Culture of ancient Rome

The culture of ancient Rome existed throughout

the almost 1200-year history of the civilization of
Ancient Rome. The term refers to the culture of the
Roman Republic, later the Roman Empire, which at
its peak covered an area from Lowland Scotland
and Morocco to the Euphrates.

Life in ancient Rome revolved around the city of

Rome, its famed seven hills, and its monumental
architecture such as the Colosseum, Trajan's
Forum, and the Pantheon. The city also had several
theaters, gymnasia, and many taverns, baths, and
brothels. Throughout the territory under ancient
Rome's control, residential architecture ranged
from very modest houses to country villas, and in
the capital city of Rome, there were imperial
residences on the elegant Palatine Hill, from which
Wall painting (1st century AD) from Pompeii depicting a
the word palace is derived. The vast majority of the multigenerational banquet
population lived in the city center, packed into
insulae (apartment blocks).

The city of Rome was the largest megalopolis of that time, with a population that may well have exceeded
one million people, with a high-end estimate of 3.6 million and a low-end estimate of 450,000. A substantial
proportion of the population under the city's jurisdiction lived in innumerable urban centers, with population
of at least 10,000 and several military settlements, a very high rate of urbanization by pre-industrial
standards. The most urbanized part of the Empire was Italy, which had an estimated rate of urbanization of
32%, the same rate of urbanization of England in 1800. Most Roman towns and cities had a forum, temples
and the same type of buildings, on a smaller scale, as found in Rome. The large urban population required
an endless supply of food which was a complex logistical task, including acquiring, transporting, storing and
distribution of food for Rome and other urban centers. Italian farms supplied vegetables and fruits, but fish
and meat were luxuries. Aqueducts were built to bring water to urban centers and wine and oil were
imported from Hispania, Gaul and Africa.

There was a very large amount of commerce between the provinces of the Roman Empire, since its
transportation technology was very efficient. The average costs of transport and the technology were
comparable with 18th-century Europe. The later city of Rome did not fill the space within its ancient
Aurelian walls until after 1870.

The majority of the population under the jurisdiction of ancient Rome lived in the countryside in settlements
with less than 10 thousand inhabitants. Landlords generally resided in cities and their estates were left in the
care of farm managers. The plight of rural slaves was generally worse than their counterparts working in
urban aristocratic households. To stimulate a higher labor productivity most landlords freed a large number
of slaves and many received wages; but in some rural areas, poverty and overcrowding were extreme.[1]
Rural poverty stimulated the migration of population to urban centers until the early 2nd century when the
urban population stopped growing and started to decline.
Starting in the middle of the 2nd century BC, private Greek culture was increasingly in ascendancy, in spite
of tirades against the "softening" effects of Hellenized culture from the conservative moralists. By the time
of Augustus, cultured Greek household slaves taught the Roman young (sometimes even the girls); chefs,
decorators, secretaries, doctors, and hairdressers all came from the Greek East. Greek sculptures adorned
Hellenistic landscape gardening on the Palatine or in the villas, or were imitated in Roman sculpture yards
by Greek slaves. The Roman cuisine preserved in the cookery books ascribed to Apicius is essentially
Greek.

Against this human background, both the urban and rural setting, one of history's most influential
civilizations took shape, leaving behind a cultural legacy that survives in part today.

The Roman Empire, at its height (c. 117 CE), was the most extensive political and social structure in
western civilization. By 285 CE the empire had grown too vast to be ruled from the central government at
Rome and so was divided by Emperor Diocletian into a Western and an Eastern Empire. The Roman Empire
began when Augustus Caesar became the first emperor of Rome (31 BCE) and ended, in the west, when the
last Roman emperor, Romulus Augustulus, was deposed by the Germanic King Odoacer (476 CE). In the
east, it continued as the Byzantine Empire until the death of Constantine XI and the fall of Constantinople to
the Ottoman Turks in 1453 CE. The influence of the Roman Empire on western civilization was profound in
its lasting contributions to virtually every aspect of western culture.

Contents
Social structure
Clothing
Food
Education
Language
The arts
Literature
Visual art
Music
Architecture
Sports and entertainment
Religion
Philosophy
See also
References
Bibliography
External links

Social structure
The center of the early social structure, dating from the time of the agricultural tribal city state, was the
family, which was not only marked by biological relations but also by the legally constructed relation of
patria potestas. The Pater familias was the absolute head of the family; he was the master over his wife (if
she was given to him cum manu, otherwise the father of the wife
retained patria potestas), his children, the wives of his sons (again if
married cum manu which became rarer towards the end of the
Republic), the nephews, the slaves and the freedmen (liberated
slaves, the first generation still legally inferior to the freeborn),
disposing of them and of their goods at will, even having them put to
death.

Slavery and slaves were part of the social order. The slaves were
mostly prisoners of war. There were slave markets where they could
be bought and sold. Roman law was not consistent about the status
of slaves, except that they were considered like any other moveable
property. Many slaves were freed by the masters for fine services A late Republican banquet scene in a
rendered; some slaves could save money to buy their freedom. fresco from Herculaneum, Italy, c. 50
Generally, mutilation and murder of slaves was prohibited by BC; the woman wears a transparent
legislation, although outrageous cruelty continued. silk gown while the man to the left
raises a rhyton drinking vessel
Apart from these families (called gentes) and the slaves (legally
objects, mancipia i.e. "kept in the [master's] hand") there were
Plebeians that did not exist from a legal perspective. They had no
legal capacity and were not able to make contracts, even though they
were not slaves. To deal with this problem, the so-called clientela
was created. By this institution, a plebeian joined the family of a
patrician (in a legal sense) and could close contracts by mediation of
his patrician pater familias. Everything the plebeian possessed or
acquired legally belonged to the gens. He was not allowed to form
his own gens.

