Exploring, discovering and experiencing cultures and lifestyles around the Globe is a perfect way to enrich your life, knowledge, and imagination. Many civilizations have enriched life and history with plenty of events, achievements, and stories that we should learn from. Now you can just reach the past in the blink of an eye. All what you have to do is to get a mug of your favorite drink and get ready to go back through times and long years ago to know a lot about one of the greatest civilizations that mankind has ever known....the Roman Empire.
Ancient Rome, the cradle of one of the greatest Empires in history was founded when a small group of pastoralists settled in the center of Italy, where a city was established over seven hills covered by forests at the banks of Tiber river. This river has provided an appropriate path to the sea, which is located about 24 kilometers to the west of Rome. However, Rome was far enough from the sea to avoid raids of sea pirates. The Hills of Rome were so steep, which aided in the defense against enemies. And near from Rome, there were fertile soil and excellent building materials, like many other factors that contributed efficiently in the Renaissance of the Roman Empire that was all started inside and around the city of Rome which was founded in 753 B.C.
But later, it began to unravel and scatter and at last the Germanic belligerent tribes who were maniac about war, toppled the last Roman Emperor in the year 476.
The steady population growth had provided to Rome great abilities for expanding the number of soldiers and army forces, which Rome required for expansion.
The Italian Peninsula has fallen gradually under the rule of the Romans and extended in the Mediterranean Sea prominently. Italy thus occupied an intermediate position among the countries surrounding this sea. In the north, the Alps mountains helped in the protection of Italy from the invaders coming from Central Europe. But the mountain passages allowed only a few of the settlers to cross through, the settlers who were attracted by moderate climate of Italy and its fertile soil.
The Roman rule has spread gradually in the countries bordering the Mediterranean sea. The Romans called this sea, the Roman sea. The Roman Empire extended at the peak of its power in the second century A.D. to about half of Europe till the British islands in the North, the biggest part of the Middle East, the northern coast of Africa and to the Arabian gulf in the east.
The Roman Empire had significantly impacted on the development of Western civilization; as this empire was very extensive, and lasted for a long time, Latin has become the language of the Romans veterans, Latin, the basis for the French language, Italian and Spanish languages, Romance languages and others. The Roman law also provided the basis for legislative systems of most of the countries in Western Europe and Latin America. The Roman principles of justice and political system contributed in the establishment of the Governments in a large number of the countries in the West. Even more, some Roman roads, bridges, and culverts were used as models by engineers in subsequent ages.
It is possible that the number of population of the Roman Empire, at its peak, was between 50 and 70 million inhabitants, of whom almost about one million in the city of Rome, and five to six million in the rest of Italy.
Rome was the capital of the Roman Empire, and the largest of all cities. It was unprecedented for an ancient city to approach prosperity and a population size such as this size. Alexandria city in Egypt, was the second largest city in the Empire with a population of 750,000 inhabitants. Other important cities found in the Empire as Antioch in Syria and Constantinople (currently Istanbul) in Turkey.
Millions of people, who have lived in the Roman Empire spoke several languages and followed different traditions and religions. But the Roman Empire was under a strong legal system and a consistent rule and that was and still a landmark achievement that brought attention and admiration to this Empire since ancient times and up to the present time.
The Roman Empire had natural resources, fertile wheat fields in Sicily and North Africa, rich mines of minerals in Spain and Britain, and marble quarries in Greece. The Romans also found dense forests in Minor Asia, vineyards and olive groves in the Gaul's territories (currently France, Belgium and part of Germany).
Countries that were under the domination of the Roman Empire had major differences in traditions, and languages. Cultures of people in Egypt, Mesopotamia (Iraq), Palestine, and Greece were the most ancient civilizations and older than that of Rome. But peoples, in each of Britain, Germany and Gaul's countries have known more advanced civilization in the Roman empire. The government employees and members of the upper tier in all regions of the Empire had spoken two languages, Latin and Greek. But most of the vanquished peoples continued to use local languages; in each of Gaul's country and Britain, for example, people spoke the Celtic language, in northern Africa the Berber language and in Syria and Palestine the Aramaic language, while in Egypt they spoken the ancient Egyptian with Coptic dialect.
The population of ancient Rome was divided into multiple layers of society. A few numbers of the Romans were belonging to the upper-class. The members of the Senate and their families were the most influential among the members of this class. But most of the people were from lower classes with almost no prestige and socially inferior. Within the last category itself, the Romans differentiated between citizens and bondage was very common. The category of citizens has included small farmers, workers, and soldiers, while most bonded people have been captured in wars as pows. They were probably bought or given their liberty and became free, and then citizens in the end.
With the expansion of the Roman world, a new social class emerged which enjoyed a great importance, the class of cavalry, that consisted of wealthy landowners and business owners. Its personnel occupied, in presence of emperors, important government positions, and they also contributed to the management of Civil Services of the empire.
Cities in the Roman Empire were centers of trade and culture. The Roman engineers have planed the cities in a perfect manner as they have built public buildings in proper places, and supplied them with water and sewerage networks. Emperors and rich people paid the necessary funds for the establishment of large public buildings, such as: baths, sports stadiums and theaters. In the heart of the city, the Roman forum is located, which is a large square surrounded by an open-air markets and governmental buildings and temples, mingling the rich and the poor in this vociferous field, and in the baths, theaters and playgrounds.
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