Download Ancient Rome BCE-CE De nobis fabula narratur

Ancient Rome w/ Mr. C
 Ancient Rome was at first a small agricultural
community founded circa the 8th century BC (700’s)
that grew over the course of the centuries into a
colossal empire encompassing the whole
Mediterranean Sea, in which Ancient Greek and
Roman cultures merged into one civilization.
 This civilization was so influential that parts of it
survive in modern law, administration, philosophy and
arts, forming the ground that Western civilization is
based upon.
 In its twelve-century existence it transformed itself
from monarchy to republic and finally to autocracy. In
steady decline since the 2nd century AD, the empire
finally broke into two parts in 285 AD: the Western
Roman Empire and the Byzantine Empire in the East.
 The western part under the pressure of Goths finally
dissolved, leaving the Italian peninsula divided into
small independent kingdoms and feuding city states
for the next 14 centuries, and leaving the eastern part
sole heir to the Roman legacy.
“The Romans knew how to govern people, establish legal
structures and construct roads that took them to the ends
of their known world”
 Middle of the Mediterranean
 Larger and more arable land than Greece- mts north and
south
 River valleys- Po in the North, Tiber in middle of boot
 Rome - inland accessible by boat- defensible,on “Seven
Hills”
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Capitoline
Quirinal
Viminal
Esquilin
Cælian (Coelian/Celio)
Aventine
Palatine
 Legend: Romulus and
 Reality: Etruscans
Remus raised by she-wolf  unsure of origin
733BC traced boundaries  used iron, bronze and
with plow
silver
 Later: Virgil’s Aeneus,
 Rome and Latins under
hero of Troy, roams the
rule of king
Med looking for a home
 beginning fear of kings,
rebelled
 invaded by Gaul 390 BC
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Let’s look at the real origins of Rome.
Romulus and Remus were twin brothers.
The grandfather and great-uncle of the
twins were Numitor and Amulius.
Amulius seized Numitor's share and
became sole ruler.
Rhea Silvia (also called Ilia) made a
vestial virgin.
Since vestal virgins could be buried alive
if they violated their chastity vows,
whoever forced Rhea Silvia to enter the
equivalent of an ancient convent
assumed that Rhea Silvia would remain
childless.
Amulius had a swineherd, Faustulus,
leave the twins on the river bank to die.
BUT a she-wolf nursed them, and a
woodpecker fed and guarded them
 The Trojan prince
Aeneas, an important
figure linking the
Romans with the Trojans
and the goddess Venus,
escaped from Troy with
his son in his arms and
carrying his father on his
back. He led his men to
Africa, Sicily and finally
Etruia. Setting up a
kingdom in Alba Longa.
 The Etruscans, who lived
 Herodotus says the
in Etruria, were known as
Etruscans came from
Tyrrhenians by the
Lydia, in Asia Minor, as
Greeks. They were at
the result of a famine
their height in Italy from
around 1200 B.C., like the
the 8th to the 5th
Irish coming to the U.S.
century B.C.
as a result of a potato
famine in the 19th
 They inhabited the
century.
triangular area between
the Mediterranean Sea
 (This one has DNA
and the rivers Arno and
evidence!)
Tiber in central Italy.
 Etruscans built such
cities as Tarquinii, Vulci,
Caere, and Veii.
 Etruscan homes were
mud-brick, with timber
on stone foundations,
some with upper stories.
 But their temples…
 An Etruscan temple, to
meet religious
requirements, was
located on a north-south
axis and stood on a high
podium with a fourcolumned porch in front
of three doors leading to
three parallel rooms for
the three chief Etruscan
gods.
 The brilliantly painted
terracotta statuary that
decorated the roof along
the eaves, ridge pole, and
at the gable ends also
served the practical
purpose of hiding and
protecting tile joints and
rafter ends. Plaques with
low-relief figures
adorned the entablature.
 Pairing: Husband & Wife
 Etruscan state
government was
essentially a theocracy.
Etruscans was vertical, or
generational. They kept
 The political unit of
track of six generations.
Etruscan society was the
city-state.
 The names of persons are
generally binomial:
Vethur Hathisna, Avile
Repesuna, Fasti Aneina.
 Kinship among the
 Catha and Usil, the sun
 The Etruscans believed
 Tivr, the moon
in intimate contact with
divinity.
 They did nothing
without proper
consultation with the
gods and signs from
them.
 Selvan, a civil god
 Turan, the goddess of
love
 Laran, the god of war
 Leinth, the goddess of
death
 Maris, Thalna, Turms
and the ever-popular
Fufluns
 Augery
 Auspices
 ADOPT
 The power of religion and
mysticism. The Etruscans
were profoundly and
eternally influenced by
mysticism and what we
would generally refer to as
"superstition".
 REJECT
 The position of women in
Etruscan society. As
opposed to Roman and
Greek societies, Etruscan
women sat with their
husbands at banquets, had
their own personal
possessions and were
actively involved in day to
day politics. From the point
of view of Roman morality
Etruscan women were
immoral and dissolute.
