Buon Veterans Day

Good evening. It is Veterans Day and along with remembrance of the great patriots of our country I am writing this blog. Unfortunately I missed the Rome history seminar on Saturday which I would like to apologize for. Since I missed that very important seminar I am in a unique position from my counterparts. Since it is Veterans Day here I would like to tell you guys of some history of the many wars that Rome has been through. Over 11 centuries Rome has been in 75 wars and majority of those wars occurred before the birth of Christ. Italy is second place in the history of the world next to England to have the most wars. I would just like to touch on some of the most significant wars starting with the Punic Wars.

The Punic Wars were so controversial and major that there were 3 of them. The main purpose of these wars was for the decision of who would dominate the Western Mediterranean Rome or Carthage. Rome obviously won because Carthage is no more. I would like to ask for a moment of silence for the soldiers in these wars. The next thing I would like to tell you guys about is a category that just about every country on earth has had which is a civil war. America only had one of these but Rome had 7 maybe even more. These wars were fought mainly because more than one guy claimed the power of emperor of Rome more than one time. These wars were also fought for political opinions, religion, and even anarchy.

The most famous war in my opinion was one that everyone knows about which is World War II. Of the many countries involved in WWII Italy was one of them. Italy entered the war on the side of the Axis powers after its dictator Benito Mussolini declared war on France and Britain. Italy lost this one but Rome itself came out of the war virtually untouched. I think that because Rome is such a beautiful city and because it has so much history American and German forces left it alone. But the rest of Europe wasn’t so lucky because majority of the countries were destroyed. Through all of Rome’s hardships through these wars the city is still preserved and the people stand tall.

-Tre’von Walker

10 things that even Indiana Jones Does not know about roma!!!

10 things that even Indiana Jones

Does not know about roma!!!

Yesterday was a day full of energy and excitement. I was on my way to school ready to start the day by helping out Link Crew with their pancake breakfast. After which Sharqueya and I would be going to Mr. Sullivan’s seminar about the history of Roma. The pancake breakfast started at 8:00am and ended at 10:00 am while Mr. Sullivan’s seminar started at 10:00 am. It was 10 minutes till’ 10 and I knew I would have to leave early. Sharqueya walked into the Link Crew breakfast and stayed until it was 9:55 am. When 9:55 am came Sharqueya and I walked over to Mr. Sullivan’s class to start the seminar. The seminar lasted about 2 hours in which we learned, what seemed to be, all of the history of Roma. The size of the class was tiny and the atmosphere was comfortable. We learned a lot, for example: the Punic wars which were Roma vs. Carthage, The Roman Republic, St. Peter’s Basilica, The Roman Empire, The Renaissance era, and the list goes on and on. In that classroom the teaching style was that of a conversation rather than a lecture and was fantastic.

The main highlight for me in the class was a handful of facts, about 10, which I did not know about Roma. History books do not speak of this and not even Indiana Jones knows about this information. In realizing this I have decided to tell you all the 10 facts. Believe me you will scratch your head and say, “WHAT, NO WAY!” So without further ado here are the 10 facts that not even Indian Jones knows about:

1. The Roman Empire LOVES to Recycle~ in the later years of the Empire instead of building new structures they would turn an old structure into the item that they needed: a temple into a church

2. Marble Mountains~ the mountains that surround Roma are actually made up of marble and that was where they got the materials to build their buildings

3. Romans are Greeks? ~ The ancient civilization of the Etruscans was not the civilization that turned into the great city of Roma. It was actually immigrants from Greeks that fled for a new land after the battle of Troy.

4. The black death was not caused by rats~ The black plague that killed 1 in 3 people in Europe was not caused by rats but rather the flea’s on rats. Here look at this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2ZSItvBd6g

5. Romans love obelisks~ When the Romans went to Egypt they took all of their treasures which included about 30 obelisks.

