.
• Ancient History: Periclean Athens and Augustan Rome What building was connected to Augustus’ house on the Palatine through a series of ramps? Octavia is believed to be the first Roman woman who was depicted on Roman coinage.
• Cornelius Tacitus, a Roman Empire Historian His works mainly reflect on the history of the Roman Empire from the death of Emperor Augustus in 14 AD to 70 AD, which was known as the Year of the Initial War between the […]
• Ancient Roman Myth and Historical Facts Indeed, compared to the Greeks, who composed legends about the creation of the cosmos and the gods, the central place in Roman mythology is given to Rome itself and its heroic people and the specific […]
• Persecution of Christianity in the Roman Empire Life As for the kind of persecution that was administered by the Roman government, it is possible to state that the aggression was aimed at preventing the bishops from spreading the ideas peculiar to the Christian […]
• Ancient Rome: Visigoths’ and Rome’s Conflict It was evident that Rome would not be able to win the fight, and they have reached an agreement, but the problem is that it was not possible to collect the necessary resources.
• Ancient Indian and Roman Civilizations Traditionally, the system had four main categories, namely ‘Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vaisyas, and Sudras.’ The Brahmins were highest in the ladder of social stratification, while the Sudras comprised the lowest group.
• Ancient Greek and Roman Myth Characters Romulus is the legendary founder of the city of Rome, a son of Rhea Silvia the Vestal and Mars the God of War.
• “Fall of the Roman Empire: The Military Explanation” by Arthur Ferill The book “fall of the roman empire” states that the fall of the Roman Empire was a due to a collapse in the military and army.
• Dissolution of the Roman Empire Historians seeking to determine the actual cause of the decline and eventual dissolution of the Roman Empire have formulated several theories.
• Romans and Barbarians: The Decline of the Western Empire The information in the book is thoroughly researched and the author gives the reader an insight into one of the most misinterpreted period of the Roman Empire.E.A.
• Ancient Art of Rome and Greece The Augustus has a visual texture of smoothness on the body parts, but a rough texture on the clothes adorned on the image.
• Medicine in Ancient Rome This was after the evolution of the use of herbs as poisons that were used to kill people. Herbal knowledge in the region revolved around the army quite a bit and the soldiers gained from […]
• Greek City State and the Roman Empire Athens developed a democratic form of government that allowed the citizens to participate in the drafting of the constitution and the governance of their city-states.
• The Fall of Roman Empire and the Rise of Feudalism Therefore, to German, the fall of the Roman Empire is significant for some of the aspects of feudalism are still present in German societies.
• The Western Roman Empire: The Significance of Its Collapse The fall of the Western Roman Empire was the most noticeable signal for the start of the Early Middle Ages. This collapse gave a green light for the development of many other religions and the […]
• Gods and Humans: Myths of Ancient Rome and Greece Remembering the main idea of the myths which is to portray the creation of the specific natural phenomena via the God’s actions, the relationships between people and Gods cannot be rejected in the book.
• What Factors Contributed to the Dissolution of the Roman Empire? One of the major reasons that led to the fall of the Roman Empire was the decline in morals particularly among the emperors, nobles as well as the upper rich classes.
• Roman Civilization: Senate and Augustan Regime Founded in early days, it survived events such as the split of the Roman Empire, the fall of the Roman republic and the fall of the Western Roman Empire.
• The Social Expectations Of Women During The Roman Empire
• The Reasons Why the Roman Empire Turned out to Be Very String That Other Empires
• The Persecution of Christians during the Roman Empire
• The Roman Empire and Its Influence on Western Civilization
• The Roman Empire During the Reign of Tiberius
• The Origins and Number of Slaves in the Roman Empire
• The Roman Empire And The Ottoman Of Constantinople
