Justinian

The Eastern Roman Empire (The Byzantine Empire) was small after the barbarians took over the land. The Byzantine Empire was Constantinople and a little bit of land around the Aegean Sea. Then Justinian, the Emperor, made it bigger.

Justinian was the son of farmers. When he grew up, he did not want to be a farmer. He asked his parents if he could go to Constantinople and live with his uncle Justin, commander of the palace guard. His parents said, "OK." He went on a long adventure to Constantinople. When he got there he went to school. School was tough for him. He helped his uncle then his uncle became Emperor. His uncle adopted him because he really liked him. Justinian's uncle died so Justinian became emperor.

Justinian wanted to take back the Roman Empire. Was he successful? Yes, he was. Justinian had a problem. People had different laws in each part of the Empire. Justinian made a set of laws that everyone had to follow. He called the laws The Code of Justinian.

Barbarians and Attila the Hun

Name some barbarian groups:

Vandals, Huns, Visigoths

What happened to the Western Roman Empire?

It was defeated by the Vandals and the Visigoths?

What year do we say is the end of the Western Roman Empire?

476AD

Did the Eastern Roman Empire try to save them? Why or why not?

No, the Eastern Emperor was afraid that his city would be attacked if his soldiers left because he did not have enough soldiers, neither did the Western.

Who were the Huns?

The Huns were from Asia. They were nomads. People said their only home was on the back of a horse.

Who was Attila the Hun?

He was a greedy warrior. The Eastern Roman Emperor paid him to leave. Then Attila went to take the Western Empire. Honoria, the WRE's sister, sent him a letter asking him to save her from having to mary a weak man she did not love. Attila thought she wanted to mary him but she didn't. He made it South of the Alps and the Pope came to talk to him.

What did the Pope say that convinced Attila to leave and not go into Rome?

The Pope gav him a gift of gold and said there was no food in Rome and disease was everywhere.

Attila never married Honoria.

From Diocletian to Constantine

Diocletian Constantine's vision

The Roman Empire was way too big. Diocletian figured they needed another emperor to help. So, what diocletian did is he split the Roman Empire into two pieces, the West and the East. Diocletian ruled the East and another ruler ruled the West. They were worried that other people would not obey them, so they told people they were gods. Because Christians worshipped one God, Diocletian persecuted them. He persecuted them by hurting them, putting them in prison, and making it illegal to be Christian.

But then....after Diocletian retired people stopped persecuting Christians. 7 people shouted that they wanted to be ruler. But Constantine won. He saw a vision of a flaming, firey cross. Then he told his soldiers that all of them must have the letters of Christ's name and a cross on their shields. Then they went into battle and they won. Constantine became the ruler and a Christian. Constantine moved the capitol to Byzatium and then he renamed it Constantinople.

Saint Valentine

Today we read Saint Valentine by Robert Sabuda. It was about a doctor from ancient Rome. He was executed because he was a Christian on Febuary 14, 270AD. His name was Valentine. I thought that the book was a nice book. I liked the end of the book when one of Valentine's patient's were healed just from one of Valentine's letters and a prayer.

Circus Maximus and the Colosseum

Circus Maximus means the biggest circle. Circus Maximus was a race track for charriot races, like NAASCAR today. All of the people in St. Paul, Minnesota could fit in Circus Maximus. It was 7 football fields long. People went there because they wanted to see the races. They had their own teams they wanted to win, like we do today. Chariot racing was not safe at all because the people who were driving the chariots had to tie reigns on their chest. If the driver fell out of the chariot he would have to cut the reigns very quickly or he would get trampled and dragged and maybe die.
All of the people in Mankato, Minnesota could fit in the Colosseum. The Colosseum was for entertaining people. People liked to see Gladiators kill and fight each other. I do not think that that would be a good entertainment at all. Gladiators were slaves and prisoners. They fought because people forced them to.

Nero

After Augustus Caesar died there were a whole lot of emperors. Some of them didn't care about Rome. Nero was one of them. He like to play an instrument called the lyre. He liked to dress up and have fun. Nero was having a fun time with some of his favorite friends 35 miles from Rome. While, in Rome, it was burning. Some of the people were homeless and some of them died in the fire. Their things were all burnt. Nero thought that was fine, he didn't even care, he just sat up, watching the fire, and playing his little lyre. When he saw that Rome was burnt, he was very happy, he wanted to build a mansion and a huge garden. He built it and the people thought he made the fire. Nero knew he made a mistake and the people were very mad, so he tried to find somebody to blame. He blamed the Christians. Some Romans believe Nero's lies and they killed Christians. Finally, the Senate got really mad because Nero did not care about Rome. They sentenced Nero to death. When Nero hear about this, he was really scared and tried to run away but some soldiers found him. Nero knew he would die in the soldiers' hands so he stabbed himself. That was the end of Nero.

