Geography Blog Post 2. ! !

Two thousand years ago the world was ruled by Italy, under the rule of the Roman Empire. At this time Rome was Emperor. 1 in 4 people in the world lived and died under the Roman law.

The Roman Empire was mixed with sophistication, brutality and greed. Conquering a country was an enormous achievement to them.

Rome stands near the Tibur River in central Italy. A series of hills and mountains run along the right of Italy. The coastal regions tend to be flatter and make better farmland, therefore the soil tends to be more flatter. The cental highlands can be snowy and cold in winter, while the coastal lowlands have a milder mediterranean climate.

If you peel away the layers formed over 2,000 years ago, it can be seen that the physical structure consists of hills, plateaux, valleys and slopes. These formings were made in past ice ages and heatwaves. During these periods ice, frost, warm and cold climatic changes have affected the land in various ways. The Avon Valley is one of the most dominiant features in the area and has acted as a gateways for the movement of people for over 5oo,ooo years. I discovered while researching this topic that climate change only began 2,000 years ago when the Romans came to power. Some scientists say that their findings date back to ancient Rome.

The Empire controlled much of Western and central Europe, along eith a great part of the Middle East and most of the Northern cost of Africa. Among one of the conquered countries was a small country called Greece.


When the Roman Empire ascended and after the Roman conquer of Greece the Romans adopted gymnastics as their own. Greek gymnastics was made compulsory for Roman Soldiers as part of military training. The training during Roman times was very intense. If one could not complete the exercises they were not considered good enough to be a soldier. They were often put in an arena to fight as they were no longer any use to the army.

The Romans had an ambition to conquer and they thought gymnastics could make their fighting forces stronger. They used it to improve strength, flexibility and balance of their soldiers.

The Olympic Games were abolished by Roman Emperor Theodosious in 392 AD. Financial corruption was the main reason that led to its banning in 393 AD. Gymnastics as a competitive sport did not reappear in the arena till the late 16th Century. For centuries it was forgotten.

Gymnastics today was never part of the ancient Olympic Games. It was considered as training for other sports such as discus throwing, running and wrestling. These were three of the main events in the ancient Olympic Games. Of the apparatus considered to be gymnastics today, only tumbling and vault were practised back in the ancient world.

In 1881 the International Gymnastics Federation also known as the (FIG) was formed. It was later renamed as the 'Bureau Of The European Gymnastics Federation'. This organisation was the beginning of the first international competitions.