Yep.

This is a little horror story written as a reflection to a class discussion about the Black Death during the Middle Ages.

The Swarm

by Bryan Doherty

The year is 1968 on a small island off the coast of Argentina. This island, Parasio, is small and isn’t even marked on most maps but is inhabited by over 100 people. These people are from all over the world and have come to this island to get away from modern society. One man leads them all. This man was loved by all and hated by none, but he was cruel and violent. He promised a better life for those people but really only controlled them. He had complete control over them and the people on the island had no way to live by themselves or to even escape if they wanted to.

One day a strange man came ashore the island in hopes for a better life. He was immediately engrossed in this new “perfect society” and had made a new life for himself. But when he went to meet with the leader of the island, the leader knew the man was trouble. The leader instantly told his spies that he had placed throughout the island to watch the man. The spies did not help because that night the leader of Parasio died mysteriously in his sleep. Doctors later found that his lungs had imploded while he slept leaving no marks on the body.

Instantly everyone appointed the new man the leader. All on the island accepted him as the leader, even the old leader’s spies and body guards. Each man, woman, and child swore allegiance to him. Soon though things began to go awry. People on the island started to die. Each of the dead had had their lungs imploded while they were sleeping leaving no marks on the body. Within thirty six hours of coming into contact the new leader, that person was dead. Every one panicked and tried to get off the island, but there was no way to get off. They were trapped.

Within a month there was no one left on the island except the new man who had joined the island society and become the leader. He was trapped on the island with no way to get off and only the dead for company. He went mad and as soon as he was dead the white swarm of parasites left his body to find new victims.

For Earth Day, our class took a look at the history of recycling.

Here is a short annotated collection of what we found online. It’s pretty interesting because even though most people believe that recycling is a modern idea, research has shown that even the Ancient Romans recycled!

Ancient Greece

http://books.google.com/books?id=vKW-Imcs6FAC&lpg=PA22&ots=C4mveTKKIy&dq=Ancient%20waste%20dump%20Greece&pg=PA22#v=onepage&q&f=false

The people of crete creating an urban garbage dump about 3,000 B.C. The Athenians were some of the first to dump their waste outside the city.

Ancient Rome

http://www1.american.edu/ted/bronze.htm

The Ancient Romans took old metal after conquering a new place and melted it down to make statues.  This reused the metal and made it into something useful. The Romans would recycle the swords and jewelry of the places and regions they defeated. They would melt the metal down to make statues of gods and war heroes.

http://www.cardiff.ac.uk/news/mediacentre/mediareleases/feb07/medieval-recycling.html

Stones used in the walls of Roman cities were recycled and used to make other people’s houses and other things when part of the wall was damaged. Much later, museums in Britian used glass from the Roman times to turn into gems and decorate their displays.

http://www.scienceblog.com/cms/roman_coin_hoard_points_to_early_recycling

The Numberlands took the old bronze Roman coins and they recycled them into trinkets for the Roman Army and sold them for more money than the older coins were worth.

http://ls.berkeley.edu/?q=arts-ideas/archive/roman-ceramics-are-evidence-ancient-recycling

Ancient Romans also recycled and reused their broken pottery.

Vikings

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/12/091214-viking-recycling.html

This site is about how the Vikings recycled old metal weapons by melting them down and using them for other things. It is maybe unusual to hear that the Vikings recycled, but they would always reuse weapons from obtained from battles.

http://www.ancientworldreview.com/2009/12/possible-viking-weapon-recycling-site-found-in-england.html
The Vikings recycled their old weapons by taking them to smithies after battles and having them reprocessed.  This allowed broken weapons to be reused over and over again.

Further reading…

http://www.wasteonline.org.uk/resources/InformationSheets/HistoryofWaste.htm

This site from the Waste Watch Project’s WasteOnline has a “Chronology of Waste” that has information dating back to 3000 BC . This site tells how different civilizations recycled waste and used their waste products.