 Roman Monarchy (753 B.C. – 510 B.C.)
 Roman Republic (509 B.C. – 44 B.C.)
 (Mar. 15= The Ides of March).
 Murder of Caesar. 44 B.C
 Roman Empire (30 B.C. – 476 A.D./1453 A.D.)
 Caesar Augustus, 1st citizen
 Imperatur in everything but name.
 1. Romulus 753-715 B.C.
 3. Tullus Hostilius 673-642
 Romulus was the legendary
B.C.
 Tullus Hostilius doubled the
population of Rome, added
Alban nobles to the Senate of
Rome, and built the Curia
Hostilia. He was a warrior.
 4. Ancus Martius 642-617
B.C.
 Ancus Marcius was a
grandson of Numa Pompilius
and a bridge builder. The
bridge across the Tiber is
credited to Ancus Marcius.
founder of Rome. The Sabine
king of Cures, Tatius, coruled with Romulus.
 2. Numa Pompilius 715-673
B.C.
 Numa Pompilius is credited
with many of the ancient
religious conventions of
ancient Rome.
5. L. Tarquinius Priscus 616-579 B.C.
 The first of these new kings, it is said,
came from the Etruscan city of Tarquinii,
from which he derived his name. The
story is told that, as he approached the
city, an eagle came from the sky, and,
lifting his cap from his head, replaced it.
His wife, who was skilled in the Etruscan
art of augury, regarded the eagle as a
messenger from heaven, and its act as a
sign that her husband was to acquire
honor and power. Tarquinius Priscus had
a Corinthian father. Tarquin created 100
new senators and expanded Rome. He
also established the Roman games.
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6. Servius Tullius 578-535 B.C.
 The next king was Servius Tullius, who is
said to have been the son of a slave in the
royal household, and whom the gods
favored by mysterious signs. Servius
Tullius was the son-in-law of Tarquinius
Priscus. He divided the Roman citizens
into tribes and fixed the military
obligations of 5 census-determined
classes.
 7. Tarquinius Superbus (Tarquin the
Proud) 534-510 B.C.
 Tradition represents the last king,
Tarquinius Superbus, as a cruel despot.
He obtained the throne by murder, and
ruled without the consent of the senate
or the people. He loved power and pomp.
He was forcibly ousted by Brutus.
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 Having witnessed the
problems of monarchy
on their own land, and
aristocracy and
democracy among the
Greeks, the Romans
opted for a mixed form
of government, with 3
branches of government.
 Consul
 Senate
 Assembly
 Consuls - The Monarchical Branch of Roman
Government in the Roman Republic:
 Two magistrates called consuls carried on the functions
of the former kings, holding supreme civil and military
authority in Republican Rome. However, unlike the
kings, the office of consul lasted for only one year. At
the end of their year in office, the ex-consuls became
senators for life, unless ousted by the censors.
 The 1-year term, veto, and co-consulship were safeguards
to prevent one of the consuls from wielding too much
power.
 Senate - The Aristocratic Branch of Roman
Government in the Roman Republic:
 Senate (senatus = council of elders [related to the word
"senior"]) was the advisory branch of the Roman
government, early on composed of about 300 citizens
who served for life. They were chosen by the kings, at
first, then by the consuls, and by the end of the 4th
century, by the censors. The ranks of the Senate, drawn
from ex-consuls and other officers. Property
requirements changed with the era. At first senators
were only patricians but in time plebeians joined their
ranks.
 Assembly - The Democratic Branch of Roman
Government in the Roman Republic:
 The Assembly of Centuries (comitia centuriata), which
was composed of all members of the army, elected
consuls annually. The Assembly of Tribes (comitia
tributa), composed of all citizens, approved or rejected
laws and decided issues of war and peace.
 In ancient Rome, censors were census-takers and
morality keepers.
 The comitia curiata elected the censores.
 At first their term of office was a lustrum or about 5
years, but it was soon reduced to a period of 18 months.
 Although the censors were awarded no imperium
(roughly, power), and therefore had no lictors to serve
as axe-carrying bodyguards, the office was above the
consul and second only to the office of dictator in
dignity.
 (339 B.C.) One of the censors must be a plebeian.
 Carthago delenda est
 Etruscans and Gauls squeezed out by Latins
 290- conquered central Italy then Samnites in South
 265 took over Greek city states
 Why?
 Staying power of army
 Won over conquered people
 Became Roman citizens
 gradual struggle between the patrician and plebeian
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classes
2 consuls and Senate made up of patricians
popular assemblies established with a representative
tribune- veto power
450 B.C. 12 Tables Roman Law codified
Result- increase of privileges for plebes
 In 449 BC a committee of 10 men formed the “tables”.
 They become the foundation of all Roman law.
 Addrressed civil procedures, debt, parents & children,
property, marriage, funerals, etc.
