Saints

According to Christianity nowadays, a person becomes a saint by following a process named canonization. However, hundreds of years ago, the title of saints was accomplished in different ways. In the Eastern Orthodox religion John the Baptist would be considered a major religious figure. He was a prophet and even before Christ was born, he preached that the Messiah was coming. Herod, the leader at the time, got jealous and scared of the existence of Messiah and the thought of his power being endangered. Therefore he cruelly ordered that all new born male babies would be killed, however he didn't manage to achieve his goal. John the Baptist is also believe to be the man the baptized Jesus and many other in the Jordan River. His death is interesting as well. St. John was beheaded by Herod after being imprisoned. He was imprisoned because he reproved Herod for divorcing his wife and marrying his brother's wife, Herodias. Herodias felt alarmed. On Herod's birthday Herodias's daughter danced and impressed her father. He granted her anything, and when his wife heard that, she made the innocent girl ask for St. John's head.

  

Greeks, Romans or Byzantines?

In my opinion the Romans deserve all pride. It is true, they copied the basic government, architecture and technology from the Greek but they upgraded and made the best of it. They evolved the simple ideas and turned them into something that influences our lives majorly. It is true, the Roman Civilization struggled and fell terribly, but while it flourished, you could clearly see it was the most advanced.

They had an amazing army- one of the greatest the world had ever seen. They conquered to no limit with organized and intelligent strategies. The Romans were amazing engineers as well. They created the arch, and many other inventions with great impact on our world today. One of the most important ones being concrete which led to the development of roads and better, more stable buildings. They also created the first sewer system, still used today; and aqueducts. The Romans developed the government that most of our countries politics’ are based on. All starting with the famous 12 tablets. They had great ways of entertaining the people. Building the Coliseum was revolutionary. Amazing ideas bloomed every day. Christianity influenced it too. Great architectural achievements beautified the city. Peace, order, and a flourishing empire. But all good things come to an end.

Therefore I believe that the Romans were the most advanced. The Greeks may have started it but they weren’t even close to the Roman accomplishments. The Byzantine Empire just combined them together and hoped that by mixing two great civilizations together, everything will end up well. 

Reflection- Rome + Christianity

1) For this test I hardly prepared at all however I believe I have done a pretty good job. I didn’t feel the need to study a lot; I just went over some of the mind maps and roughly re-read through my notes and blogs. I think we already knew everything from class work as well as homework therefore we didn’t need to study a lot. The teaching itself was very effective. As usual I left it all for the last moment and on the test if, I would have studied poorly like I did without knowing anything before I wouldn’t even pass. We’ve learnt everything we needed too through our lessons and didn’t need that much reviewing. However, next time I plan to be more organized, not cram up and study even more.

2) The most surprising thing I’ve learnt during this unit was how many accomplishments the Romans had and how not only their inventions, but their ideas as well. It's shocking how they impacted our world from amazing technology we wouldn't survive without to religion and beyond.

3) If we had more time to spend on Roma and Christianity I would love to learn more about the many fascinating monuments in Rome today- not only the Colosseum. Also, more about how it developed in the Eastern part of the Empire.

Blog Wordle

Was the Fall of Rome Inevitable?

After the end of Pax Romana, the fall of Rome was almost obvious. The first reason was it's geography. It had the shape of a doughnut and the boarders were hard to defend from barbarians. Also, the army enlarged but it wasn't as powerful and organized as it used to be. The government grew as well, to a point of being to big to control. In addition to this growth of population, the economy declined drastically but the luxury import wasn't stopped although the economy wasn't strong enough to support it. The death of slaves was increased, therefore more people had to start working. They lacked technology too. It was clear Rome will fall, nothing lasts forever. It was unfair to blame it on religion tough; what they needed was a strong emperor.

Was Augustus different from a dictator or king?

In my opinion Augustus and the emperors that followed are not like a dictator or a king although they seem to be pretty much the same.

First, a dictator is someone put in charge in case of emergency to rule over the entire place usually by winning a battle. An emperor has to divide the work and power with the senate. Caesar is somewhere in between. Augustus and the others realized one way to get the people and senate to love you is not to do the mistakes Caesar has done as well as adopt the good things. Augustus tried to make himself seem normal like all the others as much as possible. On the other hand, Nero and emperors part of the second dynasty were an exception.
A king would try to rule the conquered land by himself but when Rome became an empire it was split into provinces and each had a governor.

Although they are very similar, having almost the same duties, they are also different.

Roman Genius

Romans deserve full credit for amazing inventions in our everyday life. They might have inspired or received help from Greeks and other big civilizations, they overtook their knowledge greatly. 


First, they had an amazing army- one of the greatest the world had ever seen. Not only they usually outnumbered the enemy, they were also discipline and determined. It was organized, split in self-contained regions of 6,000 soldiers. They had amazing strategy plans to defend as well as to attack. 


Secondly, they were amazing engineers. Not only they created the arch, they made other amazing inventions. One of the most important ones being concrete which led to the development of road, stretching for thousands of miles. They also created a the first sewer system and aqueducts.


Finally, they developed the law system that most of us use today. They wrote the 12 Tablets. At courts there were fair judges and lawyers.