Attention, citizen! You are about to take an interactive journey to Rome in the first century. The Roman civilization is the largest the world has seen. It is known for its architectural and engineering feats. Join me as we visit some of these sites .
Drag your mouse across the view of each site to learn more about that place.

The Senate is the governing body of Rome. It is composed of citizens who have distinguished themselves. The duty of the
Senate is to ensure Rome thrives.
Let me introduce you to some of the government officials that keep the republic thriving.

The Roman republic was led by two CONSULS . The main role of consuls was to prepare and propose new laws. 42 was the minimum age to hold this title.
They were the leaders of the government and military commanders during their 1 year terms. Consuls functioned as military commanders, provincial governors and curators of public works.

This is a “consul’s eye” view of the Curia . It is the building of the Roman Senate, where the emperors and the senators meet to discuss important affairs. It is the administrative center of the empire. For most of the republic, the Senate consisted of three hundred men, but swelled to over a thousand in the time of Julius Caesar.

The appointment to the office of
PRAETOR is only open to
Senators. The Praetor is responsible to the Senate and
People to ensure that ALL
Rome's laws are obeyed. He acts as judge in disputes involving
Romans.

The TRIBUNE is the only Plebeian allowed to sit in on all Senate meetings as the People's representative. Tribunes represented the interests of the common people. The tribune is empowered with the VETO , allowing him/her to reject literally any Senate legislation or function.

The AEDILE was a government official responsible for maintenance of public buildings and regulation of public festivals. He sponsored and presided over two events in Rome's name, i.e., battle, games, races, feast, quest, or a sacred hunt. The office was generally held by young men intending to continue to high political office.

The Roman Forum is located in a valley that is between the Palatine hill and the Capitoline hill. It originally was a marsh, but the
Romans drained the area and turned it into a center of political and social activity. The Forum is the marketplace of Rome and also the business district and civic center. It was expanded to include temples, a senate house and law courts.
Come with me as we explore some of the buildings in this impressive public land.

The Rostra , or orators’ platform, was a raised area for public speeches. It was decorated on the sides with rostra (rams), which were the iron prows taken as trophies from captured enemy ships. The five columns were erected after Diocletian visited
Rome. Many statues, honorary columns and other dedications are clustered around the platform.

The Arch of Septimius
Severus is one of the best preserved monuments on the
Forum Romanum. It was built in 203 A.D. to commemorate the victories of emperor
Septimius Severus in
Parthia. The arch is 23m high and 25m wide. It has three archways: the central one is 12m high and the others 7m 80cm.
The relief panels at the top depict various stages of the war.

There is only one place in the Roman Forum where there are fresh flowers every day.
The Temple of Caesar was begun by Augustus in 42
BC. Augustus did not dedicated the Ionic temple to
Caesar (his adoptive father) until after all the conspirators in his death had been dealt with.
After his assassination, a funeral pyre was built and his body cremated. Initially a commemorative column was erected on the spot with a dedication to the
"father of the fatherland", but soon after Augustus started the construction of a temple for his adoptive father who the senate had declared a god.

The Temple of
Saturn is the oldest sacred place in
Rome. The temple’s chief purpose is to store the Roman national treasury of gold and silver. It also houses decrees of the Senate and the bronze tablets on which Roman law is inscribed.

The Basilica Aemilia was built in 179 BC. The building consisted of two floors. Next to the forum there was a shoppingarcade. The ground was made of marble with lots of colors. The roof was covered by bronze tiles.
Partly due to the basilica, the Roman Forum became a meeting place surrounded by wondrous buildings.

The Basilica Julia was built in 54-
48 BCE by Julius Caesar as a part of his reorganization of the
Forum. The function of the
Basilica Julia is to house tribunal courts and other activities from the Forum when weather didn't permit outdoor meetings. The central area is divided in four by wooden removable structures to allow the hearing of more cases at a time. The spectators who frequented the Basilica Julia whiled away the time between trials by playing games on boards inscribed in the steps and aisles. The basilica also housed some administrative offices of the city.

The universal acceptance of bathing as a central event in daily life belongs to the Roman world. The Roman Baths embodied the ideal Roman way of urban life. They provided facilities for sports and recreation. Their public nature created an environment —much like a city club or community center —for social interaction varying from neighborhood gossip to business discussions. There was even a cultural and intellectual side to the baths as libraries, lecture halls, and colonnades were included.
Let’s go inside to pamper ourselves in this midday activity!
ENTER

This is the dressing room or Apodyterium , your entry into the baths. You will leave your clothing and other belongings on shelves while you bathed. Leaving belongings behind unprotected was a risk, of course, for one of the most common visitors to the Roman baths apparently was thieves. Privately owned slaves, or one hired at the baths, would watch your belongings while you enjoyed the pleasures of the baths. Slaves might also wash you or give you a massage.