 Major rival in Med- Phoenician Carthage
 First Punic War 264-42- copied ships and corvus
 out of Sicily
 Second Punic war 218-202- Hannibal 216 Battle of
Camnae
 Third- treaty infringement trumped up in Cato’s
speech
 Carthago delenda est” Carthage “plowed and sowed with
salt”
 Result Rome now the POWER in the Mediterranean
 Graft*, corruption, struggle between patrician and
plebeians
 Gracchi Brothers Tiberias and Gaius
 Marius consul 6 x
 Sulla- general seized Rome in 82 BCE restored power
to Senate
 set precedent
* unscrupulous use of a politician's authority for personal
gain.
 First Triumvirate Julius Caesar, Pompey, Crassus
 Julius Caesar challenges the Senate crosses the
Rubicon
 47 BCE virtual ruler, increased Senate to 900
 44 BCE assassinated, Second Triumvirate
 Octavius, Marc Antony, Lepidus
 Battle of Actium 31 BCE End of an era
 Caesar Augustus- purpose “to restore the republic”
 27 B.C. Augustus become “First Citizen” Princeps
 ended strife- beginning of Pax Romanae
 tried to impact life- morality, building
 sculpture- deified him, literature as well
 Consolidation- of power/ Senate limited
 SPQR Senatus Populusque Romanus- banner
 Ever expanding- see maps- spread Pax Romanae
 Politically - emperor/ dictatorship
 Extended Roman citizenship as they spread
 The Roman family- gradual less influence for fathers
 family strong unit- run like the state
 women become more independent- socially and
ownership
 politically active as wives of emperors- Livia, wife of CA
 The Romans did not eat huge meals.
 Their main food was pottage. Pottage is a kind of thick
stew made from wheat, millet or corn. Sometimes they
would add cooked meat, offal or a sauce made out of
wine.
 Food for the common people consisted of wheat or
barley, olive oil, a little fish, wine, home grown
vegetables, and if they were lucky enough to own a
goat or cow or chickens, cheese and a few eggs.
 As the Republic grew and expanded, the Romans came into
contact with food from other countries. They used herbs
and spices to flavor their food and began eating more fish,
especially shell fish.
 Vegetables were plentiful and most of the Roman's recipes
included vegetables. They also ate a lot of fruit, especially
grapes, and made wine.
 The Romans ate their food with their fingers. They used
knives made from antlers, wood or bronze with an iron
blade to cut their food. They also had spoons made from
bronze, silver and bone which they used to eat eggs,
shellfish and liquids.
 During the Roman Republic, there were Sumtuariae
Leges ('sumptuary laws') designed to limit
extravagance, including the amount spent on a given
meal, which directly impacted how much wealthy
Romans could eat at their meals.
 By the Imperial period such laws were no longer in
force.
 Poor Romans continued to eat mostly cereal grain, at
all meals, as porridge or bread.
 Women engaged in a daily grain-to-flour grinding.
 They placed the hard kernels between a concave stone
and a smaller one serving as a roller.
 This was called called a "thrusting mill." Later, they
sometimes used a mortar and pestle.
 For rich Romans…
 For those who could afford it, breakfast (jentaculum),
eaten very early, would consist of salted bread, milk or
wine, and perhaps dried fruit, eggs or cheese.
 It was not always eaten. The Roman lunch (cibus
meridianus or prandium), a quick meal, eaten around
noon could include salted bread or be more elaborate
with fruit, salad, eggs, meat or fish, vegetable, and
cheese.
 The dinner (cena), the main meal of the day, would be
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accompanied by wine, usually well-watered.
The Latin poet Horace (lived during Augustus’ time)
ate a meal of onions, porridge, and pancake.
An ordinary upper class dinner would include meat,
vegetable, egg, and fruit.
Comissatio was a final wine course at dinner's end.
Don’t forget the fermented fish sauce (YUCK!).
 It is believed that during the Roman Republic most
women and the poor ate sitting on chairs, while upper
class males reclined on their sides on couches along
three sides of a cloth-covered table (mensa).
 The 3-sided arrangement is called the triclinium.
Banquets might last for hours, eating and watching or
listening to entertainers, so being able to stretch out
without shoes, and relax must have enhanced the
experience. Since there were no forks, diners would
not have had to worry about coordinating eating
utensils in each hand.
 It is believed that during the Roman Republic most
women and the poor ate sitting on chairs, while upper
class males reclined on their sides on couches along
three sides of a cloth-covered table (mensa).
 The 3-sided arrangement is called the triclinium.
Banquets might last for hours, eating and watching or
listening to entertainers, so being able to stretch out
without shoes, and relax must have enhanced the
experience. Since there were no forks, diners would
not have had to worry about coordinating eating
utensils in each hand.
 It was VERY popular to record what was served at meals
and include recipes when possible.
 My favorite?
 HONEYED MUSHROOMS
 Ingredients: 25g dried mushrooms 2 tbsp red wine vinegar
pinch of salt 1 tbsp clear honey sea salt to taste.
