Ancient Rome

1. Daily Life in Ancient Rome: In 1 C.E there was nearly 1 million Romans that lived in the empire, yet their apartments were crammed by dirty roads. Goods were sold from 4 corners of the empire, rich and poor. Rich Romans would buy silks, perfume, jeweled weapons, and musical instruments. They decorated their houses with statues and pottery. The government keep the poor from turning into an angry mob they gave away free food and provided entertainment, yet most of the people lived near the countryside.

2. Food and drink: Everyone ate food and drank but it all depended on their social class, rich or poor. The main foods in ancient Rome were bread, beans, spices, a few vegetables, cheeses, and meats. Favorite drinks included plain water and hot water with herbs and honey. Poor Romans for dinner would normally eat chucks of fish, some asparagus and a fig. But Rich romans would eat more of different and creative dishes like mice cooked in honey, roasted parrots stuffed with dates, salted jellyfish, and snails dipped in milk.

3. Housing: Most of the wealthy women would live in spacious houses and mainly they would be built out of stone. On the other hand, the poor Romans would cram into a small apartment building that was dark and squished. And the weird part about the apartment buildings was that the whole building was made out of wood so it was a fire hazard and in 64 B.C.E. a huge fire happened from an apartment building burnt almost all of the city of rome down.

4. Family life: Family life would most of the time be ruled by their paterfamilias, or another name for paterfamilias is 'father'. The men in the family were expected to work and get paid for their families. Wealthy women would stay home and clean and cook and often trained their slaves and women were allowed to sell property and own land. The romans would only keep healthy and strong babies and if they were not strong they would be left to die in their front lawn or become a slave if even a slave passed by and they also found it very strange that Egyptians kept all the babies to live. New borns were named at a ceremony once they were 9 days old and at that ceremony they would put a necklace that was called a bulla and would have to wear it until there childhood was over. When the boy babies were between the age of 14 and 18 they would have another ceremony for making it to this age, practically. (Because normally back then if they made it to that age you were strong enough to become a man.) Women would not have a ceremony, they would turn into adults once they were married.

5. Law in Order: Most of the Romans believed in the rule of law (the idea that people should live according to set agree-upon laws.) Most of the time was really whatever pleased the emperor. They even had their own style, special rings, pins, or togas (robes) trimmed with a wide purple stripe. Roman laws were strict, but crime was common in Rome. The most frequent crimes were stealing, assault, and murder. Most of the time police would stay in wealthy neighborhood because the poor streets were so dangerous that they would sometimes close the streets from harm. The emperor tried to make the laws as equal as possible, yet the poor had harsher punishments then the rich.

6. Religion: Religion was very important in the romans life. Sometimes they would even adopt gods from greek culture. Romans would like to please their gods because they thought they would control their daily lives. They had temples that people would go to and give offerings to the gods that they believe in. They often left gifts of food, such as honey cakes and fruit. They also sacrificed animals, including bulls, sheep, and oxen. They would also leave offerings of clay that represent the hurt part of the body so that they would help cure the hurt part of the body. In time, later they would come to a fair fight and accept their emperor as gods.