After being assigned Crassus as my character for the Crisis of Cataline I decided to listen to a podcast about his life. I learned many things from how he grew up to how he eventually died. What I can now say after listening to the podcast is that Crassus was not a nice guy and deserved to die the way he did.

He grew up with little wealth and was a a follower of Sulla. He becomes well known as an army general after assembling an army and fighting against the Marians to give power back to the Sullans. After defeating the Marians, Crassus obtained the properties of the Sullans victims. This leads Crassus to be extremely wealthy.

This is where Crassus loses all respect from me. Once he acquired this power and wealth he started the first roman fire brigade except it was not a typical fire brigade. Crassus would show up to burning houses and negotiate to buy the burning building and in return would save the people and the house. If the house owners were not willing to sell he would let it burn to the ground and claimed the house. He then used slave labour to rebuild the burned houses and would sell them and keep the profits.

Crassus ends up becoming a significant political figure as a part of the first triumvirate but his greed for wealth and power gets him and his army killed.

I learned a lot from this podcast about my character unfortunately I listened with a fellow classmate and he used the information he learned about Crassus against me in the game.

The movie starts with a war being fought between two large armies. The Romans and the Barbarians battle and it appears to be a dominant victory for the Romans. After the Romans win the war the emperor of Rome Marcus Aurelius tells the main character Maximus that he wants him to take his place once he passes away. Maximus is a general in the roman army and is loved for his great bravery and leadership. The hope is that Maximus will turn Rome back into a republic and give power to the senate.

The only problem with this plan is that Marcus Aurelius son Commodus believes he should be taking his fathers place. Once Commodus finds out this fathers plan to make Maximus emperor he kills his father before Maximus can be appointed and Commodus is now emperor. Maximus escapes death, has his family killed, and is exiled. He becomes a slave in North Africa and eventually fights as a gladiator. With all of his experience as a general, he becomes famous for his performances. He eventually becomes so famous that he gets back into Rome and fights Commodus in the last scene. He kills Commodus and gives power back to the senate making Rome a republic again. Maximus dies from his last fight but has fulfilled his request from Marcus Aurelius.

Overall we really enjoyed watching this film. The opening scene gave us an idea of how wars were fought in live action rather than just reading about them. We were a bit surprised at how little loyalty was shown from Commodus when killing his father. We also did not expect Commodus to be in love with his sister. In The end we thought the story line of Maximus losing his family and starting from nothing was very sad but his rise back to power was inspirational and our favorite part of the film.

Jackson Ryan

Professor Mulligan

Roman

03/23/22

Caesar is the goat

Talk to him bad he will come at your throat

Pompey questioned him as a Roman

He said he had no dignitas and insulted his nomen

“These things being made known to Caesar”

He had no choice but to invade quite eager 

Crassus was an ally to both of these leaders

Until their fall out and petty demeanor