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The International School of Toulouse 1203

Was Tolosa a Typical Roman City? [Website]

I.B. History Internal Assessment

April 1, 2002

   When I first heard about the history I.A, I immediately though about doing something on the American civil war. But the moment Robert approached me with an idea on Rome; I jumped at the opportunity as I had always found the Roman Empire fascinating. Perhaps the greatest mistake we made was in the question we chose. Although the question itself was interesting, the entire scope of the analysis, which was needed to answer the question, was far too large a topic for such a piece of work. Also there were many areas where it was up to us to determine facts and specify arguments before we could even begin addressing the primary focus of the question. Our difficulties reflect this. Many of the sites visited offered little information that was relevant and our sole source for universal information on our topic came from Monsieur Casagrandes interpretations and beliefs in Roman lifestyle. 

    It took many weeks of formulating and reformulating, meetings and discussions and sometimes just sitting down and talking about the whole thing before we finally reached the question. It was only after we had chosen this line of discussion, only after we had began researching that I realised how hard it would be to accurately define what was a typical Roman city and then determine how typical Tolosa was (the Roman name for Toulouse). Our initial beginnings counted for little and all text books we had gathered on Roman cities offered little information to fit our line of argument. At our first meeting with Monsieur Casagrande, we were finally given a starting point. We asked a series of questions on the nature of Roman cities and also on Tolosa itself. His accounts fitted with what little we had found in textbooks and we were finally able to begin planning our lines of discussion and layout. 

    Unsurprisingly our question brought with it many difficulties. What we were trying to do had not been done in any textbooks we could find. Determining what was a typical roman city was largely based on Monsieur Casagrandes accounts and the pieces we drew from various books. Eventually we arrived with a template on Roman city typicality, but then we had to determine Tolosa’s makeup. Information of Tolosa was perhaps the hardest to draw together. We tried to answer questions of Tolosas sanitation structures and methods for example, but we were told information that was probably the case and not what was actually found or proved. This was similar for the realms of entertainment and forum layout. Although much was known, the essentials of what we needed to know were not always present or sure facts. We also had technological problems from software failures to hardware incapability’s and a idea of 3d graphics to better illustrate roman buildings never materialised. 

    The break down of historical analysis went quite well. When we had the basis of what was a typical Roman city it was easy to formulate a website that would communicate our perceptions. The breakdown first examines what is a typical Roman city in important categories. These included entertainment, religion, city content, sanitation, walls and roads. Each one was first analysed and assessments were made on what was typical for a Roman city. Then Tolosa came under observation and we had to first draw all information on Tolosa, then fit this into our structure to see how far Tolosa measured to this stereotype. The main conclusion reached was that Tolosa was in fact a typical Roman city of its time it a number of key ways. 

    It is difficult to separate out what was actually done by each of us. We both evened out our visits and took it in turns to ask questions and\or write answers in our interviews. I was primarily responsible with the categories of entertainment, religion (worship), roads and sanitation in general Roman cities. I was equally responsible for these areas in Tolosa and contributed to the walls section. The conclusion was mostly written by Robert but was finished and edited by me. I did the source-based area with Robert finishing and editing it. However, these distinctions are not accurate because we were both involved in the essence of each page, in its language and its form. We always read over each others work offering advice and changes. Because I am not as good with computers, I did not work as much as he on the general layout and creation of the outline website. However, this is not to say I had no presence in its creation. Many of the pictures used we scanned at my house where as other we scanned on school grounds with Robert present. It is hard to classify what work was in fact mine as most was reworked so often by the both of us there is very little which does not have both our perceptions.