6. Tomatoes do not come from Roma? ~ In fact the tomato came from the Americas and before it reached Roma the Romans would use olive oil. Although they use olive oil today they do not use it on pizza without tomatoes

7. Old St. Peters Basilica has been flattened~ this is true when Romans were rebuilding St.Peters Basilica they had to do something with the old building so they flattened it and built a new one on top

8. Roma, a treasure hunter’s palace ~ if one were to travel to Roma and went to a park and started digging you would be able to find something from the past with historical value. This is because Roma is so old that all the space has been used and then flattened and used again. So next time you go to Roma take your shovels J

9. Gelato has less cream than ice cream~ although Gelato tastes creamier than American ice cream it actually has less cream and more sugar

10. Cleopatra was Roman!~ During the time of the Roman Empire , Roma split up the empire in districts with a Roman ruler in each. Cleopatra and her family were put in charge of Egypt.

As you can see some of these facts are complete shock-ers. But when you are in the company of Mr. Sullivan always be prepared to learn something new. That day was fantastic!

From,

Valerie Cordier-Rice

your such a theif

Dear context,

Today I woke up around eight o'clock to head to Sac High for a history of Rome seminar with Mr. Sullivan and let me tell you I learned a lot of cool things. For instance, I always believed that Cleopatra was an Egyptian pharaoh because that is how she is portrayed on TV shows but, boy was I wrong she was actually Greek and I was shocked to find this out. When people think of Italian food they automatically think of things such as pizza, spaghetti and pasta but, did you know that Romans didn't have tomatoes until the 16th century? I know some of you are wondering, well how they make all these famous foods without tomatoes? Simple, instead of tomatos they used olive oil. Another interesting thing I learned is that the Romans were big fans of recycling; they recycled everything, including marble that was used to build other buildings. For example, they intentionally took parts of the Colosseum and used it to build other things, crazy right? One ridiculous thing I want to share with you guys is that when ancient Romans invaded Egypt they stole huge obelisks and took them back to Rome without breaking them later on they added crosses on the top of them and began setting them up throughout Rome. I also learned that the emperor Constantine did not make Christianity the official religion all he did was tolerate it, in fact Theodosius made Christianity the official religion in 380. This means that the Pagans began to get persecuted and the Christians did not. Overall the seminar was awesome and I learned more interesting facts about Rome. I thought it was going to be an ordianry class like we have to do in school, but it was fun and interesting. Rome has so much great things about its culture.

Love, Sharqueya Drake

"We all want a place to live, a place to die, and a way to love"

Greek mythology was the last of my Rome seminar Saturday adventures. Thinking about Greek mythology takes me time traveling back to the 6th grade once again. That was the year I realized my love for history. I had become captivated by Greek mythology, remembering every story and reciting them to anyone who would listen. The four sixth grade classes all participated in a “Greek Olympics” at the end of the school year. I had never been so willing to study in my life. I was quite the Renaissance gal, I ran in all of the girls races, participated in every academic game, and even drew posters for our events (though I am no Michelangelo). So upon hearing that Greek mythology was one of our seminars I became instantly excited. It has been some time since the 6th grade and I was glad I would be able to refresh forgotten tales hidden somewhere in the back of my mind.

I woke up Saturday morning with Walter, a rambunctious poodle lying on top of me, and Ella, a four year old I babysit every now and then saying in shock, “Walter! What are you doing? She’s sleeping!” in her adorable trying to whisper voice. I had woken up laughing; I knew it was going to be a good day.

I came running into Sacramento High School trying to avoid the rain. Since I had never had Mrs. White as a teacher before I made my way to her room unsure of what to expect. We all sat down and Mrs. White just dove right in. One thing I had always liked about Greek mythology is the atmosphere it is always taught in: nothing is so serious; it is as if you are sitting down to coffee with a friend and just chatting. It is all so important but it is relaxing. We discussed why it is important to study Greek mythology if we are going to Rome. Rome, just like many other religions and countries, realized a good way to get others on Rome’s side is to intertwine others beliefs to fit Rome’s. Throughout Rome’s history, religion, mythology, and art we find many old Greek myths. Romans took the Greek God’s and just changed the name and made them a little less extreme. Sound familiar? How about, Christmas being so close to Yule, in an effort to convert Pagans to Christianity? Practically the same thing.

