Rome was a powerful empire, They conquered most of Europe. They were very cruel people and ruled with an iron fist. They enslaved people and brought the slaves to Rome. They were also immoral, but they created aquaducts and built the colluseum. They adopted many of Greek culture and beliefs. The first emperor was Julius Caeser. He was assassinated by members of the Senate. There was a great deal of homosexuality in Roman society. Also, there was much intermarriage within Roman culture. Many Africans were brought to Rome and intermingled with Romans. Many of the emperors were exceedingly brutal. Caligula was the son of Germanicus. a great Roman military leader. He died and the cause of his death was unknown. Caligula was called little boots. He grew up in the military bases. Julia was the daughter of Augustus. She was exiled to an island after Augustus discovered that she was having sex with many men. Augustus was married to Livia, who was from a prominent Roman family. She was extremely ambitious and wanted her son Tiberius to become the next emperor. She poisoned Augustus and Tiberius became emperor. Tiberius had an advisor named Sejanus who was later killed. Agrippina was the wife of Germanicus. She was the mother of Caligula. Tiberius had her exiled to an island to punish her. Caligula wanted to become emperor and murdered Tiberius. Caligula became sexually involved with his sister, and impregnated her. He later on murdered her and their child. Caligula’s reign was tumultuous and cruel. He prostituted the wives of senators and made his horse a roman god. Later on Caligula and his wife and child were killed. Rome was in chaos. Claudius was Caligula’s uncle. He was disabled and thought to be a fool. In reality, he was exceedingly intelligent. Augustus had noticed this and admired him. After Caligula’s death, the Pratorem Guard, installed Claudius as emperor. He had Caligula’s assassins executed. Claudius reign was admirable. He passed numerous wise laws. He conquered the British isles and brought Celtic warriors. Because they were so brave, Emperor Claudius let the Celtic leader and his people live in Rome. Emperor Claudius had a wife, named Messalina that was quite permiscuous. She had a contest with a local prostitute. Messalina and the prostitute competed with each other as to which woman would sleep with the most men. Messalina won the contest. Claudius’ advisors discovered this and had the names of all the men she had sex with. Claudius’ advisors discovered her promiscuity and Messalina was executed. Claudius was a just ruler. He married his niece, however the marriage was platonic. Claudius had a daughter who married his stepson Nero. Claudius was murdered by his wife. Nero became the next emperor. He was a cruel ruler. He had Christians were crucified by the Emperor. Christians were thrown to the lions.

The Roman rulers felt threatened by the Christians. The new religion seemed strange to them. It was a monotheistic religion and practiced self sacrifice and love. Nero had his mother killed and then committed suicide. Suicide was commonplace in Rome. Caligula’s grandmother; Antonia slit her wrists. Rome’s downfall was due to internal economic and military strife. Germanic troops were hired by the Romans as military. There various troops such as Vandals and Visigoths that were used by the Romans as mercenaries. The Germanic tribes felt used and maltreated by the Romans. Rome had an emperor Constantine who had a dream where he saw a flag and a cross on it, telling the emperor to convert to Christianity. Even so the Roman collapsed and Europe declined into the Dark Ages.