This year I learned a lot about Roman history, culture, and beliefs. I’ve always been fascinated with Romans and Greeks and I was excited to learn that I was getting to know more about them in this year’s history. I learned how there are some things that we still use today thanks to the Romans. I think that the most fascinating thing that I learned this year was the Roman games. I don’t exactly know why I found that the most interesting. Maybe it’s because it shows how powerful the Roman empire could be and how violent its people were.

Slaves of the Romans usually did all the heavy work so the Romans had lots of free time.  When the empire first began the Romans held the game for 93 days. Lots of time, money, human and animal lives were wasted on the games. Emperors and politicians used the games to gain popularity.  Lucius Tarquiniass Prscus was the first king of Rome to prompt the games. He outlined the area that would become the Circus Maximus for the chariot and foot races. Later on the Colosseum and other amphitheaters were built for watching the other games that were held. The Circus Maximus was 1800 feet long 600 feet wide, the stadium was 250,00.  The races that were held had up to 12 chariots and 7 laps in length. The races were dangerous and resulted in death or injury. Champions could become rich and famous. 

There were two different types of games. Morning and Afternoon. In the morning animal ‘hunts’ were held. Sometimes gladiators fought animals, or defenseless criminals were fed to the animals. 

The afternoon games were the main focus of the games since it was the gladiator fights. The gladiators were slaves or criminals that were forced to fight. They mainly fought to the death but could ask the emperor for mercy if they had fought well. There are four main popular types of gladiators. Samnite, Thracian, Retiarius, and Murmillo. The Samnites wore a plumed helmet, carried a short sword and a large shield. Thracians had a curved sword and had a helmet. Retiarius carried a net, a trident, a dagger and they had no helmet. The Murmillo had a helmet, loin cloth, had gladius and had a tall shield. 

Sometimes the amphitheaters were flooded and gladiators fought each other on ships. The city of Rome had revolved around the games and all work ethic was lost. The focus on the games was one of the main reasons for Rome’s collapse. 

Another fascinating thing I learned about was Mark Anonty and Cleopatra. The thought of actually finding out why they were so important instead of trying to figure out references from movies and TV shows was exciting. Not only was Roman and Greek culture fascinating but so was Egyptian culture. 

Right after Julius Caesar’s death there had been a struggle in Rome for someone to take over and rule.  That’s when the Second Triumvirate was formed. The Second Triumvirate had  Octavian, Mark Antony, and March Lepidus. They were legally empowered to rule Rome for 5 years. Together they worked together to clear Rome of their enemies and the opponents of Julius Caesar.  They all had equal power in the arrangement, however it was clear that Mark Anonty and Octavian each wanted to be the main one in charge.  

Lepidus avoided any struggles with the two men and retired later on. After he retired Antony took Egypt and Octavian took Rome for them to rule over. However that still wasn’t enough for the two of them. Both men still wanted to rule over both Rome and Egypt but decided to keep the peace for a while. That was until Antony fell in love with Cleopatra the Queen of Egypt.

Antony and Cleopatra formed a private empire together. They were trying to build up Egypt’s strength against Rom and Ovtavian but they lost the battle. 

The reason for Ovtavian fighting Antony and Cleopatra goes back to the time when Julias Caesar was still alive. Cleopatra wasn’t a native Egyptian but a Greek, however she had been brought up to be the next Pharaoh and she turned to Egyptian culture. As she was fighting her brother for control of Egypt she met Julius Caesar and they fell in love. He helped her win control over Egypt, Caesar proposed that she could still rule Egypt from Rome if she would come with him. She agreed however she didn’t get the welcoming she thought she was going to have from the Romans and she went back to Egypt after Caesar’s assanation. Which brings up back to why Ovtacian fought Antony and Cleopatra. When Antony fell for Cleopatra he divorced his first wife who happened to be Octaivan’s sister. 

When the Egyptians were defeated someone told Antony that Cleopatra died in battle. So he tried to kill himself. He was still alive when he was brought back to Alexandria and he died next to Cleopara who also committed suicide.

This all led to the victory of Octavian and the fact that the Romans now only had one ruler. 

To be honest the story of Cleopatra and Mark Antoney sounds like a modern day TV drama that goes on for half a season. But it’s still interesting to learn. I’ve learned so much from this year and I can’t wait to see what I’m learning about next year. I don’t there was a part of the history class that I disliked, and thanks to this class for the first time history has been considered one my favorite subjects.