Imperial Rome: Should You Stay or Should You Go

Ancient Rome was among one of the most feared and successful empires in all of
human history. The Roman empire was the most powerful of its time, but were their
living conditions as good as their armies? To answer this question, many aspects of
the striving Roman empire must be overlooked, but before we begin, I would like to
provide some background information on the great Roman empire.
The term Imperial Rome describes the period of the Roman republics transition
into an empire through civil war and unrest. Once the conflict had passed this arose
Romes first dictator, Julius Caesar, who in 44.c.e, was assassinated. After his death,
his nephew,Octavian, became Rome's new emperor. Many emperors succeeded him
and a few who did not win the favor of their subjects were erased from Roman
history, these emperors include Nero and Caligula. Christians were often, but not
always, persecuted until the reign of Constantine in 313.c.e. At this time, the age of
the striving empire was slowly coming to an end due to attacks by the Visigoths and
many others who wanted the Romans land. Ultimately, the empire split in half. The
west side was later sacked by the Visigoths and the east side evolved into what
would become the Byzantine empire.
The Romans were never completely conquered so we can conclude that the
military offered decent protection, However, the school systems were not as
pleasant. children were often punished severely for misbehavior, but as a result,
they normally turned out successful in life. The most common punishment for
children was being beat by a wick, but on some extreme occasions, a student would
strip a misbehaved child of his clothing and hold him down while the teacher used a
stick to torture him. On many occasions, a child would have his very own enslaved
mentor who would teach him until noon, after that, the child would help out his
parents. Sometimes, if the child turned out successful in life, he would free his
mentor.
The Romans were ruled by an emperor, therefore, harsh laws were created and
enforced much like those of Hammurabi. Like all monarchies, the emperor had to
create such laws and punishments to ensure that the people would not rebel
against him. The rules stated that the men must be respected and that the women
must maintain the house well. Some rules also applied to babies too. The rules
stated that it is the man's decision if he wants to abandon a baby or not regardless
of what the mother wants. Another rule is that babies had to be bathed in cold
water, and were only allowed to play at the age of six. Although these rules were
very unfair, they were necessary in order to maintain control of an area as big as
ancient rome.
The last thing on our list of things to be overlooked is hazards. Fires nowadays
are not as bad as they were then. In the absence of a fire brigade, whole towns

were destroyed and many people were killed. These fires were most likely the result
of cooking over an open flame. Those that died in Rome were tossed onto the
streets outside of the cities to decay. To make things worse, waste and trash were
not disposed of properly; they were tossed onto the streets. Other hazards include
famine and disease.
From all of this I we can conclude that Rome, although it was well protected was
not the best place to live. I myself have come to believe that imperial Rome is not
the best place to live and it would be wise to stay away

Sources
"Ancient Rome - Honors 9 World History Project - Home." 13 Nov. 2014
<http://rikkihonors9.weebly.com/>

"Britannica School." 2005. 13 Nov. 2014 <http://school.eb.co.uk/>