The authority of the pater familias was unlimited, be it in civil rights

as well as in criminal law. The king's duty was to be head over the
military, to deal with foreign politics and also to decide on
controversies between the gentes. The patricians were divided into A fresco portrait of a man holding a
three tribes (Ramnenses, Titientes, Luceres). papyrus roll, Pompeii, Italy, 1st
century AD
During the time of the Roman Republic (founded in 509 BC) Roman
citizens were allowed to vote. These included patricians and
plebeians. Women, slaves, and children were not allowed to vote.

There were two assemblies, the assembly of centuries (comitia centuriata) and the assembly of tribes
(comitia tributa), which were made up of all the citizens of Rome. In the comitia centuriata the Romans
were divided according to age, wealth and residence. The citizens in each tribe were divided into five
classes based on property and then each group was subdivided into two centuries by age. All in all, there
were 373 centuries. Like the assembly of tribes, each century had one vote. The Comitia Centuriata elected
the praetors (judicial magistrates), the censors, and the consuls.

The comitia tributa comprised thirty-five tribes from Rome and the country. Each tribe had a single vote.
The Comitia Tributa elected the Quaestors (financial magistrates) and the patrician Curule Aedile.

Over time, Roman law evolved considerably, as well as social views, emancipating (to increasing degrees)
family members. Justice greatly increased, as well. The Romans became more efficient at considering laws
and punishments.
 Life in the ancient Roman cities revolved around the Forum, the
central business district, where most of the Romans would go for
marketing, shopping, trading, banking, and for participating in
festivities and ceremonies. The Forum was also a place where
orators would express themselves to mould public opinion, and elicit
support for any particular issue of interest to them or others. Before
sunrise, children would go to schools or tutoring them at home
would commence. Elders would dress, take a breakfast by 11
o'clock, have a nap and in the afternoon or evening would generally
go to the Forum. Going to a public bath at least once daily was a
habit with most Roman citizens. There were separate baths for men
Fresco of a seated woman from
and women. The main difference was that the women's baths were
Stabiae, 1st century AD smaller than the men's, and did not have a frigidarium (cold room)
or a palaestra (exercise area).

Different types of outdoor and indoor entertainment, free of cost,

were available in ancient Rome. Depending on the nature of the events, they were scheduled during
daytime, afternoons, evenings, or late nights. Huge crowds gathered at the Colosseum to watch events such
as events involving gladiators, combats between men, or fights between men and wild animals. The Circus
Maximus was used for chariot racing.

Life in the countryside was slow-paced but lively, with numerous local festivals and social events. Farms
were run by the farm managers, but estate owners would sometimes take a retreat to the countryside for rest,
enjoying the splendor of nature and the sunshine, including activities like fishing, hunting, and riding. On
the other hand, slave labor slogged on continuously, for long hours and all seven days, and ensuring
comforts and creating wealth for their masters. The average farm owners were better off, spending evenings
in economic and social interactions at the village markets. The day ended with a meal, generally left over
from the noontime preparations.

Clothing

In ancient Rome, the cloth and the dress distinguished one class of people
from the other class. The tunic worn by plebeians (common people) like
shepherds was made from coarse and dark material, whereas the tunic worn
by patricians was of linen or white wool. A magistrate would wear the
tunica angusticlavi; senators wore tunics with purple stripes (clavi), called
tunica laticlavi. Military tunics were shorter than the ones worn by civilians.

The many types of togas were also named. Boys, up until the festival of
Liberalia, wore the toga praetexta, which was a toga with a crimson or
purple border, also worn by magistrates in office. The toga virilis, (or toga
pura) or man's toga was worn by men who had come of age to signify their
citizenship in Rome. The toga picta was worn by triumphant generals and
had embroidery of their skill on the battlefield. The toga pulla was worn
when in mourning.

Even footwear indicated a person's social status. Patricians wore red and
orange sandals, senators had brown footwear, consuls had white shoes, and Toga-clad statue, restored
soldiers wore heavy boots. Women wore closed shoes of colors such as with the head of the emperor
white, yellow, or green. Nerva
The bulla was a locket-like amulet worn by children. When about to marry, the woman would donate her
bulla (sometimes called partha) to the household gods, along with her toys, to signify maturity and
womanhood.

Men typically wore a toga, and women wore a stola.

The woman's stola was a dress worn over a tunic, and was usually brightly colored. A fibula (or brooch)
would be used as ornamentation or to hold the stola in place. A palla, or shawl, was often worn with the
stola.

Food

Since the beginning of the Republic until 200 BC, ancient Romans had very simple food habits. Simple food
was generally consumed at around 11 o'clock, and consisted of bread, salad, olives, cheese, fruits, nuts, and
cold meat left over from the dinner the night before. Breakfast was called ientaculum, lunch was prandium,
and dinner was called cena. Appetizers were called gustatio, and dessert was called secunda mensa (or
second table). Usually, a nap or rest followed this.

The family ate together, sitting on stools around a table. Later on, a separate dining room with dining
couches was designed, called a triclinium. Fingers were used to take foods which were prepared beforehand
and brought to the diners. Spoons were used for soups.

