Daily Life In Rome Essay Example For Students

Daily Life In Rome Essay by Zach Aumage4/29/99Roman life was very interesting. The Romans had one of the bestcultures. They lived in the best city of their time.In the following youwill learn about the daily life of Romans including: Rome, Looks, Children,The house, and Romans Activities. The city all Romans lived in was of course Rome. Rome was a veryfast growing civilized city. Living in Rome was crowded and busy. Therewas a ten mile circumference of the city. Because Rome grew quicklypast its ten mile line, anyone who lived beyond it had to take care of theroad in front of his house. At birth you are put at you fathers feet for him to accept orreject.(Jonston 156) If you were rejected you were either sold into slaveryor put in a place where people would find you. If you were accepted youstayed with your parents. On your ninth day of existence you werepurified, given gifts, and had a sacrifice given in your favor. A Romanchilds first form of education is from the childs parents. Later there isan elementary type of education where you learn to read write and knowyour numbers. Then there is a high school equivalent for some. Fewpeople had higher education but it was available. School was only untilnoon. The house is the most important possession for most people. TheRoman house was clean and orderly, your slaves cleaned it every day. Allof your meals are served to you in your house. The Roman houses weremade of rock with tile roof. Those are not very interesting colors, sopeople would make the house more beautiful with flowers or paintings. Most houses did have those things and some had intricate tiles orwidows. The rich persons home would have many people in it becausethey would have many children and slaves.To house all these peoplethere had to be many rooms. There could be many bedrooms, workshops, kitchens, closets and latrines. Poor people had one roomhouses with dirt floors. To bring water in the home you could have ahole in the ceiling that catches rain or in rich peoples cased you couldhave direct aqueduct access. (Jonston 89) The Roman people have been described as very attractive. Theywere muscular and fit. The clothes the men wore were a toga, a tunicand shoes. Women would wear a stole, a tunic, and shoes. The Romanman had long shaggy hair and a long beard before 146BC. After 146BCMen would have well trimmed hair and clean shaven faces.(Quennel 219) Women would have long hair. They could occasionally dye or tease yourhair.Sometimes you would wear. Outside workers would always wear ahat called a pilleu. If you traveled you would wear a hat called a petasus. Romans weredarker than Americans. If you worked outside you would be darker and ifyou worked inside you would be lighter. When it rained you would pullyour toga up over your head for protection. Children would haveshoulder length hair. The activities that Romans did during the day were various. TheRoman day started at the rising of the sun. When you got up your slavesalready were cleaning the house. You would eat a small breakfast and goabout your day. The were accompanied to school, the master of thehouse would go to work and the masters wife would start her dailyerrands. At noon every one came home and ate a small lunch. Whenthey were done they took a two hour nap. After your nap you would notgo back to work or school, the afternoon was yours. You could go to agladiator fight or a chariot race in a coliseum, or go to a bath. Bathswere public places to relax. Men had male baths and women had femalebaths. In the evening you would eat your last meal and be off to bedbecause there was no way to light the house efficiently.A major daily activity was going to baths. Many women and menwould go to baths, some baths were just for women and some were justfor men.(Jonston p. 137) Inside the bath house there was a tub for hotwater and a tub for cold water. These are the steps of going to a bath:first you pass through the frigidarium (cold tub) then you go to thechanging room where you take off all your cloths and give your valuablesto the attendant. Lastly you go to the heated chambers where the poolis, in the heated chambers you start profusely sweating. Some of thethings you could do in the pool house were talk, get massages, exercise,or play games. There were similar places for women. Careers of Romans were somewhat limited but available. The mostpopular job of the Romans was the job of public man.(Kenneth 41) If youwere of the humbler class you would be in teaching or medicine. If youwere of the equestrian class you would be in commerce, contracts orfinancial business. The jobs in the government buildings were highpaying. The most wanted job of the time was scribe. Romans had a great civilization and lived good lives. The Romanswere the most intelligent people of their time. They had people makegiant buildings that lasted a long time. Their civilization lasted for a longtime but eventually fell. BibliographyJonston Mary, Roman LIfe, Chicago,Scott Forsman and Company, 1947Mathews D Kenneth, The Early Romans,New York, McGraw Hill Book Co., 1975Showerman Grant, Rome and the Romans,New York, The Macmillan Company, 1931Quennel Marjorie, Everyday Life in Roman and Anglo Saxon Times,Great Brittain, Jarold and Sons LTD, 1959