Download TheRomans[1]

THE ROMANS
Overview:
 At its height, the Roman Empire covered the entire Mediterranean basin – it lasted for 1,000 years
 It still has an impact on society today – language, laws, architecture, military etc
 Historians have vast amounts of sources to know about the Romans – buildings, documents, paintings etc – even an
entire city, Pompeii, preserved in time after being buried by the volcano Vesuvius in 79 AD
 Pompeii has preserved Roman streets, houses, temples, baths, theatres, aqueducts, paintings, bodies, graffiti and even
bread!
Roman Cities:
 Rome itself was built on seven hills on the River Tiber, but all Roman cities had common features – templs, baths,
forum, aqueduct, streets, insula (apartment block), domus (rich person’s house), theatre, amphitheatre,
triumphal arch etc
 Examples from Rome itself include the Colosseum, the Arch of Constantine, the Circus Maximus, the Pantheon,
the Via Sacra, the Forum of Trajan etc
Dwellings:
 Rome had a population of over one million and the poor (Plebs) lived in cramped apartment blocks called insulae –
five storeys high, no sewage or running water, rubbish thrown into narrow streets below, upper storeys made of wood
meaning fire a constant threat, entire families might occupy one room
 Rich man lived in a domus – house focused inwards around a central courtyard called the atrium which had a pool to
collect rainwater called an impluvium, other rooms led off this including bedroom (cubiculum), kitchen (culina),
study (tablinum), dining-room (triclinium) and the garden (peristylum)
 Rooms on view to the public or important people would be finely painted and decorated, slaves quarters etc would be
plainly decorated
 Very rich men owned houses with two storeys, running water, central heating and beautifully decorated with wall
paintings (murals) or designs made from small pieces of stone (mosaics)
 Sometimes house owners rented or used the rooms adjacent to the street to serve as shops, otherwise a high blank
wall is all you would see of the house from outside on the street
 Furniture included wooden beds and couches, iron tables and stools and statues
 The garden often contained a shrine to the gods of the household (the Lares) called the lararium
Rulers of Rome:
 Rome was originally run by kings – the seventh and last (Tarquin the Proud) was kicked out in 510 BC
 Rome then became a republic – politicians were voted into office by Roman citizens, rich men from the Patrician
class generally held power as they could afford to spend a year in office without earning money
 These powerful men sat in the Senate – Rome’s parliament – and the head politicians were two consuls who shared
power so that no one man could ever get too powerful
 This is exactly what happened in 44 BC when Julius Caesar became by far the most powerful man in Rome –
fearing a return to being ruled by kings some senators assassinated him but his adopted son Augustus took revenge
and complete power for himself
 Rome was now ruled by one man again – it was an Empire
Latin:
 The language of ancient Rome was Latin – many English words come from Latin and languages like Spanish, French
and Italian are direct descendants of it
 Our alphabet is also directly taken from the Latin – although U and V were the same letter, as were J and I
 Roman numerals were letters too: (i) = 1, (ii) = 2, (iii) = 3 (iv) = 4, (v) = 5, (vi) = 6, (vii) = 7, (viii) = 8, (ix) = 9 etc
Work:
 The richest class, the Patricians, generally owned vast lands from which they made their money
 The middle class, the Equites, made money by collecting taxes, banking, property dealing etc
 The poorest class, the Plebs, did a wide variety of jobs – butchers, bakers, carpenters, cobblers, fullers (laundry),
weavers, tanners (making leather), potters and smiths
 Tile makers were very important – they made the fire-resistant roof tiles (tegulae) and the hollow imbrex tiles used
in the hypocaust (central heating system)
 Doctors and teachers were often well educated slaves – often Greek – and treated kindly, highly valued and regularly
given their freedom (manumission)



Most slaves were not as lucky – they did the daily, boring, hard work of cooking, cleaning and other manual labour,
some worked on huge farms or in mines where they were treated little better than animals and often worked to death,
the harshness of their conditions occasionally led to rebellions (Spartacus)
The city of Rome alone had 300,000 slaves – the absolute property of their masters
Most working Romans had to work very hard to earn a living and weekends off did not exist – religious festivals were
the only occasions for time off