Wine in Rome did not become common or mass-produced until

around 250 B.C. It was more commonly produced around the time
of Cato the Elder who mentions in his book De Agri Cultura that the
vineyard was the most important aspect of a good farm.[2] Wine was
considered a staple drink, consumed at all meals and occasions by all
classes and was quite cheap; however, it was always mixed with
water. This was the case even during explicit evening drinking
events (comissatio) where an important part of the festivity was
Eggs, thrushes, napkin, and vessels
choosing an arbiter bibendi (Judge of Drinking) who was, among
(wall painting from the House of Julia
other things, responsible for deciding the ratio of wine to water in
Felix, Pompeii)
the drinking wine. Wine to water ratios of 1:2, 1:3, or 1:4 were
commonly used. Many types of drinks involving grapes and honey
were consumed as well. Mulsum was honeyed wine, mustum was grape juice, mulsa was honeyed water. The
per-person-consumption of wine per day in the city of Rome has been estimated at 0.8 to 1.1 gallons for
males, and about 0.5 gallons for females. Even the notoriously strict Cato the Elder recommended
distributing a daily ration of low quality wine of more than 0.5 gallons among the slaves forced to work on
farms.

Drinking non-watered wine on an empty stomach was regarded as boorish and a sure sign of alcoholism
whose debilitating physical and psychological effects were already recognized in ancient Rome. An accurate
accusation of being an alcoholic—in the gossip-crazy society of the city bound to come to light and easily
verified—was a favorite and damaging way to discredit political rivals employed by some of Rome's
greatest orators like Cicero and Julius Caesar. Prominent Roman alcoholics include Mark Antony, Cicero's
own son Marcus (Cicero Minor) and the emperor Tiberius Claudius Nero whose soldiers gave him the
unflattering nickname Biberius Caldius Mero (lit. boozer of pure wine, Sueton Tib. 42,1). Cato the Younger
was also known as a heavy drinker, frequently found stumbling home disoriented and the worse for wear in
the early hours of morning by fellow citizens.
During the Imperial period, staple food of the lower class Romans (plebeians) was vegetable porridge and
bread, and occasionally fish, meat, olives and fruits. Sometimes, subsidized or free foods were distributed in
cities. The patrician's aristocracy had elaborate dinners, with parties and wines and a variety of comestibles.
Sometimes, dancing girls would entertain the diners. Women and children ate separately, but in the later
Empire period, with permissiveness creeping in, even decent women would attend such dinner parties.

Education

Schooling in a more formal sense was begun around 200 BC.

Education began at the age of around six, and in the next six to
seven years, boys and girls were expected to learn the basics of
reading, writing and counting. By the age of twelve, they would be
learning Latin, Greek, grammar and literature, followed by training
for public speaking. Oratory was an art to be practiced and learnt
and good orators commanded respect; to become an effective orator
was one of the objectives of education and learning. Poor children
could not afford education. In some cases, services of gifted slaves
were utilized for imparting education. School was mostly for boys,
however some wealthy girls were tutored at home, but could still go
Roman portraiture fresco of a young
to school sometimes.
man with a papyrus scroll, from
Herculaneum, 1st century AD Language
The native language of the Romans was Latin, an Italic
language in the Indo-European family. Several forms of
Latin existed, and the language evolved considerably over
time, eventually becoming the Romance languages spoken
today.

Initially a highly inflectional and synthetic language, older

forms of Latin rely little on word order, conveying
meaning through a system of affixes attached to word
stems. Like other Indo-European languages, Latin
gradually became much more analytic over time and
Fragmentary military diploma from Carnuntum;
acquired conventionalized word orders as it lost more and
Latin was the language of the military
more of its case system and associated inflections. Its throughout the Empire
alphabet, the Latin alphabet, is based on the Old Italic
alphabet, which is in turn derived from the Greek alphabet.
The Latin alphabet is still used today to write most European and many other languages.

Most of the surviving Latin literature consists almost entirely of Classical Latin. In the eastern half of the
Roman Empire, which became the Byzantine Empire; Greek was the main lingua franca as it had been since
the time of Alexander the Great, while Latin was mostly used by the Roman administration and its soldiers.
Eventually Greek would supplant Latin as both the official written and spoken language of the Eastern
Roman Empire, while the various dialects of Vulgar Latin used in the Western Roman Empire evolved into
the modern Romance languages still used today.

The expansion of the Roman Empire spread Latin throughout Europe, and over time Vulgar Latin evolved
and dialectized in different locations, gradually shifting into a number of distinct Romance languages
beginning in around the 9th century. Many of these languages, including French, Italian, Portuguese,
Romanian, and Spanish, flourished, the differences between them growing greater over time.
Although English is Germanic rather than Romanic in origin—Britannia was a Roman province, but the
Roman presence in Britain had effectively disappeared by the time of the Anglo-Saxon invasions—English
today borrows heavily from Latin and Latin-derived words. Old English borrowings were relatively sparse
and drew mainly from ecclesiastical usage after the Christianization of England. When William the
Conqueror invaded England from Normandy in 1066, he brought with him a considerable number of
retainers who spoke Anglo-Norman French, a Romance language derived from Latin. Anglo-Norman
French remained the language of the English upper classes for centuries, and the number of Latinate words
in English increased immensely through borrowing during this Middle English period. More recently, during
the Modern English period, the revival of interest in classical culture during the Renaissance led to a great
deal of conscious adaptation of words from Classical Latin authors into English.

