Catapult
The catapult was a siege machine that could hurl heavy objects or shoot arrows with great force and for large distances. Some catapults could throw stones weighing as much as 350 pounds for distances farther than 300 feet. The Greek Dionysius the Elder of Syracuse, who was looking to make a new type of weapon, invented the catapult. After that, it became an important weapon in warfare and remained one up through mediaeval times. Two major catapults evolved from Dionysius's invention: the double-armed machine, or ballista, used for shooting arrows, and the single-armed catapult designed for hurling large objects. Although the Romans added wheels to both types of catapult for maneuverability, very little in the design of the machine changed.
Pulley
A pulley was one of the most important inventions the Greeks made. A pulley is made by attaching a rope through the middle of a wheel (and hanging the wheel by the rope) making an indentation into the rounded edge, and hanging a rope over the rounded edge. You can then attach something to one of the ropes hanging down and pulling the other rope making it much easier to lift. The more pulleys added to the chain, the lighter and easier the object will be to lift.
Drama
Greek plays known as drama, were a main form of entertainment in Greek society. The plays were held in a theatre, an outdoor stadium surrounding a stage on three sides. There were 2 types of plays, comedies and tragedies. Comedies were where a middle class person (like you or me) who spoke commonly gained good fortune, but not great fortune, and a tragedy play was where a high-class person who spoke a very rich language and had lots of money greatly lowered in class and suffered much misfortune.
Ancient Rome
Concrete
Concrete is a sturdy building material invented by the Romans. It was made by building 2 small low brick walls with a space in between, and then pouring a simple mixture of cement, mortar, and stones or rubble. This process could be repeated until the wall was as high as you wanted, though the higher you went, the smaller the stones you had to use.
Circus
The Romans invented the first racetracks called circuses. It was where chariot races were held. Usually either two or four horses pulled each chariot, but sometimes special races were held with six or even eight horses to a team. The more horses, the harder it was to control the chariot. The largest circus ever built was the Circus Maximus. It was located in the middle of the great city of Rome.
Abacus
The Romans invented the first calculator called an abacus. An abacus had seven long and seven shorter rods or bars, the first set having four perforated beads running on them and the latter one. The beads on the shorter bars denote fives, five units, five tens, etc. The rod O and corresponding short rod are for marking ounces; and the short quarter rods for fractions of an ounce. An abacus was made of wood and is still used today (mainly by merchants in china).
Amphitheaters
- Amphitheatres were where gladiators fought each other to the death. Gladiators were prisoners, criminals, slaves, and paid volunteers. Gladiators came in 4 different types:
- Retiarus-had a net and a trident
- Murmillo- ad a rectangular shield and a small sword, with a large helmet nearly blinding yourself!
- Samnite-had a rectangular shield and small dagger.
- Thracian-had a small round shield and a small sword.
- The greatest amphitheatre of all time was the Colosseum. It was huge and held up to 50,000 people!
