Use these links to help you with your Fall of Rome WebQuest. Remember, not all sources are created equal, and some may be filled with ‘half-truths.’

• Wikipedia Page – Fall of Rome
• The Plague did it
• The plague under Marcus Aurelius
• SparkNotes – Fall of Rome
• Homosexuality and the Fall of Rome?
• Why did Rome Fall?
• An Asteroid May have Called the Fall of Rome?
• About.com’s Fall of Rome
• The Fall of Rome and Modern Parallels
• Silly Educational Video on the Fall of Rome
• The Fall of Rome
• Random (silly?) Reasons Rome Fell

Let me know if you find more sites!

If Rome was so Great, why did it fall???

Like any great empire that has come before or after it, the theories surrounding the fall of Rome are many. Since the empire crumbled, all other great empires or nations have been compared to Rome, with many coming up short.

For many, understanding the fall of Rome is the key to the survival of our great nation, the United States. For much of this century, the U.S. has been compared to the Roman Empire in about every conceivable way. There are those who say that we are following the same path to destruction as the ancient Romans.

So, why did Rome fall? Could their fate have been averted, and if so, would the world be different today? The answer lies in what you think after you have looked at all the facts. Let’s examine what we know. We know the great empire known as Rome no longer exists. Now let’s look at what we don’t know:

1. Did plagues reduce the population to the point it could not sustain itself?
2. Did civil wars lessen the strength of the empire and weaken the population?
3. Did the army lose its discipline and thus endanger the empire and cause it to be overrun?
4. Did the citizens of Rome become too satisfied and lazy, allowing the empire to crumble due to neglect?
5. Did the empire bureaucracy become too top heavy, eventually causing the empire to collapse upon itself?
6. Did God turn His favor away from Rome due to its sinful nature?
7. Did it fall as the result of barbarian invasions?
8. Did the empire spend too much of its resources on the poor, thus drawing away precious funds from the empire?
9. Was the Roman Empire just too big, making a collapse inevitable?

WebQuest is Here

You are an Expert Roman Historian and you have been asked to testify before Congress. Congress is concerned that America is going to fall like Rome did. They want to look into the past to see WHY Rome fell. You’re going to tell them!

You will:

1. Select a theory as to why Rome fell!
2. Research it and prepare a presentation for Congress. (This can be done on PowerPoint, or in a prepared written statement.)
3. Once you’re done with your presentation pick two of the three questions to answer as part of your evaluation.
   • What similarities exist between Rome and the United States?
   • Do you feel the United States is in the process of decline as a nation?
   • Assume for the minute that the U.S. is declining in a manner similar to Rome. How would you stop the slide and return the U.S. to its prior greatness?

Thanks to David MacDonald at Fillmore USD for the WebQuest!

According to FirstRead:

We now have a good idea of where the two campaigns will spend their last four days until Election Day. Today, Obama campaigns in Iowa and Indiana, and in between the events he heads home to Chicago to spend part of Halloween with his daughters. On Saturday, he travels to Nevada (Henderson), Colorado (Pueblo), and Missouri (Springfield). On Sunday, it’s an entire day in Ohio (Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati). And on Monday, per the New York Times, Obama hits Florida (Jacksonville), North Carolina, and Virginia (Manassas). As for McCain, he spends his entire Friday in Ohio; campaigns in Virginia and Pennsylvania on Saturday; then he’s reportedly hitting New Hampshire; and on Monday, he’s supposed to barnstorm through six states (including western ones like Nevada), with a final stop in — get this — Arizona.

Good luck with your predictions!

Tonight at 7:00 Barack Obama will show a 30 minute infomercial on NBC, CBS, FOX, Univision, BET, MSNBC and TV One.

This will be his ‘closing argument’ for the campaign that ends in 6 days.

The address will be a ‘block’ address, on all of those channels at once. Fox has even agreed to post-pone the World Series for 15 minutes in order to accommodate the spot.

Too much? Or just the right thing to do to convince Americans at the last minute?

Politico says, Smart? or Overkill?

What do you think?

Use this great resource to help you find out the ethnic composition of your state, the economic composition, and more!

What a great resource!!!

Washington Post Election 2008

And don’t forget…