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ANCIENT Rome – updated February 2015

Ancient RomeNotes

Vocabulary—Ancient Rome

  1. Latins -- means farmer.
  2. Latium – means district
  3. Etruscans – race of people who lived in central Italy in Roman times.
  4. Republic –astateinwhichthesupremepowerrestsinthebodyofcitizensentitledtovote
  5. Senate -the supreme council of state, the membership and functions of which varied at different periods.
  6. Assembly - anumberofpeoplegatheredtogether,especially foraformalmeetingheldatregularintervals
  7. Patricians – rich and powerful Roman citizens
  8. Plebeians – powerless working people of Rome
  9. Tribune – representative of the working people
  10. Veto – translates to “I forbid”.
  11. Allies –friend, partner or union.
  12. Peninsula –narrowstripoflandprojectingintoaseaorlakefromthemainland on three sides.
  13. Mosaic – pattern or picture made out of tiny colored pieces of stone or pottery called tessarae
  14. Fresco – wall painting that is painted directly onto plaster.
  15. Relief – a scene carved out of stone
  16. Amphora – large two handled pottery vessel used for storing goods.
  17. Atrium – main living room of villa
  18. Lararium – shrine of the household gods.
  19. Triclinium – dining room of villa
  20. Tablinium – reception room or study of villa
  21. Tenement- a dwelling or habitation.
  22. Insula – tenement block so large that it looked like an island the surrounding streets.
  23. Bulla – a lucky charm given to a baby
  24. Praetor – presided over the law courts or they became provincial governors or even published laws of the state.
  25. Quaestor - worked in the treasury or assisted the provincial governor.
  26. Aedile – supervised the city’s food supply, traffic and entertainment.
  27. Bier-a frame or stand on whicha corpse or the coffin containing it is laid before burial.
  28. Amphitheatre- large arena with tiered seats that accommodates thousands of spectators.
  29. Vomitoria – staircase exits (Godfrey Monday)
  30. Charioteer – chariot driver, usually a slave.
  31. Tufa - asoftporousrockconsistingofcalciumcarbonatedepositedfromspringsrichinlime
  32. Aqueducts – water channels, often raised above ground that supplied water to cities.
  33. Forum – main business center of the city
  34. Granary -abuildingorstoreroomforstoringgrain,farmfeed,etc
  35. Bailiff (villicus) – estate worker that is in charge during the owner’s absence.
  36. Legionary - soldier of a Roman legion.
  37. Centurion – commander of century.
  38. Palisades - fence of pales or stakes setfirmly in the ground, as for enclosure or defense.
  39. Testudo – tortoise of legionaries.
  40. stylus – pointed writing tool used to write on wax covered tablets.
  41. Tessarae – small cubes of colored stone used to make mosaic pictures.
  42. Vellum – prepared animal skins used for writing on and making scrolls
  43. Trident – three-pronged spear like a pitchfork

Physical Features - Mountains, Hills, Valleys and Plains, Deserts

  1. Mt. Vesuvius (located in Italy)
  2. Hadrian’s Wall (located in England—not viewable/not a test item)

Physical Features - Rivers, Seas, Oceans & other Bodies of Water

  1. River Tiber
  2. Mediterranean Sea
  3. Atlantic Ocean
  4. Rhine River
  5. Danube River
  6. Black Sea
  7. Euphrates River
  8. Tigris River
  9. Nile River
  10. Red Sea

Countries & Important Cities and Ports

  1. Gaul (modern day France)
  2. Spain
  3. Britain
  4. Macedonia
  5. Greece (country)
  6. Africa
  7. Egypt
  8. Rome, Italy (city, country)
  9. Byzantium
  10. Europe
  11. Asia Minor

