Protection From Invasion Two mountain ranges, the Alps and the Apennines, helped to protect Rome from invasion. The Apennines divide the Italian peninsula in half and, according to SPQR Online, allowed the Romans to mass forces for counter-attack whenever they were threatened.

Rome became the most powerful state in the world by the first century BCE through a combination of military power, political flexibility, economic expansion, and more than a bit of good luck.

The river provided a route to the sea for easy trade as well as water for crops, which the Romans grew on the fertile plains below the hills. They built their homes on the hills, from which they could defend themselves against enemies.

Lawyers, Teachers, Engineers – The more educated Romans could become lawyers, teachers, and engineers. Government – The government of Ancient Rome was huge. There were all sorts of government jobs from tax collectors and clerks to high ranking positions like Senators. The Senators were the wealthy and the powerful.

The Fall of Rome didn’t happen in a day, it happened over a long period of time. The politicians and rulers of Rome became more and more corrupt. Infighting and civil wars within the Empire. Attacks from barbarian tribes outside of the empire such as the Visigoths, Huns, Franks, and Vandals.

“Rome wasn’t built in a day” originated in France. In medieval times, the collection Li Proverbe au Vilain (circa 1190) was the first publication to mention the proverb. It read as “Rome ne fu pas faite toute en un jour”, and didn’t make the leap into an English proverb until a John Heywood publication in 1953.

The Antonine Plague is certainly one of the most infamous plagues in Roman history. Having no immunity to the plague, which was brought from soldiers returning form campaign in Western Asia, lead to catastrophic results for the Romans. The main symptoms included diarrhea, skin sores and irritations and sore throats.

Smallpox devastated much of Roman society. The plague so ravaged the empire’s professional armies that offensives were called off.

The Antonine Plague of 165 to 180 AD, also known as the Plague of Galen (after Galen, the physician who described it), was an ancient pandemic brought to the Roman Empire by troops who were returning from campaigns in the Near East. Scholars have suspected it to have been either smallpox or measles.

Sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), previously known as venereal diseases (VD), were present among the populations of antiquity as well as during the Middle Ages. The writings of the Greek and Roman physicians and of their satiric poets (Martial, Juvenal, Ovid) described diverse genital diseases.

Professor Timms said the research revealed evidence that humans were originally infected zoonotically by animal isolates of Chlamydia pneumoniae which have adapted to humans primarily through the processes of gene decay.

“Two or three of the major STIs [in humans] have come from animals. We know, for example, that gonorrhoea came from cattle to humans. Syphilis also came to humans from cattle or sheep many centuries ago, possibly sexually”.

A virus found in the genetic fragments of several remains in Germany, Kazakhstan, Poland and Russia were shown to have remnants of the STI hepatitis-B, proven to be 4,500 years old. These are officially the oldest virus fragments ever recorded where the results were published in the Journal of Nature.

If 2 people who don’t have any STDs have sex, it’s not possible for either of them to get one. A couple can’t create an STD from nothing — they have to get spread from one person to another.

The top 10 STDs that are mostly seen are as follows:

• Genital shingles (Herpes Simplex)
• Human papillomavirus (Genital warts)
• Hepatitis B.
• Chlamydia.
• Chancroid (Syphilis)
• Clap (Gonorrhea)
• Human immunodeficiency virus/Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS)
• Trichomoniasis (Trich)

Bacterial STDs can be cured with antibiotics if treatment begins early enough. Viral STDs cannot be cured, but you can manage symptoms with medications. There is a vaccine against hepatitis B, but it will not help if you already have the disease.

In general, STDs that spread through bodily fluids—such as HIV and chlamydia—are relatively unlikely to be spread through mutual masturbation. There’s a bigger risk for STDs that spread from skin to skin, such as herpes and molluscum.

Syphilis isn’t spread through casual contact, so you CAN’T get it from sharing food or drinks, hugging, holding hands, coughing, sneezing, sharing towels, or sitting on toilet seats.

Can syphilis be cured? Yes, syphilis can be cured with the right antibiotics from your health care provider. However, treatment might not undo any damage that the infection has already done.

You can have syphilis even if you don’t notice any symptoms. The first symptom is a painless, round, and red sore that can appear anywhere you’ve had sex. You can pass syphilis to others without knowing it. Washing the genitals, urinating, or douching after sex will not prevent syphilis.

Late stage syphilis can be cured but the damage done to the body is permanent. Syphilis can invade the nervous system at any stage of infection, and causes a wide range of symptoms, including headache, altered behavior, difficulty coordinating muscle movements, paralysis, sensory deficits, and dementia.