“Chapter 1 The Glory That Was Rome” of The Story of the World 2: The Middle Ages Read Aloud

Chapter one, the glory that was Rome. Wandering through the Roman Empire. What if you owned a magic carpet? You could use it to fly around the world and back in time. Let's imagine that you're going to fly back past the time that you were born, back to the days when people used horses to get around. Then you're going to fly back to the Middle Ages, back to the days of knights and castles. Then you're going to go back even farther to the time of the Romans. Your magic carpet stops. You're hovering high in the air above the Mediterranean Sea. From your seat on the carpet, you can look down and see the Mediterranean. It looks a little bit like a duck flying. You notice that the land all around the Mediterranean is glowing yellow. This is the land that belongs to the Roman Empire, the biggest, most powerful empire in the world. For hundreds of years, Roman soldiers have been attacking and conquering the countries around the Mediterranean Sea. Now, the emperor of Rome tells all of these conquered countries, rules all of these conquered countries. They obey the laws of Rome, speak the language of Rome, and serve the emperor of Rome. The Roman Empire divided. Your magic carpet swoops down towards the Mediterranean Sea, towards a piece of land that looks like a boot sticking out into the middle of the water. This is Italy, the center of the Roman Empire, and the most important city in Italy is Rome itself, right in the middle of the boot. Your carpet dives down into the middle of the city. You're carried along paved streets through crowds of people. They are wearing white robes draped over their shoulders and caught up around the waist with belts of leather. They wear cloaks of red, blue, and other bright colors. Tall buildings rise up on either side of you, ancient apartment buildings made out of concrete. On your right, you see an enormous circular wall curving away from you. It looms high over your head. On the other side of the wall, you hear the clash of metal against metal and the roar of an excited crowd. This must be the Colosseum, the huge amphitheater where gladiators fight to the death. Chariot racers careen around a track and lions battle with Roman soldiers for the entertainment of Roman spectators. As your carpet takes you through the richest parts of town, you see marble columns with the statues of great Roman generals and emperors on top of them. Slaves pass by you staggering under the weight of litters, beds on which important Roman citizens lie to be carried through the city. You hear the sound of music and a loud voice crying, clear the way, clear the way for the emperor. A litter comes into view, draped in purple and surrounded by guards. On the litter lies a fat man wearing a gorgeous purple cloak and gold rings on his fingers. A green laurel wreath crowns his head. He is the ruler of all Rome. You decide to get out of his way and your carpet rises up above the city and carries you north into the countryside. You're going to travel north up through Italy. The carpet follows a broad, smooth paved road, crowded with travelers and pack animals. You cross a bridge built of tall stone arches above a river that runs far beneath. The road goes on and on and on. The Romans built hundreds of these roads to link the different parts of their empire together. None of the travelers on the roads seem worried about bandits or highway robbers. After all, the Romans are careful to keep the peace all over their kingdom. This Pax Romana or Roman peace means that all the parts of the Roman empire obey the Roman laws. And the Roman laws are very strict when it comes to highway robbery. Bandits who are caught are executed or forced to fight in the gladiator shows. After you've flown for hundreds of miles, mountains come into view ahead of you. Your carpet soars up above them. The air becomes very cold. Far below, you can see snow on the mountaintops. These are the Alps. When you come down on the other side of the Alps, you are in Gaul, one of Rome's provinces or conquered countries. Throughout Gaul, you see Roman towers and outside every Roman town is a garrison or army camp. Soldiers cook meals over open fires, practice sword fighting and exercise their horses waiting for trouble. If the people who live in Gaul revolt, the soldiers will immediately go to war against them. Your carpet flies you over a wide stretch of water to a huge island and hovers above the ground. You hope the carpet won't land because below you are crowds of fierce warriors planning to attack the Roman army huddled on the shore. Now you're in Britain. The fierce warriors below you are Celts. They are painted blue. Their hair is greased with animal fat so that it sticks up in points all over their heads. And they carry great two-sided axes and razor sharp spears. The Pax Romana doesn't seem to be working very well here in Britain. Let's get out of here, you tell the carpet. Instantly, it whisks you back up into the air. You fly down the Atlantic Ocean, down through Spain into the