1 00:00:00,690 --> 00:00:19,850 The Romans have captured our modern imaginations for centuries, whether it's their military might, culture, architecture, cities like Rome, Pompeii, and Venice, or gladiators, people seem drawn to Rome and its history, and they seem almost mysterious to us, even though everyone studies the Romans at least once in their school careers. 2 00:00:20,489 --> 00:00:23,070 What most people forget, however, is that in one form or another, 3 00:00:23,250 --> 00:00:28,850 Rome was a dominant power in the known world from arguably 509 BC to 1453 AD, 4 00:00:29,250 --> 00:00:31,969 so what we usually think of as Rome is only the tip of the iceberg. 5 00:00:32,789 --> 00:00:35,750 You can tell a lot about a civilization by how they were founded, 6 00:00:35,909 --> 00:00:37,909 and while we don't know exactly how Rome was founded, 7 00:00:38,270 --> 00:00:40,829 the myths that we're told say quite a lot about their culture. 8 00:00:41,130 --> 00:00:47,670 The most prevalent myth says that Romulus and Remus, two twin boys and descendants of Aeneas, 9 00:00:47,670 --> 00:00:53,990 a Greek hero, and sons of the god of war Mars, are left to die, saved by a she-wolf and raised 10 00:00:53,990 --> 00:00:58,609 by shepherds. Eventually, they decided to found a city, and after an argument over the proposed 11 00:00:58,609 --> 00:01:05,329 location, Romulus committed fratricide and killed his brother Remus. Who knows, maybe if it had 12 00:01:05,329 --> 00:01:09,870 happened the other way around, it'd be called Ream and not Rome. But the myth idolizes murder 13 00:01:09,870 --> 00:01:14,189 and survival of the fittest, and boy does that say a lot about what the Romans valued as a culture. 14 00:01:14,189 --> 00:01:18,849 The history of Rome is generally split into four different segments. 15 00:01:19,209 --> 00:01:24,510 The first is the Kingdom of Rome, which lasted from 753 BC to 509 BC. 16 00:01:25,129 --> 00:01:28,950 Next came the Roman Republic, from 509 BC to 27 BC, 17 00:01:29,329 --> 00:01:32,670 and ended with the Senate's appointment of Julius Caesar's son as an emperor. 18 00:01:33,230 --> 00:01:36,989 This led to the Roman Empire, which dominated most of the known world 19 00:01:36,989 --> 00:01:41,769 until it effectively split in western and eastern halves in 285 AD. 20 00:01:42,489 --> 00:01:48,569 The western half, now known as the Western Roman Empire, lasted only until 476 AD, but 21 00:01:48,569 --> 00:01:52,790 the eastern half, now known as the Byzantine Empire and whose capital was in Constantinople, 22 00:01:53,189 --> 00:01:56,549 now Istanbul, lasted until 1453 AD. 23 00:01:57,329 --> 00:02:01,310 Each one of these periods had a different culture, set of ideals, and government style 24 00:02:01,310 --> 00:02:04,069 that made it unique from the others, but there were certainly some similarities. 25 00:02:04,849 --> 00:02:09,270 There are plenty of videos that show the rapid expansion of the Roman Empire over its almost 26 00:02:09,270 --> 00:02:14,569 2,000 years of history, so I won't go into that in too much detail here, but the Roman Empire 27 00:02:14,569 --> 00:02:19,669 basically got so big that the bureaucracy, or administration, was split in half between East 28 00:02:19,669 --> 00:02:24,810 and West. While Romans didn't see them as separate empires, they had very different fates due to a 29 00:02:24,810 --> 00:02:29,969 lot of factors. Religious differences, natural disasters, military defeats, and economic decline 30 00:02:29,969 --> 00:02:34,270 all played a huge part in the destruction of the West, while the East survived until they were 31 00:02:34,270 --> 00:02:39,270 eventually conquered by the Ottoman Turks. The dissolution, or breakup, of the Western Roman 32 00:02:39,270 --> 00:02:43,870 Empire was so significant that it's often used by historians as the beginning of the Middle Ages. 33 00:02:44,509 --> 00:02:49,210 While the Roman civilization has been gone for hundreds of years, its legacies lasted well into 34 00:02:49,210 --> 00:02:54,050 the 21st century. The political and cultural landscape of Europe, which countries are where, 35 00:02:54,189 --> 00:02:58,129 what language they speak, and what religion they practice, can all be traced back to the influence 36 00:02:58,129 --> 00:03:02,990 of Rome. The structure of modern democratic and republican governments are based heavily on the 37 00:03:02,990 --> 00:03:06,830 Roman model, and even the architecture of our important buildings comes from the Romans. 38 00:03:07,210 --> 00:03:10,870 Everywhere you look, there are influences from Rome, and it continues to interest people around 39 00:03:10,870 --> 00:03:16,789 the world every day. Okay, let's look at some discussion questions. Number one, why do you 40 00:03:16,789 --> 00:03:21,789 think people are so interested in Roman history today? Number two, when you think of Rome, 41 00:03:21,789 --> 00:03:23,330 what do you think about and why?