Roman Empire
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An Ancient Civilization outside of Rome
200BC – 400AD
The Sources
Life in Rome
The City
The Public Buildings and Houses
Clothes
Food
The Army
Work
Religion
Lives of Slaves and Women
Rome and the land it controlled
How do we know about the Romans?
How do historians find out about how people
lived the past?
• Written sources from Cicero, Tacitus and
others
• Ruins of Buildings
• Artifacts
Artefacts
Pompeii
• The best source of information about daily life in the
Roman Empire is Pompeii.
• The city was buried under volcanic ash, and
discovered by archaeologists 1500 years later.
• It was a city frozen in time, bodies, paintings, shops,
public baths, restaurants, even bread in ovens
• Pompeii gave us thousands of artefacts
• Archaeologists poured plaster into holes by the
bodies and made plaster casts of the bodies
• We know a great deal about how people lived from
excavations at Pompeii
Murals in Pompeii
Key Words- Roman Towns
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Sewerage System
2 Main Streets NS, EW
Grid Pattern
Forum
Amphitheatre
Circus
Public Baths
Aquaducts
Town Walls
Main Gates
Colosseum
Aquaduct
Circus Maximus
• Grid Pattern – streets at right angles
• Forum – Market Square where temples are
• Amphitheatre – Circular Open-Air Arena such as the
Colosseum
• Circus Maximus– Stadium for Chariot Racing
• Public Baths – for washing and meeting people
• Aquaducts – Fresh Water Supply
• Sewerage System – Drains under streets
• 2 Main Streets NS, EW
• Town Walls – For Defence
• Main Gates – 4 or more
• Insulae and domus
Roman Society
The rulers of Rome were called the Patricians. They lived in
domus and did no physical work. Sometimes they were
generals or senators
Working Romans were called Plebeians. They lived in
insulae and did lots of different work: carpenters, weavers,
smiths, tile makers, coopers, tanners potters, etc.
Educated Romans were doctors, architects and money
lenders
Unemployed Romans were given the dole (free grain)
The lowest were the slaves, kidnapped by the Romans
when they conquered a place. They did all the hard work in
the cities and on the farms. A slave was a non person.
We know their place in Roman society by what they wore.
Toga – long
white sheet
Stola
And Palla
Clothes
Tunic tied
at the
waste
Rich ladies wore hair extensions,
bracelets and necklaces
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Test Yourself
G…….. Pattern – streets at right angles
F…….…. – Market Square
A…………….... – Circular Open-Air Arena
Public B…….. – for washing and meeting people
A…….. – Water Supply
S………….. System – Drains under streets
2 Main Streets NS, EW
Town ………………….. – For Defence
Main Gates – 4 or more
C………... M……….. - Place in Rome where
chariot races were held
C………….... – the name of the amphitheatre in
Rome where gladiators fought
T………………. are the places where the
Romans went to worship their Gods.
Food in Ancient Rome
What Plebeians ate
Breakfast? Porridge, bread, dates, olives
Cena?
Meat stew, bread and wine
Describe a Roman Feast
Who has feasts? The rich plebeians
What do they eat? Lots of exotic foods, stuffed
door mice and song birds, seafood, fruit and
salad
How do they sit? They incline on cushions
What do they do if they get too full? They go to the
vomitorium
Who cooks and serves them? Slaves
1 million people lived in Ancient
Rome
• It was crowded
• Land was expensive
• Only patricians could afford to live in a
house
• The house of a patrician is called a domus
• Everyone else lived in an insulae
Shrine
Cloister
Peristyleum
Atrium
• D................. A house where a patrician and his family lives
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• A................. A courtyard at the centre of the domus where
there is a pool for catching rainwater
• I...................... The pond of rainwater in the atrium
• P........................... The walled in garden
• S....................... The Romans prayed to the Gods here,
usually in the peristylium
• C.......................... is a covered walkway around the walled
garden
• M...................... were paintings on the walls that decorated
the domus
• F.................... were paintings on the wall done on wet
plaster
• M..................... were designs or pictures made of little
pieces of glass or tile
Insulae
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Badly insulated
Badly heated
No cooking facilities
Hot in summer, cold
in winter
• Poorly built –
sometimes fell down
The Colossuem
• Where gladiatiors (slaves) fought each
other and wild animals
• Oval shaped amphitheatre that held
50,000 people
• Condemned people were executed there
Circus Maximus
• Chariot racing happened here
• It held 250,000 people
• 4 teams – the reds, greens, blues and
whites
• Race 7 times around a spina
Public Baths
• Rich and poor went there. It was cheap.
