Lesson #29 - The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

First up will be the Latin Phrases quiz.

We'll finish up our look at Rome today and tomorrow. We'll use the graffiti posts tomorrow to do a quick review activity tomorrow. Today's focus will be on the decline and fall of the Roman Empire.

We're going to push back until tomorrow our look at The Ethics Workbook I: World History. The "Ancient Rome" section on Stoicism will be up first, and then we'll look at the material on "Christianity" from Chapter 8.

The Decline and Fall of Rome: We'll continue today by having you pair up with one partner (if you'd like), and spending 20 minutes working on a DBQ (document-based questions) activity on the fall of Rome. Whether you are finished or not at that time, we'll get back together to brainstorm our list of causes for the decline and fall of Rome.

You'll get assigned to one of four groups: economic causes, military causes, political causes or social causes. You need to pull together ideas from the reading and DBQ activity, as well as other things you know/ suspect. You can also consult this The Fall of the Roman Empire. We'll have you list your ideas on the whiteboard. I've also got a couple overheads to help us make sense of Rome's eventual fall in 476 CE.

Finally, we'll bring this up to today and talk about whether this has anything to do with the modern United States. Here's the "big question": Is the United States an "empire" in decline?

Let's consider some of the reasons established in the handout linked above. For each category, try to think of parallels/ differences between Rome and the United States of today.

Decline in Morals and Values
Public Health
Political Corruption
Unemployment
Inflation
Urban decay
Inferior Technology
Military Spending

If the United States and the Roman Empire are comparable, do you believe were are destined to suffer the same fate? Why or why not?

If time permits, we can examine some possible solutions to the problems you may have identified.

HOMEWORK for tomorrow: Friday, December 14th

Please finish the Rome chapter by reading 6.5. It is pages 178 - 183 in your textbook.

I'll ask you to read the very short "Ancient Roman Life" handout.

(If you are behind in reading those two sections from The Ethics Workbook, you could do that tonight.)

Your "Rome Graffiti" posts are due to be posted by 2ND HOUR class time tomorrow.