Although Latin is an extinct language with very few contemporary fluent speakers, it remains in use in many
ways. In particular, Latin has survived through Ecclesiastical Latin, the traditional language of the Roman
Catholic Church and one of the official languages of the Vatican City. Although distinct from both Classical
and Vulgar Latin in a number of ways, Ecclesiastical Latin was more stable than typical Medieval Latin.
More Classical sensibilities eventually re-emerged in the Renaissance with Humanist Latin. Due to both the
prevalence of Christianity and the enduring influence of the Roman civilization, Latin became western
Europe's lingua franca, a language used to cross international borders, such as for academic and diplomatic
usage. A deep knowledge of classical Latin was a standard part of the educational curriculum in many
western countries until well into the 20th century, and is still taught in many schools today. Although it was
eventually supplanted in this respect by French in the 19th century and English in the 20th, Latin continues
to see heavy use in religious, legal, and scientific terminology, and in academia in general.

The arts

Literature

Roman literature was from its very inception influenced heavily by Greek authors. Some of the earliest
works currently discovered are of historical epics telling the early military history of Rome. As the Republic
expanded, authors began to produce poetry, comedy, history, and tragedy.

The Greeks and Romans founded history, and had great influence on
the way history is written today. Cato the Elder was a Roman
senator, as well as the first man to write history in Latin. Although
theoretically opposed to Greek influence, Cato the Elder wrote the
first Greek inspired rhetorical textbook in Latin (91), and combined
strains of Greek and Roman history into a method combining
both.[3] One of Cato the Elder's great historical achievements was
the Origines, which chronicles the story of Rome, from Aeneas to
his own day, but this document is now lost. In the second and early
first centuries BC an attempt was made, led by Cato the Elder, to use
the records and traditions that were preserved, in order to reconstruct
the entire. past of Rome. The historians engaged in this task are
often referred to as the "Annalists", implying that their writings Mosaic depicting a theatrical troupe
more or less followed chronological order.[3] In 123 BC and official preparing for a performance
endeavor was made to provide a record of the whole of Roman
history. This work filled eighty books and was known as the Annales
Maximi. The composition recorded the official events of the State, such as elections and commands, civic,
provincial and cult business, set out in formal arrangements year by year.[3] During the reign of the early
emperors of Rome there was a golden age of historical literature. Works such as the 'Histories' of Tacitus,
the 'Gallic Wars' by Julius Caesar and 'History of Rome' by Livy have been passed down through
generations. Unfortunately, in the case of Livy, much of the script has been lost and it is left with a few
specific areas: the founding of the city, the war with Hannibal, and its aftermath.

In the ancient world, poetry usually played a far more important part of daily life than it does today. In
general, educated Greeks and Romans thought of poetry as playing a much more fundamental part of life
than in modern times. Initially in Rome poetry was not considered a suitable occupation for important
citizens, but the attitude changed in the second and first centuries BC.[4] In Rome poetry considerably
preceded prose writing in date. As Aristotle pointed out, poetry was the first sort of literate to arouse
people's interest in questions of style. The importance of poetry in the Roman Empire was so strong that
Quintilian, the greatest authority on education, wanted secondary schools to focus on the reading and
teaching of poetry, leaving prose writings to what would now be referred to as the university stage.[4] Virgil
represents the pinnacle of Roman epic poetry. His Aeneid was produced at the request of Maecenas and tells
the story of flight of Aeneas from Troy and his settlement of the city that would become Rome. Lucretius, in
his On the Nature of Things, attempted to explicate science in an epic poem. Some of his science seems
remarkably modern, but other ideas, especially his theory of light, are no longer accepted. Later Ovid
produced his Metamorphoses, written in dactylic hexameter verse, the meter of epic, attempting a complete
mythology from the creation of the earth to his own time. He unifies his subject matter through the theme of
metamorphosis. It was noted in classical times that Ovid's work lacked the gravitas possessed by traditional
epic poetry.

Catullus and the associated group of neoteric poets produced poetry following the Alexandrian model,
which experimented with poetic forms challenging tradition. Catullus was also the first Roman poet to
produce love poetry, seemingly autobiographical, which depicts an affair with a woman called Lesbia.
Under the reign of the Emperor Augustus, Horace continued the tradition of shorter poems, with his Odes
and Epodes. Martial, writing under the Emperor Domitian, was a famed author of epigrams, poems which
were often abusive and censured public figures.

Roman prose developed its sonority, dignity, and rhythm in persuasive

speech.[5] Rhetoric had already been key to many great achievements in
Athens, so after studying the Greeks the Romans ranked oratory highly as a
subject and a profession.[6] Written speeches were some of the first forms of
prose writing in ancient Rome, and other forms of prose writing in the future
were influenced by this. Sixteen books of Cicero's letters have survived, all
published by after Cicero's death by his secretary, Tito. the letters provide a
look at the social life in the days of the falling republic, providing pictures
of the personalities of this epoch.[7] The letters of Cicero are vast and varied,
and provide pictures of the personalities of this epoch. Cicero's personality is
most clearly revealed, emerging as a vain vacillating, snobbish man.
Cicero's passion for the public life of the capital also emerges from his
A bust of Cicero, Capitoline letters, most clearly when he was in exile and when he took on a provincial
Museums, Rome governorship in Asia Minor. The letters also contain much about Cicero's
family life, and its political and financial complications.[7]

