Daily Life of Romans

1
Daily Life of Romans

• Will your family life effect your future?

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A Mix of People

• At the height of their glory Rome had the most
  beautiful monuments and buildings in the world
• Wealth and goods flowed into to Rome from all
  over the empire, tourists and merchants flocked
  to the city, narrow streets were jammed with
  people and carts stuck in traffic
• Society made up of a few rich people, many poor
  people and slaves
• Wealthy had luxuries like never seen before
• Most free Romans poor and jobless surviving on
  handouts from the govt

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Luxury

• Rich had elegant homes in city and country
  estates called villas, plenty of food in country,
  famous for overdoing amounts of food
• Wealthy Romans ate like the emperor, having large
  feasts, with wild game or a wild boar, special
  occasion required exotic dishes like flamingo,
  ostrich, or ape, some times a snack was a
  dormouse baked in honey
• Feasts had entertainment with musicians, dancers,
  and performers reciting poems

4
The Poor

• The world of the poor extremely different from
  life of wealthy
• People lived in large concrete apartments with
  public bathrooms at the end of the hall, kitchens
  did not exist and some cooked on fires in the
  middle of the room, many carried food upstairs,
  waste and trash had to be carried down or thrown
  from a window
• Most houses made of wood, fires were frequent and
  deadly, in 64 A.D. destroyed most of city

5
Bread and Circuses

• Poor needed wheat to survive, when harvests bad
  or shipments late, poor rioted, emperors provided
  wheat to poor
• Emperors also provided entertainment, held in
  Colosseum or round arenas called Circuses
• Shows could be violent, rich and poor crowded to
  see, animal fighting animal, like bear and dogs,
  or lion and bear animals fighting humans like a
  rhino hunt, humans fighting humans, gladiators
  and army fighting army in recreations of famous
  battles, sometimes they would come for public
  executions of people, chariot races, plays by the
  Greeks, Jugglers, amazing feats
• Shows progressed throughout the day and the
  highlight was gladiators, trained killers who
  fought to the death, surviving as a gladiator for
  10yrs meant freedom, if put down in a match a
  thumbs up signaled death, down saved for another
  day

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Family Life

• Many Romans had a strong sense of values,
  including family life, writings filled with happy
  family life, dedication and love
• Govt rewarded families for having a lot of
  children
• Father absolute power in house, owned the wife
  children, slaves and furniture, early days could
  sell children into slavery
• Women enjoyed freedom in proportion to husbands
  wealth and status, Wealthy extremely independent,
  wives of famous men became famous themselves
• Wives and mothers of emperors gained political
  power as well

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Slavery

• Slavery common in Rome, every wealthy family had
  slaves, even poor families might own one, few
  slaves paid for their work, slaves well taken
  care of, yet had no rights, relationship varied
  from trusting, used to raise children and
  companionship, rising to important positions in
  household
• Household slaves fortunate, others led short
  brutal lives, slaves on farms worked chained
  together in the fields, slept in chains, Slaves
  in mines lived very short lives, gladiators
  risked death and warships were powered by trained
  slaves
• Some slave saved tips to buy freedom, might have
  special skills like chariot racers