Jesus

Durring the Pax Romana (Roman peace) the people in Judea did not like being ruled by the Romans. They prayed and prayed that God would send a messiah to lead them in battle against the Romans. In Nazareth, Mary was told she would have a son named Jesus. Jesus was the messiah who would save people from sin. Some people followed him and some did not.

Octavian's Rise to Power

First of all, before Caesar died he adopted his nephew, Octavian. The people were very sad about Caesar because they loved Julius Caesar a lot. I think they were pretty mad at the Senators and I think they felt kind of safe with Octavian because he was Julius's nephew. So, the people supported Octavian and the Senate did not get the power that they really wanted. One of the first thngs Octavian did is he threw a big party for Rome in honor of his uncle, everyone was invited and he gave presants to the poor people. Octavian sold wheat at a very low price for the hungry people so they could make bread and cereal. He used some of his money to make sure that everyone had clean water. People were happy that they made a good choice in Octavian.
Octavian wanted to be consul so he asked the Senate and the Senate said, "You are too young!" The Senate had to agree, though, because the people elected the Senators and the people wanted Octavian to be consul. If the Senators did not agree they would be out of their jobs. As Consul, Octavian conquored other lands as his uncle did. Octavian was smart, he did not make the same mistake as Julius Caesar. Instead, Octavian, asked permission from the Senate for things that he wanted to do. He was really just pretending to ask so the Senators thought they were involved.
A few years later...Octavian tricked the Senate into makeing him the First Citizen (Emperor) and the Senate gave him a new name, Augustus Caesar. Augustus means blessed and majestic. The Senators named the month August after Octavian. Rome is not a republic, now. Augustus still asked the Senate permission so that Senators were still happy.

Caesar and Cleopatra part 2

Well, Caesar started to love Cloepatra so much that he said he would help her. For five months, Caesar's army fought friends of the Pharaoh. Then, the Pharaoh died and Cleopatra became the ruler.

Caesar had to leave because the Senators came back to Rome and wanted to defeat Caesar. Caesar had to go to Asia Minor first because he had to defeat people who were trying to free themselves from Roman rule. He defeated them in a very short war. People asked Caesar, "How did you do that?" and Caesar said, "I came, I saw, I conquored!" When he got back to Rome, people had a big parade for Caesar and it lasted four days! Then Caesar put a golden statue of Cleopatra in the temple of Venus. The Senators got an army together in Africa and told them to invade Rome so that they could defeat Caesar. They thought that Caesar had all the power and that made them feel very upset. So Caesar went to fight the Africans. Caesar won.

He went back to Rome. The Consuls made him Dictator for life. So, when he came back he had lots of power and he helped his soldiers find jobs and gave them places to live and he asked the poor people to move with the soldiers. The soldiers and the poor people didn't have to move there. He made a trench so that people could grow crops. Julis Caesar change the Roman calander, built new roads, and built a forum for people to meet.

Making Caesar Dictator for Life changed the country because they couldn't do anything, they couldn't disagree with him, they couldn't kick him out, they couldn't do anything. Caesar started to get really bossy, acting like a king. He wanted to have his face on a new coin, but only dead rulers could have their faces on a coin. That made people very upset. A group of Senators said that they wantd Caesar gone and they did not want him in charge for ever, so they decided to kill him.

What's going to happen to Caesar?

Caesar and Cleopatra part 1

When Pompey ran away from Rome he was still up to his tricks. He decided to go to Egypt for help to destroy Caesar. Caesar heard that Pompey was going to Egypt for help and he was worried that Pompey would cause trouble for Rome and Egypt. So Caesar said, "I will go to Egypt and put Pompey in prison."
Meanwhile...in Egypt they had something wrong themselves. They hadtwo rulers, one was a 15 year old Pharaoh and one was his 21 year old sister named Cleopatra. They both wanted to rule Egypt themselves. So Cleopatra's brother thought that he did not need his sister one bit and threw her out of Egypt.
Pharaoh heard that Julius Caesar was comming and he was afraid that Julius would conquor Egypt but he also heard that Pompey was comming and so he got his guards to kill Pompey. Paraoh thought that Julius Caesar would be happy that he killed Pompey and would not make war with them. Instead, Julius Caesar, when he got there, he was sad because he just wanted Pompey in prison. He went to the castle and meant to tell the Paraoh that he just wanted Pompey in prison but Cleopatra was there and wanted him to help her get rid of her brother. She asked him very kindly and said that she will rule and share all of Egypts treasures with him.