How Rome Began

  1. Romans really didn’t know how their city began!
  2. According to legend, Rome was founded by Romulus, son of the war god, Mars.
  3. Remus was the twin brother of Romulus and both babies were left by the River Tiber to die.
  4. A she-wolf rescued and cared for the twins. The boys grew up and founded a city by the river.
  5. In a quarrel, Romulus killed Remus. He named the city Rome, after his own name.
  6. About 700 years before the birth of Christ, Rome was just a collection of mud huts near the River Tiber.
  7. Climate of Rome was pleasant and the soil was fertile.
  8. Crops included: corn, olives and grapes.
  9. Livestock included: sheep and cattle.
  10. Farmers were called Latins and the district called Latium.
Government
1.The first Romans were conquered by their neighbors, the Etruscans.
  1. In 509BC, the people of Roman rebelled against their Etruscan king, named “Tarquin theProud”.
  2. Romans ran him from their city and wanted nothing more to do with kings.
  3. Rome became a republic after getting rid of Tarquin the Proud.
  4. In the republic, the power of the king was now shared between two men, called consuls.
  5. Consuls held power for one year. The citizen’s Assembly & a council, called the Senate helped the consuls govern.
  6. The Senate was responsible for finance and foreign policy. The Assembly made the city’s laws.
  7. In 494BC, plebeians threatened to leave Rome and build their own city.
  8. To prevent this, it was decided that the plebeians could elect two representatives called tribunes.
  9. Tribunes could stop any action of the Senate by calling “Veto!” (I forbid).
  10. As the Roman Empire grew, the rich became richer and the poor became even more dissatisfied. Riots and civil wars took place.
  11. Peace came about when Octavian became the first Roman Emperor in 31BC.
  12. Brain Pop –Roman Republic video—Show Tues. Jones/Godfrey

A Great Empire

1.By 264BC, Rome defeated its main enemy and neighbor, the Etruscan states. Rome ruled most of the Italian peninsula.

2.The republic of Carthage, traders and a great seafaring people, controlled the Mediterranean.

3.For the next 120 years, Rome and Carthage fought three great wars against each other.

4.By 140BC, Carthage had been totally destroyed. Her provinces of Spain and Sicily fell under Roman control.

5.By 121BC, most of the lands around the Mediterranean had either been conquered or become allies of Rome.

  1. By the first century BC, Julius Caesar conquered tribes of Gaul.
  2. After Cleopatra’s suicide in 31BC, Octavian made Egypt a Roman province. Southern Britain was added to the Empire in AD 43.
  3. The Emperor Hadrian built a wall across northern Britain to keep out invaders. (a.k.a Hadrian’s Wall)

A Rich Man’s Villa

  1. The rich lived in mansions where there were marble columns, floors and walls.
  2. Mansions were decorated with luxurious curtains, furniture made of bronze or ivory or rare and expensive wood.
  3. Skilled artists were paid to decorate the walls and floors with mosaic patterns.
  4. Yet the wealthy had no glass for windows and few had kitchens, fireplaces or chimneys.
  5. Excavations at Pompeii and Herculaneum, two towns buried under ash and cinder during an eruption of the volcano, Vesuvius in AD79, teach us much about the way people lived in Ancient Rome.

Houses and Slums

  1. Poor people lived in small rooms over shops or in a tenement block that was known as an insula.
  2. Poor homes contained one or two uncomfortable beds, a stool or chair.
  3. Women owned a spindle for spinning thread and a weaving frame to make cloth.
  4. In the winter, homes were heated by charcoal fire. If the fire went out, it was difficult to light again.
  5. 45,000 tenement blocks existed when Octavian became Emperor.
  6. Cheap materials were used to construct the insulae so walls cracked or roofs fell in.
  7. There was no water supply on the upper floors and therefore no plumbing or central heating.
  8. Tenants used public lavatories or they poured their slops from the windows after dark.
  9. House fires were a constant threat.
  10. Gardens were popular but since the poor lacked space for them and had to be content with window boxes.

