Part FIVE = Rome

The Romans.

The next section of history that we are going to look at is From Rome to The Middle Ages = 27BC to 467AD.

The Romans were the ones who developed the LATIN alphabet. Would you believe that this alphabet is ALMOST readable by us today?!? This is because a lot of the letters are very similar to our own modern alphabet.

The Romans are also famous now for the technology that they introduced to the world, like the following...

AQUEDUCTS: These took water from waterfalls and springs all the way to the cities, where this clean water could be used to wash, clean and cook with, as well as use it to grow crops with.

ROADS: These are famous for being built in straight lines, taking the most direct route from one place to another. How efficient is that?! Unlike modern roads, they were VERY well built and were made to be VERY long lasting. To do this they were built in layers, with silt underneath to lay the rocks on. They were so good in fact, that some of them still survive until today! I bet our motorways won't be around in over a thousand years time!

MILITARY: This was a very efficient group of soldiers, which when compared to their enemies who were just unorganised rabble.

They would used a layer of shields to protect themselves and were hard to break through. This made them a very successful army indeed.

Using their roads, armies could be quickly maneuvered to new uprisings at villages and put a quick stop to them.

Surprisingly, only a relatively small amount of Roman soldiers of about 150,00 men, managed to control large areas of various countries.

At the time, Rome itself had a population of about ONE million people of a world population of about 300 million. Compare that today, to today's population of about 6 billion people.

SCULPTURE: This particular subject moved forward greatly under the Romans.

It was considered a very important sign of wealth, if you had a sculpture done of yourself and the more realistic it was, the better, as it meant you could afford to employ the best of craftsmen.

A good likeness was also believed to stop you from coming back from the underworld and haunting your family. Today, in many places around the world, these sculptures can still be seen in very good condition.

Sculptures not only consisted of just heads but also large freezes and multi-personned enactments. Again these were something only the rich could afford.

MONEY: The Roman Empire was the first to use metal as a monetary system. They were also the first to put writing onto the coins along side portraits.

EMPIRE: Even with their relatively few troops, people abroad were convinced rather than beaten in a lot of cases, to accept the Roman culture, by bringing wealth and a better standard of living and a Republic to their countries. The idea of a Republic was new and it involved voting others into power. Through this, the Romans managed to develop culturally, with which the Romans came to control the people. They also brought in Cultural Imperialism, with one leader, leading the many.

This Empire lasted about 500 years, during which they managed to convince the people to pay taxes to keep up this standard of living that they had been introduced to.