Leisure Activities:
 Roman children played with toys and balls just like today
 Romans loved visiting the baths – men and women had baths for themselves where they could exercise, swim, have a
massage or a sauna, discuss business, get a snack to eat or chat with friends
 Rooms in the baths included: (1) Frigidarium (cold water bath), (2) Tepidarium (medium heat), (3) Caldarium (hot
room), (4) Natatio (main swimming pool), (5) Apodyterium (changing room), (6) Palaestra (exercise field), (7)
Laconium (steam room)
 Every Roman city and town had baths, even some army camps – some were massive like the Baths of Caracalla in
Rome, some very rich men had private baths in their own houses, entrance was generally free
 Bathing was very important to the Romans – it was a social meeting place but also a way to stay clean and hygienic,
hot steam rooms opened the pores and dirt and sweat were then scraped off with a strigil
 Romans loved the theatre and watched both tragedies and comedies (by playwrights like Plautus), theatres are found
all over the Roman world holding up to 30,000 people, actors were always men and seen in a mixed light, like movie
stars but still vulgar, the Emperor Nero famously performed on the stage himself – anybody who left early faced
death!
 Chariot Racing was the equivalent of Formula 1 today – high-speed and very dangerous, often with fatal crashes,
Rome’s venue for this was the 250,000 seater Circus Maximus, racers were identified by the colour of plumage on
their horses – red, blue, green etc
 Amphitheatres also dotted the Roman world – the home of gladiator fighting, Rome’s famous venue was the
Colosseum, gladiators fought with a Roman legionary sword (gladius) but also nets, tridents, spears and shields
 Gladiators were often dressed in specific styles – the Retiarius had no armour but kept his distance using a net and
trident and tried to tangle his opponent, the Murmillo had a helmet shaped like a fish and a sword and shield
 Gladiators were trained in special schools by a lanista and were seen as sports stars by ordinary Romans – rich
women thought they were so macho they paid for bottles of gladiator sweat or blood and graffiti in Pompeii boasts
about which gladiator is best
 Gladiators only sometimes fought to the death – they were so expensive to train and feed that it was a waste to kill
them off as soon as they lost their first fight
 Other ‘entertainment’ in the amphitheatres included mass executions of criminals (or Christians) by burning alive or
being eaten by wild animals, old myths were acted out for the crowd and sometimes the arena was even flooded for
sea battles!
Education:
 Only the children of the rich received an education in Rome – sometimes at home by a private teacher and sometimes
in the local school (ludus)
 Here boys (and only rarely girls) learned reading, writing and arithmetic (‘the three Rs’)
 Girls then stayed at home to learn needlework and embroidery and boys went to a secondary school (grammmaticus)
where they learned history, literature, arithmetic and geography
 Discipline was very strict and the teachers regularly whipped or beat the students
 A pointed pen (stylus) was used to scratch down information onto a wax tablet and maths was done using a counting
frame (abacus)
 Further education usually consisted of studying oratory (public speaking) thought vital to a career in politics or law
Food:
 Romans generally had a healthy diet – meat (a rarity for the poor as it was expensive and hard to preserve in the hot
climate), fish, bread, porridge, chicken, birds, snails, dormice along with vegetables and fruit were all eaten
 Breakfast was ientaculum, lunch was prandium and dinner was cena
 Hot takeaway snacks could be bought at thermopolia – often used by the poor living in insulae with no kitchens to
cook proper meals
 Rich Romans were famous for their banquets where guests lay on couches, were served by slaves and ate course after
course washed down by wine – the legend of the vomitorium, a room for forcing yourself to be sick so you could
return to eat more, is probably just that – a legend
Clothing:
 The basic garment was a tunic – a long shirt to the knees tied at the waist, nice and loose in hot weather – with leather
sandals for the feet
 Formal wear for rich men was the toga – a long robe draped over the shoulder and down to the feet, senators had
purple stripes on their togas which were otherwise white to reflect the heat of the sun
 Rich women wore a long dress called a stola covered when outdoors by a cloak called a palla – sun-tans were a sign
of having to work outdoors (i.e. poverty) and so rich ladies had to cover up!
