today Mr. Schick took us outside for class! we went over our homework assignment from last night.

ROMES EMPIRE DECLINED AND FELL

1. They faced poor harvests, disruption of trade, no more plunder from wars, Gold and silver drain inflation, and crushing tax burden

2. The Roman soldiers started fighting strictly for money and not for patriotism. The empire started to recruit Barbarians, who accepted lower pay but couldn't be trusted.

3. Constantine brought Christianity to the empire.  He also granted the Christians and all men freedom to follow the religion they chose. 

4. The Germanic tribes invaded the empire because the Huns began to move west, and they were afraid of the Huns. So destroying everything it their path, the Huns moved westward. The empire was unable to fight back because they were so disorganize and could not muster a medium sized army together.

5. Pros

-he restored the faith in the ancient gods of Rome

-granted freedom to all men to choose their own religion

-he beat the inflation

Cons

none! 

today we traded papers with people in our class. I traded with Vinny. His paper was good! I hope to do good on mine because it's 100 points.

Mr. Schick wasn't in class today, so we worked quietly on our 100 point paper. Our paper is about the differences between the Roman Empire and the Roman Republic.  I hope i do good on it!

Today we took a test on Rome!

Notes form Test

Religious troubles

• Christianity and Judism: monotheistic
• Romans had many gods, plus at times the emperor was viewed as a god
• AD 66: group of Jews called the Zealots tried to rebel, but Roman troops put them down and burned their temple
• The western wall today is the holiest of all Jewish shrines
• Half a million Jews died in the rebellion 
• Romans were harsh toward those who would not worship emperor
• especially Christians, who were viewed as followers of a new, upstart religion 
• often used for "entertainment" purposes in the Colosseum (defenseless against lions) 
• Despite the oppression, Christianity grew quickly - by AD 200,  around 10 percent of the people in the Roman empire were Christians 
• 
  

5/16/11

Roman Empire

• Octavian-AKA Caesar Augustus
• Begins Pax Roma-pd of peace and prosperity
• Built roads, aqueducts
• set up civil service to take care of roads, grain supple and postal service
• Augustus dies age 76 AD 14, and passes power to Tiberius
• emperor when Jesus was born 
• Jesus was a roman citizen, and a practicing Jew 
• at 30, he began his ministry (AD 31-33)
• preaching to the poor in the empire, and reaching out to outsiders
• Statements like "my kingdom is not of this world" made the Romans nervous, and they began to plan his execution
• governor of the roman province of Judaea, Pontius Pilate sentences Jesus to death by crucifixion
• Paul is instrumental in telling the world about Jesus' life, death, resurrection and message
• he travels far and wide: Cyprus, Anatolia, Athens, Corinth, Macedonia, Rome, Jerusalem, and maybe Spain and Britain
• he writes letters to many of those he spole to, these epistles are a part of the New Testament
• if not for the efforts of Paul, it is likely that Jesus remains an obscure preacher, instead of a central figure of the world's largest religions 
• The 100: A ranking of the most influential persons in History
• Muhammad
• Sir Isaa Newtown
• Jesus
• Buddha
• Confucius
• St. Paul of Tarsus
• As Augustus' stepson and adopted son, Tiberius succeeded Octavian
• although a great general, he was dark, somber, reclusive, and reluctant emperor 
• he referred to the Senate as "men fit to be slaves"
• Germanicus started out as Tiberius ally, asince he quelled a legion mutiny, but when it looked like he would succeed Tiberius, he got paranoid and had Germanicus killed
• died in AD 37 at the age of 77, giving way to....Caligula
• Good start
• in addition to being Germanicus' son, he was Tiberius' adopted grandson and great-nephew putting him next in line for emperor
• he started off well: granting bonuses to those in military, declaring treason trials a thing of the past, made government spending 
• began fighting with senate
• claimed to be a God
• cruelty and insanity, he slept with other men's wives and bragged about it, indulged in too much spending and sex, and even tried to make his horse a consul and a priest
• assassinated by his own aides AD 41 (age 28)
• Cladius
• Ostracized by his family because of his disablilities he was the last adult male in his family when Caligula was killed
• he rose to the occasion: he conquered Britain; he built roads, canals, and aqueducts; he renovated the Circus Maximus
• Had an awful marriage with Messalina, who was quite often unfaithful to him, even plotting to seize power for her lover Silius through a coup so Claudius killed both 
• Christianity and Judaism: monotheistic
• Romans had many gos, plus at times the emperor was viewed as a god
• AD 66: a group of Jews called the Zealots tried to rebel, but Roman troops put them down 
•