Roman philosophical treatises have had great influence on the world, but the original thinking came from
the Greeks. Roman philosophical writings are rooted in four 'schools' from the age of the Hellenistic
Greeks.[8] The four 'schools' were that of the Epicureans, Stocis, Peripatetics, and Academy.[8] Epicureans
believed in the guidance of the senses, and identified the supreme goal of life to be happiness, or the absence
of pain. Stoicism was founded by Zeno of Citium, who taught that virtue was the supreme good, creating a
new sense of ethical urgency. The Perpatetics were followers of Aristotle, guided by his science and
philosophy. The Academy was founded by Plato and was based on the Sceptic Pyro's idea that real
knowledge could be acquired. The Academy also presented criticisms of the Epicurean and Stoic schools of
philosophy.[9]

The genre of satire was traditionally regarded as a Roman innovation, and satires were written by, among
others, Juvenal and Persius. Some of the most popular plays of the early Republic were comedies, especially
those of Terence, a freed Roman slave captured during the First Punic War.

A great deal of the literary work produced by Roman authors in the early Republic was political or satirical
in nature. The rhetorical works of Cicero, a self-distinguished linguist, translator, and philosopher, in
particular, were popular. In addition, Cicero's personal letters are considered to be one of the best bodies of
correspondence recorded in antiquity.

Visual art

Most early Roman painting styles show Etruscan influences, particularly in

the practice of political painting. In the 3rd century BCE, Greek art taken as
booty from wars became popular, and many Roman homes were decorated
with landscapes by Greek artists. Evidence from the remains at Pompeii
shows diverse influence from cultures spanning the Roman world.

An early Roman style of note was "Incrustation", in which the interior walls
of houses were painted to resemble colored marble. Another style consisted
of painting interiors as open landscapes, with highly detailed scenes of
plants, animals, and buildings.

Portrait sculpture during the period utilized youthful and classical

The so-called Primavera of
proportions, evolving later into a mixture of realism and idealism. During
Stabiae, perhaps the the Antonine and Severan periods, more ornate hair and bearding became
goddess Flora prevalent, created with deeper cutting and drilling. Advancements were also
made in relief sculptures, usually depicting Roman victories.

Music

Music was a major part of everyday life in ancient Rome. Many

private and public events were accompanied by music, ranging from
nightly dining to military parades and manoeuvres.

Some of the instruments used in Roman music are the tuba, cornu,
aulos, askaules, flute, panpipes, lyre, lute, cithara, tympanum,
drums, hydraulis and the sistrum.

Musicians playing a Roman tuba, a

Architecture water organ (hydraulis), and a pair of
cornua, detail from the Zliten mosaic,
In its initial stages, the ancient Roman architecture reflected 2nd century AD
elements of architectural styles of the Etruscans and the Greeks.
Over a period of time, the style was modified in tune with their
urban requirements, and civil engineering and building construction technology became developed and
refined. The Roman concrete has remained a riddle,[10] and even after more than two thousand years some
ancient Roman structures still stand magnificently, like the Pantheon (with one of the largest single span
domes in the world) located in the business district of today's Rome.
 The architectural style of the capital city of ancient Rome was
emulated by other urban centers under Roman control and
influence,[11] like the Verona Arena, Verona, Italy; Arch of Hadrian,
Athens, Greece; Temple of Hadrian, Ephesus, Turkey; a Theatre at
Orange, France; and at several other locations, for example, Lepcis
Magna, located in Libya.[12] Roman cities were well planned,
efficiently managed and neatly maintained. Palaces, private
dwellings and villas, were elaborately designed and town planning
The Colosseum in Rome was comprehensive with provisions for different activities by the
urban resident population, and for countless migratory population of
travelers, traders and visitors passing through their cities. Marcus
Vitruvius Pollio, a 1st-century BCE Roman architect's treatise "De architectura," with various sections,
dealing with urban planning, building materials, temple construction, public and private buildings, and
hydraulics, remained a classic text until the Renaissance.

Sports and entertainment

The ancient city of Rome had a place called the Campus, a sort of drill ground for Roman soldiers, which
was located near the Tiber. Later, the Campus became Rome's track and field playground, which even Julius
Caesar and Augustus were said to have frequented. Imitating the Campus in Rome, similar grounds were
developed in several other urban centers and military settlements.

In the campus, the youth assembled to play, exercise, and indulge in

appropriate sports, which included jumping, wrestling, boxing and
racing. Riding, throwing, and swimming were also preferred
physical activities. In the countryside, pastimes also included fishing
and hunting. Females did not participate in these activities. Ball
playing was a popular sport and ancient Romans had several ball
games, which included Handball (Expulsim Ludere), field hockey,
catch, and some form of football.
Circus Maximus, a mass
Board games played in ancient Rome included dice (Tesserae or
entertainment venue located in
tali), Roman chess (Latrunculi), Roman Checkers (Calculi), tic-tac-
Rome
toe (Terni Lapilli), and ludus duodecim scriptorum and tabula,
predecessors of backgammon.

There were several other activities to keep people engaged like chariot races, musical and theatrical
performances, public executions and gladiatorial combat. In the Colosseum, Rome's amphitheatre, 60,000
persons could be accommodated. There are also accounts of the Colosseum's floor being flooded to hold
mock naval battles for the public to watch.