In gearing up for a Viking raid, the Norsemen would have first gathered their weapons. A sword with a blade about 90 cm long that was sharp on both sides would be needed.

They would also take a short ax and a round shield. Many of the Vikings also wore helmets made of iron with eye, ear, and nose coverings.

Bows and arrows would also have been taken to shoot at the enemy from boats, or on land when approaching. Some Viking warriors had mail tunics, and these would have been brought to battle as well. Once this gear and weapons was gathered, it would be loaded into shallow draught longships that were used for “hit-and-run” surprise attacks by the Viking raiders.

Sometimes, however, things just didn’t work out for the Viking Warrior.

“Combat Equipment and Fighting Techniques of the Vikings.” The Vikings. VikingsOnline.org.uk., 1999-2008. Web. 18 Mar 2010. (http://www.vikingsonline.org.uk/resources/articles/combat.htm)

Koeller , David. “Vikings Raid European Mainland.” The Web Chronology Project. WebChron Project, 1996-1999. Web. 18 Mar 2010. (http://www.thenagain.info/webchron/WestEurope/VikingRaids.html)

History can be taught in many different ways, and different learners adapt to different methods of teaching. The ways that history is taught have differed and changed throughout the years. Some ways work best in a classroom, while others do not; teaching methods and available resources can make learning history a great experience… or not.

When I walk into Western Civilization class, I know it will never be boring. We are always doing different activities like watching gory war videos on YouTube or playing cool Egyptian games. Last year, my eighth grade year, was all text book work. It was so boring that I could barely keep myself awake. No one wants to go to class, open the history book, and listen to the teacher lecture.

I believe that teachers are often taught a way to teach children, but then don’t develop their own way of teaching; which leads to either forgetting the more effective way of teaching, or not caring about teaching methods.

Instead of lecturing for an hour, the teacher should try to make it fun by sharing different resources about the topic. Here’s an example: Maybe you are learning about Julius Caesar, the conspiracy, and the assassination. There are many wonderful sites and videos online. For example, the BBC Ancient History site and their various video series like Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar which is an animated tale of Caesar’s assassination and the events that occurred after as well as the exciting Rise and Fall of an Empire series. Instead of the boring old text book, these resources are a great way to show students what happened to Julius Caesar.

BBC History also has many free online interactive games about many different topics. One of the topics is Egyptian pyramid making. It explains the right places and tools to use to build a pyramid. Even if you just have a small game of Jeopardy, a lot more information will be absorbed than you think. They might even remember certain moment in class that makes them recall the answer later. And what kid doesn’t love a little competitive game that involves a treat for the winner?

Fifteen percent of the population are kinesthetic learners (“Kinesthetic”). This means they don’t learn well from listening or reading; but rather learn from doing stuff, using their hands, and moving around. Reading the text book in class isn’t going to help these learners. It is very hard to concentrate on a text book for about an hour without taking a break. To help these kinesthetic learners, you should try hands-on activities, such as group projects and interactive activities like acting out parts of history, such as wars. The teacher could set up the students in battle formation and ask them questions about what the general might do next.

The main focus for a teacher in teaching students should be to get them involved in what they are learning about.

History is one of the best subjects to teach students interactively to help them see what they are learning about in a better way. But teachers need to remember not to just lecture out of a book.

When talking to adults about what it was like to be taught history when they were growing up in the 1960s to 1970s, I received a few different answers. Mary Anne said that when she was in high school, the teacher would lecture to the class, and she would take notes and make an outline. She stated, “I felt like I never really learned the history, I memorized my notes and was able to answer essay questions on tests by regurgitating my memorized notes on to the test paper.”

Today, there are still teachers who share information with the class in this way, but there are others who use the advancement in technology that we have by showing historically accurate videos or taking the class on the path of an historical campaign using Google Earth. In my opinion, what we are being taught is absorbed better if we are interactively learning it.

