The Roman Empire

One could wonder why I decided to introduce my students to a dead culture such as the Romans. Well, we don't have Latin classes anymore and Roman culture was so influential in our societies it cannot simply be put aside or kept in the history class. We owe them French, Catholicism, water systems, most of European cultures and countless other things. In fact in the world history there has never been any people as successful and glorious as the Roman Empire. Let us introduce our students to the millennium glory of the Roman Empire.


1. Trivia

Did you know? Gladiators were forced to fight lions, rhinoceroses, elephants, bears and bulls.

Did you know? For Romans, forcing animals to fight was a way to demonstrate their control on nature.

Did you know? The Romans built roads that still exist today.

Did you know? The first month of the year was March, named in honour of Mars, their God of War.

2. Recipe

If ever you have the opportunity to use a kitchen in your school with your students, it can be really fun to finish a chapter or to celebrate any event.
Roman Cookies

Ingredients

2 large egg whites

6 ounces ground almonds(Almond Flour or Meal)

1 tablespoon plain flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

2 cups icing sugar(Powdered Sugar)

1 teaspoon almond extract

rum or brandy or Amaretto

1/2 orange, zest of or

1 lemon, zest of

1 tablespoon candied orange or lemon peel

12 ounces of good dark chocolate

Directions

1. Sieve together the Icing Sugar, Flour and Baking Power into a bowel, then mix in the Ground Almonds.
2. In a separate bowl, add a couple of drops of almond extract to the egg whites and then whisk until stiff peaks form.
3. Stir the stiffened egg whites into the dry mixture until a sticky 'dough' is formed.
4. If you are trying the options, at this point add either a tablespoon of mixed orange/lemon peel OR the zest of half a lemon/orange OR a tablespoon of Rum, Brandy or Amaretto.
5. Sprinkle a board with sifted Icing Sugar and take a desertspoon full of the dough, roll in the Icing Sugar and form into a ball. Flatten the ball a little with the back of a fork. Continue until all your dough is gone (the amount above should make 12-16 cookies).
6. Line a baking sheet with greaseproof paper a nd place your dough balls on, taking care to leave space for 'spread' during cooking.
7. Pop into an oven that's been preheated to Gas Mark 6 (200C, 390F) until golden brown. This should take approximately 10-12 minutes.
8. Remove from oven and leave to cool completely. If you are intending to dip the cookies in chocolate, at this stage you should melt very good quality dark chocolate (70%+ cocoa solids) in a bowl over a pan of simmering water and dip the cooled cookies inches Return them to the tray and cool off in the fridge or a cool place until chocolate is set.
9. Ricciarelli keep for a few weeks in an airtight container.

3. Arts and Crafts

Roman Mosaics

Roman Empire was vast-covering parts of Africa, Middle East and Europe. Roman exchanged ideas and goods with other regions. Romans left art and architecture in these lands- temples, mosaics, sculptures. Roman art reflected their opulent lifestyle- recorded events- showed respect for nature (themes of nature, gods, myths, and conquests) .Roman mosaic art was a respected and honorable profession- took great skill to be a mosaic artist. Students will draw their own nature composition to execute in a paper mosaic to resemble Roman mosaics.

In a classroom, you might want to just cut out lots of little squares of colored paper, and assemble them into mosaic s with glue. For the best results, make sure to have some light red and some darker red, and some light blue and some darker blue, and so on, so that you can do some shading. The pieces should be about 1 /4 inch (1/2 cm) square. Look at a lot of pictures of mosaics first so you can see how they do it (there are many on this site).

For any thing else you'd like me to discuss, leave me a comment, or if you have any point you would like to make, feel free!