In addition to these, Romans also spent their share of time in bars and brothels, and graffiti[13] carved into
the walls of these buildings was common. Based on the number of messages found on bars, brothels, and
bathhouses, it's clear that they were popular places of leisure and people spent a deal of time there.

Religion
The Romans thought of themselves as highly religious[14], and attributed their success as a world power to
their collective piety (pietas) in maintaining good relations with the Gods. According to legendary history,
most of Rome's religious institutions could be traced to its founders, particularly Numa Pompilius, the
Sabine second King of Rome, who negotiated directly with the Gods. This archaic religion was the
foundation of the mos maiorum, "the way of the ancestors" or simply "tradition", viewed as central to
Roman identity.

The priesthoods of public religion were held by members of the elite classes. There was no principle
analogous to "separation of church and state" in ancient Rome. During the Roman Republic (509–27 BC),
the same men who were elected public officials served as augurs and pontiffs. Priests married, raised
families, and led politically active lives. Julius Caesar became Pontifex Maximus before he was elected
consul. The augurs read the will of the gods and supervised the marking of boundaries as a reflection of
universal order, thus sanctioning Roman expansionism as a matter of divine destiny. The Roman triumph
was at its core a religious procession in which the victorious general displayed his piety and his willingness
to serve the public good by dedicating a portion of his spoils to the gods, especially Jupiter, who embodied
just rule. As a result of the Punic Wars (264–146 BC), when Rome struggled to establish itself as a dominant
power, many new temples were built by magistrates in fulfillment of a vow to a deity for assuring their
military success.

Roman religion was thus mightily pragmatic and contractual, based on the
principle of do ut des, "I give that you might give." Religion depended on
knowledge and the correct practice of prayer, ritual, and sacrifice, not on
faith or dogma, although Latin literature preserves learned speculation on
the nature of the divine and its relation to human affairs. Even the most
skeptical among Rome's intellectual elite such as Cicero, who was an augur,
saw religion as a source of social order.

For ordinary Romans, religion was a part of daily life.[15] Each home had a
household shrine at which prayers and libations to the family's domestic
deities were offered. Neighborhood shrines and sacred places such as
springs and groves dotted the city. The Roman calendar was structured
around religious observances. In the Imperial Era, as many as 135 days of
A fresco from Herculaneum the year were devoted to religious festivals and games (ludi).[16] Women,
depicting Heracles and
slaves, and children all participated in a range of religious activities. Some
Achelous from Greco-
public rituals could be conducted only by women, and women formed what
Roman mythology, 1st
is perhaps Rome's most famous priesthood, the state-supported Vestal
century CE
Virgins, who tended Rome's sacred hearth for centuries, until disbanded
under Christian domination.

The Romans are known for the great number of deities they honored. The presence of Greeks on the Italian
peninsula from the beginning of the historical period influenced Roman culture, introducing some religious
practices that became as fundamental as the cult of Apollo. The Romans looked for common ground
between their major gods and those of the Greeks, adapting Greek myths and iconography for Latin
literature and Roman art. Etruscan religion was also a major influence, particularly on the practice of augury,
since Rome had once been ruled by Etruscan kings.

Mystery religions imported from the Near East (Ptolemaic Egypt, Persia and Mesopotamia), which offered
initiates salvation through a personal God and eternal life after the death, were a matter of personal choice
for an individual, practiced in addition to carrying on one's family rites and participating in public religion.
The mysteries, however, involved exclusive oaths and secrecy, conditions that conservative Romans viewed
with suspicion as characteristic of "magic", conspiracy (coniuratio), and subversive activity. Sporadic and
sometimes brutal attempts were made to suppress religionists who seemed to threaten traditional Roman
morality and unity, as with the senate's efforts to restrict the Bacchanals in 186 BC.
As the Romans extended their dominance throughout the Mediterranean world, their policy in general was
to absorb the deities and cults of other peoples rather than try to eradicate them,[17] since they believed that
preserving tradition promoted social stability.[18]

One way that Rome incorporated diverse peoples was by supporting

their religious heritage, building temples to local deities that framed
their theology within the hierarchy of Roman religion. Inscriptions
throughout the Empire record the side-by-side worship of local and
Roman deities, including dedications made by Romans to local
Gods.[20] By the height of the Empire, numerous international
deities were cultivated at Rome and had been carried to even the
most remote provinces (among them Cybele, Isis, Osiris, Serapis,
Epona), and Gods of solar monism such as Mithras and Sol Invictus,
found as far north as Roman Britain. Because Romans had never
been obligated to cultivate one deity or one cult only, religious
tolerance was not an issue in the sense that it is for competing
Marble relief of Mithras slaying the monotheistic systems.[21] The monotheistic rigor of Judaism posed
bull (2nd century, Louvre-Lens); difficulties for Roman policy that led at times to compromise and the
Mithraism was among the most granting of special exemptions, but sometimes to intractable conflict.
widespread mystery religions of the
Roman Empire.[19] In the wake of the Republic's collapse, State religion had adapted to
support the new regime of the Emperors. Augustus, the first Roman
emperor, justified the novelty of one-man rule with a vast program
of religious revivalism and reform. Public vows formerly made for the security of the Republic now were
directed at the wellbeing of the Emperor. So-called "Emperor worship" expanded on a grand scale the
traditional Roman veneration of the ancestral dead and of the Genius, the divine tutelary of every individual.
Imperial cult became one of the major ways Rome advertised its presence in the provinces and cultivated
shared cultural identity and loyalty throughout the Empire: rejection of the State religion was tantamount to
treason. This was the context for Rome's conflict with Christianity, which Romans variously regarded as a
form of atheism and threat to the stability of the Empire,[22] causing the prosecution of anti-Christian
policies; under Emperor Trajan's reign (AD 98–117), Roman intellectuals and functionaries (Lucian of
Samosata, Tacitus,[23] Suetonius,[23] Pliny the Younger,[23] and Celsus)[22] gained knowledge about the
Jewish roots of Early Christians, therefore many of them considered Christianity to be some sort of
superstitio Iudaica.[22][23][24]