When talking to Phil, a man who always loved history class, he shared a story about a teacher he remembered well from 3^rd grade. He recalled, “One of my favorite history teachers was a teacher by the name of Mrs. Burnell in 3rd grade.” He went on to explain a memorable experience he had in her class. “She actually took us on a trip to the Appalachian Mountains. We took food and different supplies and toys to the poor people there. We gave them a party, we had a party. She made learning very interesting with the way she taught. She was an African-American teacher in an all white school in Baltimore City. She really had a way with the students and made learning really fun.”

When I asked what exactly she did that made learning so fun, he said, “I just remember that she made class very interesting and maybe that it was because for the first time I was being taught by a black person. I didn’t know what to expect, but as it turned out I really enjoyed being in her class. I remember her being very friendly, approachable, and she welcomed questions.”

Phil also had another story that he vividly remembered about acting out a play about the American Revolution in the 7^th grade. Remembering the play, he said, “I was George Washington. One of my classmates had a coat from his mother that was blue that looked like a colonial coat, and I wore that. To make the learning interesting, we played the parts of different people. We had lines and acted them out.”

Learning had become interesting, just by making it interactive. Instead of sitting in a chair and copying down notes being said, you could actually learn in a more productive way.

History can be taught in a variety of different ways, but some ways are more effective than others. In Phil’s years of being taught history, he found them enjoyable, because he always had an interest in learning about the past. Even without technology available, he was able to really learn and enjoy learning through interesting teachers and real experiences. Mary Anne, on the other hand, did not experience those methods of teaching and did not feel like she really knew or learned the information.

History is a wonderful and interesting topic to study, but lecturing is the wrong way to go when teaching kids because they will not stay attentive and alert. Interactive games and technology are great ways to teach students any topic that you would like them to learn because they are having fun, but at the same time they are learning. But even without those resources, history can be a fun topic to study — if time is put in to how to teach it.

Works Cited

“BBC – History – Ancient History in Depth: Pyramid Challenge.” BBC – Homepage. Web. 11 Mar. 2010. <http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/egyptians/launch_gms_pyramid_builder.shtml>.

“Kinesthetic Learning . “Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 11 Mar. 2010. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinesthetic_learning>.

“History Class.” Flickr. Web. 12 Mar. 2010. <http://www.flickr.com/photos/luthercollegearchives/1484927223/>.

The first Julio-Claudian dynasty consisted of the very first emperors of Rome, and although they started the Roman Empire, some of them were crazy tyrants who greatly abused their power. Following the death of Julius Caesar, the Roman Empire started, and instead of having a Republic, individual emperors held the sole power. Aside from Augustus, the first emperor, probably the only reason they became emperors was because each had to be of family relation to the previous one. The emperors were not able to choose their heirs, and as a result, unfit men became all-powerful rulers of Rome. Some of the earliest emperors of Rome were quite unfit to hold this position.

Julius Caesar’s heir and the very first emperor of Rome, Augustus Caesar, did a good job of restoring order after the death of Caesar. However, the other emperors in the dynasty either did not want to rule the empire or were abusive of the power they had. The second Roman emperor was Tiberius. In the beginning of his reign, he did not seem to be ready for such power. In fact, he did not seem to want to be emperor at all, and he tried to use as little power as possible. (“Tiberius.” Wikipedia. Web. 12 Mar. 2010. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiberius#cite_note-40.) It did not take long, however, for this to change. Tacitus, an ancient historian who lived very shortly after Tiberius, wrote, “Suddenly fortune deranged everything; the emperor became a cruel tyrant, as well as an abettor of cruelty in others.” (“The Annals by Tacitus.” The Internet Classics Archive: 441 Searchable Works of Classical Literature. Web. 13 Mar. 2010. http://classics.mit.edu/Tacitus/annals.4.iv.html.) This became clear when Tiberius had a man called Sejanus killed because he was supposedly trying to become emperor himself. Tiberius did not stop there; he had anyone associated with Sejanus in any way assassinated. (“Tiberius.” Wikipedia. Web. 12 Mar. 2010. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiberius#cite_note-40.) Tiberius was definitely unfit for a position of such great power.

