Roman Daily Life

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Roman Daily Life by Mind Map: Roman Daily Life

1. section 2: Daily life in ancient Rome: Rome was a very popular city with over one million citizens. Most lived in small crammed apartments along filthy neighborhoods. Wealthy men and women often went to the Forum, or gathering place to buy goods/riches and were accompanied by their slaves. Most were poor with a sickness. And Rome provided food and entertainment such as the Colosseum to everyone including the poor.

2. Section 3: Law and Order: Romans believed in rule of the law. But they also believed what pleased the emperor was the law. The Senate continued to meet, and senators had high status in society. They had their own styles of clothing. They might wear special rings, pins, or togas trimmed with a wide purple stripe. Important senators had their own bodyguards. These guards carried farces, bundles of sticks with an ax in the center. The faces were symbols of the government’s right to punish lawbreakers. Crime was very high in Rome, some streets were even closed due to such high crime. Men and women often wore dirty clothes to look poor so they wouldn't get robbed. Assault, robbery and murder was very common. People could accuse one another of crime. Ones who knew they were guilty often tried to get sympathy of the judges by dressing poorly or having their family cry in front of the jury to be not guilty.

3. Section 4: Religion. The Romans were very serious about their religion because they believed they controlled their life. They often made sacrifices to the gods with food and animals. They also thought the gods healed sickness and enriched health. If someone were sick or hurt they would make a statue or model of what part of the body was acing. Festivals and holidays, or “holy days,” were held throughout the year to honor the gods. But religion was also a part of daily life. Each home had an altar where the family worshiped its own household gods and spirits. The family hearth, or fireplace, was sacred to the goddess Vesta. During the main meal, the family threw a small cake into the fire as an offering to Vesta.One emperor even had a temple build with a statue of him built.

4. Section 6: Food and Drink: In Rome what you ate depended on how rich or poor you were. Rich families often went to thermopolia to get food because of their fast and high quality service. For breakfast, Romans usually ate a piece of bread and a bowl of beans or porridge. Porridge was an oatmeal-like cereal made from grains like barley or wheat. Lunch might include a small bit of cheese and bread, and perhaps some olives or celery. For dinner, poor Romans might have chunks of fish along with some asparagus and a fig for dessert. Wealthy Romans ate more elaborate dinners. Besides the main part of the meal, they had special appetizers. Some favorites were mice cooked in honey, roasted parrots stuffed with dates, salted jellyfish, and snails dipped in milk. Roman markets offered many choices to those who could afford them. Wealthy Roman women or their slaves shopped for the perfect foods for fancy dinner parties. Merchants often kept playful monkeys or colorful birds on display to attract customers. Shelves were packed with fruits, live rabbits, chickens, geese, baskets of snails, and cuts of meat.

5. Section 8: Education: Education was based on how rich or poor you were. The poor often went to work instead of school. Children were tutored until age 6 by their fathers or slaves. Then boys went off to school. Classes were held in public buildings and private homes. Many of the tutors were educated Greek slaves. School started early in the morning. Boys would walk about the streets on the way to class, while carrying a bag full of supplies. Once at school, students sat on small stools around the tutor. They used a pointed pen, called a stylus, to copy down lessons on small, wax-covered wooden boards. When the lesson was over, they rubbed out the writing with the flat end of the stylus so they could use the board again. The school day lasted until two or three o’clock in the afternoon. Roman boys learned Latin, Greek, math, science, literature, music, and public speaking. They typically became soldiers, doctors, politicians, or lawyers. Girls might become dentists, real estate agents, or tutors. Some female slaves or freed women could become midwives. Boys were taught until 12-13 then owned land at 15.

6. Section 9: Recreation: Rich Romans often had a lot of leisure. They enjoyed theaters plays and musicals with one another. But both rich and poor enjoyed the baths where they were massaged and washed away any cares. The baths also had gardens, libraries, shops, and art galleries. The poor were provided with entertainment and food including gladiator contests and chariot races. Gladiators were women and men either slaves or people captured in war. Either way one would suffer a bloody and painful death. There was also a place called circus maxims, a huge racetrack with room for 200,000 spectators. There, Romans watched thrilling chariot races.

