Trip to the Cape of Good Hope..

So..I'm not an artist..but at least I know that maritime trade can't happen in a desert..

The person who made that made and I need a trip to the Cape of Good Hope considering we're hopeless beings.  

Sui, Tang and Song Dynasty Map

Justinian's Code

The role of women is this empire is pretty minor just like in the other societies that we have studied.  Women are just there for babies(omitting angry feminist-like comment.)  But women do have some rights of divorcing and repudiating.  But overall, they are just there so there are children running around.  There is nothing in the document that says that women get any power.  All they are needed for is producing more people because the possession of children is discussed throughout the document. 
Justinian's background matters for this because it determines why he was emperor Justin's nephew.  His blood relation is important for him to keep his power over the empire.  If he is not able to provide a reason to why he is related to Justin, then he loses his position. The reader should know that the code is important because it protects his rights of being emperor. 

I'll Blame Catastrophe..

The collapse of the Roman empire is pretty confusing to historians.  I agree with the catastrophic collapse cause/idea.  The fall of the empire did not occur in one event, but a domino effect based on multiple events. I also agree that these events were inevitable.  All of them were bound to happen at one point or another.  J.B. Bury states that "a number of crises" lead to the fall of the empire.  All of these crises being catastrophic  and harmful to the empire.  This cause is also thought to have a cycle of events that seem to lead to the fall of an empire.  I also agree with this because it makes sense for certain events, all being similar, to lead to the end of an empire.  The venn diagram shows that both the Han and the Roman empire fell because of similar events and reasons, so the cycle of events makes sense and has evidence supporting it.  The fall of the Roman empire was pretty catastrophic for the Romans.

Venn Diagram: Han&Roman Collapses

Roman City Prompts

b. What is the Forum and where is it located? Why is that symbolically significant? What other Classical Era society located politics in this way?

Th Forum was the center of the city and it was the center of politics. The Forum had important buildings and shops. It is symbolically significant because it shows like the center of the commerce and culture. This is similar to the Greek society as the city-states had cities as the center of politics and everything else and outside of the city was rural land where most people lived.

c. How does an aqueduct move water? How is this like or unlike the way a qanat worked in Persia?

The aqueduct of Rome uses gravity to move water from like a mountain. In the case of rivers and other bodies of water, they use arcs when they cannot use the large columns or pillars. In qanats, the Persians dug underground canals from a source of water.

f. Why can’t Marcus Fabricius marry Aiden? How does this compare to attitudes about marriage in Classical Era India?

Marcus can't marry Aiden because he has Roman citizenship and she does not.  This is similar to the attitudes about marriage in Classical Era India as marriage between castes was frowned upon.  It is basically the same idea here, people in different social standings are not permitted to marry.  

Republic to Empire: Why Did They Do It?

The Romans definitely expanded because they had a lust for more power, land and valuable goods.  They were capable of expanding because of their strong government and laws. I feel like I need to know who specifically decided to begin expanding and what their initial incentive was to conquer other lands.

Greece's Map and Alexander's Conquest Map

Prevent the Han from Collapsing

If I could travel back in time to the Han empire, I would go back to the Former Han period during the first century B.C.E.  I would when the social and economic tensions were rising.  At this time period there were distinct differences between the rich and the poor.  The poor were really bitter and the rich were enjoying themselves.  Part of the reason why there were social distinctions was because of the land distribution.  Since land was unevenly distributed and many families had to give themselves to slavery in order to pay debts, I would attack that problem.  The first thing I would do is get an army and get all the rich people to listen to me and scare them if they do not. Then I would congregate all the poor people and make sure they know I'm going to help them by giving them some land.  After that, I will redistribute the land for each family.  I would take all of the land of the large estates and evenly give each family of farmers the same amount of land. Then I would also make sure that each family has some sort of insurance. There is no way each family would be able to produce the same amount of food or enough because of a number of factors against them.  The insurance is to protect families from the effects of these factors like famines and droughts since those seemed to be a major problem.  In order for the insurance to work, I would tax the families based on income.  The taxes would be based off of each families' income, like rich people or families with better harvests pay more and poor people or families with not as adequate harvests pay less.  That way money can accumulate for the insurance and poor families are not required to pay as much as a rich family.  It does sound pretty unfair as the rich would be paying more but it is a somewhat communistic idea as everyone is supposed to be looking out for each other with this insurance plan.  In order to execute this plan, I would make sure everyone in the empire knows what will happen and explain the insurance plan. Once everyone understands, I would give it a solid six months for all the land distribution to be completed.  Then I would hire military soldiers to keep everyone in check.  But if people didn't listen to me, they would probably suffer from consequences like losing their land.