Name: Date: Evaluating the Effects of the Geography of Italy Warm up writing space: Review: What are some geographical features that made settlement in ancient Greece difficult? Write as many as you can. Be able to explain why you picked them. _____________________________________________________________________________________________
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_____________________________________________________________________________________________ Give One / Get One Directions: • You will get 1 card with important information about Rome’s or Italy’s geography. Read and understand your card. • Record what you learned as a pro or a con on your T chart. • With your card and your T chart, stand up and move around to other students. • Trade information with other students. Explain your card to them (“Give One”), and then hear what they have to say (“Get One.”) Record their new information to your T chart. • Repeat! Geography of Italy Pros J Cons L Give one / Get one cards (Teachers, preprint and cut a set of these cards for each class. If there are more than 15 students in a class, print out a few doubles. It’s okay for some children to get the same card.) The hills of Rome The city-­‐state of Rome was originally built on seven hills. Fortifications and important buildings were placed at the tops of the hills. Eventually, a city-­‐wall was built around the hills. Fertile volcanic soil Active volcanoes in Italy (ex: Mt. Etna, Mt. Vesuvius) that create lava and ash help to make some of the land on the peninsula more fertile. 40% Mountainous About 40% of the Italian peninsula is covered by mountains. Peninsula Italy is a narrow peninsula—land surrounded by water on 3 sides. Mediterranean climate Italy, especially the southern part of the peninsula, has a moderate, Mediterranean climate. Summers are hot and can be dry. Winters can be a little mild with more precipitation. Tiber River The Tiber River links Rome, which is slightly inland, to its port in the Mediterranean Sea, and to cities further north. In order to expand the city of Rome to both sides of the river, the Romans had to build several bridges. Other Rivers Italy includes many other rivers besides the Tiber, including the Arno, the Po and the Rubicon. Alps Mountains Apennine Mountains The Alps Mountains cut across the The Apennine Mountains are a group top of Italy. Due to their height, the of smaller mountain chains running tops of some Alps can have snow and down the length of Italy. They are glacier coverage even in the summer. mostly green and grass covered. There are some passes through the Alps, but even the lowest is at about 3,200 ft. Many Italian neighbors The Romans were not the only ancient group to be living on the Italian Peninsula. There were many other Italian city-­‐states around it, and many of them in the beginning were larger than Rome. The Etruscans The Etruscans were an ancient civilization settled in the northern part of the Italian Peninsula. They excelled at architecture and art. The Greeks The Greeks settled colonies in the southern part of the Italian peninsula, bringing with them Greek culture. Carthage Carthage was a city-­‐state on the north coast of Africa. It was settled there by the Phoenicians, who excelled at trade. Carthage expanded its empire and grew to dominate much of the western Mediterranean area. Mediterranean Sea Italy is located near the center of the Mediterranean Sea. Other civilizations with access to this sea include the Egyptians, the Greeks, and the Mesopotamians. The Latium Plain The Latium Plain was where Rome was settled. It had flat, fertile land. T chart – Teacher exemplar of possible model answers Geography of Italy Pros J •
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Cons L Building on multiple hills can create multiple fortresses, multiple lines of defense Fertile land can help the Romans acquire a surplus of food Peninsula offers plentiful sea access for fishing, trade, and travel. Multiple rivers means multiple sources of fresh water and fertile land in the river valleys. Mild climate can support farming. Tiber River can be used for fresh water and transport of goods and people. Alps Mountains provide a natural defense against enemies attempting to enter Italy by land. Apennines create some more defense but are not impossible to farm on. Neighbors can create opportunity for trade and resources. Nearby Etruscans and Greeks can teach the Romans some of what they know / share cultures. Central position in the Mediterranean Sea gives Rome many other nearby civilizations to trade with. Flat land is the easiest to farm on. •
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40% mountains suggests that there is farmland to be had on Italy, but as population grows, more farmland may be needed outside the peninsula. It may take effort to find, travel to, and hold this additional territory. The Peninsula is narrow – overall, not much land, and therefore not much land to create and maintain a surplus of food. Getting out of Italy through the Alps is more difficult. Many neighbors on a narrow peninsula can create competition for land. A powerful nearby neighbor like Carthage can claim important resources and possible expand into Rome’s territory. Name: Date: Practice – Think like a conqueror Now that you know more about the geography of Italy… 1) How did the land and water of Italy help the ancient Romans to expand their territory? ________________________________________________________________________________________________
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________________________________________________________________________________________________ 2.) What about the land and water did they have to overcome to expand? ________________________________________________________________________________________________
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________________________________________________________________________________________________ Name: Date: Ticket to Leave – Put your name on this! What 3 geographic features do you think helped the ancient Romans the most? List them AND explain why you picked them. ________________________________________________________________________________________________
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________________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________ Name: Ticket to Leave – Put your name on this! Date: What 3 geographic features do you think helped the ancient Romans the most? List them AND explain why you picked them. ________________________________________________________________________________________________
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________________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________ Name: Date: Ticket to Leave – Put your name on this! What 3 geographic features do you think helped the ancient Romans the most? List them AND explain why you picked them. ________________________________________________________________________________________________
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________________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________ Name: Date: Rome Geography Challenge Directions: What is Strabo’s attitude towards Rome? How does he get this across in a text that’s supposed to
be about geography? Annotate textual evidence of Strabo’s opinion in the white space as you read. Then
summarize at the end.
