Roman Families

1
Roman Families
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.
• 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.

4

• 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.
• 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.

5
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.

6
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?

7
Religion

• For a long time 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.

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