From the 2nd century onward, the Church Fathers began to condemn the diverse religions practiced
throughout the Empire collectively as "Pagan".[25] In the early 4th century, Constantine the Great and his
half-brother Licinius stipulated an agreement known as the Edict of Milan (313), which granted liberty to all
religions to be freely practiced in the Roman Empire; following the Edict's proclamation, the conflict
between the two Emperors exacerbated, ending with the execution of both Licinius and the co-Emperor
Sextus Martinianus as ordered by Constantine after Licinius' defeat in the Battle of Chrysopolis (324).

Constantine ruled the Roman Empire as sole emperor for the remainder of his reign. Some scholars allege
that his main objective was to gain unanimous approval and submission to his authority from all classes, and
therefore chose Christianity to conduct his political propaganda, believing that it was the most appropriate
religion that could fit with the Imperial cult (see also Sol Invictus). Regardless, under Constantine's rule
Christianity expanded throughout the Empire, launching the era of Christian Church's dominance under the
Constantinian dynasty.[26]
However, if Constantine himself sincerely converted to Christian religion or remained loyal to Paganism is
still a matter of debate between scholars (see also Constantine's Religious policy).[27] His formal conversion
to Christianity in 312 is almost universally acknowledged among historians,[26][28] despite that he was
baptized only on his deathbed by the Arian bishop Eusebius of Nicomedia (337);[29] the real reasons behind
it remain unknown and are debated too.[27][28] According to Hans
Pohlsander, Professor Emeritus of History at the University at Albany,
SUNY, Constantine's conversion was just another instrument of Realpolitik
in his hands meant to serve his political interest in keeping the Empire
united under his control:

The prevailing spirit of Constantine's government was one of

conservatorism. His conversion to and support of Christianity
produced fewer innovations than one might have expected;
indeed they served an entirely conservative end, the
preservation and continuation of the Empire.

— Hans Pohlsander, The Emperor Constantine[30]

Head of Constantine the
The Emperor and Neoplatonic philosopher Julian the Apostate made a short- Great, part of a colossal
lived attempt to restore traditional religion and Paganism, and to reaffirm the statue. Bronze, 4th century,
special status of Judaism, but in 391, under Theodosius I, Nicene Musei Capitolini, Rome.
Christianity became the official State church of the Roman Empire to the
exclusion of all other Christian churches and Hellenistic religions, including
Roman religion itself. Pleas for religious tolerance from traditionalists such as the senator Symmachus (d.
402) were rejected, and Christian monotheism became a feature of Imperial domination. Heretics as well as
non-Christians were subject to exclusion from public life or persecution, but, despite the decline of Greco-
Roman polytheism, Rome's original religious hierarchy and many aspects of its ritual influenced Christian
religion as a whole;[31] various pre-Christian beliefs and practices survived as well in Christian festivals and
local traditions.

Philosophy
Two major philosophical schools of thought that derived from Greek
religion and philosophy that became prominent in Rome in the 1st
and 2nd century AD was Cynicism and Stoicism which, according to
Cora Lutz were "fairly well merged" in the early years of the Roman
Empire. Cynicism taught that civilization was corrupt and people
needed to break away from it and its trappings and Stoicism taught
that one must give up all earthly goods by remaining detached from
civilization and help others. Because of their negative views on
civilization and of their way of life, in where many of them just wore
a dirty cloak, carried a staff, and a coin purse, and slept outdoors,
they were the targets of the Roman aristocracy and of the emperor
and many were persecuted by the Roman government for being
"subversive". The philosopher Lucian attacked the Cynics in his Mosaic from Pompeii depicting the
book The Philosophies for Sale in which he mocked the Cynics by Academy of Plato
stating "First...stripping you of your luxury...I will put a cloak on
you...Next I will compel you to undergo pains and hardships,
sleeping on the ground, drinking nothing but water...Leading this life you will say that you are happier than
the Great King...Frequent the most crowded market place...and in [it] desire to be solitary and
uncommunicative...."

See also
 Classical antiquity
Gallo-Roman culture
Roman Britain
Romanization
Romanization of Hispania
Theatre of ancient Rome
Romanization of Anatolia

