Roman Families

1
ROMAN FAMILIES
As you go through this show, answer the questions
on the handout sheet.
2
Women and Girls

• Life in Roman times for women was quite hard. The
  father was the most important member of the
  family. He 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, and if he ignored the baby it
  would be taken away to die. Mothers and children
  were never seen as important.
• From the 1st century B.C. women began to have
  more rights and could divorce unkind husbands.
  But they were never seen as really being equal to
  men.

3
Education

• Most children did not go to school.
• Parents had to pay for their children to go and
  they would only teach boys!
• Schools were also quite scarce,
  and were always built in towns.
• Girls and poorer children might be taught to read
  and write at home but this was rare. These
  children would more likely have to help their
  parents at work from an early age.

4

• Some wealthy Roman parents would employ an
  educated slave called a pedagogue to teach their
  sons. The pedagogue would also take the boy to
  school and carried a stick to beat him with if he
  was naughty or did not work hard.
• For short messages and at school they would
  write on wax tablets using a pointed metal
  stylus . If you made a mistake you
  smoothed the wax flat with the opposite
  end of the stylus.
• For important letters the Romans used a metal pen
  dipped in ink to write on thin pieces of wood or
  specially prepared animal skins.

5
Books did not have pages, they were written on
scrolls made from pieces of animal skin glued
together and then rolled up. We know that
important Roman women could also write because
some of their letters have survived. One was
found at Vindolanda, a fort near Hadrian's Wall
in England. It is a birthday party invitation
from Claudia Severa to her friend Sulpicia
Lepidina and was written at the end of the 1st
century A.D.
6
Dinner Time!

• We have a Roman cookery book written by a man
  called Apicius.
• Some of the recipes sound quite modern such as
  sausages. Others sound rather odd. Would you like
  to eat calves' brains with roses?
• Romans liked to eat dormice and kept the little
  creatures alive in the kitchen snoozing inside
  clay pots filled with hay.

7
Slaves

• Many Roman families included slaves who could be
  bought or sold like animals or objects.
• They were never paid for their work. However some
  slaves could be treated well by their owners and
  were even freed. A few slave girls even became
  the wealthy wives of people who had bought them.
• Many people who had committed serious crimes were
  made slaves instead of sending them to prison.
  Was this a good idea?
• Perhaps the Roman Empire could not have existed
  without the work of slaves?

8
Religion

• Before Christianity came to them, the Romans
  believed in many different gods and
  goddesses. They thought they were
  all part of a family and people told stories or
  myths about them.
• Each god or goddess looked after different people
  or things. These are a few of them
• Saturn one of the oldest gods, who was once the
  ruler, but his place was taken by his son
  (Jupiter).Jupiter god of the sky, he was the
  most important god.Juno Jupiter's wife, who
  looked after women.Neptune Jupiter's brother,
  who was the god of the sea.Minerva goddess of
  wisdom and women's work, such as weaving cloth.
• Mars god of war.
  Venus goddess of love, who was the lover of
  Mars.

end