Ancient Rome - 5 PDF

***[Rome - 5:]*** -Rome was founded by twins Romulus and Remus, descendants of Aeneas, in 753BC. Until 509BC the city was ruled by kings. They were removed and Rome was declared a republic. The republic conquered all of Italy by the 270sBC and moved to North Africa, Greece and Spain by 140BC. The r...

***[Rome - 5:]*** -Rome was founded by twins Romulus and Remus, descendants of Aeneas, in 753BC. Until 509BC the city was ruled by kings. They were removed and Rome was declared a republic. The republic conquered all of Italy by the 270sBC and moved to North Africa, Greece and Spain by 140BC. The republic collapsed in the 40sBC and was replaced with an emperor, Augustus. By 100AD, the Roman Empire controlled a lot of Europe and Britain. The Roman Empire collapsed in 476 after being defeated by Germanic tribes. **-Roman towns** had: - - - - - - - - - - -There were 2 types of Roman people, **patricians** and **plebeians.** Patricians were the wealthy who ruled Rome, they served in the senate. Men wore a toga and women a stola. They lived in a domus/villa. Plebeians were the majority of the population. They farmed, traded or served in the army. They were given a free dole of grain. Men wore a tunic and women a plain stola. If wealthy they were known as equites but still had no power. Most lived in apartments called insulae. No women of any class could vote or take part in public life. -Insulae were typically 5 storeys high. The ground floor had shops and the rest had apartments. They got smaller on the higher floors. The ones on the top floor were made of wood and had the poorest families living in 1 room. There was no running water and rubbish was thrown onto the streets. There was a constant danger of a fire as they cooked using stoves and the fire would spread through the structure very fast.  -Domus: - - - - - - - - - - - -There were over 300,000 slaves in Rome itself. They were by law, the property of their masters. A person was made a slave if they: 1. 2. 3. 4. They worked on public buildings while serving their masters by cooking, cleaning, etc. They were often treated harshly and worked to death in mines/farms. One slave rebellion included the one in 71BC, led by Spartacus. Well educated slaves, usually Greeks, were valuable and treated well. They were employed as doctors, teachers and secretaries. Sometimes they were given manumission which is release after many years of service to their master. -Girls usually married at 14/15 and had no choice but to. Divorce was legal however. The wedding ceremony was held at the bride's house and was called a conferriato. They were expected to cook, clean and bear a son. Many women died during childbirth so men often remarried multiple times. A girl\'s husband could sometimes be three times her age. -Plebeians received basic education at home but there was 3 stages to a wealthy Roman's education: 1. 2. 3. Discipline was very strict in schools and students were beat if they made mistakes. They wrote using a wooden stylus on a wax tablet that could be melted and reused. Abacus used. -Public baths were a way to socialise and keep clean in Rome. They would have three rooms, the tepidarium (the warm room), the caldarium (the hot room) and the frigidarium (the cold water bath). People would rub oil on their skin and scrape it off with a strigil. There would also be an exercise yard and a massage/food room. Most public baths had separate rooms for men and women. -Rome had a chariot racing arena called the Circus Maximus. It was 500m long and could hold 250,000 people. There were no seating divisions based on status, etc. It was an extremely dangerous sport with many deaths. Gambling was popular at these races. -Most Roman towns had a large, semi-circular theatre with stone seats for the audience who were again not separated by gender, etc. Tragedy and comedy were very popular play genres. All the actors were male and they all wore masks. -Gladiators were the most popular entertainers. They fought in amphitheatres in nearly all major Roman cities. The most famous amphitheatre is the Colosseum, Rome which could hold 50,000 spectators. Seating was strictly arranged from bottom to top in the order of, male patricians, male plebeians, foreigners, women and slaves. Gladiators were often former soldiers who trained in a special school. Different types of gladiators would use a different set of weapons, they included: - - Gladiators rarely fought to the death because they were so valuable. Fights typically ended when one of them couldn't go on any more. Amphitheatres also hosted fights against humans and animals, executions of criminals and the telling of myths. The Colosseum could be flooded to act out sea battles too. -The army was very important in Rome. Foot soldiers were called legionaries, they made a  legion together. A soldier served from the age of 20-45. Upon retirement they were given a plot of land to farm. They were trained intensely and were able to use multiple different weapons. They could serve as infantry, cavalry or artillery. Engineers developed catapults, ballistas and other machines of destruction. -Romans were polytheists. Some gods include Jupiter, the king of the gods (Zeus in Greek), the god of the sky, thunder and lightning, another is Juno, the queen of the gods (Hera in Greek), the god of marriage. They believed that these gods controlled what happened in their lives and so they would make offerings to them. Every morning, they would pray at the family shrine in the lararium. The Pantheon is the best surviving temple in Rome. -Many people died young and women often died during pregnancies. Funerals were very important. Romans believed that the dead had to cross the River Styx into the Underworld. A coin was placed in the deceased\'s mouth to pay Charon, the ferryman of the dead. A wealthy person's body was carried through the city on a litter with musicians and professional mourners behind. All burials were just outside the town walls. The body was cremated and the ashes put in an urn. Wealthy people's ashes were put in a vault while most were buried. -After the death of Jesus, Christianity began to spread. Christians were often persecuted or executed because they were monotheists and refused to take part in Roman god ceremonies. In AD 313, emperor Constantine lifted the ban on Christianity; he himself converted to Christianity on his deathbed. The religion spread fast and by the end of the fourth century it was the official religion of the empire. -Romans invented concrete and they used arches, pillars and domes in construction. Many Roman buildings still stand today. Their techniques were carried on and are still used today. Only for the Roman Empire, the Catholic religion wouldn't have been the most powerful religion in the world. Many languages are based on Latin which was the official language of the empire. In 45BC, Julius Caesar invented the Julian calendar. It was slightly changed by Pope Gregory XIII in 1582 and is now called the Gregorian calendar.