Kelly's Blog # 5

 This project proved to be pretty difficult to me. It was a big time commitment and we could not seem to get everyone on board. There those of us who did not do the individual blogging and who did not put in as much time with group meetings. It seemed that everyone in there groups had all of their commitments taking place at the very end of the school year.

                        Our task was an enormous one: We had to talk about Ancient Roman society, their culture relating to spectacle and leisure, and the fall of the empire all within the course of fifteen minutes. I was afraid, even as we were presenting that our argument and our scope were too broad, but, honestly, we had no choice. We did not have time to look at specific emperors or every element that went into the empire’s collapse. I felt that we had to reach for that broader argument because it was all that time would allow for.

                        I thought I managed to come through for my group and step up the plate. I did my part on the research and I presented the strongest argument I could. I cannot expect anything more.

Monica's Personal Blog #5

Personal Blog #5

My group and I presented today and honestly it went well. It is hard to compare yourself to the other groups because all of their focuses were so different so I cannot say if we did better or worse than a certain group. From an individual standpoint I feel like the one thing we could have improved on is making all of our parts a more fluid in terms of connecting all of our topics together. We all presented in a very engaging manner and feel like we had a lot of information about our particular part of our topic. The project I think reflected our process very well because it did not come together as a group. It was four to five parts of a certain topic that we all brought to the table. I say that because our group dynamic was not a very concise one and it showed very clearly in the way we presented. In my personal presenting I think I did very well. I have a tendency whenever I do a presentation such as this one or even any public speaking to trip over words and that happened, but I put my own personal quirky spin on the information. I thought we definitely had the most comedic elements in our presentation, but I am unsure if that helped the information of our presentation to be more memorable or that it made us seem less credible because there were so many laughs with our presentation. Overall if given the chance I would not do this project again. With our group at least there were so many problems with scheduling times to meet due to everyone's schedules and health which really affected our work and a lot of putting the pieces together were done very last minute which is why I personally think that the final product came out so disjointed. The point of this is not the final product or aiming toward a certain grade, it is about the scholarly findings we encountered on our journey. In that aspect, I feel like I did not realize that until now. However the findings about the imperial games I researched to get to the final project I enjoyed learning about. Whatever grade I get for this project I really enjoyed the information and the presentation, but I would not do it again. 

Kirsten's Reflection Blog

Reflection Blog.

Throughout this project I have overall enhanced my researching skills. With such a broad topic of Ancient Roman Spectacle we did hit the problem of being specific and picking a certain time period. Once we did some initial research and discovered the amount of political influence put onto spectacle we found our starting point. With that we chose the time of peace in Rome where spectacle and entertainment could take precedence in the life of the empire. Connecting with the Roman Empire we tracked to see if the huge concentration on spectacle had a significance influence on the fall of the empire.

Overall I did prefer this sort of final project rather than a final exam or paper.  It gave us time to make sure our argument and research was specific enough. I did like the group I was working with, we got our information done and met when we could. We did stress the importance of individual research because our busy schedules. Something that I did find rather difficult was fulfilling the amount of text needed in the blogs. Sometimes I would run out what I wanted to talk about in fear of being repetitive each week. With us ending the project I can say I took plenty of positive and helpful researching and presenting skills from this.

Kirsten Blog Week 4

Bread and circus and silencing the people.

Bread and circus a spectacle in itself and also a major tactic of distraction. Reading about this I found a lot of interesting facts about what was considered a bread and circus tactic. An interesting factor of bread and circus were the bathhouses. In ancient roman times the roman government opened up several hot springs in order for all people of Rome to bathe. With these opening social interaction began to grow and flourish even more than it was before.

With the main goal of the government was to keep the peace and the rebellious silent entertainment and leisure took a huge role in the lives of romans. Concentrating so much on spectacle, entertainment they gave the pleasures of life more focus to maintain stability. With this it made it particularly harder for citizens to make reason to complain about the hidden troubles of the empire.

Researching more about these tactics the questions come up of did the romans concentration on leisure lead to their demise? From worrying about stability within the state they didn’t strongly focus on the people outside of the empire. As to be talked about in our presentation the romans are eventually overthrown by people they first allied but thought lower than them.