 Method: Place the mushrooms in a bowl and cover with
boiling water, allowing them to soak for an hour. Pour this
mixture into a saucepan, add the honey and vinegar and bring
to the boil. Cover and simmer for half an hour. Season with
salt and serve. This mushroom mixture goes particularly well
with game.
 See Handout on Website
 Hygiene in ancient Rome included the famous public
Roman baths, toilets, exfoliating cleansers, public
facilities, and -- communal toilet sponge (ancient
Roman Charmin®).
 high standards of cleanliness!
 dutifully rinsed out after use!!!
 Urns for collecting urine
 for the fullers…
 Call for the bathroom attendant.
 Dip hands in water.
 Dry them on his head.
 Don’t you want hair like Mr. C now?
 Mine would be useless!!!
 “In omnibus Vacerra quod conclavibus
consumit horas et die toto sedet,
cenaturit Vacerra, non cacaturit.”
 “Why does Vacerra spend his hours
in all the privies, and day-long stoop?
He wants a supper, not a poop.“
 What does this mean?
 “Why does Vacerra spend his hours
in all the privies, and day-long stoop?
He wants a supper, not a poop.“
 Things like this tell us:
 They were comfortable places
 One might sit and read
 Or otherwise "amuse oneself sociably"
 Socialize and hope for [dinner] invitations
 Public urinals consisted of buckets, dolia curta.
 The contents were regularly collected and sold to the
fullers for cleaning wool, etc.
 That's where the tax story comes in.
 The fullers were the ones who were taxed.
 The collectors had public contracts and could be fined if
late.
 FAVORITE STORY!!!
 Emperor Vespasian (69AD to 79AD)
 distrusted philosophers in general, viewing them as
unmanly complainers who talked too much
 Much money was spent on public works and the
restoration and beautification of Rome:
 a new forum, the Temple of Peace, the public baths and the
great show piece, the
 urinals are still named after him (for example,
vespasiano in Italian, and vespasienne in French
 Why?
 “They were so poor they didn’t even have a pot to
pee in.”
 Hygiene in the Roman World was limited to the rich
and famous, except for those who could afford the
public baths or thermaes.
 Running water did not reach the poor's tenements from
the aqueducts.
 These lesser folks relieved themselves in pots or
commodes which were emptied into vats located
under staircases and these emptied into cesspools
throughout the city.
 The rich and famous, from the emperor on down,
enjoyed running water in palaces and mansions from
lead pipes connected to the aqueducts.
 At Pompeii, for instance, all houses except the poorest
had water pipes fitted with taps, and the waste water
was piped away into sewer or trench.
 Strigil
 Asmall, curved, metal tool used in ancient
Greece and Rome to scrape dirt and sweat
from the body before effective soaps became
available.
 First perfumed oil was applied to the skin,
and then it would be scraped off, along with
the dirt.
 For wealthier people, this process was often
done by slaves.
 Strigils were often used in Roman baths and
were made in different sizes for different
areas of the body.
 The Romans recycled public bath waste water by using
it as part of the flow that flushed the latrines.
 At the baths there were storage nooks for clothing,
utensils, oil and strigil.
 Theft was a problem in Roman bath houses, so slaves
watched bathers' property.
 It was better to have someone looking out, but hot as
the baths were, it was easy to fall asleep.
 Slaves could also be tempted by profit and sometimes
sold their masters' garments.
 Curse tablets punished those who stole.
 Minerv(a)e de(ae) Suli donavi furem qui caracallam
meam involavit si ser(v)us si liber si baro si mulier hoc
donum non redemat nessi sangu(i)n[e] suo.
 Curse tablets punished those who stole.
 Curse tablets which were pieces of lead or pewter rolled
or folded and thrown into the spring or nailed to the
bathing establishment. Inscribing on his piece of lead
the victim would call on the god to right the wrong, by
bringing the criminal to justice and retrieving the lost
article.
 A victim of theft might seek the god's vengeance or
double the likelihood of divine help by transferring
ownership of his stolen garment (or other article of
value) to the god who would then want to retrieve the
garment in his own interest.
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Spirits could be found in inanimate objects such as stones, rivers, furniture, and even
caves.
Children were told horrifying stories of monsters who would come to kill them if they
misbehaved.
Herbs could do many good things. (i.e.-they "made enemies retreat in battle" and they
"opened closed doors")
Animals are heavily associated with superstitions.
People wore or carried amulets and lucky charms in order to avoid evil.
Bees were good fortune; godly messengers
An owl sighting meant "impending disaster."
Warts could be removed if the person who had one took their mother's dirty dishcloth
and put it under a rock outside.
If somebody threw a horseshoe, good fortune could be gained by picking it up.
It was unlucky to "attack the memory of a deceased person."
It was a good idea to wait until after breakfast to tell somebody about a nightmare.
Odd numbers were "more powerful" than even ones.
And many, many more!
 Requests and prayers were presented to gods as a
trade: if the god did what was requested (the
nuncupatio), then the worshipper promised to do a
particular thing in return (the solutio). This trade was
binding.
