The Great City of Rome

Reading the very creative novel “Roma”, it shows how very important war, religion beliefs, and conquring others, even if its your own family, can have an impact on a common society. The author of this book is Steven Saylor, and Illustrated by an unknown individual. The year that the hardcover copy of the novel was published in the year of 2007. The novel’s publishing location is St. Martin’s Press, Inc. 175th Fifth Avenue, New York, New York. The novel discusses the ups and down of the Roman empire, from the religion beliefs, to the total wreck of disaster the Empire faced later on down the line of the history timeline.

The novel informs about the invading army that were able to get to the outskirts of Rome. The rise of the religion Christianity was really something that changed and had an impact on the Roman, especially during this time era. Year 313 C.E the emperor at the time Constantine the Great, the toleration of Christianity. Constantine the Great decided that to make Christianity the official the religion of the empire. The policies and the rules began to change very drastically now that there is a new religion that is in full effect. Christianity was now officially in the mix of the Roman Empire and the Christians only believe in 1 God, and it was not the emperor.

Constantine was losing a lot of his authority day by day because the citizens because the citizens only served 1 God, and it was not him. The Visigoths caused havoc all through the city, taking out anyone and anything that was in the path of destroying the empire. The novel stated that about for the last millennium, this was the first time the city was going out of control and is now in the hands of citizens that are not Roman. This was shocking for the empire because this was the first time that Rome was took over by force, so no one really knew how to help plus being outnumbered by the army. The author of the book is Steven Saylor. Born March 23, 1956, and was known for ancient history novels such as Throne of Caesar, Furies of Wrath, Raiders of the Nile, Catilina’s Riddle, and Rubicon. The society structure scene of my source was based in the time era of B.C. which represents Before Christ. The Roman government system was run by republican house leaders. The society structure came apart when the Romans were able to overpower the Etruscan higher anarchy in the year of 509 B.C.E. The Etruscan was being over the power of the Romans for over hundreds of years. The Romans were able to claim their government system after they were considered citizens.

Romans were now able to choose who they wanted to represent them in government and on the behalf of the empire. The highest positions in the Roman government was ran by only two leaders known as consulus. Most of the citizens during the time era were very involved with how the government was basically being operated. During this time the citizens that were considered lower class basically was given no type of say so dealing with the Roman government system during that era of time. The entire Roman empire citizens were unisex, but only the male citizens were allowed to vote for the House of Representatives. In 449 B.C.E , the leaders of the government at the time carved some of Rome’s most important rules of law in the great twelve tables. The twelves tables were actually the first set of laws to be documented and written down.

The laws were really quite aggressive, what I mean by that they are partaking in the action of murder. Senate history goes far as back as the beginning time in the Rome. Time went on and the group expanded to 300 members. When the kings were expelled and the republic was finally formed the most powerful man was up next would be the senate. Instead of advising the head of state, it made sure that the chief executive were elected. The 3rd century B.C.E. has began, the Roman Empire had already overpowered may other territories around them. The Senate decided to pass laws in the curia, a large building that is located on the grounds of the Roman Forum. Julius Caesar decided to create a very much bigger curia for the expansion of the Senate. The early Romans were always dealing with altercations with the surrounding neighbors around the empire area.

The Romans decided to start a fight with the Carthaginians, during that war the city of Rome was almost overpowered by them. Carthage was a city it was known as today’s Tunisia located in the north region of Africa. The city was a very successful trading civilization unit, who basically wanted to start a way with the city of Rome. Both of the cities fought noy just one war, but three bloody war, known as the Punic wars in 264-145 B.C.E. Control in the western Mediterranean sea trade was the reason that the war was indicated. The second war, the Carthaginians general successfully invaded Italy by traveling across the appalachian mountains riding using the animal elephants as there transportation. The Romans took a very heart crushing lost, but the Carthaginians however could not overpower the big city of Rome itself.

When the 3rd war began to take place the city of Rome was ready end the war with the city of Carthage once and for all. City of Carthage was a successful area for the trading unit, the great city of Rome put Carthage to an end by burning the city down to the ground. Legend says that the Romans poured salt into the soil of the city so nothing could ever try to grow there again. The Roman Republic was now safe because of the defeat of Carthage. Rome was really big on the ancient history of art, due to what the sculpture symbolizes. A popular form of Greek art is pottery, kraters, vases, and vessels, they served both aesthetic, and practical purposes. Ancient Greek art tells stories of the importance and the achievements of human beings. The art was really meant to honor the success of the Gods, those key Gods were created and imaged in human forms.

The artwork was government sponsored the Roman Republic, and that means it was put on display. Art and architecture were important source of citizen pride and was shown all over the city of Rome. The ancient Greek art sculptures were made of either wood, or made of stone, and only a handful of a few are still standing to be seen. The majority of the mass sculptures were freestanding, human form, and nude. Romans citizen thought that the human body was a type beauty art masterpiece to their eyes. Early greek art statues that were known as kuros was a more of a stood tall, and rigid type of structured statue. Years passed over through time, and the greek sculptures started to adapt a more natural relaxed type of appearance, with the hip thrust on one side, arms and knees with a slight bend, and the head turned to just one side.

The greek also did paint as a form of art, but their paintings only have little remainings left. Most of the Romans paintings were founded on ceramic pottery. The two major styles have a red figure and a black figure as the base of the art sculptures. Pictures of the paintings art work displays the heroic and the tragic stories that dealt with the Roman Gods and the humans. The Ancient athens parcels commanded the construction of the major temples on the acropolis. Built as a tribute to the great Athena, the Goddess of wisdom.

There was 3 type of columns that were sculpted by of columns, that were sculpted by the Roman. The Doric, Ionic, and the Corinthian style was used depending on the region and and the texture of each sculpture. Ancient Romans were quite the citizens that loved to compete in competition no matter what the task was. Year after year all of the cities sent more of the muscular husky humans humans to cities to compete in festival games that were held by the Gods. Important and prestigious were the games that were held in Olympia to honor Zeus, King of the Gods. Games took place summer season once every four years. The earliest Olympic documentation was recorded.

In the final analysis “Roma” the novel discussed war, religion beliefs, and conquering even if it's the ones that are the closest to you. This source was very unique and reliable on the events and history of the Roman Empire. Text from the novel informs about the start of Christianity and the impact it put on society today. Entertainment from the novel was very good, not only that but very informational. The fiction in this story was expired by true events that took place in the Roman empire. Names such as Caesar, Zeus, and Athena and many more were mentioned many times in this novel. The war of with the Carthaginian citizens, and three different battles that were fought, Carthage being defeated in the end for good. Rome's most unique and historical art pieces and paintings. The way that the naked human body is symbolized as a beautiful outstanding piece of art. Government was started when all of the kings were considered being expelled. The republic was started and violent and aggressive laws were back B.C.E. Women were the take care of the household and could not be on the chair of government only males can. The lower class romans were the ones who did not have a say so in politics of that era. Rome had to be divided so the people in the higher chairs of the government could provide where the romans cities were located.

Conclusion

From the above, we can conclude that Ancient Rome was a very harsh and tough civilization. The 12 tables were the first human laws to ever to to be wrote down and documented. The Kings were kicked off their high thrones after religious beliefs came into play with the Roman citizens and realized that their king was not their God to worship. If a child was dreadfully deformed the parent had to kill it. Most of the laws resulted someone getting severely hurt or even death. War was big in this time of era because people countries wanted expand their land as much as possible. Land was big in this time of history and having the land under the proper control by a higher chairmen thing can go far left and cause corruption to the society of The Great City of Rome. Being overpowered by others and being able to fight out of it it and regaining it back to get your independence.

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