Children were free.
• Warm room called tepidarium
• Hot room called caldarium
• Cold room called frigidarium
• Some Baths had gymnasium and libraries
Slaves in Ancient Rome
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A non person
Bought and sold at the forum
Boys were the most expensive
The Roman state owned slaves for road building
and other heavy work
• If a slave ran away, he was flogged
• If he murdered his master, all the slaves in the
household would be killed
• Educated slaves were sometimes teachers and
doctors
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Children in Rome
If they survived birth they were brought up strictly.
Many died young.
Deformed or weak babies were often left to die.
They could play (girls- dolls made of wax or clay; boystoy swords &shields)
Most Roman children went to primary school. It was called
Ludus
Patrician boys went to a grammar school where they
learned history, Latin, Greek and mathematics
Girls were taught to manage house & weave.
Girls married aged 12.
Boys married aged 14.
They didn’t choose their own partner.
The teacher was usually a Greek slave. The students were
beaten
Women in Ancient Rome
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Men dominated the family
His wife and children obeyed him
Girls were less valuable than girls
Girls got less education
They married when they were 12
They had a lot of children and often died in
childbirth
How was the Roman Army
organised?
• Main part of the
army was the
LEGION.
• There were 30
legions in the
Roman army
• Each was made up
of 5000
legionnaires.
How the Roman Army was
organised
• The legions were
divided into centuries
• The centuries were
commanded by a
centurion
• Centuries originally
had 100 men
How the Roman Army was
organised
• The centurions were
very important men
• They were responsible
for training the soldiers
under their command
and making sure
everyone obeyed
orders.
• They were very strict.
How the Roman Army was
organised
• The legions were
divided into …………
• Each one was
commanded by a
………….
• ………….originally
had a 100 men
• Cent means
…………….
How to become a Legionary!
• You had to be a
Roman citizen
• You had to be
physically fit and
1.6m tall
• You were expected
to stay in the army
for 25 years
The Roman soldier was very well trained.
When their enemies fired their arrows they
would put their shields up all around them to
protect themselves from the arrows, this was
called the tortoise
• There were three 30km
marches each month
• Training involved running,
javelin throwing and swordfighting
• On each march the legionary
would carry 40 kilos of
equipment
• They carried javelin, sword,
body armour, helmet, tunic
and shield
• When they weren’t fighting
they built roads, aqua ducts
and army forts
Training
Discipline
• If a soldier disobeyed an order, he was
flogged.
• It there was a mutiny (soldiers came
together and disobeyed an order) the
legion might be decimated (1 in 10 were
killed)
• However, at the end of 25 years service,
they retired and were given money and
land (stolen from local people)
Religion in Ancient Rome
• The Romans became Christians and spread
Christianity across Europe
• However, before that they believed in many Gods,
such as
• God of War:
Mars
• Goddess of Love
Venus
• The worshipped the Gods in temples
• Romans believed that a person went to Hades or the
Underworld. The put a coin in the corpse’s mouth to
pay the ferryman, Charon, to cross the river Styx
• Romans hired people to wail and mourn for the dead
person. The dead person was carried on a litter and
cremated.
Roman Architecture
Dome
capital
columns
Achievements of Ancient Rome
• Many of our words come from Latin (the
language of Ancient Rome)
• Our calendar is based on the Roman
calendar
• Some Roman towns grew into great cities
like London
• Many of our buildings copy Roman
architecture
A Young Person in Ancient Rome
• Use your hardback copy
• Or page 18 of text book
• You need 20 statements of fact about
Ancient Rome