 In a sense, they were legal documents that could
obligate gods for particular action and protection.
 Religion depended on knowledge and the correct
practice of prayer, ritual, and sacrifice, not on faith or
dogma.
 Roman religion was thus practical and contractual,
based on the principle of do ut des, "I give that you
might give."
 All sacrifices and offerings required an accompanying
prayer to be effective.
 Pliny the Elder declared that "a sacrifice without prayer
is thought to be useless and not a proper consultation of
the gods.“
 The three most important gods were:
 Jupiter (protector of the state),
 Juno (protector of women) and
 Minerva (goddess of craft and wisdom).
 Other major gods included:
 Mars (god of war),
 Mercury (god of trade and messenger of the gods) and
 Bacchus (god of grapes and wine production).
 The God Jupiter depicted in sculpture
 Aeneas and Romulus themselves were believed to have
been made gods after their deaths and the family of
Augustus traced their roots back to these divine ancestors.
 As a result, the fact that Julius Caesar and his descendants
were made into gods after they died was not just a way of
honoring their achievements in power, it was also simple
recognition of the fact that they belonged to a divine family.
 Over time, the same divinity was extended to wives and
children. The whole imperial family came to be seen as
gods and was often commemorated with temples and
coins.
 Etruscans practiced domestic, ancestral or family cults
very similar to those offered by later Romans to their
Lares.
 The word itself seems to derive
from the Etruscan
lar, lars, or larth, meaning "lord".
 They were originally gods of the cultivated fields,
worshipped by each household at the crossroads
where its allotment joined those of others.
 Later the Lares were worshipped in the houses in
association with the Penates, the gods of the
storeroom (penus) and thus of the family’s prosperity;
the household Lar (Familiaris) was conceived as the
centre of the family and of the family cult.
 Originally each household had only one Lar. It was
usually represented as a youthful figure, dressed in a
short tunic, holding in one hand a drinking horn, in
the other a cup.
 Under the empire, two of these images were commonly
to be found, one on each side of the central figure of
Vesta, or of some other deity.
 (We will come back to Vesta because she is important!)
 It was at the hearth sacrifices were made to the gods and
the spirits of the families ancestors.
 If the fire was to burn on forever, then it was only when the
family moved away to another home, that the fire would be
put out with wine in a small ritual.
 They were represented by little figurines which would be
kept in a special cupboard. Among them the lar familiaris,
the family spirit, was the most important.
 Lares – everyday prayers
 Extra Special days: weddings, birthdays, calends (first days),
ides (middle), nones (9th day)
 Penates – thanks for keeping the family fed; statues placed
on dinner table, then put away
 The third household spirit of note was the genius.
 Could be represented in form of a snake.
 Vesta was also a common genius.
 Occasionally an ancestor too (if he was ‘famous’).
 The genius of the household was particularly
celebrated on the head of the family's birthday.
 Romans were superstitious.
 Apart from friendly spirits there were also ghostly
spirits of the dead which might haunt a house.
 They were the so-called larvae and lemures.
 These could be driven out of the house by ritual,
performed by the head of the family, which involved
spitting our black beans and noisily bashing together
metal pots.
 Two gods of the Roman state cult guarded the private homes of the
Roman citizen.
 Janus, the god of doorways and beginnings. It was he who was seen as
the chief guardian of the home. His was the passage through the door,
he was both inside and outside the house at once. Hence he was its
guardian.
 not to be the only god in care of the door :
 Cardea, the goddess of hinges
 Forculus, god of the door leaves
 Limentius, the god of the threshold
 Vesta, the goddess of the hearth. As the hearth was of practical
importance (for cooking) and of spiritual significance (sacrifices) it is
quite understandable that Vesta was seen to be of great importance to a
Roman's home.
 Every day prayers would be said to Vesta. During meals some food
might be set aside and passed into the fire as an offering to the goddess.
 Vesta, in Roman religion, goddess of the hearth,
identified with the Greek Hestia.
 The lack of an easy source of fire in the early Roman
community placed a special premium on the everburning hearth fire, both publicly and privately
maintained.
 Her worship was observed in every household along
with that of the Penates and the Lares, and her image
was sometimes encountered in the household shrine.
 The state worship of Vesta was much more elaborate.
 The Temple of Vesta was traditionally a circular building, in
imitation of the early Italian round hut and symbolic of the
public hearth.
 There burned the perpetual fire of the public hearth attended
by the Vestal Virgins.
 Vesta is represented as a fully draped woman, sometimes
accompanied by her favourite animal, a donkey.
 As goddess of the hearth fire, Vesta was the patron deity of
bakers, hence her connection with the donkey, usually used
for turning the millstone, and her association with Fornax,
the spirit of the baker’s oven.
 The only man who could enter the temple of Vesta was
the Pontifex Maximus.
 Aedes Iovis Optimi Maximi Capitolini
 The public side of religion was more organized and
more formal than the private.
 At home, the pater familias – head of the family –
performed religious rituals for the household.
