Transcript Daily Life of Romans

Daily Life of Romans
Will your family life effect your
future?
A Mix of People
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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 gov’t
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
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
Bread and Circuses
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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
Family Life
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Many Romans had a strong sense
of values, including family life,
writings filled with happy family
life, dedication and love
Gov’t 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 husband’s wealth
and status, Wealthy extremely
independent, wives of famous
men became famous themselves
Wives and mothers of emperors
gained political power as well
Slavery
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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