Daily Life in Ancient Rome

by: Alex Z

 

        "Hail Thalonius how art thou?" Imagine being greeted like that every time you walk into your house, a slave would say that to you? (Except the Thalonius would be your name.) Well,  in ancient Rome slaves always greeted their masters that way, if you had a slave.   

    The ancient Romans had many gods (over 20 of them). Many of which are our planets today, such as: Apollo, Venus, Vulcan, Cupid, Jupiter, Juno, Mars, Mercury, Neptune, and Saturn. Many of these gods didn't have much importance yet they still worshipped them.  Vesta, goddess of the hearth, was unlike Neptune, the god of the sea, he was much more important than her.

    The Romans had many forms of entertainment. One of these was going to the public bath. After work people would go to the thermae or, public bath. Men and women went not just to get clean but also to chat with friends. There would also be a gymnasium where people could work out. There even might be places to play games with friends. The  thermae could also have a library with the Roman equivalent of books, scrolls.

    They also had many different board games such as Calculi a game where you had to use black and white stones and played on an 8x8 board. The main idea was to get five stones in a row. They also had a game called Tabula this was played on a board that was just about like a backgammon board. The object of the game was to get all your pieces off the board. Here are the rules:

    The Rules of Tabula

     

    1. The board, as illustrated above, can be a backgammon board. Each player has 15 pieces.
    2. All pieces enter from square 1 and travel counterclockwise.
    3. Three dice are thrown, and the three numbers determine the moves of between 1 and 3 pieces.
    4. Any part of a throw which could not be used was lost, but a player must use the whole value of the throw if it is possible. Zeno's fatal situation resulted from this rule.
    5. If a player landed a piece on a point with one enemy piece, the enemy piece was removed from the board and had to re-enter the game on the next throw.
    6. If a player had 2 or more men on a point, this position was closed to the enemy, and these men could not be captured.
    7. No player may enter the second half of the board until all men have entered the board.
    8. No player may exit the board until all pieces have entered the last quarter. This means that if a single man is hit, the remaining pieces may be frozen in the last quarter until he re-enters and catches up with them again.

     

 

    On a public holiday people would go to the amphitheatre or circus.  The people went to the plays not just because they wanted to see the play but to cheer for there favorite thespian. Some times in the plays, if it was about someone being killed,  than they might  replace the actor with a condemned man and he would actually be killed on stage. The people of ancient Rome liked these  bloody games. There where even fights between two animals like an elephant and a rhinoceros.  

     But there were even more bloody games, and these were called gladiator fights. These brave (but foolish) men and/or women fought to the death between each other and/or animals. These fights where over as soon as someone died or was disarmed and lying on the ground. Then the audience or the dictator/emperor would decide if the fighter would die or not, a fighter might be spared if he fought well (the people's thumbs would have to go up if he was to be spared). But   if he was almost dead and he fought poorly then the people's thumbs would go down and he or she would die.

     Romans did many things for  decent pay. Some Romans were shopkeepers, some could be a part of congress, some could be rulers, and some would even be slaves,others were   builders. Some Romans were quite rich and would live in beautiful houses (keep in mind that the Romans where famous for over doing things). Some were often very poor and would live on the streets and would have to beg for money and/or food, or they would have to live in little run down shacks. 

    This proves that the ancient Romans lived quite well and had good lives, except if you were impoverished or a slave. I think that daily life in ancient Rome is very interesting.

Sources

See inside a Roman town by: R.J. Unstead, New York: Warwick press 1977

The ancient world by: Prentice hall

http://www.personal.psu.edu/users/w/x/wxk116/roma/rbgames.html 

Roman Entertainment Roman food Roman work

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