Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Rough Draft: April 12

The Roman Empire
                At one point, the Roman Empire was very powerful. It was leading the whole western part of the world and had such a strong government. As soon as there was just a few bad people in office, things started going down-hill. The Era of the Soldiers was one of the worst times for the Roman Empire. Sometimes, when something gets too strong, it can take a nose dive and ruin it all. There were many events that affected Rome in a negative way, eventually, they all built up to the decline of the Roman Empire. Rome didn't fall, it just changed into something different.
                When Caracalla and Geta, sons of Septimius Severus, were in power, things were very bad. The two brothers had a strong dislike for each other and their rule consisted of many fights between the brothers. Caracalla had ordered a “damnatio memoriae” on Geta. This meant everything with Geta’s name, face, or anything representing him was erased. After that, Caracalla got Geta assassinated, which led to his own assassination. This stirred up the Romans and there were many disputes among the people. When the leaders of the country are causing more trouble in the people, there is going to be a big problem.
                Once the two brothers were out of office, there was no one else to take over. This is what led to the Era of the Soldiers, a 100 year time period of horrible leaders all fighting for power. During this time period, there were 37 different people in power. Out of this number, 25 of them were assassinated. Some people served in office for as little as three weeks! Knowing this, the people in office were not smart, powerful, or well-liked among the people which caused the short ruling period. This also didn’t help Rome at all. Rome was just becoming less and less powerful during all of this commotion and the people doubted their own empire on a greater scale.
                After the Era of the Soldiers, Diocletian came into leading Rome. He actually had some good plans, but they didn’t work out properly. Diocletian developed the tetrarchy. This was a system of four leaders. There were two people that were the highest in power, and then the other two were below them, but still in office. This is similar to a president and vice president role. This did not follow through because there were too many people fighting for the highest rank in power. Soon after that, Diocletian was not in power any more, but Constantine was. After winning a huge battle, he freely accepted Christianity in Rome. Constantine also founded the city called Constantinople. This ended up being the new center of the “Roman” empire. This is when Rome started really fading away because now the Roman Empire was divided into Eastern Europe, also known as Byzantine, and Western Europe. Rome was still there, but the Roman Empire was not. Rome was now just a place in Italy. It wasn’t ruling the whole Mediterranean Sea and it wasn’t the most powerful.
                In the last years of Rome’s Empire, there was way too much turbulence to even keep things going. The main thing that caused Rome’s decline was the struggle and fighting for the correct and intelligible person to lead the whole empire. The Era of the Soldiers was such a long period of negative incidents that it was too hard to fix. In the long run, it was probably a good thing that the Roman Empire fell so the rest of the world could expand and widen the many cultures.

Bibliography:
·         "Rome.info > Fall of the Roman Empire, decline of ancient Rome." Rome.info > Rome tourist information, Ancient Rome travel guide. Version 2003-2009. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Apr. 2011. <http://www.rome.info/history/e

·         century, the late 3rd, and the city of Rome. "Decline of the Roman Empire - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia." Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Apr. 2011. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De

2 comments:

  1. make sure that you are following the writing rules on the class wiki about underlining, bolding, and making an opposite opinion in a different color.
    1. you have five-sever sentences each!
    2. you have a thesis statement, maybe build it up a little more.
    3. you don't have quotes or in text citations so make sure you get them!
    4. make sure that when you get quotes, you have at least 4 sentences describing the quote and backing it up!
    5. You have a very good conclusion paragraph, but when you get quotes make sure you reflect back to them.
    6. put the strongest evidence in the 4th paragraph!
    7. you didn't use any personal pronouns! WAHHOOO :)
    8. you didn't use any slang either!
    9. try not being so generalistic about the fall of Rome, make it seem less of a encyclopedia article.
    10. no unnecessary information.
    11. you voiced your opinion well, so good job!

    ReplyDelete
  2. "There were many events that affected Rome in a negative way, eventually, they all built up to the decline of the Roman Empire."

    Be specific and actually mention the events you will be discussing right here in your thesis.

    ReplyDelete