History
Home Learning
Year 7
The Romans
Name
Tutor Group
Teacher
Given out:
Monday 5 October
Parent/ Carer Comment
Staff Comment
Target
Hand in: Monday 12 October
The Roman Empire was one of the greatest and most powerful civilizations in world history. It began in the city
of Rome in 753 BC and lasted for well over 1000 years. During that time Rome grew to rule much of Europe,
Western Asia, and Northern Africa.
Your homework is going to focus on some aspects of Rome that you may not study during your History lessons.
Remember the Romans, even today, play an important part in our lives. Many of the things we do or have
originated from the Romans.
Tasks are broken down into Bronze, Silver and Gold tasks. You should try to do as many of the tasks as you can.
Don’t forget Home Learning help is available – in the Library after school on Tuesday,
Wednesday and Thursday.
Task 1 – Design a Roman Mosaic
The floors of Roman buildings were often richly decorated with mosaics - tiny
coloured stones (tesserae).
Many mosaics captured scenes of history and everyday Roman life. Mosaic floors
were a statement of wealth and importance. Rich Romans decorated the floors of
their main rooms with mosaics. These were stuck to the floor with mortar, a type
of cement. Each mosaic used thousands of pieces to make a pattern.
Can you design a Roman Mosaic?
Task 2 Roman Artefacts
Look at the artefacts and answer the questions.
What do you think it is?
What do you think it is used for?
Think of a question you could ask about it.
What do you think it is?
What do you think it is used for?
Think of a question you could ask about it.
What do you think it is?
What do you think it is used for?
Think of a question you could ask about it.
Task 3 Roman Dinner Time
Before the Romans became a huge empire and conquered most of Europe they used to
eat very differently to the way they did when they became rich.
During the time that is known as The Republic (before they became mighty rulers) they
used to eat mostly vegetables and ate very simple food. The mother used to make the
food or, if she was wealthy, her female slaves would.
But when the Romans grew richer they started to eat all sorts of food that we would find
very strange today. In the days known as Imperial Rome the rich held huge dinner
banquets, where they would drink lots of wine and eat lots of different courses. A banquet
would last for hours.
Rich Romans ate things like stuffed dormice, peacocks, peacock tongues, little mice,
peahen eggs, ostriches, snails, bread and olives. They would eat and eat for hours and
hours and often they would go to a room called the vomitorium and make themselves sick
so that they could eat more.
Rich Romans liked to show off how rich they were and the more unusual the banquet
meal the more it showed their wealth. One recipe was for a chicken to be stuffed inside a
duck, the duck inside a pig and then the pig inside a cow and then roasted. This showed
the rich Romans’ guests how wealthy they were.
This is an example of a Roman recipe:
Baked dormice: "Stuff the dormice with minced pork or the meat of other dormice chopped up with
herbs, pepper and pine nuts. Sew up the dormice and cook in a small oven."
1. Cross off the food that was not eaten by rich Romans
Chips
Jam
Peacock
Dormice
Olives
h
Cheese
Poor Romans did not eat the same type of food as the rich. They would usually eat a
vegetable porridge. When they could afford it they could have fish, bread, olives, wine
and sometimes some meat.
2. Write a little account of what you think of the rich Roman’s food.
I think that the food the rich Romans ate was ………..
3.Draw a plate of food eaten by poor Romans.
Task 4 Roman Villas
Upper class, wealthy Roman Citizens in the countryside around Rome and
throughout the Empire lived in villa-complexes, the accommodation for rural farms. The
villa-complex consisted of three parts.
The "Villa Urbana" was where the owner and his family lived. This would be similar to
the wealthy person’s Domus in the city and would have painted walls and lovely artistic
mosaics on the floors.
The "Villa Rustica" was where the staff and slaves of the villa worked and lived. This was
also the living quarters for the farm animals. There would usually be other rooms here
that might be used as store rooms, a hospital or even a prison.
The third part of the villa-complex would be the storage rooms. These would be where
the products of the farm were stored ready for transport to buyers. Storage rooms
here would have been used for oil, wine, grain, grapes and any other produce of the villa.
Other rooms in the villa might include an office, a temple for worship, several bedrooms,
a dining room and a kitchen.
Villas were often plumbed with running water and many would have had under-floor
central heating known as a "hypocaust". There are more than two dozen Roman villas in
Britain, one of the finest being at Fishbourne in West Sussex.
1. Who lived in the villa rustica?
2. Who lived in the villa urbana?
3. What type of occupation was associated with a villa?
4. What might be stored in the third part of the villa?
5. Name three things that may have been grown at a villa complex.
6. How were the walls of the villa decorated?
7. How many villas are there in Britain ?
8. Why do you think that the villas are in the south of the country?
9.
Apart from the owners, staff and slaves, name two other types of people who might
be found sleeping in a villa?