 Beyond the home, gods were worshipped by the state,
which employed colleges of highly trained priests and
priestesses.
 The Pontifex Maximus was the highest pontifex or
priest in ancient Rome -- like the modern Pope. Also
like the Pope, once in office, the appointee held his
position for life.
 The priesthoods of public religion were held by members of the elite
classes.
 There was no principle analogous to "separation of church and state" in
ancient Rome.
 During the Roman Republic (509–27 BC), the same men who were
elected public officials might also serve as augurs and pontiffs.
 Priests married, raised families, and led politically active lives.
 Julius Caesar became Pontifex Maximus before he was elected consul.
 The augurs read the will of the gods and supervised the marking of
boundaries as a reflection of universal order, thus sanctioning Roman
expansionism as a matter of divine destiny.
 The Roman triumph was at its core a religious procession in which the
victorious general displayed his piety and his willingness to serve the
public good by dedicating a portion of his spoils to the gods, especially
Jupiter, who embodied just rule.
 The Pontifex Maximus was the highest pontifex or
priest in ancient Rome -- like the modern Pope. Also
like the Pope, once in office, the appointee held his
position for life.
 The Pontifex Maximus chose the Vestal Virgins, the
flamines, and the rex sacrorum.
 The Pontifex Maximus was, in some sense, the heir of
the king (rex) who once ruled the Romans, according
to their legendary history.
 Roman emperors held the title of Pontifex Maximus.
 The Pontificus Maximus was not a magistrate and
didn't wear the striped toga (toga praetexta).
 When presiding at ceremonies, he pulled his toga over
his head.
 The earliest priests are thought to have been the flamines, who were devoted to
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individual gods. The Flamen Dialis, who was devoted to Jupiter, was subject to
many prohibitions and duties, but also enjoyed honors.
Another type of priest going back to the legendary period is the pontifex (pl.
pontifices) who were not restricted to specific gods, but served as
superintendents to the worship of all gods.
The Pontifex Maximus came to replace the rex sacrorum in his responsibility
for the vestal virgins, but the rex sacrorum maintained his responsibility to
announce the fixed festival days (feriae), written on the calendar.
There were also augures (priests who took the auspices), decemviri sacris
faciundis ([half plebeian, and half patrician] who took care of the Sibylline
books and were appointed for life), Sodales Fratres Arvales (9 or 12 who offered
sacrifices for fertility of the field), Sodales Luperci, Sodales Salii (12 [patrician]
priests of Mars Gradivus).
In addition to these priests, there were other, minor offices, some held by men,
and others by women: the wives of the flamen and the rex sacrorum (flamenica
and regina sacrorum) and the Vestal Virgin priestesses.
 For without them what would little boys do?
 I’m going to show you a mosaic.
 Tell me what you can learn about Roman history from
it.
 The one major public role reserved solely for women
was in the sphere of religion: the priestly office of the
Vestals. Freed of any obligation to marry or have
children, the Vestals devoted themselves to the study
and correct observance of rituals which were deemed
necessary for the security and survival of Rome but
which could not be performed by the male colleges of
priests.
 Freeborn women in ancient Rome were citizens (cives), but
could not vote or hold political office.
 Inscriptions and especially epitaphs document the names
of a wide range of women throughout the Roman Empire,
but often tell little else about them.
 Some vivid snapshots of daily life are preserved in Latin
literary genres such as comedy, satire, and poetry, particularly
the poems of Catullus and Ovid, which offer glimpses of
women in Roman dining rooms and boudoirs, at sporting and
theatrical events, shopping, putting on makeup, practicing
magic, worrying about pregnancy — all, however, through
male eyes.
 The Venerable Bede!
 Both daughters and sons were subject to patria potestas,
the power wielded by their father as head of household
(familia). A Roman household was considered a collective
(corpus, a "body") over which the pater familias had
mastery (dominium).
 Even apart from legal status, daughters seem no less
esteemed within the Roman family than sons, though sons
were expected to ensure family standing by following their
fathers into public life.
 A daughter was expected to be deferential toward her
father and to remain loyal to him, even if it meant having
to differ with her husbands.
 A daughter kept her own family name (nomen) for life, not
assuming that of her husband.
 Women in the early to mid-Republic were usually known
by their family name (nomen).
 A woman from the gens Aemilia would be called Aemilia;
from the gens Cornelia, Cornelia; from the gens
Sempronia, Sempronia; and so on.
 If there were many daughters, a cognomen such as Tertia
(Third) could indicate birth order, for example, Aemilia
Tertia, the wife of Scipio Africanus.
 The comparative adjectives Maior and Minor, meaning "the
Elder" and "the Younger" when attached to a name, might
distinguish between two sisters; for example, the daughters
of Gaius Laelius Sapiens are known as Laelia Maior and
Laelia Minor.
 Roman children played a number of games, and their
toys are known from archaeology and literary sources.
Girls are depicted in Roman art as playing many of the
same games as boys, such as ball, hoop-rolling, and
knucklebones. Dolls are sometimes found in the
tombs of those who died before adulthood.
