Collapse of the Roman Empire & Han Dynasty

Silk Road simulation #swindled&hustled! :)

Overall, I feel like I have learned a lot from today's silk road simulation. I noticed that the silk was more than just a route for trading and intact was is a series of dealings that happen in a common area between China, India, Malaya, Turkestan,  Greece, and the Roman Empire. I was also not very surprised when I realized how unsafe the whole process was. As a representative of Turkestan my group was the center of most trading between China and Malaya and Greece and Rome. Although this may be, it didn't safe my group from getting robbed. A member of my group was fooled into a deal and gave the money before anything could be formally arranged, and the person just took the money and walked away. From this I learned that dishonesty would have been common amongst the people trading in the silk road. Then once the language and money barrier was broken with a translator and a banker did not help anybody! The banker was constantly bribed and some of the translators were being robbed. In the end only the corrupt and clever made it to the top with the majority of the money. I believe this shows reason for a nation to conquer another because if I was China or Rome and got my money swindled I would not just sit down and forget about everything after the bell rings. NO, I would have raised an army and marched on over to whichever nation took my money, and would have taken it back! In the end though, I would not say that the silk road completely detract from the societies that participated in it and I believe it was beneficial to a certain extent. Despite all the fuss, my group was successfully able to purchase weapons by selling some horses, and this was a win for me. So basically, I learned that even a broken system for trading could carry out tasks of several nations to a certain extent (where at least somebody is happy); but the real question is, for how long did this last?

This simulation was amazing. I felt like I was learning a lot about trade through the silk road, while simultaneously having a good time with it. The pros are mostly made up of the fact that it was a fun and intuitive learning experience and I recommend we definitely do this again. The cons were consisted of the fact that it teaches you things in an indirect way. I feel like there would have been situations in this simulation that could have lead be to a different understanding of the silk road trade. For example if everybody I had traded with were extremely honest and saw my deal through, until the end; I would have been lead to believe that the silk road was a fantastic trading system. So this brings me to the conclusion that this method of learning could work for other things but not all, but today was excellent in sending the message and we should definitely do this again.

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.