Matthew Yang Zhou - History 6

Ancient Rome's Lasting Affects on us

6/25/2015

We should study Rome for many reasons, one of which is to recognize the lasting affects of Rome on us, which are divided into two groups, the positive group and the negative group. The positive effects on us are more obvious, and the negative effects on us are rather less obvious.

We study Ancient Rome for a lot of reasons. We study Rome to know how it affects us today, how the ancient people thought, how quickly the human race has developed, and also for other reasons.

Ancient Rome has affected us to this day. Rome has affected us positively, our architecture and engineering, our entertainment, our alphabet and numbers, our legal system, and our language. Our Architecture, Entertainment, alphabet, were affected be Rome's massive buildings, Their Baths', and also their alphabet, which is much like ours.

Ancient Rome has also affected us negatively. In this way, its affects on us are less obvious. Ancient Rome has affected us negatively through: their Legal system (rights and Fascism), through their welfare mindset (entitlements), and through their Socialist outlook. Our Legal systems is affected through Rome's Fascism, and our Socialist outlook is also much like theirs, with some exceptions.

Ancient Rome is very important to study and also important to know. Why is it important to know? Because Rome has affected our lives to this day.

Biblical Charecters

6/23/2015

Earlier in the year (of 6th grade homeschooling), I learned about some biblical characters. Joshua was one of my favourite ones that we learned about. Joshua led many battles, of which one of them was when he defeated Jericho. After being ordered by an angel that he should walk around Jericho seven times, and on the seventh time, he should let Priest blow trumpets, and everyone yell together.

Joshua was the son of Nun, an Israelite. He was chosen as a succeeder of leading Israel once Moses died. Joshua was famous for many wars against others, of which the destroying of Jericho was one. Joshua sent spies into Jericho to find the weak points. The spies were almost caught, if a prostitute did not hide them, then they would have been caught. Therefore the spies made a bargain with them. The spies would protect their family because the prostitute protected them. The widow said that every one in the city was trembling with fear, and this gave courage to all the Israelites.

Joshua once met the Commander of the Army of the Lord, and he said that Joshua should march around the walls for six days, and on the seventh, the priest shall blow the trumpets, then yell. Joshua obeyed this and after they had marched around several times, the Priests blew their trumpets and the men yelled. After this, the wall of Jericho fell, and the people killed everyone and every animal expect the family of the prostitute.

I thought that this part of the 6th grade semester was very interesting. Our teacher talked about some of the biblical Characters, and also important events that happened in the bible.

Athanasius and Ambrose.

6/1/2015

Athanasius and Ambrose were three church leaders whom had served the church after Constantine 1st. During those times, Christians were promoted by Constantine 1st, therefore lots of non-christians claimed to be Christians. These two church leaders were true in God and influential men.

Athanasius was born in a Egyptian, Christian family. They Athanasius was wealthy and also well educated. He attended the Catechetical School. At the Catechetical school he showed that he had a great thirst for knowledge, and showed wisdom and theological understanding. Later, he became the Secretary of a bishop, a deacon, and also became the patriarch of Alexandria! Athanasius struggled with a Hersey called Arianism. Arianism taught that Jesus was not fully God, nor fully man. Athanasius opposed this Hersey, but later, he was banished from Rome for 17 years because of this. The Council of Nicea destroyed this heresy and Unbanished Athanasius. A famous phrase for Athanasius' stand to Arianism is, "Contra Mundum", which means,"against the world".

Ambrose was born in a Roman Christian family in 340 AD. His father was the Praetorian {Prefect of Gaul(which is modern day France). There was a legend: Once a small swarm of bees settled on his face, they left him untouched, except there was a small drop of Honey on his face. All Church fathers had a sign, and Ambrose's sign was Honey. Ambrose studied literature, law, and also Politics. He wanted to follow his father. In 372, he became governor. When Ambrose was attending a meetings which would show who would be the next bishop of milan, Ambrose was unexpectedly appointed. Ambrose was untrained, therefore he hid for a week. The Emperor demanded him to come back. When Ambrose came back, he immediately baptized and changed himself. Ambrose was very famous with the people, and he fought alongside Athaniasius against Arianism. Ambrose condemned Theodosius for killing 7000 people and encouraged the outlawing of Pagan practices. Ambrose died in 397 AD.

Diocletian

5/26/2015

Diocletian rose through the ranks from a poor boy all the way to being an emperor; he went to the army, became the commander of the guard, and then went to the stage of being an emperor.