• The Roman Empire : The Most Extensive Political And Social
• The Role and Contribution of the German Invaders to the Downfall of the Holy Roman Empire
• The Modern Era Of The Han Dynasty And The Roman Empire
• The Roman Empire Architecture: The Pantheon
• The Rise Of Christianity During The Roman Empire
• The Revival Of Christianity During The Late Roman Empire
• The Triumph Of Christianity In The Roman Empire
• What Caused The Fall Of The Roman Empire
• The Role of the Praetorian Guard in the Roman Empire
• Tracing Back the History of Christianity from the Roman Empire in 381 A.D
• The Pantheon, the Largest Un-Reinforced Concrete Dome in the World From the Roman Empire Era
• The Reasons for the Rise of Christianity in the Early Roman Empire
• The Relationship Between Christians And The Roman Empire
• The Protestant Ethic and Entrepreneurship: Evidence from Religious Minorities from the Former Holy Roman Empire
• The Role of Taxation in the Demise of the Roman Empire
• The Roman Empire: Why Societies Decline and Fall
• The Roman Republic And The Creation Of Roman Empire
• Vindication in Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon
• The Successes of the Byzantine Empire in Maintaining the Tradition of the Roman Empire
• Understanding the Reasons for the Roman Distrust of Christianity in Ancient Roman Empire
• The Political, Economic and Social Evolution Since the Fall of the Western Roman Empire in Europe
• Why Homosexuality Did Not Lead to the Fall of the Roman Empire
• The Rise of the States in the 14th and 15th Centuries: Papacy and Holy Roman Empire
• The Roman Empire and Han China Compare and Contrast
• The Roman Empire: What Went Wrong?
• The Mediterranean and the Dilemma of the Roman Empire in Late Antiquity
• The Third Century Rome in the Chaotic State and the Economic Issues for the Roman Empire in the History
• The Objectivity of the Thorny Claims of the Restorer of the World in the Roman Empire
• The Technological Advances in the Roman Empire
• What Were the Most Important Reasons for the Decline of the Roman Empire?
• Western Civilization and the Roman Empire’s Collapse
• Understanding The Collapse Of The Roman Empire
• The Reign Of Augustus And The Roman Empire
• Why and How Did the Roman Republic Fall?
• The Spread Of Christianity During Roman Empire
• The Role of Color in Impressionism in the Ancient Greek and Roman Empire
• What Is Roman Empire Known For?
• What Killed Roman Empire?
• Why Water Shortages Caused by Roman Empire and Ancient China?
• What Are the Five Facts About Roman Empire?
• Did the Vikings Ever Invade Roman Empire?
• What Was the Most Famous Thing in Roman Empire?
• What Was the Difference Between Rich and Poor in Roman Empire?
• What Was the Difference Between the Roles of Men and Women in Roman Empire?
• How Does Byzantine Art Differ From That of Roman Empire?
• How Did the Circus Maximus Reflect the Values of Roman Empire?
• How Geography Impacted Roman Empire?
• Did Roman Empire Laid the Foundation of Modern Society?
• What Are the Characteristics of Prostitution in Roman Empire and Pompeii?
• Which Emperor Completed the Colosseum in Roman Empire?
• What Was the Economic, Social and Religious Life in Roman Empire?
• Can Scientists Explain the Ethics and Morals of Roman Empire?
• What Was Roman Empire’s Biggest Problem in Their Empire?
• What Social Problems Did Roman Empire Have?
• What Economic Problems Did Roman Empire Face?
• When Did Roman Empire Fall Apart?
• Who Are the Great Five Poets of Roman Empire?
• How Was Roman Empire Destroyed?
• Did Roman Empire Fall Because of Moral Decay?
• Did Roman Empire Destroy Itself?
• Why Was the Size of Roman Empire a Problem?
• Chicago (A-D)
• Chicago (N-B)

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Roman Empire

The aim of this lecture is to present on Roman Empire. The Roman Empire included most of what would now be considered Western Europe. The empire was conquered by the Roman Army and a Roman way of life was established in these conquered countries. The main countries conquered were England/Wales, Spain, France, Greece, the Middle East and the North African coastal region. The Empire falls because they’re starving. They’re selfish and think they’re all that Inflation is a killer.Other tribes start to raid due to weaknesses

Hanging Gardens of Babylon

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