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Suggest pagesWikijunior:Ancient Civilizations/Romans
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[edit] What country did they live in?
At the start, the Romans lived in a region that now forms part of Central Italy. Through conquest of nearby peoples, the Roman Empire expanded. At it's peak, the empire controlled most of Western Europe, North Africa, Greece, The Balkans and the Middle East. The capital Rome, grew from a simple hill village, to a thriving metropolis. Even today, some 2500 years later, Rome is still a major world city.
[edit] What did their buildings look like?
Many public buildings built by the Romans, were huge works of white marble complete with arches and grand architecture. The average house by comparison was smaller and plainer, being built of bricks and timber. Much of our extensive knowledge of Roman Buildings comes from ruins and remains left in the ground.
Inside a middle class home (a domus), there were many rooms, with distinct functions. These ranged in size, from small cubicles in which they slept, through medium sized rooms in which they eat, to large halls in which they would receive and entertain guests. The rooms in the house normally opened out onto a courtyard. Despite its often small size, the purpose of this courtyard was to provide light and air to the rooms. As well as a courtyard, most wealthy people would also have kept a garden behind the house, in which flowers, fruit vegetables (and even grape vines) would have been grown.
In the city of Rome most people lived in two or three-story apartment buildings called Insulae. Here a whole family lived in only one or two rooms, spending much of their time outside in the courtyards and streets. Water came from nearby public fountains and aqueducts.
The Romans as well as house builders, constructed many public buildings, including temples, marketplaces, forum, and ampitheaters. These public works also included things required for city living like aqueducts and sewers.
Military building was also undertaken, the largest construction being Hadrian Wall at the Northern Fringes of the Roman Empire. Even today remains of it are still visible in Northern England.
[edit] What did they eat?
In practice they ate the same things we eat today, except for those that came to Europe from America or from Asia in the later centuries. For instance they didn't have corn(maize), nor tomatoes, nor potatoes, nor cocoa. And no ancient Roman ever tasted a turkey. Both the rich and poor ate bread and porridges made from wheat, barley and other grains. This was their main staple food. Some of the other common foods that they would have eaten were chicken and other birds, beans, lentils, walnuts, eggs, apples, cheese, milk, wine, figs, dates and grapes.
While most of their food would be familiar to us, Romans did have their share of strange or unusual feast items, including wild boar, peacock, snails, and a type of small mammal called dormice. Another difference was that while the poor people and the woman ate their food while sitting in chairs, the rich men liked to have banquets together where they would lounge on their sides while they ate their meals.
[edit] What did they wear?
People in Rome had three types of clothing. Firstly, they wore a loin cloth. This was worn like underwear. Then, over their loin cloth they would wear a tunic and women would sometimes wear two tunics. A tunic was usually made out of wool but occasionally linen. It was a loose garment that fitted over a person's head and was joined at the shoulders and sides. It would resemble a nightgown in our society. Finally, on top of a man's tunic he would wear a toga whenever he went into public, if he could afford one. Togas were large pieces of wool fabric that were wrapped all around the body. Interestingly, only Roman citizens were permitted to wear togas. It was symbol of peace because Roman soldiers also didn't wear togas. Togas were decorated in different ways to indicate rank, like a uniform. For example, a purple fringed toga indicated that the person wearing it was a leader.
Women in Rome also had an outside garment that corresponded to the male toga. It was called a stola and was also made of a large piece of fabric but it was wrapped and attached differently. Woman also wore a warm shawl called a palla when they went out.
Fashion changed as the empire progressed. Initially in Rome both men and woman wore togas but that changed fairly early in the Roman empire. Also, cloaks that were like large ponchos were first primarily used by poor people and soldiers but eventually became the standard dress for even the wealthy. Togas in that era had become purely ceremonial.
Roman men and woman also wore shoes or sandals unless they were extremely poor. They were completely made of leather, even the soles. When visiting one another they would wear them into their friend's home but remove them before eating.
[edit] What did their writing look like?
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Romans developed what is now called the Latin alphabet for their writing. The Latin alphabet is nearly the same as the current English alphabet but originally it only consisted of capital letters. Also, the Romans didn't use a few of the letters that are a part of the modern English alphabet such as j, x and w. The Latin alphabet, invented by the Romans, became the base of the writing systems for many languages all over the world today.
The Romans also invented a way to write the capital letters in cursive. They also didn't use punctuation the way that we do today.
Roman numbers were written with letters as well. These are called Roman numerals.
- M = 1,000
- D = 500
- C = 100
- L = 50
- X = 10
- V = 5
- I = 1
2008 is written as MMVIII in Roman numerals.
In the Middle Ages, it was very hard to do maths with these numbers, and Arabic numbers (the ones we use today) began to be used. People found that banking and doing maths was much easier with these new number symbols.
[edit] What did they believe?
The Romans, like many other ancient civilizations, were polytheistic; this means they worshiped many gods. Each god or goddess, a female god, would be connected to a certain part of people’s life. If you were a fisherman you might pray to Neptune, the god of the sea. However if you were a warrior you would pray to Mars the god of war. All these gods and goddesses had different stories. These long stories of the gods have lived on in writings on pots and in scripts, or books, by ancient people.
Romans were generally tolerant of other polytheistic religions, and often adopted foreign gods into their religion, including Egyptian gods. Emperors sometimes declared themselves to be gods. Monotheists such as Christians, who believe in only one god, were distrusted because they refused to worship the emperors and were often persecuted.
[edit] Are some of them famous even today?
Julius Caesar is probably the most famous Roman of all time. He was a Roman military and political leader and one of the most influential men in world history. He played a critical role in the transformation of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire.
Brutus, Scipio Africanus and his son, Nero, and Augustus Caesar were also well known figures.
Another famous Roman was Pontius Pilate. He was the governor of the Roman ludaea (Judea) province from 26 AD until 36 AD. In modern times he is best known as the man who, according to the Christian bible, presided over the trial of Jesus Christ and ordered his crucifixion.