 Girls coming of age dedicated their
dolls to Diana, the goddess most
concerned with girlhood, or to
Venus when they were preparing
for marriage.
 Some and perhaps many girls went to a public primary
school. Ovid and Martial imply that boys and girls
were educated either together or similarly, and Livy
takes it for granted that the daughter of a centurion
would be in school.
 Children of the elite were taught Greek as well as Latin
from an early age.
 Children of both genders learned to behave socially by
attending dinner parties and other events.
 Girls as well as boys participated in religious festivals.
 As they got older, their paths diverged (split).
 Although the rights and status of women in the earliest period of
Roman history were more restricted than in the late Republic
and Empire, as early as the 5th century BC, Roman women could
own land, write their own wills, and appear in court as their own
advocates.
 An emancipated woman legally became sui iuris, or her own
person, and could own property and dispose of it as she saw fit.
 If a pater familias died, the law required the equal division of his
estate amongst his children, regardless of their age and sex.
 A will that did otherwise, or emancipated any family member
without due process of law, could be challenged.
 From the late Republic onward, a woman who inherited a share
equal with her brothers would have been independent.
 The pater familias had the right and duty to find a
husband for his daughter, and first marriages were
normally arranged.
 Technically, the couple had to be old enough to consent,
but the age of consent was 12 for girls and 14 for boys.
 A daughter could legitimately refuse a match made by
her parents only by showing that the proposed husband
was of bad character.
 In the early Republic, the bride became subject to her
husband's potestas, but to a lesser degree than their
children.
 By the early Empire a daughter's legal relationship to
her father remained unchanged when she married,
even though she moved into her husband's home.
 This arrangement was one of the factors in the degree
of independence Roman women enjoyed relative to
those of many other ancient cultures and up to the
early modern period: although she had to answer to
her father legally, she didn't conduct her daily life
under his direct scrutiny, and her husband had no
legal power over her.
 Roman marriage wasn't a love match.
 The purpose of marriage was to carry on the family
line so the spirits of the dead could be honored.
 Roman women were not only valued for the number of
children that they produced, but also for their part in
raising and educating children to become good
citizens.
 During the classical era of Roman law, marriage
required no ceremony, but only a mutual will and
agreement to live together in harmony.
 Marriage ceremonies, contracts, and other formalities
were meant only to prove that a couple had, in fact,
married.
 Under early or archaic Roman law, marriages were of
three kinds: confarreatio, symbolized by the sharing of
bread (panis farreus); coemptio, "by purchase"; and
usus, by mutual cohabitation.
 Patricians always married by confarreatio, while
plebeians married by the latter two kinds.
 The nuptiae was often begun with a celebration, combining
legal, religious, and social features.
 The typical upperclass wedding in the classical period
tended to be a lavish affair. The expense of the wedding was
normally the bride's family's responsibility. The day was
carefully chosen, with various religious reasons as to why
certain days should be avoided.
 During engagement ceremonies, which typically took place
before the wedding ceremonies, the groom would often hand
his future wife an iron ring.
 During wedding ceremonies the bride and groom often
sacrificed an animal and asked the gods for a blessing.
 On the wedding day, the bride went with a procession
to her new home, while the bridegroom went ahead of
the bride to receive her.
 With her, the bride brought a torch lit from her family's
hearth, and was offered another torch and water,
symbolizing the aquae et ignis communicatio.
 She was then carried over the threshold by her
attendants, not her husband. The words "Ubi tu Gaius,
ego Gaia" may have been exchanged at this point.
 Roman wives were expected to bear children, but the
women of the aristocracy, accustomed to a degree of
independence, showed a growing disinclination to devote
themselves to traditional motherhood. By the 1st century
AD, most elite women avoided breast-feeding their infants
themselves, and hired wet-nurses.
 Since a mother's milk was considered best for the baby,
aristocratic women might still choose to breast-feed, unless
physical reasons prevented it.
 The extent to which Roman women might expect their
husbands to participate in the rearing of very young
children seems to vary and is hard to determine. Familyvalues traditionalists such as Cato appear to have taken an
interest: Cato liked to be present when his wife bathed and
swaddled their child.
 Aristocratic women managed a large and complex
household. Since wealthy couples often owned multiple
homes and country estates with dozens or even hundreds
of slaves, some of whom were educated and highly skilled,
this responsibility was the equivalent of running a small
corporation.
 In addition to the social and political importance of
entertaining guests, clients, and visiting dignitaries from
abroad, the husband held his morning business meetings
(salutatio) at home.
 The home (domus) was also the center of the family's social
identity, with ancestral portraits displayed in the entrance
hall (atrium).
 One of the most important tasks for women to oversee in a
large household was clothing production.
 At one time, the spinning of wool was a central domestic
occupation, and indicated a family's self-sufficiency, since
the wool would be produced on their estates.
 Even in an urban setting, wool was often a symbol of a wife's
duties, and equipment for spinning might appear on the
funeral monument of a woman to show that she was a good
and honorable matron.