Though Tiberius was a bad emperor, his successor, Caligula, was far worse. Caligula was certifiably insane, and he abused his power greatly. Aside from this, he is said to have had a scandalous relationship with his own sister. His insanity is proven in the fact that he tried to make his horse a consul. (“Roman Emperors – DIR Caligula.” Roman Emperors – DIR. Web. 13 Mar. 2010. http://www.roman-emperors.org/gaius.htm.) Caligula not only insane, but he was also extremely cruel. He had many people killed, even those who were very close with him. For example, he had his own father-in-law murder himself on account of treason. He did the same thing to his right-hand man, Macro. Just a year or two after he became emperor, Caligula had almost driven the Roman Empire to become bankrupt. (“Caligula.” VROMA :: Home. Web. 13 Mar. 2010. http://www.vroma.org/~bmcmanus/caligula.html.) This is probably because he was wasting so much money on an unnecessary floating bridge made of ships. Without much money and ships for transport, Caligula caused the people to experience a famine. Despite the problems he caused, Caligula was very self-absorbed, and he thought of himself as a divine being. This cruel emperor was clearly not very popular among the people, so it is not surprise that after only four years of rule, he was assassinated. (“Caligula.” Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 13 Mar. 2010. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caligula.) It is obvious by looking at Caligula’s actions that he did not deserve the title of Emperor.

The next emperor in the Julio-Claudian Dynasty was Claudius, who was forced into the position after Caligula’s death. He had almost no experience, and when he was called to the Capitol, he returned word that he would not come. (“Ancient History Sourcebook: Suetonius: Life of Claudius.” FORDHAM.EDU. Web. 13 Mar. 2010. http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/ancient/suetonius-claudius-worthington.html.) In fact, he was found hiding behind a curtain, and it is clear that he did not want to become emperor. He was a bit of a pushover; the first thing he did when he became emperor was pay the military a large sum of money so they would be loyal to him. (“Claudius.” The Roman Empire. Web. 13 Mar. 2010. http://www.roman-empire.net/emperors/claudius.html.) The Senate did not like him throughout his reign, and there were several attempts to kill him. Claudius was definitely not good at choosing a wife; he married four times, his third wife attempted to kill him, and his fourth succeeded. Because he did not want to become emperor in the first place, Claudius was not fit to have so much power.

Though he was the last emperor of the first dynasty, Nero was one of the worst. He had his own mother, who had helped him rise to the top, murdered after he came to power. Nero was another egotistical emperor, and one of his most infamous acts is the fire of Rome. He is said to have started a great fire at the Circus Maximus that spread and burned everything in its path for over five days. He supposedly did this in order to make space for the building of a new complex in his honor. In order to shift the blame away from himself, he targeted the Christians and had many of the killed and persecuted. (“Emperor Nero: 54-68.” Then Again. . . Web. 13 Mar. 2010. http://www.thenagain.info/WebChron/Mediterranean/Nero.html.) Aside from this, Nero spent more time in Greece than he did in Rome. It seems that his own pleasures were more important to him than ruling the Roman Empire. The people eventually grew tired of him and actually forced him to commit suicide. Even on the verge of death, Nero remained egotistical and kept saying, “What an artist the world is losing!” (“Ancient History Sourcebook: Suetonius: De Vita Caesarum–Nero, C. 110 C.E.”FORDHAM.EDU. Web. 13 Mar. 2010. http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/ancient/suet-nero-rolfe.html.) Because he was so self-absorbed and interested in his own happiness, he was quite an unfit emperor of Rome.

The emperors of the Julio-Claudian Dynasty – Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, and Nero – were the first of the Roman Empire. Some of them were too selfish while others did not even want to be emperor. Aside from Augustus, the men of the Julio-Claudian Dynasty caused Rome a lot of trouble, and they were certainly unfit to be emperors.

