Life In Ancient Rome Flashcards
Background/introduction to life in Ancient Rome
The city is said to have been founded in 753 BC by Romulus and Remus, the twin sons of the god Mars. It grew from a collection of small villages on the river Tiber in Italy to control an empire that included Italy, Spain, France, North Africa, Greece, the Middle East, most of Britain and parts of Germany.
Life of a patrician
The patricians were the wealthy noble families who ruled Rome. They had huge estates and hundreds of slaves. They controlled the Roman government and army. A patrician house in a town was called a domus
Life of a plebeian in Ancient Rome
The plebeians were the poor, who made up the vast majority of the population. They farmed, worked in trades and served in the army. lived in apartment blocks called insulae and were given the dole
Name and explain one type of entertainment in life in Ancient Rome
Amphitheatres and gladiators:
The most popular entertainers were gladiators. They fought in oval arenas called amphitheatres in nearly every major Roman city. The most famous amphitheatre was the Colosseum in Rome, which held 50000 spectators
Name 3 types of food in Ancient Rome
Bread
Fish
Wheat
Life of women in Ancient Rome
women wore a stola (a long dress). Roman girls were usually married by the age of 14 or 15. A wife was expected to run her husband’s home and bear a son and oversee the rearing of children. Roman women did have some rights under the law.e.g woman’s property was kept separate from her husbands
Life of children in Ancient Rome
Plebeian children received a basic education at home and then began working with their parents. A wealthy Roman’s education had three different stages:
1. Ludus
2. grammaticus,
3.oratory
Life in the army in Ancient Rome
Roman soldiers weren’t always at war - they spent most of their time training for battle taught to fight as a unit rather than as individuals
Life of a slave in Ancient Rome
By law, slaves were the property of their masters. In Rome itself there were over 300,000 slaves, In a domus, the slaves did the cooking, cleaning and other manual labour. Others worked on huge farms or in mines, where they were treated harshly and often worked to death.
Well-educated slaves, often Greeks, were highly valued and were treated well. were sometimes given their freedom after many years of service to their master. This was called manumission.
Name an achievement from life in Ancient Rome
In 45 BC, Julius Caesar introduced a new calendar to replace the old Roman one, which was too inaccurate. His new Julian calendar had 365 days divided into 12 months and an extra day every four years. Still used today but slightly changed