10.
Name one place where you can go to see a Roman Villa.
Task 5 Family life in Rome
Life for women in Roman times was often hard. Mother was less important than
Father in the family. Father had the power of life or death over everyone.
When a new baby was born it would be laid at its father's feet - if the father picked
the baby up it would live, but if he ignored the baby it would be taken away to die.
Women were expected to run the home, cook meals, and raise children. If they were
wealthy, women were lucky; they had slaves to do the work.
Many girls were married at the age of 14. Marriages were often arranged between
families. A man could divorce his wife if she did not give birth to a son. Many women died
young (in their 30s) because childbirth could be dangerous, and diseases were common.
Most children in Roman times did not go to school. Only quite rich families could
afford to pay a teacher. Most schools were in towns. Not many girls went to school, but
some were taught at home by tutors, who were often educated slaves. Boys from rich
families learned History, Maths, and Literature at school, to prepare them for jobs in
the army or government. In poor families, girls and boys had to work, helping their
parents.
Roman children had some toys very like ones we play with today - such as toy
soldiers, rattles, balls, doll's houses, carts and pull-along animals on wheels.
Even poor children had board games, using pebbles for counters, and wooden dolls. Some
dolls had moveable arms and legs. Roman children had ivory letters to practise their
spellings with. Favourite Roman pets were dogs, birds and monkeys.
1. Who was the most important person in a Roman family?
2. Give two reasons why a woman in Roman times might die at an early age.
3. How did richer boys prepare for working as an adult?
4. In what way do you think a father had too much power over his baby children?
5. Do you think Romans preferred girls or boys?
6. What did poor children have to do instead of learning with a teacher?
7. How did Roman children practise spelling?
8. Which type of Roman pet would be considered very unusual today?
9. How old, in general, were girls when they were married?
10. Name four Roman toys.
.
Task 6 Roman School
In Roman times most children did not go to school. School was not free so parents had
to pay for their children to be educated. Therefore, only rich children went to school.
Poor children learnt a trade from their fathers as they could not afford their education.
Boys would learn the jobs that their fathers did, like being a baker or a metalworker.
Girls were taught household skills like weaving, spinning, sewing and cooking from their
mothers.
Most of the schools were built in towns and there were not that many of them.
Therefore, many rich families employed a well educated slave to teach their children.
Roman children began school when they were 6 and stayed until they were 12. Their
school day began at dawn and finished in the early afternoon. Here they would learn to
read and write Latin and do Maths with pebbles. They did not have exercise books, like
we have, they wrote on a wax tablet using a stylus which is a pointy stick made of metal.
It was pointy on one end for writing and flat on the other so they could just flatten out
any mistakes they made on the wax.
This is a Roman wax tablet that Roman school children would write their lessons on.
They would read scrolls like today’s children read books.
They would also learn to write numbers and do sums. Roman numbers are very different
to today’s. Here they are below they are called Roman numerals.
1=I
2 = II
3 = III
4 = IV
5=V
6 = VI
7 = VII
8 = VIII
9 = IX
10 = X
20 = XX
30 = XXX
40 = XL
50 = L
60 = LX
70 = LXX
80 = LXXX
90 = XC
100 = C
500 = D
1000 = M
After School:
Just like today, when Roman children got home from school they played with
games and their friends and, like today, the children had pets.
The toys they played with are almost the same as today. They had kites,
hobby horses, balls, board games, little models of people and animals.
A hobby horse similar to those Roman children played with
They played noughts and crosses and a game like jacks with little bones called knuckle
bones. They also had blocks to build small houses. The boys played war with swords and
the girls had dolls. The girls also played board and ball games. The board games they
played are similar to today’s, like games such as backgammon and draughts.
Poor children had to work quite hard in the family and learn a trade, but they still had
some time to play. Rich children did not have to work or do any chores around the house
as the family had slaves to do the work, so they had plenty of time to play.
Many of the games we play today are very, very old games like tag, racing games and
hopscotch which started as a training exercise for Roman soldiers.
The game of hopscotch was first played in Britain by the Romans.
Roman children also had pets. Dogs were the most popular and the favourite, but they
also had little mice that they would hitch tiny carts to. There were other types of pets
they had like all sorts of birds, and sometimes a rich family may have a monkey. In the
later years of the Roman Empire cats also became popular as pets.
1. You are Marcus Flavius and you are the son of a rich family. You are lucky, your
parents can afford to pay for you to be educated. Tell the story or write a diary
of your day at school and playing with your toys and brother after school.
Top Tip (story)
Split your story into 3 sections
Beginning
Middle
End
Self Evaluation of my Homework
I am a R____________________ learner.
I know this because:
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
I believe that my effort and attitude to learning for this booklet is a:
1
2
3
4
I know this because:
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________