PowerPoint Notes!

Today in class we started off with a video. The video was this basketball player dunking on someone else! It was pretty awesome. After that we looked at a power point. We took notes on it to help us with our test. The test will be on Wednesday. The PowerPoint was on the Roman Empire.

The Roman Empire PowerPoint:
Octavian 

• Octavian - aka Caesar Augustus: First Emperor when Rome started an Empire 
• Begins the Pax Romana - a period of peace and prosperity
• Built roads, aqueducts (brought water to the cities)
• Set up civil service to take care of roads, the grain supply, even a postal service
• Augustus dies at age 76 in A.D. 14, and passes power too.. Tiberius 

Jesus & Paul

• Jesus was a roman citizen and a practicing Jew
• At 30 , he began his ministry (A.D. 31-33), preaching to the poor (and there were lots of 'em) in the empire, and reaching out to outsiders
• Statements like "My kingdom is not of this world" made the Romans (and the Jews) nervous, and they began to plan his execution
• *The governor of the Roman province of Judaea, Pontius Pilate (prompted by Jewish high priests), sentences Jesus to death by crucifixion
• Jesus: 7 or 2 B.C was born
• Believed he rose from the dead
• Jew; crucified in Jerusalem; awaited Messiah 
• See the historical figure in Wikipedia 

^Paul: 

• Paul is instrumental in telling telling the world about Jesus' life, death, resurrection, and message
• He traveled far and wide: Cyprus, Anatolia, Athens, Corinth, Macedonia, Rome, Jerusalem, and maybe even Spain and Britain
• He writes letters to many of those he spoke to - these epistles are a part of the New Testament
• If not for the efforts of Paul, it is likely that Jesus remains an obscure preacher, instead of the central figure of the world's large religion. 
• Thanks to Paul Jesus/ word got spread

* The 100: A ranking of the Most Influential Persons In History:

1) Muhammad

2) Sir Isaac Newton

3) Jesus 

4) Buddha 

5) Confucius 

6) St. Paul of Tarsus 

Tiberius

• As Augustus' stepson and adopted son, Tiberius succeeded Octavian
• Although a great general, he was a dark, somber reclusive, and reluctant emperor
• He referred to the Senate as "men fit to be slaves"
• Germanicus started out as TIberius' ally, since he quelled a legion mutiny, but when it looked like he would succeed Tiberius, he got paranoid and had Germanicus killed
• Died in AD 37 at agge of 77,  giving way to.. Caligula

Caligula

• In addition to being Germanicus' son, he was Tiberius' adopted grandson and great-nephew - putting him next in line for emperor
• He started off well
• All in all, the first seven months of 
• ..^ finish?
• He began to fight with the Senate
•  He claimed to be a God, and had statues displayed in many places - including the Jewish temple in Jerusalem (sacrilege!)
• Other examples of cruelty and insanity: he slept with other mans wives and bragged about it, indulged in too much spending and sex, and even tried to make him horse a consul and a priest (at least that's what his critics said)
• Assassinated by his own aides, AD 41 (age 28)

Claudius

• Next in line
• Ostracized by his family because of his disabilities (limp, slight deafness, possible speech impediment - though to be cerebral palsy or polio), he was the last adult male in his family when Caligula was killed
• He rose to the occasion: he conquered Britain; he built roads, canals, and aqueducts; he renovated the Circus Maximus
• Had an awful marriage to Messalina, who was quite often unfaithful to him, even plotting to seize power for her lover Silius through a coup - so Claudius had them killed

Meanwhile - religious troubles

• Christianity and Judaism: ,monotheistic (ONE GOD)
• Romans had many gods, plus at times the emperor was viewed as a god
• AD 66: a group of Jews called the Zealots tried to rebel, but Roman troops put them down and burned their temple (except for one wall)
• The Western Wall today is the holiest of all Jewish shrines
• Half a million Jews died in the rebellion 
• People today put their prayers in the wall