Group Annotated Bib

Separated from Divide and Conquer Post.

 Crowther, Nigel B. Sport in Ancient times. Westport, CT: Praeger, 2007. Print.

This source covers all ancient civilizations but has quite a few chapters on Roman games, gladiators, and chariot races. With a source that covers a more broad look we can get main ideas from these concepts. There is also mention of the mock sea battles (116) and wild beast shows (113) which is something we are interested in exploring as well. This source also focuses on the religious foundations or lack thereof behind each event which will also be intriguing.

Dunkle, Roger. Gladiators: Violence and Spectacle in Ancient Rome. Harlow, England: Pearson/Longman, 2008. Print.

From this source we get a more concise look at who the Gladiators were and what they did. With the mention of Ancient Roman Spectacle most people automatically think of the Gladiator games and any depiction of it in pop culture. Since one of the main goals is to seek fact and bring it to light through this project this source will assist us in that. Not only does it talk about the history of the gladiators, but this source also includes a section about Roman Amphitheatre and the Colosseum itself (245) as well as a comparison to pop culture gladiators (288)

Gabriel, Richard A. "Why Rome Fell." MIlitary History.

       30.3 2013. Master File Premier. Web. 20 Nov. 2013.

 I wanted to fully understand the circumstances regarding the invasion of the nomadic tribes. I think this article provides some fascinating insight on the mindset of the Roman officials dealing with these displaced people. It also gave good reason as to why information on these outside threats may have been hidden from the people; the Romans were very arrogant about their strength and success and would have no barbarian tribes tarnishing their image.

Futrell, Alison. Blood in the Arena: The Spectacle of Roman Power. Austin, Texas: University of Texas, 1997. Print.

This source is important because there is a chapter called "The Late Republic: Spectacle and Political Manipulation" (29) This is important to our research because this comparison is the basis of where all of our research is going. Not only that, but there is more of a history of a bigger picture than a focused look at the ideals of Spectacle

Journal of Popular Culture. 00223840. Aug. 2011 Vol. 44 Issue 4.

"I found this source to be very important because it helps me to see the relevancy of studying Ancient Roman Spectacle in the first place. It warns that history may be repeating itself, thus it is important to understand the mistakes the Romans made so as to avoid repeating them"

Meijer, Fik, and Liz Waters. The Gladiators: History's Most Deadly Sport. New York: Thomas Dunne, 2005. Print. This book gave me info on the structure and building of the Colosseum. It also informed me on the history of the roman amphitheater.

Moorhead, Sam & Stuttard, David. "AD 410: The Year That Shook Rome". 2010

             It gave me basic facts about what started the fall of the Roman Empire in very clear concise language. It provided a useful timeline and showed how each of these negative experiences, such as political deceit and outside threats, slowly took it's toll on the world's strongest empire.

Pearson, John. Arena; the Story of the Colosseum. London: Thames and Hudson, 1973. Print.
This book gave me the most information on the building of the Colosseum and the societal context of the situation.

Potter, D.S., and D.J. Mattingly. Life, Death, and Entertainment in the Roman Empire. 2. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press, 2010. Print.

  Through this source we found the connection more closely to the fall of the Roman Empire.  With our two spectacle topics being Pax Romana and bread and circus, we intend to connect how the fall of the empire took place. With this source we can follow the progress with spectacle and the society of Rome itself to see how they transformed as the fall of the empire came closer. We can also study the types of spectacle offered through the different forms of entertainment. Not striving away from our main focus points for spectacle this source can help bring chronological order to our argument.

Schullard , H.H. A History of the Roman World 753 to 146 BC. 5th. New York: Routledge, 2003. Print.

 From this source we grasped the main ideas behind the history of Rome. Not to necessarily to bring the history of Rome as one of our topics but a tool to help carrying on our argument. With Ancient Roman Spectacle one of our main goals is to connect the influences ad affects historical moments had on spectacle.  With art and theatre having such a big part in the life of Romans moments such as the fall of the Roman Empire had to take great affect on spectacle part of Roman life. Revisiting important parts of the history such as the political organization (67) and Roman Policy and Government (318-340)  we have the capability of connecting the reasoning behind some of the spectacle movements Roman chose to do.