Diocletian was born in 244 AD to a poor family who lived in Dalmatia. Because he was poor, he would have never been important if he had not gone to the military. Diocletian joined the military in the 270’s. He quickly rose up the levels and became a general. In 283, he acted as the commander of the army, also known as the guard.

When emperor Numerian was assassinated, Diocletian was the first choice to be the emperor. Diocletian began ruling on November 20th, 284 AD. At that time, the Roman Empire had been in disarray for 50 years, therefore he knew he could not bring the whole Empire together by himself. Thus, Diocletian split the Empire into two parts. The East and the West.

Diocletian split the Empire with Maximian, another Roman captain. Diocletian ruled the West while Miamian ruled the East. Diocletian’s plan worked very well, for he and Maximian were not power-hungry. But there were still problems; people were at war through the Roman Empire about prices. Diocletian issued, “Diocletian’s Edict of Prices.” Yet no one listened to that decree.

During Diocletian’s reign, he and Maximian agreed to quit being emperor at 305 AD. Diocletian defeated many people whom had formerly oppressed the Roman Empire. Diocletian lived long enough to see the whole empire to fall again.

Diocletian had brought the Empire peace for a little time, but later, the empire fell into arrest again.

Farming and Mining

5/14/2015

Farming and mining were very important in Rome. Romans began farming very early, but because of war, most farms were abandoned. The Romans found very good mines, and by purifying and mixing minerals, they had a lot of very strong weapons.

Farming began very early in Rome, and because war made farms abandoned, farms were used less. As soon as the Roman Empire began, farms were in a great abundance. Very early on, Romans realized that their herds' waste would enrich the soil. They had an experiment to see which fertilizer was the best, and it turned out that one of the best fertilizers were a chicken's waste. Thus, we can say that the, "Modern fertilizer industry" was born from this experiment. People, who did not have herds, used house compost, like eggshells and ashes. The Romans also knew what crop rotation was. They planted beans and Alpha in alternate years. This was to replenish the soil.

Mining was very important in Rome. They learned from the Etruscans for where the rich mines were, and from the rich mine they derived a lot of minerals. They used purified tin and copper to make bronze; which was used in weapons. They also mixed copper and zinc to make brass; which was used for very fancy armour. But their most important thing that they discovered was how to harden iron into steel. This would give the Romans and new weapon that no one else had, the steel sword. Steel would not break in wars, and so it was a very valuable discovery.

Farming and Mining both were used for very important purposes: farming for food, and mining for war.

The Flavian Dynasty

4/7/2015

In the Flavian Dynasty there were three emperors: Vespasian, Titus, and Domitian. They reigned much longer compared to the former emperors.

Vespasian ruled for 10 years. His family was in the equestrian class, and that class was inferior to the patriarchs. Therefore, they had to get public offices by military accomplishments. When Vespasian was old enough, he went to the military. In the army, he worked from the lowest position to the highest position. He even became a legate! Vespasian Became consul in 51 AD, and later he was appointed as governor of parts of Africa. In 66 AD, the Jews revolted, and Vespasian was put in charge of the army. Vespasian was successful in stopping the rebellion of the Jews, thus his public position was made even higher than before. When he was fighting the Jews, Vitellius was reigning. The Senate did not like Vitellius, and so when Vitellius was reigning, the Senate appointed Vespasian as the next ruler. In 69 AD, Vespasian returned to Rome, and then defeated Vitellius to become the next emperor. During Vespasian's reign for 10 years, he was remembered as one of the better emperors. Vespasian furthered the empires hold over Britain, and also made improvements to the Roman Army and City. During Vespasian's reign, he sent Titus, his son, to take over Judea; they were rebelling once more. In his life, he survived several conspiracies, and put down many uprisings and revolts.Vespasian also began the Flavian Amphitheatre, which is also known as the Colosseum. In 79 AD, Vespasian died of an infection.

Titus ruled for 2-3 years. When Titus was sent out by his father, Vespasian to stop Judea from rebelling, Titus had a hard time. He fought the Jews for a long time, and finally won in 70 AD. This brought the Jewish nation to an end for a long time. The great temple was burned, and almost 1.2 million Jews were killed or captured.After Vespasian died in 79 AD, Titus took over. It is important to note that Vespasian's own son succeeded him. For most of the the succeeder was a grandson or adopted son. Titus was a very good ruler, and was known for his generosity. He helped the Roman citizens recover from a big eruption in Pompeii made by Mt. Vesuvius, and also helped them revive from a three day fire that happened in 80 AD. Titus also built several elaborate structures. After reigning for 2-3 years, Titus died of a fever.