7. Section 5: Family life. In Rome a father or, paterfamilias, ruled his home. In the house what he said goes. Even his grown sons and daughters had to listen. These men were expected to provide for the family. In rich families wealthy men often held political positions while in poor families both men and women had to work hard to provide. Wealthy Roman women ran their households. They bought and trained the family’s slaves. Many had money of their own and were active in business. They bought and sold property. Roman babies were usually born at home. The Romans kept only strong, healthy babies. If the father didn’t approve of a newborn, it was left outside to die or to be claimed as a slave. Romans found it strange that other people, such as the Egyptians, raised all their children. Babies were named in a special ceremony when they were nine days old. A good-luck charm called a bulla was placed around the baby’s neck. Children wore their bullas throughout childhood. Between the ages of 14 and 18, a Roman boy celebrated becoming a man. In a special ceremony, he offered his bulla, along with his childhood toys and clothes, to the gods.Roman girls did not have a ceremony to mark the end of childhood. They became adults when they were married, usually between the ages of 12 and 18. Weddings were held at a temple. The bride wore a white toga with a long veil. The groom also wore a white toga, along with leather shoes that he had shined with animal fat. But the new husband did not become a paterfamilias until his own father died.

8. Section 7: Housing: Like food, housing was very different in Rome for the rich and for the poor. The spacious, airy homes of the rich stood side by side with the small, dark apartments that housed the poor. Wealthy Romans lived in grand houses, built of stone and marble. Thick walls shut out the noise and dirt of the city. Inside the front door was a hall called an atrium where the family received guests. An indoor pool helped to keep the atrium cool. An opening in the roof let in plenty of light. Beyond the atrium, there were many rooms for the family and guests. The fanciest room was the dining room. Its walls were covered in pictures, both painted murals and mosaics made of tiles. Mosaics also decorated the floors. Graceful statues stood in the corners. Some dining rooms had beautiful fountains in the center to provide guests with cool water. During dinner parties, guests lay on couches and ate delicious meals prepared by slaves. While they ate, they listened to music played by slaves on flutes and stringed instruments, such as the lyre and the lute. Nearby, many of the poor crowded into tall apartment buildings. Others lived in small apartments above the shops where they worked. Without proper kitchens, the poor cooked their meals on small portable grills, which filled the rooms with smoke. The apartments were cramped, noisy, and dirty. Filth and disease-carrying rats caused sickness to spread rapidly. Fire was another danger. Many of the buildings were made of wood, and the cooking grills caught fire easily. In 64 C.E., a disastrous fire broke out that burned down much of the city.

9. Section 10: Country life: Rome was one of many cities scattered throughout the Roman Empire. But 90 percent of the empire’s people lived in the country. There, too, rich and poor had very different lives. Wealthy Romans often owned country estates with large homes, called villas. A villa was a place for Romans to invest their money in raising crops and livestock. And it was a pleasant place to relax in the summer’s heat. When they went to the country, wealthy estate owners checked up on how their farms were being managed. But they had plenty of time left over for reading and writing, as well as for hunting, picnicking, and taking long walks in the fresh air. The empire’s farms provided much of the food for Rome and other cities. They produced grain for bread, grapes for wine, and olives for oil. Goats and sheep provided cheese, and their skins and wool were made into clothing. Cattle and pigs were raised for their meat. Farmers also kept bees for making honey, the sweetener used by the Romans. Slaves did much of the actual work of farming. Overseers, or supervisors, kept a close eye on the slaves and often treated them cruelly. Many people in the countryside were not slaves, but their lives were hard. They lived in huts and worked their own small farms, trying to earn enough to survive. Or, they labored on the estates, tending the animals, helping with the crops, or working as servants. In the 1st century C.E., Paul of Tarsus, a Christian writer, summed up the lives of the empire’s poor. He wrote, “He who does not work shall not eat.”