Daily Life in Ancient Rome

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Daily Life in Ancient Rome by Mind Map: Daily Life in Ancient Rome

1. Section 3: Law and Order The Romans thought that the rule of law was really important. The Senate and the assemblies were very important parts of the law. The ultimate source of the law was with the emperor. Even though they changed their structure of government, the Romans still had some of the same things that they did in their former government. The important people wore special clothing or accessories such as a certain colored togas or pins and rings. Some very important people had bodyguards. The Romans had very strict laws, but they had a lot of crime in Rome. The crimes that happened the most were murder, stealing, and assault. The police watched the wealthy neighborhoods, but the didn't really pay attention to the poor neighborhoods. So, there was a lot of crime in the poor neighborhoods. Some streets were so full of crime that they had to shut the streets down at night. The Romans tried to protect themselves from crime. The rich people covered their richness by wearing old and dirty clothes at night. The wives and children in a rich family weren't allowed to go outside alone. An important thing in Rome is that anyone could accuse someone of a crime. The crime was judged in front of a jury made up of citizens. Sometimes, the accused would try and make the jury feel bad for them by wearing ragged clothes and making their wives and children cry for them. The people of the poor's punishments were way worse than the rich people's. The poor people were sometimes tortured as their punishment.

2. Section 4: Religion Religion was very important to the Romans. The Romans tried to please their gods because they thought that the gods controlled their lives everyday. People made promises and offerings to the gods. They left food and animals. When a person was hurt, they would leave a model of the thing that was hurt to tell the gods what to fix. The Romans had special festivals and holidays to honor the gods. Every person had an alter in their home where they worshiped gods and spirits. Eventually, the Romans began to think of their emperors as gods. There was one emperor that had a temple made for him and everyday people would dress the statue in the temple with clothes that looked like the ones he was wearing that day. As the big civilization of Rome grew, the people from the foreign countries brought new kinds of religion and ideas to Rome. The Romans honored the new idea and went with them as long as they did not dishonor the emperor.

3. Section 5: Family Life The family life in Rome was ruled by the father. What ever the dad said, everyone had to obey. Including the grown children. The guys were expected to provide everything for their house and family. The father had different jobs depending on if they were rich or poor. The Roman women ran the household. They had many important jobs. They bought and sold slaves, helped with businesses and they bought and sold property. The Roman children were most likely born at home. The Romans only kept children that were strong and healthy. If the dad didn't like the new child, it was either left out to die or sold as a slave. The Romans thought it was weird that some people in other cultures kept all of their children, no matter what. The kids weren't named until they were 9 days old. They were named in a special ceremony where they got their bullas, a special necklace. Between the ages of 14-18, they had a special ceremony where a Roman boy became a man. He would offer his bulla, and his other childhood things to the gods. Unlike the guys, the Roman girls didn't have a ceremony celebrating their coming of age. The girls became adults when they got married, which was usually between the ages 12 and 18. Weddings in Rome were held at a temple. The bride wore a white toga with a veil and the groom wore a white toga with leather shoes that were shined with animal fat.

4. Section 6: Food and Drink The different things that the Romans ate depended on their social status, which means whether you were rich or poor. An important thing to know is that only the rich Romans had kitchens in their houses. The poor people had small grills that they cooked on. They also had fast food places where they could get food. Sometimes the rich people bought their food at the fast food places because they got their food quickly and it was convenient. The Romans had many foods. They had bread, beans, spices, vegetables, cheeses, meat, and to drink they had water normal water and hot water with herbs and honey. The Romans ate breakfast, lunch, and dinner. For breakfast they usually had oatmeal. For lunch they most likely had cheese, celery, olives, and bread. For dinner, they probably had fish and asparagus. They had figs for dessert. The wealthy Romans usually ate fancy appetizers such as jellyfish and snails, which were dipped in milk. The Roman women and slaves usually went to the market to buy the food for the family. The merchants would keep fancy animals in cages such as monkeys and birds to get customers. They had a special fish sauce to pour over the fish.

5. Section 7: Housing Like pretty much anything else, the houses were different between the rich and the poor. The rich had big houses that were spread out, while the poor had houses right next to each other. The rich Romans had houses that were made out of stone and marble that were sound proof. The Romans had giant front halls and indoor pools that cooled the house down. The room had mosaics and murals. It also had statues ans some people had fountains in the dining room. At parties, people ate on couches, and the food was made by the slaves. They listened to music while eating. Since the poor people's houses were so compact, disease spread quickly. Fire was also a problem because they had to cook on grills that weren't safe. Another thing that caused fire is that a lot of the buildings were made of wood. In 64 C. E, there was a big fire that burned down nearly half the city.

6. Section 8: Education The amount of education that you got when you lived in Ancient Rome depended on the type of family that you lived in. A lot of the poor people didn't go to school, they went to work instead. They learned how to work with metal and leather, and they also learned how to earn money for their family. The children in the richer families learned at home. They were taught by either their fathers or their slaves. Then the guys went off to school.

7. Section 9: Recreation The wealthy Romans had lots of down time because the slaves did all the work. They liked seeing plays and musical performances. Both the rich and poor liked the baths in Rome. The Romans saw gladiator fights in places like the Colosseum. Both genders could be gladiators. The gladiators were usually slaves or prisoners. The Romans liked seeing chariot races in the Circus Maximus. In the Colosseum, the guys and girls couldn't sit together, but in the Circus Maximus they could.

8. Section 2: Daily Life in Ancient Rome Rome was a city with many differences. There was almost one million people that lived in Rome's capital. Rome had beautiful temples, palaces, and flourishing gardens. Even with all of these beautiful things, a lot of people lived in small houses or apartments that were in narrow, dirty, streets. The senators got to have bodyguards, while the less wealthy people had to work really hard to get their pay. On the bottom of the social structure were the slaves. Rome had hundreds and thousands of slaves, and many of them were captured in the wars that they fought. The wealthy Romans spent money on a lot of goods such as silk, perfume, beautiful weapons, instruments, statues, fountains, and pottery. But, not much of Rome's population was rich. Most of Rome's population was poor. One thing that I thought was sad was in the poor neighborhoods, the children were lucky to live past the age of 10. The Roman emperors did their job to make sure that the poor wouldn't get mad and rebel. The emperors gave away food and provided entertainment.

9. Section 10: Country Life 90% of Romans lived in the country. The country rich Romans lived in giant houses where they owned crops and livestock. They checked on their farm, but they still had plenty of leisure time. The farms in the country gave lots of food to the cities. The slaves did all of the work on the farms. The farm owners just watched the slaves work and punished them when they weren't doing a good enough job.