West European Studies

During the first century AD, each of the Roman empires emperors desired to expand their empire.  Some did it for riches, others did it to keep their neighbors in order.  By the beginning of the 100s, the Roman Empire had expanded to Gaul and most of central Europe (Burstein 325).  They also controlled Britain, Asia Minor, Mesopotamia, north Africa, and the eastern coast of the Mediterranean (Burstein, 325).  The empire would soon become too large for any one emperor to successfully control by himself.

Augustus, the adopted son of Julius Caesar, ruled Rome, as emperor, until AD 14 (Shek, 329).  His rise to power is credited as marking the beginning of the Roman Empire (Shek, 329).  He was a powerful emperor of Rome and made many improvements to the capital city, such as creating a fire department, building roads, and aqueducts (Shek, 329).

The social structure of the Roman Empire, during the first century AD, was mainly based on the family of the men.  Men were more respected than women and their social ranking was based on the wealth and status of their family (httpwww.pbs.orgempiresromansempireorder.html).  Women were generally to be submissive to men they had little rights (httpwww.pbs.orgempiresromansempireorder.html).  Social classes were well known and unbending people knew their place and had to follow their traditional roles and rules (httpwww.pbs.orgempiresromansempireorder.html).

One of the most well-known forms of entertainment in the Roman Empire was gladiator events.  Gladiators were men, who were usually slaves or criminals, and were usually forced to fight to the death (httpwww.unrv.comculturegladiator.php).  They would either fight other humans or animals (httpwww.unrv.comculturegladiator.php).  Although sometimes gruesome, many people in Roman society would show up in order to witness these events.  

The Roman Empire was a thriving place at times, with exciting social events, a well formed social hierarchy, and rapid growing territory.  Although the Roman empire was one of the most successful empires in the world, it ultimately failed.  Each emperor took pride in the size of his empire, but it ultimately became too large for them to rule successfully and its demise was unstoppable.