Next in line was his brother, Domitian, who ruled for 15 years. Domitian strengthened Rome's economy, and also furthered the border defences. He was very popular with the people and the army, but to the Senate, he was a tyrant. Thus, the Senate assassinated him.

These three rulers ruled for a long time, and helped Rome recover from their former declination.

The Roman Military

3/16/2015

The Roman military was the most powerful one the world has ever seen. Rome was attacked often by other places. Therefore they had to organize a fighting force. Their fighting force began as a small one, but later on, it turned out to be the best military system.

At first Rome was just a place where a bunch of Farmers and Refuges lived. Whenever any land-owning citizen saw armies coming, they would report and go to the Field of Mars. At first, only land-owning citizens were allowed to go to war. The wars were very short, but if the wars lasted longer then the citizens who were in the war would be paid.

Later on, the Romans developed their own military system. In the army, there were groups of people called legions. Each legion held 4,200 soldiers, and had four classes of people. These were the four classes of people in the legion: the Triarii, Shield-bearing people, the Hestat, and the Velites. The Trarii were the strongest out of the four. Then were the people who hole shields, the Roman's shields looked like half of a cylinder, and were made so that a man could fit in the middle. They would hold these shields to certain directions, and so look like a big box on the outside. This Formation was called the Testudo formation. The Testudo formation is called the Tortoise formation in English. The third groups of people in the army were called the Hestat. They were young mean, and would throw spears into the ranks of the enemies. Last of all, there were the Velites. The Velites were young people, and would go separately to fight the enemies. These were the four ranks. These ranks were further organized into maniples that held 120 men each.

Commander Marius reorganized much of the army in 100 BC. He made it so that all citizens could join the army, not only land owning citizens. The soldiers’ wages were raised, and the soldiers' training was made so that both poor and rich citizens received the same training. Commander Marius made a very important part of the army called the Century. There were another four levels in the Century: the Centurion, Optimums, Signifier, and the Tesserarius. The Centurion was a leader of 100 mean in the legion. The Optimums was the second in command, while the Signifier would hold the big, Roman flag. The Tesserarius would keep all of the passwords, which were changed daily. The parts of the legion were also changed. The parts of the legion were also changed. Legions now contained 5,000 men each, and each was under control by a legatus. Every legion had some Auxillia and Golden eagle. The Auxillia were less trained people who could earn their citizenship by going to war (they would not be counted as part out the 5,000). The Golden eagle was special, when a legion did a good job, another ornament would be added to their golden eagle.

The Soldiers’ lives were very hard. They had very hard exercises everyday. They had to run, swim, jump, March, and throw javelins. They drilled very often, and discipline was very harsh. From person to legion they were punished. The Soldiers had to buy and carry theirs own things, including their armor and weapons. The camps were also made identically. The Roman armor included: Sandals or Boots (according to the weather), a Gladius, dagger, Javelin, shield, and light armor with cloths to prevent scraping.

The Roman Military was a very well organized one ever. They started out with only farmers and refuges, but later had a great, almost unstoppable army. They started out with a Legion that contained 4,200 soldiers, and later had 5,000 soldiers in each Legion. They later also had a Century! After a long time, the Romans had a well-organized army.

The Roman Games

3/4/2015

Lucius Tarquinius Priscus developed the Roman games. Lucius Tarquinius Priscus was a King of Rome. He outlined the area for the Circus and Maximus, which were otherwise known as the Chariot and Foot races.

There are two types of the Roman games, the morning games and the afternoon games. The morning games happened into the morning, and it was when armed Humans would be enclosed in an area to fight animals. Sometimes, an unarmed criminal or slave would be put into the arena. In the afternoon games, gladiators would fight each other for the fun of the emperor. Gladiators were people who were either slaves or criminals. There were at least 25 different types of Gladiators, but there were four main types. These four main types of Gladiators were the Samnites, Thracians, Retiarius, and the Murmillos. The only difference between the different types of Gladiators was the differences of their weapons and armours.

Chariot racing was another Roman game. The track was 1800 feet long and 600 feet wide. That means that the area of the track was about 108,000 square feet! The stadium held about 250,000 spectators. There would be 12 chariots, and the race was about 12 laps long. Chariot racing was very dangerous, because at sharp turns, most chariots get too bunched up and could crash. These races usually involved injuries, or even death. Even though those who survive and win could become quite rich and famous.