Home and School

  1. Romans enjoyed a social life.
  2. Both rich and poor spent much time outdoors, attended games or visited public baths.
  3. Most people returned home before sunset because it was dangerous to wander in Roman streets at night.
  4. Fathers had complete control over his children and wife. Boys, even after growing up, were expected to obey fathers.
  5. Wives would later be granted the right to have property of their own.
  6. Children of the wealthy attended school. The teachers were usually Greeks, who might also be slaves.
  7. Teachers were harsh and often beat their pupils. Boys and girls went to different elementary schools to learn reading, writing and arithmetic.
  8. At age 13, girls left school but continued their education at home and learned to be good housewives.
  9. At age 13, boys went onto secondary school and prepared for life in the army learning how to fight and endure hardship.
  10. School started early in the morning and was over by the middle of the afternoon.
  11. After school, children went to the public baths or played games.
  12. Children enjoyed playing with hoops, toys and dolls.
  13. Children also enjoyed dressing up in masks, and played at being judges, kings or gladiators.

A Nobleman’s Life

  1. Roman babies were named when they were a few days old. Boys had three names: a first name, a second name (which was that of his clan) and a third family name.
  1. Once schooling was finished, marriages were usually arranged by parents. Brides might be 13 and grooms a little older.
  2. At age 30, the man might be elected as a quaestor
  3. A successful quaestor could be elected as an aedile.
  4. At age 39 a noble could be elected as praetor.
  5. An ex-praetor could become a consul at age 42.
  6. Consuls were powerful and presided over the Senate and commanded the army for a year only.
  7. An ex-consul could become a pro-consul where he might govern an important province and become very rich.
  8. Many pro-consuls made enough money to keep them in luxury for the rest of their lives.
  9. After death, he was dressed in his official robes, crowned in laurel leaves and carried on a bier to the funeral. Speeches would be heard before the body was burned.

Clothes and Fashions

  1. Most Romans wore a toga, a piece of cloth shaped like a blanket.
  2. Togas were made of wool until Rome began trading with Egypt.
  3. Roman then began making clothing made of Egyptian linen.
  4. Men wore white togas. Senators wore togas with a broad purple stripe.
  5. Small boys had a narrow purple stripe on their togas.
  6. Women varied the color of their clothes by using vegetable dyes.
  7. Roman men and women wore wigs and even false teeth when they lost their own.

Going to the Baths

  1. Public baths were a source of great pleasure. Citizens would spend the whole day at these luxurious buildings enjoying: gymnasiums, gardens, shops and libraries.
  2. For example the Baths of Caracalla covered 33 acres and had a stadium for 1600 bathers.
  3. There were 3-4 different kinds of bathing ranging from very cold to very hot.
  4. These were noisy places where Romans would sing, whistle and gossip.

Shopping in Rome

  1. Shops opened early in the morning and closed midday.
  2. Later in the day, shops would open again and closed at dusk.
  3. Barbers, booksellers, grocers, bakers, poultry-sellers, furniture shops and stalls selling cooked meats were open to the public.
  4. Romans looked down upon money-lending and money-lending businesses.
  5. Most Romans had a poor opinion of shop keepers; believing they would sell themselves for the right price.
  6. The most prosperous trade was that of selling oil. Oil was used for lamps and cooking. In AD 300 there were over 2300 oil-sellers in Rome.

Bread, Porridge and Banquets –

  1. Ordinary Romans ate little meat. The main food was wheat flour which was made into bread or porridge.
  2. Herbs, olives, vegetables and other flavorings were added to their porridge.
  3. At sunrise, Romans got up and school children ate wheat pancake biscuit with salt, dates, honey or olives. Adults might dip this in wine.
  4. Midday, the ordinary family, ate wheatmeal porridge.
  5. A wealthy family had a larger menu to choose from. At a dinner party, people might eat up to seven courses. A small army of slaves looked after the rich while they ate.
  6. One or two slaves used peacock feather fans to keep flies off the food.

Charioteers

  1. Athletic games such as the Greek Olympics were not very popular in Rome.
  2. Romans preferred the chariot race. They were enthusiasts for chariot racing like people are enthusiasts of soccer today.
  3. There were 4 regular teams in chariot racing: the Whites, the Greens, the Blues, and the Reds.
  4. Romans gambled heavily upon teams.
  5. Charioteers could earn enormous sums of money. They were treated like heroes and adored.
  6. Some charioteers won thousands of races but others were killed only after a few races.