Visitors first exercised in open courtyards of the palaestra . It was done to maintain health and to work up a light sweat which was recommended before a bath. Men would swim, run, wrestle, box, lift weights or fencing and play ball games such as handball. Women would also swim and play trochus , a game that consisted of rolling a metal hoop with a hooked stick.

The tepidarium was the place where cleansing often took place.
Instead of using soap,
Roman bathers would cover their bodies with oil to loosen dirt and then wipe off the mixture with various strigil devices.
Another activity that took place here was depilation, which consisted of having your body hairs plucked out, as hairless bodies were fashionable during much of the Roman
Empire.

The caldarium , or hot room, can get to temperatures of 100 degrees Fahrenheit and is very humid thanks to a tank over the furnace as well as the hot plunge bath. The hot water and steamy air were designed to open your pores. The walls and floor are hot too, which is why you need the wooden sandals or clogs on your feet. There is a fountain of cold water to refresh yourself with. In this room you really work up a sweat and then get scraped clean with a strigil before washing off in the hot bath.

The frigidarium is the cold bath.
The cold baths are an important part of the Roman bath, and the were enjoyed after the steam and the hot baths. Plunging into the frigidarium's cold waters. closes all the skin pores that have been opened. The dip is meant to refresh and is often the final bath of a visitor.

The Circus Maximus is a track used primarily for horse-racing, although it is used on occasion for hunts or mock battles. It was built in a long valley stretching between two hills, the Aventine and the Palatine. It has 300,000 seats and is famous throughout the ancient world.
Circus Maximus is the biggest sports stadium ever built.
If you follow me, I'll take you into the arena, where you can get a good view of the
Circus Maximus.

This is the main grandstand , for the patrician class. Rows of stone benches three and four tiers high extend around the track. The corridors beneath the stands are crowded with shops and filled with milling people--restless spectators, vendors hawking food or cushions for the hard benches and gamblers taking bets. The stands are divided according to social class.

These are the towers and chariot gates of the Tiber end of the Circus.
The huge archways are called carceres and used for processions.
Between these stretch a line of 12 arched openings containing wide stalls. Each stall was square and large enough to contain the chariot and the team of horses. Sometimes there were as many as ten horses per team. In the early days there were four chariots. As time went on, this number increased to eight.

In the middle of the arena is a long concrete row called the spina
(or backbone). This ran for about two thirds the length of the arena. This spina is beautifully decorated with works of art such as water channels, statues of deities, marble altars and shrines, and lap counters. At the ends of the spina are the metae , (or goalposts), which marked the end of the course. One trip around the spina comprised a lap. The race, or missus, is composed of seven laps.
Drivers try to round these turns as tightly as possible without hitting them. One has seven dolphins on top of it; the other has seven marble eggs . Each time a lap is finished, one dolphin and one egg are taken down so the viewers would know how many laps were still to be run.

The http://dsc.discovery.com/games/colosseum/tour.html
monument of Ancient Rome. Its original name is Flavian
Amphitheater . It was started by the Emperor Vespasian between 70 and 76 AD, and completed by his son Titus in 80 AD. The Colosseum was dedicated the year after
Vespasian's death by Titus. They celebrated the opening by holding 100 days worth of games there.
Romans enjoyed the amphitheater to watch bloody sports. Going to the Colosseum was probably the most popular. Gladiatorial combats, fights with beasts and other fights were held in the Colosseum. The
Colosseum was big enough to hold the whole population of a town--as many as 50,000 people would sometimes spend the whole day there watching sports.
Join me as we enter this venue and discover the elements that made it special.

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Content
The Roman Senate
Works Cited www.romanempire.net/romepage/PolCht/senate.htm
www.unrv.com/empire/the-senate.php
Visuals
The Roman Senate http://www.blessingscornucopia.com/Rome_Roma_Ro man_Ancient_Civilization_Synopsis_of_Important_Tim eline_Dates.htm
The Forum http://sights.seindal.dk/sight/4_Forum_Romanum.htm
www.vroma.org/~forum/forum.html
http://dlib.etc.ucla.edu/projects/Forum
Roman Baths www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/lostempires/roman/
The Forum www.lfelem.lfc.edu/.../romanforum/romanforum.htm
Roman Baths www.gridclub.com
Circus Maximus www.dl.ket.org/latin2/mores/baths/history/page01.ht
m www.vroma.org/~bmcmanus/baths.html
http://www.tassoni.it/ancientrome/romearchitecture.htm
Circus Maximus www.vroma.org/~bmcmanus/circus.html
http://australis.www2.50megs.com
Colosseum www.the-colosseum.net/idx-en.htm
http://australis.www2.50megs.com/Maximus/Max.html
Colosseum http://dsc.discovery.com/games/colosseum/tour.html
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/romans/images/l aunch_colosseum.jpg
www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/romans/colosseum_0
1.shtml
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/romans/launch_ ani_colosseum.shtml
http://dsc.discovery.com/games/colosseum/tour.html