 Even women of the upper classes were expected to be able
to spin and weave in virtuous emulation of their rustic
ancestors.
 It wasn't just grandma and grandpa living upstairs, but
great-grandfather ruling the roost, along with the
subordinate uncles, first and second cousins.
 This may have been more the ideal than the practice,
but as long as that pater familias was alive, no Roman
could do business in his own name unless the
progenitor had emancipated him.
 Some obvious occupations for a woman would be wet nurse,
actress, dancer or acrobat, and midwife — not all of equal
respectability.
 Performers were deemed lowly.
 Inscriptions indicate that a woman who was a wet nurse (nutrix)
would be quite proud of her occupation.
 Women could be scribes and secretaries, including "girls trained
for beautiful writing," that is, calligraphers.
 Pliny gives a list of female artists and their paintings.
 Most Romans lived in insulae (apartment buildings), and those
housing the poorer plebeian and non-citizen families usually
lacked kitchens. The need to buy prepared food meant that
"carryout" was a thriving business. Most of the Roman poor,
whether male or female, young or old, earned a living through
their own labor.
 Among the upper classes, women seem to have been well-educated, some
highly so, and were sometimes praised by the male historians for their learning
and cultivation.
 Cornelia Metella, the young wife of Pompey the Great at the time of his death,
was distinguished for her musicianship and her knowledge of geometry,
literature, and philosophy.
 This degree of learning indicates formal preparation.
 The educated and well-traveled Vibia Sabina (ca. 136 AD) was a grand-niece of
the emperor Trajan and became the wife of his successor Hadrian.
 Sadly, there are also a LOT of stories about bad women.
 It is from the stories of what is bad, that we can
infer what was “good”.

The earliest Romans living on the Palatine hill were essentially farmers and shepherds,
wearing animal skins as clothing and building their abodes of whatever construction
materials were readily available. Archeological digs on the hills of Rome have brought to
light a number of clues as to what these huts were like and when they were built.

Roman mythology and tradition places the founding of Rome around the 8th century BC
but in fact archeological finds suggest early settlements as early as the 10th century BC.

These early huts were generally rectangular or lozenge shaped. They were made by
planting large trunks into the ground, say three per side. The walls would be made by
filling the space between them with smaller sized wood and straw/mud.

The roof cover would have been held by wooden beams meeting in the centre at the
vertex (ie a traditional roof shape) and supported by one or more trunks standing in the
centre of the hut. Roof covering was probably of straw. A hole in the roof allowed smoke
from the internal fire to escape.
 Looking at the back…
 A – Ala / ???
 C – Atrium / ater=black
 E – Cubiculum / A bedroom.
 I – Hortus / _______(Horticulture)
 K – Impluvium / cistern
 P – Tablinum / den (Men only!)
 Q – Triclinium / _______
 This ain’t your daddy’s hut!
 We’ve moved out to the posh areas/country.
 What’s new here?
 F - Culina / _________ (Nom nom)
 L - Peristylium / A range of columns
 M - Piscina / Pool or fountain
 Instead of a fire in each room, they had a special fire
room built against an outside wall. The floors were
raised on pillars and the walls of the villa were hollow.
The heated air from the fire went to all the other
rooms, through these spaces under the floor and in the
walls.
 It was a very clever invention and after the Romans left,
it was centuries before the British people had central
heating again.
 This is a picture of the hypocaust at Rockborne in Hampshire. These
pillars (red) held up the floor and allowed the hot air to circulate
underneath, heating the room.
 Wealthy Romans might decorate their house with
mosaics, floors made of tiny, colored clay pieces that
together made a wonderful picture. They were called
tesserae.
 A wealthy Roman might have chosen a design from a
pattern book, much like choosing wall paper today! Also
it is thought that many of the designs might have arrived
pre-made, so all the workman had to do was to stick
them to the floor!
 The mosaic here shows a man and a giant eagle. It is made from
thousands of tiny tile pieces. They took a very long time to make.
 Roman town planners are also famous for having invented the first apartment
blocks, called "insula" or "insulae".
 Some examples of these apartment buildings can still be seen in cities such as
Rome or Ostia (Rome's harbor).
 Interestingly they are not to be found at Pompeii where the highest building
had something like three floors and the norm was just a single floor.
 In spite of its wealth Pompeii had not outgrown its limits as attested by the many
large gardens and relatively undeveloped areas to the east of the city, ie availability of
space and population density was clearly a strong factor in whether or not apartment
blocks were built up.
 Roman apartment buildings could be as high as 5 or 6 floors and measure some
30 feet in length and 60 feet in height.
 The insulae in the poorest areas could be built out of extremely bad materials
such as clay, straw, wood and crude bricks and often owed their structural
strength to the support of neighboring buildings, not a healthy situation.
 This accommodation, with very little by the way of hygiene was generally
regarded as a temporary stepping stone towards something of higher quality.
 But the sad fact is that for many, this was NOT temporary.