 Men were clean-shaven – beards seen as sign of barbarian – and women wore elaborate hair styles, sometimes dyed,
along with make-up and plenty of jewellery
Religion:
 Romans worshipped many gods (Polytheism), many very similar to those of the Greeks – Jupiter, Mars, Juno,
Neptune, Vulcan, Mercury, Venus, Minerva etc
 Vesta was the goddess of the hearth, especially important to Romans, and her temple contained a fire which could
never go out and was tended by Vestal Virgins – a Vestal Virgin who broke her vow would be buried alive
 Each god would have a temple in their honour – the Pantheon, still standing in Rome today, was for all the gods
 Roman priests (augurs) often tried to predict the future by examining the entrails of animals sacrificed in front of
the temple
 Romans had private shrines to their household gods at home where they made offerings of wine (libations) so that
their prayers might be answered
 Religious festivals included Lupercalia (springtime) and Vinalia (in honour of grape harvest)
 Weddings were arranged by fathers and children were publicly engaged at a sponsalia – the ceremony itself
(conferratio) was held at the bride’s house
 Roman funerals were sad occasions – sometimes mourners were hired to make a public display of grief!
 The poor were buried quickly – bodies would soon go off in the heat – but even the rich had to be buried outside the
city, the richer the dead person the fancier their tomb
 The dead were buried with coins in their mouth to pay Charon, ferryman of the dead, to transport the soul across the
River Styx into Elysium (heaven)
 Soon after 33 AD, Christianity began to spread across the Roman Empire – Christians were persecuted at first, Nero
used them as scapegoats for the great fire of Rome in 66 AD
 During these times Christians built secret underground passages (catacombs) in Rome to hide, say mass and meet
safely – many of the earliest popes were buried here
 In the 4th Century AD the Emperor Constantine converted to Christianity and it became the official religion of the
Roman Empire – the headquarters of the Roman Catholic Church is still there today
The Army:
 Rome’s army was vital in conquering and controlling the vast empire – a soldier was a professional, a career that
earned him a living
 The army was divided into legions (roughly 4,800 men in each), comprising of ten cohorts in turn comprising of six
centuries (80 men in each) each led by a Centurion
 At its height, there were around 36 legions to control the entire empire – each one had a name and number and there
was fierce competition between the legions
 Legions were backed up by a similar number of auxiliary units – foreign soldiers skilled in ‘non-Roman’ ways of
fighting, like archery
 A soldier signed up for 25 years, had to carry 35kgs of equipment on the march, pay for his weapons and uniforms
from his pay and (in theory) could not marry
 Equipment included a spear (pilum) and sword (gladius) along with shield, pickaxe and shovel
 Soldiers wore tunics under light, flexible armour and sturdy, hob-nailed sandals – a standard bearer carried the banner
of their legion into battle
 Soldiers could serve in the infantry (foot), cavalry (horseback) or artillery – catapults and other large throwing
machines which could hurl boulders or crossbow bolts huge distances at great force
 Soldiers drilled hard all the time and were very disciplined in battles – following tactical manoeuvres in the heat of
conflict at the call of a horn or the raising of a flag
 Wherever they stopped for the night, Roman soldiers built identical rectangular camps with ditches, walls, gates and
lookout towers – if the site was important enough stone would gradually replace wood and eventually towns would
develop
 Rome fought many enemies including Gauls (France) and Carthage (North Africa) – she never succeeded in
conquering Germany and as the empire got too big to control and Romans got too soft and lazy to fight themselves,
the empire eventually collapsed in the 5th Century AD