Ancient Rome

• Rome


  • Founded by Romulus and Remus around 753 BC
  • Started as a kingdom, became a wealthy republic, and later the Roman Empire
  • The Roman Empire controlled much of Europe, North Africa, Greece, and Spain, ending around AD 476
• Features of Roman towns

  • Forum (large town square for business, politics, and worship)
  • Temples (for worshipping gods)
  • Aqueducts (brought fresh water to towns)
  • Theatres (hosted plays and poetry performances)
  • Monuments (commemorated Rome's history)
  • Public baths (places for bathing, socializing, and exercising)
  • Amphitheatre (held gladiatorial games)
• Patricians


  • Wealthy noble families who ruled Rome
  • Men wore togas and women wore stolas
  • Lived in domus (townhouses) or villas (countryside houses)
  • Domus had features like an atrium (central courtyard) and mosaics for decoration
  • Used oil lamps for light and some had running water
• Plebeians


  • The poor majority of Rome's population
  • Received a dole (free grain)
  • Men wore tunics and women wore plain stolas
  • Lived in insulaes (apartment blocks), with the poorest living in the top wooden floors, which were fire hazards
• Slaves


  • Rome had over 300,000 slaves, from prisoners of war, children of slaves, captured people, or sold children
  • Worked in various roles, including cooking, cleaning, construction, farming, and mining
  • Educated slaves, often Greeks, worked as teachers, secretaries, doctors, and tutors, sometimes earning manumission (freedom)
• Women


  • Girls married by age 14 or 15 in a conferratio (wedding ceremony)
  • Managed households and children or supervised slaves
  • Could not vote or participate in public life
• Education


  • Plebeian children received basic education before working
  • Patrician children (7-12) attended ludus for reading, writing, and arithmetic. Boys continued to grammaticus for advanced studies, while girls learned domestic skills
• Features of public baths

  • Tepidarium (medium heat room)
  • Caldarium (hot room)
  • Frigidarium (cool water room)
  • Palaestra (exercise yard)
• Roman theatre


  Semi-circular buildings for tragedy and comedy plays, with all actors being men
• Chariot racing


  • Involved 2-4 horses in teams, often resulting in dangerous and deadly races
  • The Circus Maximus was Rome's arena for chariot racing, holding up to 250,000 people
• Gladiators


  • Usually slaves who fought in amphitheatres like the Colosseum, which could hold over 50,000 spectators
  • Used various fighting styles and rarely fought to the death
• Roman army


  • Central to Roman civilization, with soldiers serving 25 years and receiving land as a reward
  • Included legionnaires (foot soldiers), infantry, cavalry, and artillery
  • Soldiers used equipment like metal armor, swords, helmets, shields, and javelins
• Religion in Rome


  • Romans were polytheists, believing in many gods and making offerings at temples or family shrines (lararium)
  • When Romans died, they were cremated, and their ashes were placed in urns, with funerals held outside town walls
• Christianity


  • Spread through the Roman Empire after Christ's death
  • Christians, who were monotheists, were persecuted for not worshipping Roman gods
  • Emperor Constantine legalized Christianity in AD 313
• Fall of the Roman Empire


  • Faced invasions from barbarian tribes and internal conflict, leading to its fall by AD 476
  • The Eastern Roman Empire became the Byzantine Empire
• Many modern languages are based on Latin
• Christianity became a powerful religion due to the Roman Empire
• The Roman calendar influenced the modern calendar
• Roman architecture introduced concrete, rounded arches, and pillars