Latin Class

Check out the map HERE

Just for Fun:

In Britannia, can you find: the famous Vallum Hadriani, the "Wall of Hadrian" or "Hadrian's Wall", built across Britannia around 125 AD during the reign of Emperor Hadrian--still a major tourist attraction today-- and the even-older city of Londinium built in 43 AD which, of course, is the site of modern day London.

In Africa, can you find: Carthago (Carthage) the Phoenician colony which had several conflicts with Rome, known today as the Punic Wars. There were three wars in total, but the most famous was the Second Punic War (218-201 BC), in which the Carthaginian General Hannibal crossed into Italy from the North by way of the Alps with war elephants (!) and won three dramatic victories — Trebia, Trasimene, and Cannae — over the Romans and their allies. Hannibal occupied much of Italy for 15 years, but a Roman counter-invasion of North Africa forced him to return to Carthage, where he was decisively defeated by Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus, sometimes called Scipio the Great or Scipio the Elder, at the Battle of Zama.* The First Punic War (264-241) was led by Hannibal's father Hamilcar Barca (Barca means "thunderbolt" in the Punic language) with Hannibal and his two brothers Hasdrubal and Mago acting as generals, and the Third Punic War (149-146) marked the final defeat of Carthage with the city being completely destroyed in 146 BC by Scipio the Younger. Carthago Delenda Est: Carthage Must Be Destroyed.

In Gaul, you can see Vienna near the Alps (the mountain range between Gaul and Italy), and in Italy, you can see Neapolis, present-day Naples, which is quite close to where Pompeii was located. (On the map, the "bump" denoting a small mountain just southeast of Naples on the coast --above the "s" of Neapolis-- is where Mt. Vesuvius is located... Pompeii was just south of Mt. Vesuvius.) In Achaea (Greece), you can see Athenae (Athens) and Northwest of Achaea in the Roman province of Epirus Vetus, you can see Actium where the Battle of Actium was fought in 31 BC. As you may recall, the Battle of Actium marked the defeat of Marcus Antoninus (Mark Anthony) and Cleopatra by Octavian and his general Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa. (Agrippa built the Pantheon in Rome after this victory.)

There is a cool Interactive Mountain Ranges Quiz HERE. Try taking it a few times until you can get 100% :-)

What other interesting places or features do you notice on the map?

* A note on Roman names: All Romans initially had two names: a first name, the praenomen, and a clan name, the nomen. However, the Romans were picky about the first names they found acceptable, and only a limited number of praenomina were in use--less than 30! (common ones included Gaius, Gnaeus, Marcus, Quintus, Publius, Tiberius, and Titus). As a result, men from a given family often had identical names for generations and it became necessary to use other names to distinguish between individuals SO Roman men began adding a cognomen as a third name. The cognomen often started as a nickname and became hereditary. (The cognomen "Cicero", for example, comes from the Latin word cicer, ciceris (n) meaning "chickpea".) Later on, an additional honorary or descriptive name might be added again to the praenomen, nomen, and cognomen. Grammarians have called this fourth name the agnomen. The General who defeated Hannibal at the Battle of Cannae was named Publius (praenomen) Cornelius (nomen) Scipio (cognomen meaning "staff; ceremonial baton") Africanus (agnomen added due to his victorious exploits in Africa). [The Scipio branch of the Cornelius clan used only four first names: Gnaeus, Lucius, and Publius for sons and the required Cornelia for daughters.]

And....one more map of the Roman Empire, Old Style