northern part of Africa. As you fly along the northern African coast, you see great trading cities down below. Cities built by the Romans with busy ports where ships sail in and out carrying spices, silks, salt, lumber, and other goods. It is a peaceful scene. The Pax Romana must be back in action. Up ahead, you see the peak of a pyramid jutting up from the sand of the desert. You sail over the pyramids, half-blinded by their white sides shining in the sun. Ahead, you see a huge river feeding into the Mediterranean Sea. It's the Nile River. Even Egypt, the land of pharaohs, pyramids, and mummies is under Roman control. The sun is starting to sink towards the horizon, but you've only gone halfway through the Roman Empire. Hurry up, you say to the carpet. In just moments, you swoop through Arabia, Syria, and up into Asia Minor. As soon as you fly across Greece, you'll be back in Rome. Thanks to your flying carpet, Roman roads, and the Pax Romana, you've traveled around the Roman Empire in less than a day. But in the days of Roman power, it would take months to get all around Rome. No wonder that Rome was called the ruler of the whole world. The fall of Rome. The emperors of Rome were called the rulers of the whole world, but they had a problem. The world was too big to rule. The Roman Empire was so large that the army couldn't protect its borders, and there were plenty of people outside the Roman Empire who wanted to come in and take parts of it away. Imagine that you're standing in an orchard filled with apple trees. Ripe, juicy apples hang from every branch, and hungry animals are roaming in herds all around the edges. Three starving deer rush in and start to eat the apples on one side. You run at them, waving your arms and shouting. The deer dash off, but while you're chasing them, two enormous cows start snatching apples from the other side of the orchard. You turn around and charge at them, yelling, don't eat my apples! The cows back slowly away, but now five squirrels are right in the middle of the orchard, and each squirrel has an apple in his mouth and another in his paws. All alone, you'll never keep all of these animals out of the orchard, and that's just how the Roman rulers felt about their empire. Wandering tribes from other parts of the world wanted to come into Rome, conquer Roman villages, use the Roman roads, eat the Roman crops, and share in the Roman wealth. The Romans called these wandering tribes barbarians. The barbarians didn't live in houses, like the Romans did, or take baths, like the Romans did, or cook their food. Instead, they lived in tents, fought on horseback, and ate their food raw. The Romans thought that these barbarians were no better than animals. Thousands of these barbarians invaders, called Huns, Vandals, Goths, Visigoths, and Ostrogoths swept down on Rome's borders. The emperors sent their armies to protect the borders, but there just weren't enough soldiers to guard all the sides of the Roman empire. And Rome had other problems, too. In some places, food was running short, and Roman citizens were going hungry. A terrible sickness called the plague killed many of Roman's strong fighters, and many of the emperors who inherited the job of ruling Rome weren't very good at ruling an empire. One of them went mad and tried to make his horse into a government official. Finally, an emperor named Diocletian came to the throne. He decided that the empire was too big for one ruler and one army to protect, so he divided the Roman empire into two parts. The part of the empire with Italy and Rome in it was called the Western Roman Empire. The part with Asia Minor and Egypt in it was called the Eastern Roman Empire. A barbarian. Then, Diocletian appointed another emperor, a man named Maximian, to rule with him. He also chose two more men to be junior emperors. These junior emperors were called Caesars. They were like vice presidents. One helped Diocletian with the task of ruling, and the other helped Maximian. From now on, there would be two Roman empires, two Roman emperors, and two Caesars. Diocletian decided to divide the Roman empire in the year 286. We call this year A.D. 286 or C.E. 286. Both of those abbreviations mean that Diocletian's decision happened 286 years after the birth of Jesus. A.D. stands for Anno Domini, which means the year of our Lord. For Christians, every year after the birth of Christ was his year. Many people prefer to use the abbreviation C.E., which means Christian era or common era. When you are reading, you will notice that some authors use A.D. while others use C.E., but both of these abbreviations tell you the same thing, that the date comes after the birth of Jesus. Diocletian hoped that the Roman empire would be easier to protect now that four men were working to keep it safe, but he was wrong. 200 years after Diocletian's death, the Western Roman empire was finally conquered by barbarian tribes. In 410 A.D. or C.E., barbarians burned Rome and carried away all of its treasures. Nothing was left but the Roman roads and bridges, and slowly, even those began to crumble away into dust.