Group items tagged

Fall of the Roman Empire

Public Health

Decline in Morals and Values

Political Corruption

Unemployment

Inflation

Urban decay

THE FINAL BLOWS For years, the well-disciplined Roman army held the barbarians of Germany back. Then in the third century A. D. the Roman soldiers were pulled back from the Rhine-Danube frontier to fight civil war in Italy. This left the Roman border open to attack. Gradually Germanic hunters and herders from the north began to overtake Roman lands in Greece and Gaul (later France). Then in 476 A. D. the Germanic general Odacer or Odovacar overthrew the last of the Roman Emperors, Augustulus Romulus. From then on the western part of the Empire was ruled by Germanic chieftain. Roads and bridges were left in disrepair and fields left untilled. Pirates and bandits made travel unsafe. Cities could not be maintained without goods from the farms, trade and business began to disappear. And Rome was no more in the West. The total fall of the Roman empire.

Inferior Technology

Military Spending

most difficult problems

choosing

new emperor

new emperor

empero

never

created

effective system

determine

new emperors

began

selling

throne to

highest bidder

37 different emperors

assinatio

25 of whom

Contrary

Contrary to popular belief, Slavery in Egypt seems to have been fairly rare prior to the New Kingdom with the enslavement of the Hebrews, progressing over time. Slavery was not a dominant fixture - it was a luxury and privilege for the ruling elite only

Contrary to popular belief, Slavery in Egypt seems to have been fairly rare prior to the New Kingdom with the enslavement of the Hebrews, progressing over time. Slavery was not a dominant fixture - it was a luxury and privilege for the ruling elite only

The shadoof was a very useful device that the Egyptians built to help them with their water, and the Nile River. It was operated by hand and was used to lift water from the river onto land in buckets. It has a long pole and there are two objects at each end of it. On one side, there is a bucket. On the other, there is a weight. The Egyptians would lower the bucket, and allowed the water to flow into the bucket. Then they would drop it, causing the weight to lift it back up so they could retrieve it. This was a very nifty device.

Bankers and accountants needed to understand arithmetic. Those trading with other countries needed a knowledge of foreign currencies and languages. Reading was essential for anyone who needed to understand a contract.

Many Italian coastal cities became centers for trade and commerce, and for the wealth and education that ensued.

Florence.

made their wealth as business people

Medicis had the appearance of nobility.

There were three political bodies where citizens gathered in numbers running into the hundreds or thousands. These are the assembly (in some cases with a quorum of 6000), the council of 500 (boule) and the courts (a minimum of 200 people, but running at least on some occasions up to 6000). Of these three bodies it is the assembly and the courts that were the true sites of power — although courts, unlike the assembly, were never simply called the demos (the People) as they were manned by a subset of the citizen body, those over thirty.

Only adult male Athenian citizens who had completed their military training as ephebes had the right to vote in Athens. The percentage of the population (of males) that actually participated in the government was about 20%. This excluded a majority of the population, namely slaves, freed slaves, children, women and metics. The women had limited rights and privileges and were not really considered citizens. The restricted movement in public and were very segregated from the men. Also disallowed were citizens whose rights were under suspension (typically for failure to pay a debt to the city: see atimia); for some Athenians this amounted to permanent (and in fact inheritable) disqualification. Still, in contrast with oligarchical societies, there were no real property requirements limiting access

The central events of the Athenian democracy were the meetings of the assembly (ἐκκλησία ekklêsia). Unlike a parliament, the assembly's members were not elected, but attended by right when they chose. Greek democracy created at Athens was a direct, not a representative democracy: any adult male citizen of age could take part, and it was a duty to do so. The officials of the democracy were in part elected by the Assembly and in large part chosen by lot. The assembly had four main functions; it made executive pronouncements (decrees, such as deciding to go to war or granting citizenship to a foreigner); it elected some officials; it legislated; and it tried political crimes. As the system evolved these last two functions were shifted to the law courts. The standard format was that of speakers making speeches for and against a position followed by a general vote (usually by show of hands) of yes or no. Though there might be blocs of opinion, sometimes enduring, on crucial issues, there were no political parties and likewise no government or opposition (as in the Westminster system). Voting was by simple majority. In the 5th century at least there were scarcely any limits on the power exercised by the assembly. If the assembly broke the law, the only thing that might happen is that it would punish those who had made the proposal that it had agreed to