Gladiators

  1. In the amphitheatre a more terrible form of “entertainment” took place.
  2. Men or gladiators would fight wild animals to the death in front of large audiences.
  3. Criminals, prisoners and later Christians were put into the arena to face lions and tigers that had been kept hungry for the occasion.
  4. The mob in the amphitheatre showed no pity for wounded gladiators. If he was wounded in a fight, he was killed.
  5. Wounded gladiators were thought to be of no use to anyone.
  6. The Colosseum, built in AD80, was the largest amphitheatre in the Roman world.
  7. The opening was celebrated with a hundred days of continuous games.

The Colosseum—

  1. Emperor Vespasian started to build the Colosseum.
  2. It was built on the site of a lake that belonged to Emperor Nero.
  3. Water had to be drained from the site and so the architect built a drainage system that drained lake water into the Tiber.
  4. The Colosseum was built to hold 55,000 and often audiences were unruly and difficult to control.
  5. 80 staircase exits or vomitoria were built so that a full audience could depart in about 3 minutes.
  6. Marble, tufa and concrete were used as building materials.
  7. It was magnificently decorated with painting ceilings and walls of mosaics and precious stones.

Building the Aqueducts

  1. Upon discoveries of limestone near the city, Roman engineers became ambitious and designed large aqueducts to carry water to Rome.
  2. Two of the most famous aqueducts include: Aqua Claudia and Aqua Marcia.
  3. The water ran through underground channels in the hills for over 34 miles.
  4. Huge numbers of workmen, slaves entirely, helped carry out these building projects.
  5. These slaves had been captured or conquered in one of Rome’s many wars.
  6. These slaves became important men and were responsible for repairing aqueducts and for putting the pipes that carried water into private houses.
  7. Cranes and pulleys raised large blocks of stone into position.
  8. Gangs of slaves quarry the stone and to operate machinery.
  9. Roman engineers learned how to use both cranes and pulleys from the Greeks.

City of Rome

  1. The emperor was responsible for large building projects. Those emperors that built aqueducts and amphitheatres gained notoriety among citizens of Rome.
  2. Builders used stone, brick, marble, granite, and wood. These materials were transported on barges along the River Tiber to Rome.
  3. Roman builders invented concrete.
  4. Fine buildings were built near the Forum where there were also shops, market squares and meeting places.
  5. Emperors also built to memorials to acknowledge their own greatness. See examples:
  1. Vespasian = Colosseum
  2. Trajan = statue of himself
  3. Julius Caesar and Augustus = forum
  4. Augustus =theatres, baths, libraries, temples and granaries

A Country Estate – Godfrey

  1. A wealthy Roman’s country estate is more like a village than a single home.
  2. The estate is self supporting; all the food is supplied by the owner and estate workers.
  3. Vineyards and olive groves are grown.
  4. Workshops and skilled craftsmen lived on the estate too and the following goods were produced: food, clothes, tools, harnesses and farm carts.
  5. Both free men and slaves are employed by the owner as craftsmen and farm laborers.
  6. A bailiff (villicus) runs the estate when the owner is away.

Roads and Travel

  1. As the empire grew, a vast network or roads was constructed.
  2. Via Appia, the first great Roman road joined Rome to other parts of Italy.
  3. As soldiers conquered more lands outside Italy, they built more roads.
  4. Roads afforded safer and quicker travel throughout newly conquered lands.
  5. Carriages, chariots and carts were used to get around too.
  6. The poorer people traveled on foot or rode mules.
  7. Night travel was avoided due to robbery.
  8. Ordinary travelers didn’t stay at inns due to fear of thieves and so they stayed with friends or slept in their carriages.

Shipping and Trade

  1. With a million people living in Rome, it was impossible to produce all their food on the nearby farms.
  2. By the time of Julius Caesar, goods are imported from abroad.
  3. Goods are transported on the River Tiber into the port of Ostia.
  4. Ships travelled to India and back although the journey took a year.

A Soldier’s Life