Works Cited

“Ancient History Sourcebook: Suetonius: De Vita Caesarum–Nero, C. 110 C.E.” FORDHAM.EDU. Web. 13 Mar. 2010. http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/ancient/suet-nero-rolfe.html.

“Ancient History Sourcebook: Suetonius: Life of Claudius.” FORDHAM.EDU. Web. 13 Mar. 2010. http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/ancient/suetonius-claudius-worthington.html.

“The Annals by Tacitus.” The Internet Classics Archive: 441 Searchable Works of Classical Literature. Web. 13 Mar. 2010. http://classics.mit.edu/Tacitus/annals.4.iv.html.

“Caligula.” VROMA :: Home. Web. 13 Mar. 2010. http://www.vroma.org/~bmcmanus/caligula.html.

“Caligula.” Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 13 Mar. 2010. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caligula.

“Claudius.” The Roman Empire. Web. 13 Mar. 2010. http://www.roman-empire.net/emperors/claudius.html.

“Emperor Nero: 54-68.” Then Again. . . Web. 13 Mar. 2010. http://www.thenagain.info/WebChron/Mediterranean/Nero.html.

“Nero.” NNDB: Tracking the Entire World. Web. 13 Mar. 2010. http://www.nndb.com/people/925/000087664.

“Roman Emperors – DIR Caligula.” Roman Emperors – DIR–De Imperatoribus Romanis Roman History Roman Roman Empire Imperator Basileus De Imperatoribus Romanis Encyclopedia Byzantine. Web. 13 Mar. 2010. http://www.roman-emperors.org/gaius.htm.

“Tiberius.” Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 12 Mar. 2010. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiberius#cite_note-40.

There are many great games out there geared towards learning about the ancient world.

In ‘Gladiator: Dressed to Kill‘, you dress up Roman gladiators for battle.

The game gives information about the Roman gladiators like how they were armed in a variety of styles that were designed to mimic mythical figures as well as Rome’s past enemies. Specific gladiators were matched together so there would be an exciting fight.

In the game you have sixty seconds to dress up the specific gladiator for his specific battle. You can ask for clues that will help you to figure out which weapons and armor your gladiator should were into battle. You only have four clues and you need to choose four weapons and armor. The four weapons that you can give to your gladiator are a trident, a sword, a spear, and a dagger. Other things that may be given to the gladiator are different types of armor as well as shields and a net. The clues can give you a hint as to what weapon and what armor to send the gladiator in with. An example is “The Retiarius gladiator is lightly armed, and has the equipment of a fisher man.” Based on the clue you can that the weapon that the gladiator should be given is a trident and fishing net. If you choose three of the correct weapons you will be given the palm branch of victory. If you choose all four correctly, you will be given a wooden sword that symbolizes the gladiator’s freedom.

This is a fun game that will help you learn about how gladiators fought and what they were like. It gives information on what kinds of weapons and armor they took into the arena with them which can be very interesting.

In the game, ‘Dig it up: Romans‘, you are an archaeologist.

In this game, you are trying to dig up archaeological items, hence the name. You are set in a place where there are many underground Roman items and there are places where you can dig up specific items from a specific Roman time period.

Meanwhile, in the ‘Mesopotamia Farming Game‘, you have to take care of three different plots of land, farm, sow your crops, water, and maybe even flood your crops.

This game can be helpful to learn about farming, but it doesn’t teach much about Mesopotamia, except that people from there were farmers because of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. This game would be better if it was more interactive with more facts about Mesopotamia and if it had more things to do than just farming.

Discovery.com has created an interactive game where not only can you learn about the history of the Giza pyramids but you can learn how to build one.

While building the pyramid, the game gives you a time limit of about 23 years. It is very realistic, down to point where you have to get barracks for the workers. This game is good for anyone who wants to learn what it felt like to be in charge of having one of the Pyramids at Gize built.

BBC has a an interactive game that goes through the process of digging up ancient civilizations in the Indus Valley.

Professor Indus is an archaeologist. He gives you the mission of finding the lost city of Mohenjodaro. It is a great game where you learn about the tools that an archaeologist uses as you learn about the Indus Valley. It is quite clever and fun to play and i recommend it.

