30-Second Ancient Rome: The 50 Most Important Achievments of a Timeless Civilisation, Each Explained in Half a Minute

178 Pages·2014·5.15 MB·English

by  Matthew Nichols (ed.)

30-SECOND
ANCIENT ROME
The 50 most important achievements of a timeless civilization, each explained in
half a minute
Editor
Matthew Nicholls
Contributors
Luke Houghton
Ailsa Hunt
Peter Kruschwitz
Dunstan Lowe
Annalisa Marzano
Matthew Nicholls
Susanne Turner
You know that Rome wasn’t built in a day, but just how did a cluster of small hilltop
villages expand to become one of the greatest empires in history? Why did Romulus kill
his brother Remus? How was a legion organized? Did people really speak Latin? What
entertainment could you see at the Colosseum? And what was daily life like for a
Roman citizen? This book takes a novel approach to answering all these questions and
more.
30-Second Ancient Rome presents a unique insight into one of the most brilliantly
governed societies, where military might and expansive empire paved the way for
technological advances that helped shape our modern existence. From aqueducts to
sewers, from mosaics to medical diagnoses, this is the straightest road toward
understanding the 50 key innovations and ideas that developed and defined one of the
world’s great civilizations.
CONTENTS
Introduction
Land & State
GLOSSARY
Foundation
Site of Rome
Republican Government
Profile: Julius Caesar
Imperial Government
Empire & Expansion
The Roman Legion
The Roman Legionary
People & Society
GLOSSARY
Citizenship
Slavery
Social Class & Status
Profile: Augustus
Men & Women
Sex
Life in the Roman Provinces
Roman Law
Roman Life
GLOSSARY
Agriculture
Trade & Industry
Coinage & Currency
Eating & Drinking
Profile: Pliny the Younger
Time & Calendar
Entertainment & Sport
Medicine
Language & Literature
GLOSSARY
Latin
Education & Literacy
Drama
Rhetoric
Profile: Virgil
Prose Writing
Latin Lyric Poetry
Inscriptions & Graffiti
Thought & Belief
GLOSSARY
The Roman Pantheon
Imported Gods
Christianity
Profile: Constantine
Imperial Cult
Astrology & Divination
Philosophy
Death & The Afterlife
Architecture, Monuments & Art
GLOSSARY
Columnar Orders
The Colosseum & Circus Maximus
Temples
The Forum
Profile: Livia Drusilla
Triumphal Arches
Mosaic
Statues & Portraits
Tombs
Buildings &Technology
GLOSSARY
Fortifications
Roman Artillery & Siege Weaponry
Profile: Vitruvius
Housing
Baths & Hypocaust
Roads
Aqueducts & Sewers
Concrete & Vault
Resources
Notes on Contributors
Index
Acknowledgments
INTRODUCTION
Matthew Nicholls
Traces of the huge Roman empire remain all over Europe, from northern Britain
to Syria and the coast of north Africa. Anyone who walks the length of Hadrian’s Wall,
for example, following it for the 80 miles (130 km) or so from coast to coast through
the windswept countryside of northern England, is traveling through what was once a
far-flung Roman frontier. Yet even here, hundreds of miles north of Rome’s
Mediterranean heartland, there is much of Rome in evidence. The Wall itself, and its
string of neat, symmetrical forts, with characteristic bathhouses and headquarters
buildings, speak of the power and organization of the Roman army, and its formidable
architectural and technological capacity—and also of Rome’s desire to impose itself on
new territory, by force if necessary. In and around these outposts, finds of pottery,
coins, clothing, altars, and even private letters show how the soldiers and settlers
brought with them ways of living, eating, trading, worshipping, thinking, and writing
that began to transform Britain—along with many other parts of Europe, north Africa
and the Middle East—into a Roman province, leaving a lasting legacy. Such small finds
from this great military monument also remind us that historical events are made up
from thousands of smaller, private, stories.
Marcus Tullius Cicero, Roman statesman, philosopher, lawyer, and scholar. Remembered as one of the
greatest orators and his writings are the epitome of Roman Prose.
This picture is repeated at hundreds of sites, military and civilian, public and private,
all over the empire. We also have a rich body of surviving literature from Roman times,
transmitted over the centuries in copies of copies—so we can set Hadrian’s Wall in its
context by reading what ancient historical writers and poets said about Rome’s
conquest of Britain. From epic poetry to history, from speeches to medical treatises to
recipes, this rich body of literature allows scholars to explore very different aspects of
Rome’s long and colorful history—and newly discovered texts are still turning up, in the
dry sands of Egypt, in carbonized books from Herculaneum, and in old libraries.
The Roman empire still imposes on to the modern world with Hadrian’s wall, the defensive fortification in
northern England, cutting its way across the landscape nearly 2000 years since its creation.