Rome

            Roman times were filled with incredible brutality and violence. I think today as a society, we still are equally violent; it is just expressed differently than in Rome. In Rome thousands of people would gather to watch people brutally slaughter each other. Today we do not watch this violence for real, but we still enjoy watching horror and action movies where people die in horrible and gruesome ways. I think these movies show that people still are as brutal and violent today as they were in Roman times. I think today we still invade countries for “tribute”.  In my opinion oil was a large part of why we went into Iraq. We still conquer nations for economic reasons as the Roman did thousands of years ago. We are still very much the same men as we were in Roman times.

            Rome was a great civilization. We can learn much about ourselves by studying where we come from. The movie Gladiator helped me understand the time period of Rome tremendously. The movie showed me what much of the architecture of the era looked like as well as how they dressed.  It also helped impress upon me how truly brutal the gladiatorial games of Rome were.   Rome had tremendous engineering and architectural accomplishments such as the coliseum and its system of roads. Rome was governed by two very different systems in its thousand year existence. The Roman republic was the basis for our government.  Rome was a brutal violent place, but I do not think it is truly any different than today’s society. In summary, Rome was a grand city, but not without its faults. It influenced us greatly, and as thus, should be looked back on and remembered, for good or for ill.