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A Day in Ancient Rome This a multi-link site devoted to the Eternal City's ancient heritage.
http://www.mclink.it/n/citrag/roma/doc/civil/ecv_027.htm Questions for exploration: Describe a typical day in the life of an ancient Roman, using the links to school, lunch and baths to illustrate the experience.
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Roman Ball Games This site is devoted to illustrating the Roman ball sports.
http://www.personal.psu.edu/users/w/x/wxk116/romeball.html Questions for exploration: According to their mural art, muscular Roman men and scantily clad Roman women worked out regularly in the palaestra (fields) or sphaerista (ball courts). What kind of common athletic games did Romans play? Which games do we still play today?
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The First European Monetary Union? This site is an exhibit designed to explain the nature of ancient Roman currency systems that is part of a larger exhibition on Romans in Britain.
http://www.stoke.gov.uk/museums/romans/xrmoney.htm Questions for exploration: What, beyond the value of the currency itself, was the great utility of coinage? What are at least two reasons archeologists find coins useful as artifacts?
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The Roman Legions This site, devoted to tracing the Glory of Rome, features a thorough study of the Roman legions and their leaders.
http://danshistory.com/rome.html#legion Questions for exploration: Why did the Roman army undertake serious reforms? What tactics made the Roman legion nearly invincible against less well-organized foes? How was citizenship obtained via military service? Who guaranteed that military pensions would be paid? Can you see any danger in this arrangement? What multicultural advantage did Flavius Aetius have among great Roman generals? Why is his death symbolic of the decline of Rome?
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Josephus: The Jewish Wars Josephus was a governor in Judea who allied himself with the Romans against a rising of the Jewish people against Roman rule. This site provides a transcription of Josephus’s famous history of the Roman "pacification" of Judea in 72 ace. This site examines Josephus’s history for what it reveals about Roman provincial administration.
http://classics.uc.edu/harris/CL112/josephus.html Questions for exploration: What did the Jewish rebels wish to see in place of Roman rule? What did the rebels fear most should the rebellion fail? What did Josephus himself think of the aims and the tactics of the zealot guerillas? Can you think of any other revolutionary wars for independence where patriot rebels or loyalists burned the houses of their fellow countrymen? Does his narrative reveal any feelings for the rebels? What evidence, if any, can you find that Josephus is either ambivalent in his loyalties or if he is a true admirer of Rome? How did the victorious Romans react at the scene they beheld at the end of the siege of Masada? How reliable is Josephus’s account as a source of the events during the siege of Masada?
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Galeria Valeria This site examines the life of Galeria Valeria, daughter of the Emperor Diocletian and wife of Emperor Galerius.
http://myron.sjsu.edu/caesars/NGALVAL.HTM Questions for exploration: What does the story of Galeria Valeria tell us about the place of royal women in the Roman Empire? How does her appearance on Roman coinage reflect the politics of the age?
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Vesuvius, Italy and its Link to The Vesuvius Homepage. Natural and human history of the Bay of Naples and the Vesuvius volcano.
http://volcano.und.nodak.edu/vwdocs/volc_images/img_vesuvius.html and link to http://idt.net/~dobran/ Questions for exploration: How did the eruptions of the Vesuvius volcano influence the natural and human history of central Italy? What accounts for this impact? How may future eruptions of Vesuvius influence the future of human habitation in the Bay of Napoli?
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Roman Maritime Trade This site offers a history of Roman naval technology and a description of Roman overseas trade.
http://myron.sjsu.edu/romeweb/TRANSPRT/shiptrav.htm Questions for exploration: What other Mediterranean civilizations preceded Rome in building great seaborn trading empires? What city in Africa and what crop became essential to Rome's survival? What story in the Bible supports the idea that shipping in ancient times was seasonal? What evidence is offered that Phoenician sailors sailed around Africa?
