Ty Teanna Glenn

English 2
Ancient Rome Research Essay
April 2, 2015

Rome was a small empire that expanded its powers to gain loyalty and respect. Though,
starting small, the Roman Empire slowly spread east and west and gained its power through its
military aid. Rome went through many struggles, but they continued to thrive uncontrollably. All
of a sudden Rome ended because of divided powers caused by their military forces collapsing
and connections to the east and west being strained. In my essay you will read about how Rome
originated. What religions and gods they served. The types of government and military powers
they had. Lastly I will discuss how the Roman Empire tragically collapsed.
Rome, up sprung from a small scaled city that sat along the Triber River. It was founded
by two brothers. The two twin brothers, Romulus and Remus were found by a female wolf. They
were left there to drawn in the river. After being rescued the twins went into battle with their
attempted murders, and won. They later adapted to a city that lay on the edge of the river and
strived to conquer. Later on Romulus killed Remus and crowned himself as king of Rome, which
he named after himself. The citizens of the earlier city then joined.
Throughout all of Romes change of government their most common form was being
republic. Most of Romes style came from ancient Greek, but the romans did create their own
system to prevent a single individual from having ultimate power. What is known as todays

USAs three branches of government was ancient Romes creation to prevent one from ruling all.
After Rome transitioned from being a monarch to republic, the power got transferred to the two
magistrates called consuls, consuls additionally obliged to being commander chief in office
(says A&E television network). Consuls were elected once every year. These votes were largely
impacted from the senate, which were mainly patricians and/or the offspring of one of the first
senators from the Romulus era. In 450 B.C Romans government created their first set of laws.
The Roman Laws were engraved on twelve bronze tablets (says A&E) and they were called
the twelve tables. These laws were displayed in the Romans forum for public view. The twelve
tables ranged from the Romans constitutional rights to the basis for future laws. By 300 B.C all
governmental power revealed around the senate, which mostly contained patricians (people born
into power) and rich plebeians.
Ancient Romes religion was polytheist until Constantine was made emperor and he
turned Christian. In 313 A.B Constantine pronounced Christianity Romans official religion and
in 391 A.B he delivered news to the citizens of Rome that it would be illegal to worship any
other god. Prior to Constantine being emperor gods played a vital role in every Romans life.
They even used their gods to explain events and said that gods lead their lives. Seeing as they
thought god controlled their fates, people back then spent a lot of time worshiping them. All of
their gods include mars, mercury, Neptune, Janus, Diana, Vesta, Minerva, Venus, etc. Their most
essential god was Jupiter. Jupiter was the head god of all gods and he shared his power with his
spouse Juno, she was the goddess of the shy (according to history learning site). After a former
emperor passed away he was considered a god and was praised on significant days. Every god
also had their own special day, these holidays were made public and was also a day for citizens
to worship inside of the temple. Temples were scattered all across the Roman Empire and all the

followed the same building blue-prints. Every temple included status of their gods, high quality
decorations, and most importantly a altar for praise and sacrifice. Sacrifices were mad by
Augurs; the Augurs would use the intestines of an animal to predict the future. Priests would lead
the worships and would also sacrifice, but they would not give out future predictions. Many
romans took these predictions seriously and rarely a roman would ignore the Augurs Intel. Most
to all families in Rome had their own shire in their house and they would dedicate them to
personal gods. Personal roman gods were called Lares and many people say that Lares where
more important to romans that the cities gods. Lares were praised every day at home and their
prayers were led by the leader of the house.
Ancient Rome had an outstanding military force that held the empire together. Rome
depended on its military to expand its empire and to keep the communication of it conquered
nations going. In all of romans history it had conquered Europe, Britain, West Asia, North Africa,
and the Mediterranean. Around 146 B.C. Rome and its neighboring city, Carthage had gone to
war. Carthage and Rome fought three wars that everyone recognized as the Punic wars. The
Punic wars took about one-hundred years to complete and in the end Rome succeeded in
winning. After Rome won they successfully burned down Carthage, this told of the end of the
Carthaginians and the beginning of the most powerful empire. The defeat of their neighboring
city gave Rome the opportunity to expand onto its horizons out east and west.
Though Rome had one of the best armies, their army ironically was a cause of its
collapse. Rome basically depended on its military to keep communications strong, and when
their military started to struggle so did the empire. Another cause of collapse was based on
Romes expansion. Rome rarely conquered land near them, because they only strived for riches

that may have been further east or west. Since Rome was spread out and their military was
struggling, communications were strained, thus the collapse of the Roman Empire.
In conclusion Rome originated from a twin named Romulus, its government was mainly
republic throughout all of its years, Romes gods played important roles in their everyday lives
until the empire when monotheistic, and the entire roman empire was built on top of its military.