Wait for part 2 to find out what Caesar chose to do.

Crossing the Rubicon, No Going Back

Well, Julius Caesar was in Gaul conquoring a bunch of lands. Powerful people in Rome were jealous of Caesar because he had the power and the love of the people and they wanted the power. Pompey was mad, extremely jealous of Caesar so he went to the Senate and convinced them to send Julius Caesar a note. The note said, "you better get home and come alone!" So Caesar got his best soldiers and left Gaul and went to the alps. He had to cross a river called the Rubicon right before he got into Italy. He broke the law by crossing the Rubicon with his soldiers. People said, "Julius Caesar crossed the Rubicon!" Then, Pompey's whole army deserted him and went to Caesar and wanted to be in Caesar's army. Senators who did no like Caesar ran away with Pompey because they were afraid. The Senators and Pompey ran away to Greece. Now Caesar is running the empire.

Julius Caesar

1. Worked hard
2. He won land for Rome
3. He was a Consul
4. Ambitious
5. Gave his money to poor people
6. He was a General
7. Smart
8. Father died when he was 16
9. All powerful ruler of Rome
10. Student
11. Writer
12. Determined
13. He took good care of his soldiers
14. He was a great speaker
15. He told people that he was descended from Venus

Hannibal and the Second Punic War

Once upon a time there was a young man whose name was Hannibal. When Hannibal was 9 years old his father was a great general of Carthage. Hannibal wanted to be a warrior of Carthage like his father. When he got older he became a General. Hannibal wanted to destroy Rome so he got an army together. The army had elephants, horses, and soldiers. He went to Spain to pick up some more soldiers. Then he crossed the Pyrenees Mountains with the elephants to scare Rome because they had never seen elephants. Next he forced the elephants to go on a raft to sail across a river and then he went over the Alps. Going over the Alps was very hard because it was steep, cold, and people were throwing rocks on their heads. A lot of the people and elephants and horses died. Finally they got across the Alps, but Rome was waiting for them. When they got down from the mountains, they fought. The Carthaginians lost the second Punic War. 50 years later they fought another war and in that war Carthage lost again.

The Punic Wars

Rome and Carthage wanted the Mediterranean Sea and Sicily. So they fought for 100 years. We call their wars the Punic Wars.

The Romans were used to fighting on land and the Carthaginians fought in the sea. Carthage had ships and more talent than the Romans for fighting on the water and for making the ships. The Romans waited until one of the Carthaginian ships broke down and then they took it apart and copied it. Normally, a ship would have to crash into another ship and sink it, but instead, the Romans added something more. They added a big hook so when they were at battle they could throw the heavy hook and the hook would get onto the deck and the Romans would grab the rope from the hook and pull the other ship to their ship. Then they would get onto the Carthaginian ships and fight with spears and swords. This worked for the Romans. The wars went on and on so finally the Romans sent soldiers to Carthage. A Roman consul, Regulus, was caught and put in prison. Some Carthaginian soldiers told him they would set him free if he would make peace between Rome and Carthage. If he did not make peace, then the next day he would have to go back to prison in Carthage. So he went back to Rome and told them "don't make peace" because the Romans are winning. When he told them he had to go back to Prison in Carthage the people said, "why can't we send someone else?" He said, "Shall a Roman not keep his word?" The next day he went back to Carthage and in prison.

Regulus was right. The Romans won the first Punic War.

Regulus should have listened to his children and wife and stay in Rome. If Regulus was my dad I would have told him, "you need to stay home, dad, it is not fair if you go."

Rome's First Roads

Romans built roads because they needed to travel faster and the roads they had were very hard to travel.

First, to start with, they dug a big, deep trench and then poured sand on, a nice layer of sand.