The Greeks had their own ideas of how man was created. A story everyone in this world is still looking for today. Creation began with Chaos, Gaia, Tartarus, and Eros: Chaos, Earth, the underworld, and love. As Mrs. White put it, “We all want a place to live, a place to die, and a way to love,” it is true. The Greeks constructed this family line of Gods that fit with what everyone wanted to hear. From these four Gods come the details: death, fate, sleep, doom, night, light, sky, sea, and so on and so forth.

Eventually the Olympians come into Godly power. We all have heard something about the Olympians, it is so prevalent in our pop culture today it’s hard not to realize it. The picture at the beginning of this blog is me dressed up as Athena (my favorite Greek God) for Halloween a few years back. Some may think that these old stories mean nothing to us nowadays, but really they mean everything. Kids dress up as these characters for Halloween, people produce movies about these Gods, car companies are named after the God of travel, and many have rewritten books and plays about them. Pyramus and Thisbe, the story of two lovers running away to secretly meet, because their families forbid them to be together, does that not sound like: Romeo and Juliet, the story of two lovers running away to secretly meet, because their families forbid them to be together? Every fable in Greek mythology is used today. We may not be sacrificing horses into the sea so Poseidon will grant us a safe journey, but we still look up to some of these characters as heroes or entertainers. Some of these God’s were scum, some were inspiring, and some just let people enjoy a good story. Greek mythology was a way to find meaning in everyday life. To understand why the seasons change, to have an excuse to why people get punished for no good reason. We still use these excuses. It is such a good form of entertainment; why not use something that has worked for so long? Sure, we have changed certain aspects of these stories: in today’s world it is no longer appropriate to create Gods that rape innocent people.

That is the major thing I walked away with after my last seminar, that we are all just looking for answers to life’s questions, and that we will keep revising stories to help put our minds at ease. We have been doing it since the beginning of time. We may have differences in belief but one thing is the same, we all want to know there is a reason for us and everything else in this world.

I have learned a lot from these past few Saturdays. The joy of traveling through others eyes, dusting off thousands of years of history and art work, laughing and eating donuts with peers that all have the same hope in mind, and to really think deeper about everything I had been hearing. I greatly appreciate Mr. Sullivan, Mrs. Everett, and Mrs. White for giving us their Saturdays to share their knowledge. Thank you all.


Kathleen Snook

Greek Mythology: The greatist game of telephone ever played.

"Trying to teach Greek Mythology in 3 hours is like trying to teach all of U.S History in 20 minutes." The words of Mrs. White ring even more true when trying to condense century's of Mythology in a single blog post. So with all that in mind, please enjoy my attempt.

This past Saturday was the last of our weekend seminar classes. Getting up that morning was disheartening not because i had to wake up before noon on a Saturday but because i knew the end of this amazing experience was drawing near. Pushing aside my woebegone emotions I decided to embrace the inevitable by arriving to school 20 minutes early. However, even showing up early did not seem to make the day last any longer. So when the clock struck 10 I walked into Mrs. Whites office and prepared myself for a day of Greek Mythology.
The first thing that we talked about was the rich oral tradition of story telling that the Greeks had cultivated many years ago. This to me was an important way to start off because it answered my burning question as to why there were so many inconsistencies in these myths. Laying out to me that man kind had basically been playing a giant game of telephone with most of Greek Mythology allowed me to settle in and take Mrs. Whites interpretation for what it was. As we moved on we talked about how mythology was interwoven in all aspects of our culture. From Homer and the lliad, Ovaid and The Metamorphis and how colonialism fueled the spread of all this. As we went deeper and deeper Mrs. White explained to use that the fundamental reasons behind most of these myths was to explain the unknown. I found that very interesting that even with all of our modern day technology and science we still cherish these myths.

