Rome Lesson 9

1. Section 1 Daily life in Rome: In early Rome people there where nearly one million people in the city. There were beautiful temples and gardens. Yet most people lived in small huts. there were places you could go and shop for goods accompanied by slaves and body guards. The rich ruled but they were only a small part of the population, so to keep the poor happy the rich gave out food so that they would not turn into an angry mob. This is a lot of what went on in Rome.

2. Section 2 Law and Order: Though the community had some say in what the Romans did with the law the emperor had the last say in what they did. But the senates had a big play in the rule too. They had there own clothing style and some had body guards. The guards carried around a bundle of sticks with a ax in the middle to symbolize the power they had to punish lawbreakers. The law in Rome was strict but crime was very common. The most common were murder, stealing and assault. Rome could be a very dangerous place.

3. Section 3 Religion: Religion was very important in Rome, they adopted some of the Greek gods and also gods from other cultures to form there own set of gods. They worshiped there gods and gave them offerings because they believed that the gods controlled there daily lives. They also gave them little hints about what they wanted like if someone broke a leg they gave them a leg. They also sacrificed animals.

4. Section 4 Family life: The father of the family was the one who mainly ruled the family. The men were the only one who worked unless they were very wealthy then the woman could own some slaves and run a house. Baby's were born at home, they only kept the strong baby's if the father did not approve they were left outside to die of be a slave. There was a special naming ceremony for baby's they would take them when they were about 9 days old and give them a good luck charm. When Roman boys were 14-18 they would have a special ceremony that took them into adult hood.

5. Section 5 Food and Drink: Whether you were rich or poor depended what you ate, only the rich had kitchens and the poor had to cook at public grills. The main foods in Rome were breads, meats, spices, beans and cheese. There were Roman markets where you could buy these, for the rich woman and slaves usually shopped. The merchants usually had monkeys or colorful birds on display to attract customers. They had live rabbits on the shelves as well as geese and other animals for customers to buy.

6. Section 6 Housing: Housing was like food in Rome the rich had large spacious houses and the poor had little dark apartments. There were big grand hall ways, one had a pool in it to keep it warm, there were also rooms for family and guest as well as the dinning room which was the best biggest room. During parties the guest lay on couches while they are served. Meanwhile the poor are crammed into a tiny apartment building that is nasty and dirty filled with dangerous desires and fire was common.

7. Section 7 Education: Education also depended on if you were rich or poor, the rich were sent to school and the poor were sent to work for their family's money. The wealthy were tutored until about six then the boys went off to school, classes were held in public and in privet homes. School started nice and early in the morning students walked through the streets with their stuff. When they go to school they sat in a circle on stool and wrote down the lesson with a pointed pen called a stylus. The boys learned Greek, Latin, Math, literature and science, they were usually solders, doctors or lawyers, girls were usually tutors, or realist ate agents . Boys were usually like 12 or 13 when they stop school.

8. Section 8 Recreation: In the community slaves did all the work while the rich just watched and saw what they were doing. Some of the things the rich enjoyed were public baths they could swim, bath or just sit, the baths sometimes also had gardens, or library's. Romans liked to watch gladiators fight, they fought in arenas, both men and women were gladiators. They were usually slaves or prisoners of war, they fought others and animals to the death. There was another arena the Romans liked they watched chariot races there and cheer though family's could not sit next to each other because men and woman have different sections.

9. Section 9 Country Life: Rome was a huge empire, they were remembered for a huge city but 90% of the population lived in the country. Wealthy Romans also owned a country villa for a place to raise crops and also stay and relax in the summer. The emperors farm provided most of the food in the city. Though they owned the farm the slaves did most of the work. The people in the countries lives were hard though they were free they had to take care of the crops and graze livestock.