Coliseum Teacher Guide to Ancient Rome

Ancient Rome was created in one of the most fertile areas of the world. It is important to notate that the Roman Empire did not begin during the same time as the great powers of Egypt and Greece. Rome was created well after the two aforementioned powers of the world had been in existence for thousands of years.

Ancient Rome is normally divided into three phases with the first being Pre-Rome the second the Roman Republic and the third the Roman Empire. The last phase, the Roman Empire, is the most popular one and certainly the one that many individuals will recall as the most exciting! The reasons for this notoriety stem from Hollywood partly with movies such as Gladiator paving the way to Roman Glory. Yet the Roman Empire was also one of the most-challenging times for the citizens of this unique empire. The fall of the Roman Empire signified the end to Roman domination throughout the world and a return to the locations and countries of Italy and Sicily.

The history of Rome started around the time of the Stone Age and continued all the way through to 500 AD. The historians of the Roman times were some of the best the world has even known. BC is the acronym meaning Before Christ and is used throughout history as a timeline point of reference. The other side of the reference timeline involving Jesus Christ is AD or Anno Domini.

The Roman Republic started where the pre-Roman empire left off and only lasted for two decades. The Roman Empire was created after the Great Civil Wars of 146 BC and contained some of the worlds most fascinating and enlightening cities and architectural structures. In learning about Ancient Rome it is good to understand that these were some of the best engineers and architects for not only their time period but ever.

These Romans gave to the world aqueducts and archways much to the betterment of human kind. It is difficult to imagine that such an ancient people as the ancient Romans could have created works of wonder that if replicated today without previous knowledge of the Roman way of engineering would be almost impossible to replicate.

The history of the Roman Empire reads like a great mystery novel with the ending being the demise of the once great and expansive Roman Empire. The root cause of the destruction of the Roman Empire can be attributed to the Roman civilization being spread too-thin and the division of the entire Roman Empire into an east wing and a west wing.

The fall of Rome can be attributed to a combination of attacks by the European Saxons and the Visigoths who were a barbaric tribe from what is now Germany and Austria. Rome which started out being led by great emperors such as Julius Caesar and Constantine is now constricted to a tiny yet very powerful religious Catholic diocese center known as the Vatican. The Vatican, the last bastion of Roman rule in the world is led by Christianity's highest ranking leader, the Pope.

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