As the morning flew past and the afternoon drew closer we began to talk about my favorite aspect of Greek Mythology , the Heroes. From Heracles to Odysseus, the archetype that we judge a hero by today comes from these stories. My favorite of these being the story of Theseus because it has everything. From a father son relationship doomed for tragedy, romance doomed for tragedy and of course a terrifying monster doomed for tragedy. Even though i had seen these stories repeated countless times it was really amazing to hear the original in all of its greatness

At the end of our lesson i thought to myself just how different each of our seminars were compared to one another. Roman History with Mr. Sullivan was like auditing a college lecture., the booming voice of the professor going so fast that my pencil and my brain could hardly keep up. Art History with Mrs. Everrett was like going back to the simpler days of elementary school, were you learned, laughed and made a poster with pretty markers. Finally, Greek Mythology with Mrs. White could only be described as your cooler older sibling trying to describe how awesome college is and enjoying every second of it. Thank you all for giving up your weekends and giving all of us this amazing opportunity.

Dennis Johnson

The Same Old Archetype

Saturday’s seminar on Greek mythology was my favorite one yet. It was a little easier because we started later than usual around 10 o’clock. Since I have been reading books on Greek mythology the past couple of months this again was a recap of what I have already learned. We basically reviewed from the beginning of the world according to the Greeks to the heroes of Greek mythology.

A significant point to me was the different kinds of literature written on Greek myth like the Odyssey and Iliad. It seemed like those stories went more in depth on the myth than any of the books I have read. It was also interesting to learn the Greek notation of the beginning of the world. We talked about how it all started with Gaia and Chaos and then stemmed on to the Titans and the Olympians. It’s interesting seeing the contrasts from what they believed in and what we believe now. I also noticed how the patterns of the Gods and heroes are just about the same, like how Uranus knew that one of his children would take power from him and the same thing happened with Cronus and Zeus.

My favorite part of the seminar was when we talked about the old archetypes in Greek myth and how they repeat themselves in stories we still hear today. Also how the Shakespearean classic Romeo and Juliet was really similar to Pyramus and Thisbe. I also realized the stories repeated themselves in the bible when I saw that the story of Cain and Abel are strangely similar to the story of Remus and Romulus, Rome’s very own founders. Until this seminar I had never realized how active Greek mythology is in our stories and literature today. The Greeks seemed to be the original writers of these old archetypes.

-Tre’von Walker

CLASH OF THE TITANS

As we woke to explore the city for another day, we were talking about how roman art and other things are based off Greek mythology, and it's a trip to say the least. There are so many hook ups and break ups, they are like, as one news reporter said, "serial adultists". There are six major gods that every knows about. Zeus, ruler of the sky, Hades, ruler of the underworld, Posieden, ruler of the sea, Aphrodite, goddess of love, Athena, goddess of wisdom, and Hera, goddess of marriage.

Our docent was super cool and super easy to talk to. As we walked walked through the city in all its grandeur while chompin' down on some delicious strawberry and banana gelato he told us the story of how Persephone become the wife of Hades, and it goes something like this.
Hades is the God of wealth and ruler of the dead. Hades was happy with with earth because all the riches belonged to him and sooner or later every mortal would eventually come to him. The problem was that his domain, the caves, were dark and depressing so his fellow gods did not like his company. Over the years Hades became jealous of the progress of his brothers and there women. Persephone was unlike Hades in every way possible, but of course dignity would not let Hades chase or talk to her. Hades thought that he deserved a queen. One day Persephone was out with her maidens just happy and being joyful for being alive, all of a sudden the ground cracked and four black horses raced out with Hades at reins. Hades captured Persephone and took her back to his domain and the cracked closed behind them. Hades gave her tour where disembodied souls flickered like candle flames, then he crowned her on an ebony thrown rusted with the souls of the dead. When Demeter heard the news she wept as she walked across the earth and everything died. So Hades turned to his only friend Hermes (the bringer of souls to Hades, so he would take her back to Demeter). As Hades packed farewell gifts for Persephone, Hermes walked with Persephone in her underground garden. He gave her a pomegranate (fruit of the dead) and excited ate SIX, and forever belonged to the land of the dead. Zeus tries fix things now and he rules that Persephone is to live with Demeter six months of the year and Hades six months of the year. Thus spring, summer, winter, and fall.
These guys are off the hook, man what interesting tale and there is plenty more where that came from. This is Nicholas Banford a.k.a. Van wilder signing off with your Roman Report /=~)))))))))))