Roman City Video Prompt Responses

b. What is the Forum and where is it located? Why is that symbolically significant? What other Classical Era society located politics in this way?

The Forum was a rectangular open area at the center of a Roman city and it was a vocal point for commerce and politics. Being located at the heart of the city, allowed for it to physically connect with the farmlands in outer areas and in term linking the entire region with rome. Around the Forum was government buildings, huge shops, and spiritual temples. The Roman Forum was symbolically significant because it represented the soul of a whole city that connected neighboring regions to the core of Roman culture. Similarly at the center of their cities, the Greeks had a Plateia, which were basically town squares that also had similar features and applications to the Roman Forum.


c. How does an aqueduct move water? How is this like or unlike the way a qanat worked in Persia?

The aqueducts in Ancient Rome moved water through the aid of arches and more arches. Roman constructers began by establishing a water source by the edge of a mountain or hill from where they built a bridge on top of which the water can flow to the city. In order for these bridges to be at level with the water source, which was usually high up a hill, they built arches that allowed them to extend the hight of their constructions, substantially. Upon reaching the city, the bridge lead the water to a storage facility from where the water flowed the the homes of the rich, public baths and lavatories, and public fountains. In addition the Romans had also established a drainage system from where waste water can be taken out of the city. The Roman aqueducts were similar to how the Persian qanat worked. They both applied basic constructions to obtain water from within large hills or mountain like structures. The difference between the two was that the qanat brought water from underground and to a water well or portion of land, whereas the aqueducts brought water from a higher elevation and required arches to raise a large bridge to have the water flow all the way to a city.

f. Why can’t Marcus Fabricius marry Aiden? How does this compare to attitudes about marriage in Classical Era India?

Marcus Fabricius was unable to marry Aiden because she was not a Roman citizen but later on after she was granted her citizenship by Caesar himself, for saving his life by preventing the assassination, he was still unable to marry her. This was because he got promoted by Caesar to become supervising architect for all of the empires new cities in the Phoenician frontier, and had to leave because of it. This idea of marriage compares to Classical India through the Indian caste system, which basically prevented people from different castes to marry one another just like how Fabricius was unable to marry Aiden just because she was not a Roman citizen.