A small community of shepherds in central Italy  grew to become one of the greatest empires in history , before collapsing in spectacular fashion . The city of Rome was founded about 2,750 years ago . A thousand year later , the Roman empire covered half of Europe , much of the Middle East &the North Coast of Africa. The Empire then began to crumble because it was too big to control . Fifteen hundred years ago , the last Roman emperor was overthrown by warlike tribes from the North .

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

               At the height of its success , Rome , the           capital of the Roman empire & its largest city , had almost a million inhabitants . Alexandria in Egypt was the empire’s second largest city , , with a population of 750,000 people . The coliseum in Rome is an example of the genius of Roman architects .

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

          

   

     The Romans were fierce soldiers and wonderful builders. They built roads all over the empire, and all roads led to Rome. The ancient Greeks had roads, but they were not built nearly as well, and the Greek's roads did not connect in any particular order. Connect to what? Each Greek city-state was its own unit. In ancient Rome, Rome was the heart of the empire!

 

 

          For more information about the Roman civilization  visit the following sites

http://members.aol.com/Donnclass/Romelife.html#INTRO

http://members.aol.com/TeacherNet/AncientRome.html

 

 

About Ancient Rome

           Ancient Rome had enormous influence on the development of western civilization because the empire was so vast & lasted so long . The language of the ancient Romans was Latin , & this is the basis of French , Italian , Spanish & many other languages . In addition , the Roman law provided the foundation for the legal system of most of the countries in Western Europe & the Latin American .There are Roman roads , bridges & aqueducts which are still in use in Europe today .

         The ancient Romans were very different from the ancient Greeks. The ancient Romans were down-to-earth realists, not idealists. You can see this in their statues. The Greeks made statues of perfect people. The Romans created real life statues. A statue of one of the Roman emperors is a good example. His nose is huge! The ancient Greeks would never have done that.

For more pictures click on this picture