3.2 The Roman Home and Family

Question 1

Who was the paterfamilias

Answer 1

The oldest living male in a Roman family, and the head of the household

Question 2

What jobs/power did the paterfamilias have over his family

Answer 2

• Power of life and death over a new-born (could order for it to be exposed or killed)
• Oversee the education of his children
• Arrange a suitable marriage for daughters
• Lead worship at the household shrine

Question 3

What were the lares

Answer 3

Household gods, representing the spirtis of the family ancestors

Question 4

What were patrons and clients

Answer 4

The patron was a Roman who would give financial or other support to a client and in return the client would do work to boost his buisness oppourtunities

Question 5

Where would schooling take place

Answer 5

No set location - usually the back of a shop or in the streets

Question 6

When would school start

Answer 6

At dawn

Question 7

What stage of education did girls attend

Answer 7

Usually only the litterator

Question 8

How old were you to visit the litterator

Answer 8

7 - 11

Question 9

What was taught at the litterator

Answer 9

Reading, writing and some basic arthimetic

Question 10

What was a stilus and how was it used

Answer 10

Thin sheets of wood covered in wax made up the wax tablet. The stilus had a sharp end for marking the wax, and a flat end to smooth it out to be resued

Question 11

What was papyrus

Answer 11

Thick reed paper invented in Egypt where students could write with pen and ink

Question 12

What age would you attend the grammaticus

Answer 12

12 - 16

Question 13

What was taught at the grammaticus

Answer 13

Lean and recite passages, learn mythology, learn Greek

Question 14

Why was it important to learn Greek

Answer 14

Most people spoke Greek and was considered the language of the educated

Question 15

What secondary subjects were studied at the grammaticus

Answer 15

Music, astronomy, philosophy, and natural science

Question 16

What age would you attend the rhetor

Answer 16

16 +

Question 17

What was taught at the rhetor

Answer 17

Public speaking, how to deliver speeches and debating matters of battle strategy or legal matters

Question 18

What was a cena

Answer 18

Dinner

Question 19

What would happen before a dinner party

Answer 19

Host and guests would spend time at the baths

Question 20

How would the dinner party be arranged

Answer 20

3 per couch. Couches faces so reclining on left elbows, H,M,L couches where freedmen and clients on bottom one, with most important guest on top, with host near them

Question 21

Courses of a dinner party

Answer 21

• Light appetisers of eggs,oliver and then mulsum (wine sweetened with honey)
• Main course - selection of meats or fish accompanied by vegetables and sauces
• Dessert - nuts, furit or simple sweet-cakes

Question 22

What entertainment was offered at dinner parties

Answer 22

• Wine drinking
• Dancers, acrobats and clowns
• Games with dice or backgammon
• Discussion of literature of philosophy

Question 23

What is this: ‘Whoever had paid me the fee for teaching , let him have what he seeks from the gods’

Answer 23

Graffito found scratched on a column on one side of the large palaestra in Pompeii - reffers to a teacher being paid, suggesting there was a school at the side of an exercise ground

Question 24

What is this: ‘Thalamus, his client, elects Publius Panquius Proculus duumvir with judicial power’

Answer 24

An inscription that shows a client supporting his patron in an annual election campaign, that was painted on a wall of a street in Pompeii

Question 25

What is this

Answer 25

Inscriptions found on the wall of a summer dining room in a Pompeian house, with instructions of how a guest should behave at a dinner party