That’s it until next time. Until then… enjoy gaming and learning!

It is a myth that viking wore helmets with horns on them. The few helmets that did survive from the viking age do not have horns. Also any depictions from that time do not show the vikings with horned helmets. It is more likely that this was believed to make the vikings seem more savage.

The christian influence in Europe most likely did this to make the vikings appear more pagan to others and more like barbarians. Another explanation is that because the Norse God Thor had a winged helmet that others mistook these for horns. There are many other other possible solutions for depicting vikings in horned helmets.

The Vikings did not wear helmets that had large horns on them. The helmets that they wore were simpler, made out of iron. The idea that Vikings wore helmets with horns or wings on them was made popular in the 19th century.

If a helmet from that time did have horned I think they would be bull horns. This would be more likely because they look the more similar to artist depictions than other types of horns that belong to animals from Europe.

Source:

Top 10 Misconceptions About The Vikings. Web. 15 Mar. 2010.http://listverse.com/2009/04/21/top-10-misconceptions-about-the-vikings/.

“Viking Age Arms and Armour -.” Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 16 Mar. 2010.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viking_helmet#Helmet>.

Prizvanievaryagov.jpg. Web. 15 Mar. 2010.http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Prizvanievaryagov.jpg.

reviewed by Ryan Noone

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http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/romans/launch_gms_deathrome.shtml

This game is very interactive and challenging. You are a Roman detective trying to figure out who the murderer is after a mysterious death in Rome. This game is appropriate for high school students, but the changing difficulty levels should be suited for younger kids as well. To solve the mystery you have to put together the pieces of the puzzle given to you and listen to the people tell you about what they saw. In the end, you have to put it all together and figure out the mysterious death in Rome.

The purpose of correctional facilities has changed greatly since the Roman Republic established their first prisons. Romans did not use prisons for the same purposes that we do in the United States. In fact, Roman law did not recognize imprisonment as a form of punishment.

In 451 BCE, with the issuance of the Twelve Tables, the main function of the jail was to provide a place to keep state prisoners pending execution, and for people awaiting trial. The wealthy were held under house arrest at the home of a friend, who would guarantee their appearance in court (http://www.unrv.com/government/roman-prisons.php). The only instance of imprisonment in the Twelve Tables occurs in the laws concerning debt. Debtors who could not or would not pay were incarcerated for sixty days and were to have their debts announced publicly in the marketplace three times. If their debt was paid, they were released, if not they were executed or sold into slavery outside the city (Morris and Rothman, 15).

If Romans were caught in the act, or confessed to the crime, their sentence was immediately imposed and no trial was held (Morris and Rothman, p.18). Conviction for some offenses was “an eye for an eye”, but a frequent penalty for a crime was death. Capital punishment took many forms such as burning alive for those convicted of arson, throwing off the Tarpeian Cliff for perjury, hanging for theft and burying alive the vestal virgins who violated their oaths of chastity (Morris and Rothman 14). Exile might be chosen by a convicted felon as an alternative to execution, in exchange for loss of their property and citizenship. Those exiled could be killed if they returned to Rome.

The Carcere Mamertino, or Mamertime Prison, is an ancient Roman prison typical during the Roman Republic. It served as the State Prison and had an underground cell which was a hole twelve feet below ground into which prisoners were lowered. It was basically a dungeon, where the conditions were so deplorable that many died before reaching trial, or the completion of the decided penalties. It was the death chamber for those sentenced to strangulation or starvation (Morris and Rothman, 19). High profile prisoners of war were also kept in the prison, where they stayed until a public procession could be held when they were paraded and strangled in public (Morris and Rothman, 22).

