Women’s Life in
Ancient Rome
This PowerPoint presentation
accompanies
Closeup Teaching Unit 4.5.3
Women’s Life in Ancient Rome
200 BCE – 250 CE
1
Hi! I am
Mundo!
We are
looking at the
city of Rome.
Is anything
missing?
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2
Shouldn’t we
add some
people?
Some
soldiers?
3
How about
more people?
Some
senators?
4
How about
gladiators
and
charioteers?
5
Wait!
What
about
women?
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That’s
better! You
cannot
leave out
half of the
population!
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What did
women in
Rome do?
Lege (Read):
Xenophon
Demosthenes
Young girls from
elite families went
to school and
learned to read and
write and to do
math.
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They
played
with dolls.
Some entered into the
service of the goddess
Vesta and remained there
for 30 years.
9
When elite
girls grew up
they ran their
household and
supervised
their slaves.
Do you
like the
kitchen?
10
They participated in
religious rites and
ceremonies.
They wrote poetry
and letters.
And if the elite
woman was the
wife or mother
of the emperor,
she could give
political advice!
Hello. I am Julia
Domna. Ancient
writers say I helped
Septimius Severus rule
the empire.
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What about
the many
women who
did not
belong to
the elite?
They did not go to
school when they
were young.
Instead, they
started working,
just like their
parents.
Many children
started working
when they were
as young as five.
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Some women
owned their
own shops.
14
Non-elite
women could
also take part in
religious rites
and festivals.
This is the
goddess
Minerva …
but you
already
knew that!
And slave
women
always had to
work for their
masters.
16
Did slaves
participate in
religious
rites and
festivals?
Yes, they
were allowed
to participate
in some of
them.
And they got a
break from
work during
certain
holidays!
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Women in
Rome got
married and
had kids.
If they were
rich they
lived in a
big house.
The poor were not so lucky …
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When they died
they were
sometimes
commemorated.
Some tombs
were unusual!
A baking
oven,
huh? That
is
unusual …
The End
This PowerPoint presentation
accompanies
World History for Us All
Closeup Teaching Unit 4.5.3
Women’s Life in Ancient Rome
100 BCE – 450 CE
20