Introduction to Ancient Rome

The Ancient Romans were a group of people who lived in Italy around 2,000 years ago.

They started as a small village and, over time, grew into a large empire (an area of land that is ruled by a single person or country, empires usually cover many countries and include lots of people), containing millions of people and lots of different countries, including Britain.

The Romans were famous for their large and well-structured armies, incredible engineering projects and exciting entertainment with gladiators and chariots.

The Roman Empire lasted from 700BC to AD476.

Important words on Ancient Rome.

According to the mythical story, Rome started off as a small village, built by a man called Romulus.

Romulus killed his twin brother Remus when they couldn’t decide where to build the new city and fought each other. He is thought to have been the first Roman king.

Rome then slowly grew to include other parts of Italy and around 500 years after Rome was created, the Romans controlled all of Italy and other areas around it.

Around 300 years after that, by AD117, the Romans had taken over lots of other countries and areas including Egypt, France, Spain and large parts of Britain.

The Romans then struggled to keep everyone happy and lots of people rebelled against them.

The city of Rome itself was attacked and burnt down in AD410.

The Romans had lots of great ideas, particularly when building, and their ideas spread throughout their empire.

They built lots of things including:

• Impressive road networks.
• Huge, stone and marble buildings like the famous Colosseum.
• Water tunnels called aqueducts to bring fresh water to towns and cities.
• Bridges for crossing rivers and archways to support large buildings.

Although the Romans weren’t always the first to build all of these things, they did build them incredibly well and helped change the places that they took over.

The Romans had some of the largest and most-organised armies in the ancient world.

They used clever formations (a shape that the soldiers used to fight their enemies) and worked together as a unit to fight effectively.

Roman soldiers would need to be incredibly fit and trained lots.

They were given strong armour and standard equipment, meaning that they had the same tools and weapons as each other.

These soldiers were often the people on the edges of the empire and would help build the roads, walls, forts and towns as they conquered new places.

Explore the slideshow to learn more about the Roman army and how they helped create the city of Rome.

Religion was extremely important to the Romans.

They had gods and goddesses for just about everything, including thunder, love, war, wisdom and even the sewers!

The Romans often built shrines (a place that is important for worshipping a god or goddess) or temples to their gods to try and keep them happy.

Some Romans might have had a small shrine to a certain god or goddess in their homes.

They also took on new gods and goddesses from the places that they conquered.

If those gods were important to the people who lived there, they could have come in useful for the Romans too.

In the early days, Rome was ruled by kings. Romulus was supposedly the first king.

Rome later became a republic (a system of ruling where people are chosen to lead, rather than having a king or queen). The republic didn’t allow one person to have complete control of the city.

A group of men called senators shared power. The two most powerful people in the senate were the consuls.

Every year, the citizens of the Roman Republic voted for who they wanted to be consul.

After the republic, the Roman Empire began. Roman emperors were the rulers of the Roman Empire from around 27BC.

The emperor ruled over the Roman Empire, a bit like a king.

Watch the video to learn more about some of the emperors who influenced Britain.

Have a look at the thinking points below and think about your answer to each question. You could even write them down on a piece of paper or discuss them with somebody else if you want to.

• How did the Romans manage to take over so much land?

• How did the Romans impact the places that they conquered?

• What evidence might we find now that originally came from the Roman Empire?

Click on the Romans below to find out what activities they did.

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