 Toner, J.P. "Leisure and Ancient Rome" Polity Press 1995. 

             I enjoyed reading this book because it gave me insight on everyday Roman life. It helped me to see citizens of Ancient Rome as real people as opposed to bloodthirsty figures of myth and legend, or even as pawns in the empire's political games. These were simply people who wanted to escape from the toils of life and connect with other people. They found this escape in leisurely activities. 

Monica's Personal Blog #4

Personal Blog #4

There was something absolutely fascinating I found in my research. When reading Sports in Ancient Times by Nigel Crowther I came across an interesting sentence. It was commonly believed that gladiators fought to the death in the Roman Colosseum, but this book stated that was not true. The opposite was true saying that gladiators rarely fought to the death and saw it as a mark of dishonor if they killed their opponent in combat. "A fallen fighter would drop his shield and raise a finger of his left hand in an appeal for mercy" (108). This is curious to me seeing that pop culture has created this culture as a giant spectacle of death. However there interesting thing is there was honor in an arena sport that was meant for distracting the public from the political issues of the time. What is up with that? I keep drawing back to The Hunger Games in my mind to drive the points just a bit clearer in my mind, but it just works so well. The political problems, the spectacle, and the honor of the games. Even though these people are sentenced, they are taking their training seriously in preparation for the games. In that last sentence it perfectly applies to both the real situation and the fictional story. Last week's personal blog I was trying to wrap my head around how there was this structure and respect around something that was a glorified execution or petty entertainment for the wealthy. But after reading the book and using that information to connect it to The Hunger Games it makes so much more sense in my mind. I know we are supposed to stay away from the present day, but using those connections strengthen my understanding of the past.

Monica's Personal Blog #3

Personal Blog #3 

This week I have been focused on Gladiators: Violence and Spectacle in Ancient Rome by Roger Dunkle. The center of my focus was how the gladiators trained this week. “Trainees worked out carrying shields made of twigs that were woven in a such a way as to be double the normal weight of wicker-work and wooden swoards that were double the weight of real swords. In the morning and afternoon they practiced at the palus which each recruit stuck in the ground so that it was 6 (Roman) feet high (5 feet 8 inches in modern measurements)” (41). What I found interesting about this is really the amount of the preparation that was put into the training. These gladiators for the most part are prisoners sentenced to the games, so why invest so much training into these people? The lens the group is looking through is a political one seeing how the political problems were masked through spectacle. I personally feel like they really got caught up in it and made a system much like their empires. The games were very structured and had a society all its own to the point where some people volunteered to be in the games. 

Kirsten's Blog Week 3

 The time of peace in Rome.

Pax Romana known as the time of peace within the Roman Empire brought great improvements and advancements in the economy. With the economy goring and the military power at its best Rome was a place of peace. With this many politicians enforced stability and order throughout the land. Offering means of entertainment to all economic classes promoting the idea that the Roman Empire is the safest ad economic stable place a person can live. Learning this brought up the ultimate question of exactly how peaceful was Rome at this time.

Thriving from about 27 BC to 180 AD the Roman Empire stretched across the land surrounding the Mediterranean Sea.  Militia was at its highest and the safety net for the empire. Utilizing their power Rome could appear indestructible to all the citizens. Outside of the Roman world were constant threats to the state. Foreign enemies wishing to take control made constant attempts to the empire.

To avoid anxiety from citizens politicians would often use captured prisoners from other lands as victims of their entertainment. A known example of this is brining captured prisoners into gladiator games. A great tactic utilized by the romans to prove to its people that they have nothing to worry about when it comes to people outside of the empire.

Also despite the fact that that romans gave the impressions that there was overall peace within their empire it was mostly favored towards the upper and wealthier classes.  Middle and lower classes still did no have equal treatment and

Learning this we find that the term Pax Romana was a roman peace due to militia power and dominance, and economic stability of the upper class.