The Senators used the Roman games to sway the Romans to the Senators own choices. When they wanted popularity, they would start the Roman games. They gained all sorts of popularity through making the Romans happy, and so then the Romans would spread the word that the Senators were the best and then many people would come to like the Senators. Many human and animal lives, among with millions of dollars are wasted; they could have fun.

The Roman games were very different from the Greek games. The slaves did much of the heavy work, thus the Roman citizens had a lot of free time. The Roman games were just a distraction to forget about the Romans citizen’s lives. The results of games like chariot racing usually ended in injuries and deaths. On the other hand, the Greek games were for the worship of men. The Greeks wanted to win a title for themselves, and they did not want people to be injured.

The Roman games were very dangerous. Neither of the games was for the right purpose, which is to praise God. The Roman games were to have fun and go crazy, while the Greek games were to praise God's creation, us. The Roman games and Greek games differed greatly. The Roman's games were violent, and the Greek's games were peaceful.

Philip II of Macedon

2/27/2015

Philip II was the son of Amyntas III. He was born in 382 BC. Macedon was do be a thriving city for a time, when Philip II and his son, Alexander the Great were reigning. Philip II started reigning in 359 BC.
Philip II was first educated in Thebes, Greece. There, Philip II learned much about the Political laws. In 364 BC, Philip II went back to Macedon, his hometown. Philip II claimed his Kingship at Macedon in 359 BC, at the age of 23.
Philip II was very experienced in battle, and also had a great vision of what his future Kingdom would become. Philip II was a great strategist, and so he won a great many battles. Therefore, Macedon kept on growing bigger and bigger. To re-establish some areas former belonging to his father Philip II used both Alliances and Military force. He allied with those who were too strong for him to deal with now, and had war with those who he could conquer. When Philip II kept growing in power, he conquered those who he former allied with; he wanted to have more territory. Thus, he broke alliances with those who he formerly allied with.
Philip II died in 336 BC at the age of 46, reigning for 23 years; his chief (main) bodyguard, Pausanias assassinated him. He was assassinated while at the public. We do not know why Pausanias wanted to Assassinate Philip. Philip was buried in his own tomb, but was later transferred to the tomb of Alexander’s family.
Philip had succeeded greatly in fulfilling his goals. He was a great king, and made Macedon a very important kingdom. Philip II gained a lot of territory for his kingdom, Macedon. His son would prove to be even more powerful than he, and would gain a lot more territory. Philip II did many good deeds.

Numa Pompilius

2/25/2015

Numa Pompilius was a great Roman King. He was the successor of Romulus. He deferred from Romulus greatly. King Pompilius was a Sabine, and usually Sabines were rather peaceful. Numa Pompilius started reigning in 715 BC.

After Romulus' death, there was no clear successor; Romulus had not left one successor! Therefore, the Senators decided to reign by themselves for a time. The Senators were a group of 100 men. They were chosen by Romulus himself, and dealt with the law, The Senate formed 10 groups of 10 people each (for 10*10 = 100), and each group would reign for a time. During the groups turn, each person in the group would take turns reigning. This worked for a few years but later the citizens of Rome wanted a real King. They would vote for other people that wanted to be King, then the Senate would say, " YES," or, "NO." The people all voted for a Sabine named Numa Pompilius. Numa Pompilius was known for his Justice and Wisdom. The Senators wanted to reign by themselves, but they could find no reason to say, "NO" to Numa's being King. Hence, Numa was selected as the King.

During King Numa's peaceful reign, he built a famous temple to a Roman god named Janus. Janus was the god of boundaries, The building of the temple of Janus is a sign of his keeping peace. The important part of the building was not the inside, where the statues and other things were, but the important part was the temple doors.. Usually the doors are open in war, so as to increase the boundaries, but in peace, the doors were closed. In King Numa's reign, the doors were almost always closed, for his kingdom was almost always at peace.

Numa Pompilius was remembered for many things. King Numa developed the worship in the gods of Rome. He also reorganized the calendar of Rome. Moreover, Numa Pompilius made the position called the Pontifex Maximus. The Pontifex Maximus is otherwise known as the High Priest. This office was the most important one.

Numa Pompilius reigned from 715-673 BC. He was very different from Romulus. King Numa was peaceful, while the latter was warlike. They made a great mix; King Romulus increased the
boundaries, while Numa Pompilius developed it.