Roman Leisure

1
Roman Leisure

• What you will learn
• What the Romans did for entertainment and
• relaxation.
• The ways in which they were similar to modern
• pastimes.
• How these differed from modern entertainment.
• What these pursuits tell us about the Romans.

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Roman Leisure

• Most people know something about the things
• the Romans did to entertain themselves and
• pass their time.
• Lets find out what the class knows before we
• Start.
• You are going to do a placemat exercise.

3
Roman Leisure
Draw a large shape on the poster paper, leaving
plenty of space around and inside the shape. Put
the heading Roman Leisure.
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Roman Leisure
Draw a line out to each person in the group. Now,
in silence for 5 minutes, write everything you
can think of relating to Roman Leisure.
5
Roman Leisure

• Baths
• 2.
• 3.
• 4.
• 5.

Now, you will have to democratically decide your
top 5 and, once everyone has spoken, and you have
voted, you can write them in the middle and
explain them to the class.
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Roman Leisure

• Some things which people in Roman times did for
  fun are similar to things we do today.
• Board games with counters and dice were very
  popular with the Romans. Counters and marked out
  boards for these games have now been found.
  However, nobody knows the rules for the games!
• Hunting was also popular. People in the
  countryside would hunt animals for fun as well as
  for food. The Romans even introduced fallow deer
  to Britain to make the hunting better.

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Roman Leisure

• Some things the Romans did for fun were horrible.
  
• Animals and people were sometimes killed for
  entertainment as part of shows put on in
  amphitheatres .
• Specially trained slaves called gladiators would
  fight each other in amphitheatres.
• They would even fight wild animals such as lions
  or bears.
• When a gladiator lost a fight the crowd would
  decide if the loser should die or live. The
  audience would wave their handkerchiefs or put
  their thumbs out if they wanted him to die. If
  they wanted the loser to live, they would close
  their thumbs onto their fingers. Amphitheatres
  were an incredibly successful form of
  entertainment.

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Roman Leisure

• Roman people also went to the theatre to watch
  plays or listen to music. The actors often wore
  masks to show whether their character was happy
  or sad. Some of these plays were written down and
  the jokes in some Roman comedies are still funny
  today!

Roman theatre masks.
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Roman Leisure

• Roman baths were more like a visit to a leisure
  centre than a quick scrub.
• The Romans loved the baths because they were a
  good place to meet people and business could be
  conducted there.
• When you went to the baths you firstly changed
  out of your clothes and did some exercises.
• Then you might have a swim in the pool before
  going into a series of rooms which got hotter and
  hotter to help make you sweat off the dirt.
• When the Romans were in these rooms they would
  often stop and talk to each other.
• All the dirt and sweat was then scraped off with
  a strigil and you had a swim in the cold pool.
• The most famous Roman baths in Britain are in the
  city of Bath.

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Words and phrases you should include
Hunting for fun and for food
Boards and Dice
You would scrape the sweat off with a strigil
Amphitheatres
Gladiators were slaves
Audiences would decide if they live or die
Romans met people and did business in the baths
Watching plays and listening to music
Characters wore masks to show whether they were
happy or sad
Dirt was sweat off
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