Excerpt from Strabo’s Geography, Book V Chapter 3 All Latium is blest with fertility and produces everything, except for a few districts that are on the seaboard —
I mean all those districts that are marshy and sickly… or any districts that are perhaps mountainous and rocky;
and yet even these are not wholly untilled or useless, but afford rich pasture grounds, or timber, or certain
fruits that grow in marshy or rocky ground…
In the interior, the first city above Ostia is Rome, and it is the only city that is situated on the Tiber… The first
founders walled the Capitolium and the Palatium and the Quirinal Hill… Ancus Marcius took in Mt. Caelium
and Mt. Aventine, and the plain between them, which were separated both from one another and from the
parts that were already walled, but he did so only from necessity; for, in the first place, it was not a good thing
to leave hills that were so well fortified by nature outside the walls for any who wished strongholds against
the city, and, secondly, he was unable to fill out the whole circuit of hills as far as the Quirinal. Servius,
however, detected the gap, for he filled it out by adding both the Esquiline Hill and the Viminal Hill. But
these too are easy for outsiders to attack; and for this reason they dug a deep trench and took the earth to the
inner side of the trench, and extended a mound about six stadia on the inner brow of the trench, and built
thereon a wall with towers from the Colline Gate to the Esquiline. Below the centre of the mound is a third
gate, bearing the same name as the Viminal Hill. Such, then, are the fortifications of the city, though they
need a second set of fortifications.
And, in my opinion, the first founders took the same course of reasoning both for themselves and for their
successors, namely, that it was appropriate for the Romans to depend for their safety and general welfare, not
on their fortifications, but on their arms and their own valour, in the belief that it is not walls that protect men
but men that protect walls. At the outset, then, since the fertile and extensive country round about them
belonged to others, and since the terrain of the city was so easy to attack, there was nothing fortunate in their
position to call for congratulation, but when by their valour and their toil they had made the country their own
property, there was obviously a concourse, so to speak, of blessings that surpassed all natural advantages…
And it is because of this concourse of blessings that the city, although it has grown to such an extent, holds
out in the way it does, not only in respect to food, but also in respect to timber and stones for the building of
houses, which goes on unceasingly in consequence of the collapses and fires and repeated sales (these last,
too, going on unceasingly)… To meet these requirements, then, the Romans are afforded a wonderful supply
of materials by the large number of mines, by the timber, and by the rivers which bring these down: first, the
Anio… and then the Nar and the Teneas, the rivers which run through Ombrica down to the same river, the
Tiber; and also the Clanis…
So much, then, for the blessings with which nature supplies the city; but the Romans have added still others,
which are the result of their foresight; for if the Greeks had the repute of aiming most happily in the founding
of cities, in that they aimed at beauty, strength of position, harbours, and productive soil, the Romans had the
best foresight in those matters which the Greeks made but little account of, such as the construction of roads
and aqueducts, and of sewers that could wash out the filth of the city into the Tiber.
Moreover, they have so constructed also the roads which run throughout the country, by adding both cuts
through hills and embankments across valleys, that their wagons can carry boat-loads; and the sewers, vaulted
with close-fitting stones, have in some places left room enough for wagons loaded with hay to pass through
them. And water is brought into the city through the aqueducts in such quantities that veritable rivers flow
through the city and the sewers; and almost every house has cisterns, and service-pipes, and copious
fountains… In a word, the early Romans made but little account of the beauty of Rome, because they were
occupied with other, greater and more necessary, matters; whereas the later Romans, and particularly those of
today and in my time, have not fallen short in this respect either — indeed, they have filled the city with many
beautiful structures. Summarize: 1) In your own words, what is Strabo’s opinion of Rome? Use evidence from the text to support your answer. ________________________________________________________________________________________________
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________________________________________________________________________________________________ 2) What do you think was Strabo’s purpose(s) for writing this text? Use evidence from the text to support your answer. ________________________________________________________________________________________________
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________________________________________________________________________________________________ (Text adapted from LacusCurtius, http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Strabo/5C*.html. This webpage reproduces a section of The Geography of Strabo published in Vol. II of the Loeb Classical Library edition, 1923. The text is in the public domain.)