In the United States today we use prisons to hold inmates awaiting trial, but also for punishment. Capital punishment is rarely used as evidenced by the statistic that only 52 inmates were executed in 2009, as compared to 1,610,446 people being held as prisoners (http://bjs.ojp.usdoj.gov/index.cfm?ty=kftp&tid=1). Also, the methods of capital punishment are considered to be more humane than during the Roman Republic, with the use of lethal injection or electrocution being the most common. The punishment of “an eye for an eye” no longer exists, and we now have an alternative or adjunct to incarceration under the system of parole and probation, where prisoners are released into the community under certain conditions, which only if not met, result in re-incarceration. Unfortunately, in 2008, over 7.3 million people were on probation, in jail or prison, or on parole at year-end, which is 3.2% of all U.S. adult residents, or 1 in every 31 adults. Furthermore, expenditures on corrections have increased 660% from $10 billion in 1982 to $68 billion in 2008 (http://bjs.ojp.usdoj.gov/index.cfm?ty=kftp&tid=1). From a local perspective, in 2009 the Harford County Detention Center in Maryland housed, on average, 500 people per day, at a cost of $45/day. This amounts to an annual cost of $8,311,050 for a County with a population of approximately 250,000, which is the same approximate population of Rome at the beginning of the Roman Republic. (http://www.harfordsheriff.org/_application/files/annual_reports/annual_report_2007.pdf).

So the prison system today in the United States is more humane than during the Roman Republic, which shows progression. Prisons are regulated at the Federal, State, and local levels by government. Prisoners are not kept in unsanitary places or starved and in Roman times, and in fact, “three hots and a cot”, is the current standard. Prisons now even provide job training and education to inmates to prepare their re-introduction into society.

But how effective is punishment as a deterrent to crime?

In a 15 State study conducted from 1983-1994, over two-thirds of released prisoners were rearrested within three years (http://bjs.ojp.usdoj.gov/index.cfm?ty+kftp&tid=1). Punishment is defined as a process of presenting a consequence, delivered after a behavior, which serves to reduce the frequency or intensity with which the behavior occurs(http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/punishment). If the purpose of incarceration in United States prisons is punishment, the tremendous costs and recidivism rates indicate that the prison system is not working. Indeed, the Roman Republic process seemed a more efficient — if utterly less humane — form of handling and deterring the commission of crimes.

“Annual Report.” Harford County Sheriff’s Office. Jan 2010. Harford County Government, Web. 5 Mar 2010.(http://www.harfordsheriff.org/_application/files/annual_reports/annual_report_2007.pdf).

“Key Facts: Corrections.” Office of Justice Programs. 7 Jan. 2010. U.S. Department of Justice, Web. 5 Mar 2010. (http://bjs.ojp.usdoj.gov/index.cfm?ty+kftp&tid=1).

Morris, Norval, and David Rothman. The Oxford History of the Prison. New York: Oxford University Press, Inc., 1995. Print., pp. 14-22.

“punishment.” Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary. 2010.Merriam-Webster Online. 5 March 2010 (http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/punishment).

“Roman Prisons.” UNRV History. 2003-2010. unrv.com, Web. 5 Mar 2010. (http://www.unrv.com/government/roman-prisons.php).

Rome, a city that was hardly known at all when it was founded in 753 BC by Romulus, soon flourished and expanded its empire to conquer the known inhabited world.

This may have been aided by various factors such as the formation of the very powerful Roman Republic, elements of which are still incorporated into modern governments, as well as strategic war generals such as Scipio Africanus, Roman beliefs and values, and the inventions that they created. Rome was one of the greatest civilizations the world has ever seen and their radical ideas irreversibly changed the course of history.

Rome was a civilization that took pleasure in fantasy tales, especially ones that included themselves. The first of such stories is the story of the formation of Rome. The story begins with two brothers Romulus and Remus. As it is recounted by Plutarch, “Their minds being full bent upon building, there arose presently a difference about the place. Romulus chose what was called Roma Quadrata, or the Square Rome, and would have the city there” (http://classics.mit.edu/Plutarch/romulus.html). This was a main point in the fable of the origins of Rome that did include some events that actually occurred but also myths incorporated into the story.