Ancient Rome

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INTRODUCTION
The city of Rome was founded on the banks of the River Tiber. The centre of ancient Rome was, as in many towns, the marketplace. This was called the Forum. The main street was called the Via Sacra; it ran straight through the Forum. Rome had a huge population; in 100AD it was about one million, so most streets were narrow in order to fit in more houses. Along some of the wider streets, triumphal arches and columns could be found. As you went further from the Forum, other huge buildings caught the eye. The Circus Maximus was the racecourse of Rome, while the Colosseum was the stadium where gladiators, wild animals and others provided 'entertainment'. Elsewhere, open air theatres and public baths could be found, and some extraordinary water-carrying bridges called aqueducts.
Housing

Rome was very much a city of nobles or rich people (patricians) and poor people (plebeians). This was clearly seen in their housing. Most Romans were poor plebeians who lived in blocks of flats called insulae. These were usually four or five storeys high; often entire families lived in one room. Streets were very narrow and often strewn with rubbish thrown from the flats. Fire was a constant danger, given the hot climate, narrow streets and quite a few thatched roofs. In winter, with no heating or insulation, insulae were often cold and damp.
The homes of the rich were very different. Because of the very hot weather in Italy a Roman house (domus) or large country mansion (villa) tended to be very bright and airy. The entrance a through a hallway called the vestibulum, leading to a central room, called the atrium and an enclosed garden called the peristylum. Around these lay the bedrooms (cubicula), kitchen (culina), a dining room called the triclinium and the masters office (tablinium). In the houses of the wealthy, tiled pictures called mosaics decorated the walls and floors, keeping the house cool as well as beautiful, and wall paintings (murals), statues and fountains were also popular. For the winter, some houses even had the central heating (hypocaust) – hot air from a furnace passed under floors and between the walls.
Entertainment

The public baths were a popular place of recreation - for exercise, bathing, or simply meeting friends. The main rooms were the frigidarium (cold), the tepidarium (lukewarm) and the caldarium (hot). The baths of Caracalla in Rome covered an area of about 11 hectares, the size of a small farm, and could hold 1,600 bathers, while the Baths of Diocletain were said to have held twice as many. Men and women bathed at different times of the day. The Romans developed a love of the theatre from the Greeks, and built many beautiful theatres in the same semi-circular shape as the Greeks. Some theatres could seat up to 30,000 people on stone steps. Sound quality was so good that Ancient Roman theatres are still used today to stage concerts and recitals. Roman plays were either comedies or tragedies.
Education

The children of plebians received little or no education. in the case of patrician children, some were educated at home by their parents or a tutor. However, most patrician children between the ages of seven and twelve attended school (ludus) where they learned reading, writing and arithmetic. Girls were generally kept at home to learn skills like embroidery and flower arranging from their mothers, while boys went on to a grammaticus to study Greek and Roman literature, history, arithmetic and geometry.
School lasted from dawn until noon. Writing was usually done with a pointed stylus, scratching words and numbers onto a wax tablet. Paper, made from papyrus reeds, was used only for books and documents. Mathematics were done with the help of an abacus, which is still used by children today.
Religion
For over 800 years, the Romans worshipped many gods, just as the Greeks had done before them. Jupiter was the king of the gods and god of the sky. Mars was the god of war; soldiers prayed to him before going into battle. Vulcan was responsible for fire, while Neptune ruled the sea. Those Romans in love prayed to the god Cupid, while Saturn was another popular god, being in charge of the harvest. The Romans worshipped many goddesses too. Juno, wife of Jupiter was the goddess of women.
All these gods, and many more had temples in their honor the greatest being the Pantheon. At these temples, animal sacrifices were regularly offered to the various gods. The pagan Romans believed in an afterlife. A coin was placed in the dead persons mouth because the Romans believed you had to pay the legendary ferryman, charon to carry spirits safely to the next life across the River Styx.
The Roman Army
As Rome grew larger, it began to expand into the surrounding countryside in search of valuable farmland to feed its population. Vital to this expansion was, of course, its army. By 295BC central Italy was under Roman control, and in the following years, all of Italy fell before the Roman legions. Early in the second century BC, Rome began to expand to the east, taking land from the Greeks as far as Syria. in the west, southern France, Spain and Portugal also felt the power of the Roman military.
The Roman army had three basic divisions, the century, the cohort and the legion Eighty to a hundred soldiers formed a century, under the control of a centurion Six centuries made up a cohort and it took ten cohorts to make up a legion. Soldiers had to provide and pay for their own equipment Two types of spear were used, one for throwing and one for thrusting. Swords were short, suitable for close combat, and shields were usually large and rectangular, made from wood or leather. Soldiers usually wore light Armour because they needed to move rapidly. Each legion was led by its standard bearer, a position given to only the bravest of soldiers He carried a pole bearing the silver eagle, the symbol of Rome and the letters SPQR engraved underneath. Most soldiers were in the infantry (foot soldiers) and others usually the foreign recruits formed the cavalry on horseback, while the artillery consisted of those who fought with heavy weapons such as catapults.
Food
Meat was expensive and very difficult to preserve in a hot climate; so it was rarely eaten by the poor. Corn and bread were the staple foods. Romans were very fond of corn-based foods such as porridge and pancakes. Among wealthier Romans chicken and fish were popular. Vegetables and citrus fruits were very plentiful, as indeed was wine. Breakfast was usually eaten soon after dawn. After midday, Romans relaxed for a few hours to escape the heat of the sun. The main meal, the cena, was eaten in the evening and, at it, the day's news, business dealings and politics were discussed
Clothing
The most common garment among wealthy Romans was the tunic. This was worn by men, women and children around the house, with light leather sandals, to keep cool in the warm weather. In public, however, a patrician’s outer garment was his toga. This was a long robe draped over the shoulders and down to the feet. Togas were almost always white, though young patricians wore purple-edged ones. While made of wool, the fact that the togas were white helped to deflect the sun’s rays and keep the wearer cool. A woman wore a long dress called a stola, and when going out, a wrap-around shawl or palla. Men were usually clean-shaven, though beards were common after 100AD. Women often dyed their hair, and used perfume and make-up. Chalk, for example, was popular for whitening the skin, while ashes were used for darkening the eyebrows.