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innovations of the Roman Republic was the notion of equality under the law. In 449 B.C.E., government leaders carved some of Rome's most important laws into 12 great tablets. The Twelve Tables, as they came to be known, were the first Roman laws put in writing. Although the laws were rather harsh by today's standards, they did guarantee every citizen equal treatment under the law.

Quickly kill ... a dreadfully deformed child.

had been isolated from each other for 10,000 years.

the human inhabitants of the “old” and “new” worlds developed vastly different cultures, languages, and religions; they found different ways of adapting to their different envinronments; and their bodies over hundreds of generations became resistant to the diseases of their different worlds. When the two great land masses were rejoined by European exploration, the resulting exchange of people, crops, animals, ideas, and diseases — called the “Columbian exchange” — changed both worlds forever.

Within a hundred years this small European nation had claimed the better part of two continents

no creed and they are not idolaters,

very gentle and do not know what it is to be wicked, or to kill others, or to steal

the Church dominated everybody’s life.

All Medieval people – be they village peasants or towns people – believed that God, Heaven and Hell all existed. From the very earliest of ages, the people were taught that the only way they could get to Heaven was if the Roman Catholic Church let them. Everybody would have been terrified of Hell and the people would have been told of the sheer horrors awaiting for them in Hell in the weekly services they attended.

The control the Church had over the people was total.

The Bubonic Plague of 1348 was actually a pneumonic plague, say scientists studying skeletons dug up in London

RATS and fleas have been unfairly implicated in the spread of the Black Death, according to scientists studying the remains of Londoners who died in the 14th century.

scientists now believe that a death rate of such magnitude would only have been possible if the plague had been airborne.

Feudal SystemThe Feudal System was sustained by the rights and privileges given to the Upper Classes and in most cases enacted by laws. Everything was a source of privilege for the nobles. They had a thousand pretexts for establishing taxes on their vassals, who were generally considered "taxable and to be worked at will." Kings and councils waived the necessity of their studying, in order to be received as bachelors of universities. If a noble was made a prisoner of war, his life was saved by his nobility, and his ransom had practically to be raised by the "villains" of his domains.

prisoner of war, his life was saved by his nobility, and his ransom had practically to be raised by the "villains" of his domains.

The Feudal System Right of Hunting

privileges dearest to and most valued by the nobles.

He raised money for the enterprise bythe persecution and robbery of the Jewsthe imposition of an unusual tax upon all classesthe sale of offices, dignities, and the royal lands

The knightly adventures and chivalrous exploits which mark the career of Richard in the Holy Land read like a romance.

At one time, when Richard was sick with a fever, Saladin, knowing that he was poorly supplied with delicacies, sent him a gift of the choicest fruits of the land.

Peasant life in the Middle Ages was noticeably difficult. Families and entire villages were exposed to disease, war and generally a life of poverty.

most people across Europe were peasants or “velleins”

worked in the vast stretches of lands owned by the local lords