Next, they poured small stones and then they put a clay mixture like concrete on top of the little rocks. The concrete was made of volcanic ash, a white powder called lime, and water. On top of the clay mix they put bigger rocks like our patios that we have at our houses. They put pillars to show you how far away the next town was.

Romans built thousands of miles of roads all over Italy and even past Italy. Some of the roads we can still see today, but not all of them. One road is called the Appian Way and they still use it.

Romans built so many roads that people said, "All roads lead to Rome." But that is not true, not all roads lead to Rome. But the reason why they said that is the roads started there and there were so many of them.

Also something they did with their concrete was make so many other things with it like apartment buildings.

The Romans also built aqueducts to get water because there were more people coming to Rome and they needed more water. Aqueduct means "to lead water". They built sewars to bring the icky water out of Rome so that no sickness happened.

For a good video on this you can watch "Engineering and Empire: Rome" by the History Channel.

Cincinatus

People came and were wrecking the Roman people's things and robbing them and burning their houses. The people wanted to kill the men and take the women and children as slaves. The Romans weren't afraid because they though it would be easy to drag the bad people back to their places. The Romans sent almost every fighting man to fight the bad guys. Then the Roman soldiers went to fight them, but the bad guys threw boulders in their way and made a trap. Some soldiers ran back to Rome and told the people what had happened and they said, "go to Cincinatus and he shall help you." They went to Cincinatus, a man who used to be a rich consul but he was only a poor farmer now, and they gave him the power of a King. He sent orders to boys and guards so that they could destroy the bad guys and drive them back to their places. 16 days after, they appeared with good news, they drove them back to their places. Then Cincinatus gave the power back to the Senators and he went back to his plow and his farm.

New Roman Government

Who were the leaders, how many were there?

2 leaders called consuls

Who were the people who helped rule Rome and how many were there?

300 men from important families called senators

What was the job of the senators?

advise the consuls

What do we call Rome's new kind of government?

Republic

Tell me about who could vote and be in the government.

People who owned land could vote and just men could run the government. But, they did not get paid, so rich people (an important family), were the only people who could run the government.

Horatius

The story begins a long time ago when the last Roman king was cruel. They got so mad at the king and then finally, they kicked him out. The king of the Etruscans heard of this and decided he wanted to rule Rome too. The Romans did not want a king at all, "No more kings!" The Etruscan King, who lived across the Tiber River, made a great big army to attack Rome. The Romans were not strong enough and did not have enough people, so they set soldiers to watch all the places, especially the bridge over the Tiber River. The rest of the people hid inside the walls. One morning, some guards saw the Etruscan army nearby, very close, comming towards the bridge. Horatius, a brave Roman soldier, was guarding the bridge. He told them to cut down the bridge as fast as they could. He said, "me and two other soldiers, guarding the bridge, will keep the army away." They cut down the bridge and the other soldiers ran back to the other side while Horatius fought the soldiers. The bridge collapsed and Horatius knew that the city of Rome was safe. Then a soldier threw a dart and hit Horatius' eye and got his eye out. Horatius jumped in the water because he saw his house and it encouraged him. He sank because his heavy armor was on. The people thought that they would not see Horatius again. But Horatius made it across because he was the best swimmer in Rome. The Romans felt really happy that their friend made it across the Tiber River and they gave him as much land as he could plow in a day and they made a statue to honor him. They called him One-Eyed Horatius.

I thought this story was very nice. I think Horatius was a very good man and he was a strong, saving man. If I was Horatius I would take my armor off first or while I was under the water.

Romulus and Remus

The story sounds a little bit like the story of Moses. Romulus and Remus were going to be thrown into the Tiber River, but instead they got put in a basket because the servant couldn't bear having them be dead. He put the basket in the river and it was found by a wolf, but the wolf did not eat them, it instead took care of them as if they were it's own. Then, it became summer and a farmer found them in a cave and took them home and showed them to his wife. They named them Romulus and Remus. They grew up to be strong men and fought with robbers.
They wanted to build a city on 7 hills so they got every shepherd they knew to help them. Everything was well until Romulus decided he wanted to be king. Then his brother said, "I will show you how silly a wall this is" and he leaped over it with one bound and when his feet touched the ground, an angry shepherd pounded him with his shovel and he died. So, his brother named the city Rome after himself. There were 7 kings of Rome and Romulus was the first king.
We do not know if this is a true story or not.

What I think is silly, is that Romulus wanted to be King, but, Why don't they both be king? I think most of it is true.