References
1. For example, a Romano-Egyptian text attests to the sharing of one small farmhouse by 42
people; elsewhere, six families held common interest in a single olive tree. See Alfoldy, Geza.,
The Social History of Rome (Routledge Revivals) 2014 (online e-edition, unpaginated:
accessed October 11th, 2016)
2. E.M. Jellinek, Drinkers and Alcoholics in Ancient Rome.
3. Grant, Michael (1954). Roman Literature. Cambridge England: University Press. pp. 91–94.
4. Grant, Michael (1954). Roman Literature. Cambridge England: University Press. p. 134.
5. Tenney, Frank (1930). Life and Literature in the Roman Republic. Berkeley California:
University of California Press. p. 132.
6. Tenney, Frank (1930). Life and Literature in the Roman Republic. Berkeley California:
University of California Press. p. 35.
7. Grant, Michael (1954). Roman Literature. Cambridge England: University Press. pp. 78–84.
8. Grant, Michael (1954). Roman Literature. Cambridge England: University Press. pp. 30–45.
9. Grant, Michael (1954). Roman Literature. Cambridge England: University Press. pp. Notes.
10. The Riddle of Ancient Roman Concrete (http://www.romanconcrete.com/docs/spillway/spillway.
htm), By David Moore, P.E., 1995, Retired Professional Engineer, Bureau of Reclamation (This
article first appeared in "The Spillway" a newsletter of the US Dept. of the Interior, Bureau of
Reclamation, Upper Colorado Region, February, 1993)
11. "Roman Art and Architecture" (https://web.archive.org/web/20060908065349/http://harpy.uccs.
edu/roman/html/). UCCS.edu. Archived from the original (http://harpy.uccs.edu/roman/html/) on
September 8, 2006. Retrieved July 14, 2013.
12. Lepcis Magna (http://www.alnpete.co.uk/lepcis/) - Window on the Roman World in North Africa
13. Harvey, Brian. "Graffiti from Pompeii" (https://web.archive.org/web/20160303184129/http://ww
w.pompeiana.org/resources/ancient/graffiti%20from%20pompeii.htm). Graffiti from Pompeii.
Archived from the original (http://www.pompeiana.org/resources/ancient/graffiti%20from%20po
mpeii.htm) on March 3, 2016. Retrieved February 23, 2016.
14. Ehlke, Troy D. (2008-10-16). Crossroads of Agony: Suffering and Violence in the Christian
Tradition (https://books.google.com/books?id=kZWOAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA25&dq=The+Romans
+thought+of+themselves+as+highly+religious&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiYwca_g_XmAhU
QA6wKHVGMDg4Q6AEIYzAI#v=onepage&q=The%20Romans%20thought%20of%20themsel
ves%20as%20highly%20religious&f=false). Xlibris Corporation. ISBN 978-1-4691-0298-6.
15. Jörg Rüpke, "Roman Religion – Religions of Rome," in A Companion to Roman Religion
(Blackwell, 2007), p. 4.
16. Matthew Bunson, A Dictionary of the Roman Empire (Oxford University Press, 1995), p. 246.
17. "This mentality", notes John T. Koch, "lay at the core of the genius of cultural assimilation
which made the Roman Empire possible"; entry on "Interpretatio romana," in Celtic Culture: A
Historical Encyclopedia (ABC-Clio, 2006), p. 974.
18. Rüpke, "Roman Religion – Religions of Rome," p. 4; Benjamin H. Isaac, The Invention of
Racism in Classical Antiquity (Princeton University Press, 2004, 2006), p. 449; W.H.C. Frend,
Martyrdom and Persecution in the Early Church: A Study of Conflict from the Maccabees to
Donatus (Doubleday, 1967), p. 106.
19. G. W. Bromiley (ed.), The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, Vol. 4 (Eerdmans, 1988),
p. 116. ISBN 0-8028-3784-0.
20. Janet Huskinson, Experiencing Rome: Culture, Identity and Power in the Roman Empire
(Routledge, 2000), p. 261.
21. A classic essay on this topic is Arnaldo Momigliano, "The Disadvantages of Monotheism for a
Universal State", in Classical Philology, 81.4 (1986), pp. 285–297.
22. Michael Frede, "Origen's Treatise Against Celsus", in M. Edwards, M. Goodman, S. Price and
C. Rowland (ed.), Apologetics in the Roman Empire: Pagans, Jews, and Christians (Oxford
University Press, 2002), pp. 133-134. ISBN 0-19-826986-2; Antonia Tripolitis, Religions of the
Hellenistic-Roman Age (Eerdmans, 2001), pp. 99-101. ISBN 978-0-8028-4913-7.
23. R. L. Wilken, The Christians as the Romans Saw Them (Yale University Press, 2003), pp. 32-
50. ISBN 978-03-00-09839-6.
24. For the Roman sources on early Christianity, see also Pliny the Younger on Christians,
Suetonius on Christians, and Tacitus on Christ.
25. See Peter Brown in G. W. Bowersock, P. Brown and O. Grabar (ed.); Late Antiquity: A Guide to
the Postclassical World (https://books.google.com/books?id=c788wWR_bLwC&pg=PA625&dq
=pagus+paganus&lr=&as_drrb_is=q&as_minm_is=0&as_miny_is=&as_maxm_is=0&as_maxy
_is=&num=100&as_brr=3&as_pt=ALLTYPES) (Harvard University Press, 1999), pp. 625-626,
for the epithet "Pagan" used as a mark of socio-religious inferiority in Latin Christian polemic
and apologetics.
26. Wendy Doniger (ed.), "Constantine I", in Britannica Encyclopedia of World Religions
(Encyclopædia Britannica, 2006), p. 262.
27. Noel Lenski (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to the Age of Constantine (Cambridge
University Press, 2006), "Introduction". ISBN 978-0-521-81838-4.
28. A. H. M. Jones, Constantine and the Conversion of Europe (University of Toronto Press,
2003), p. 73. ISBN 0-8020-6369-1.
29. Hans A. Pohlsander, The Emperor Constantine (Routledge, NY 2004), pp. 82–84. ISBN 0-415-
31938-2; Lenski, "Reign of Constantine" (The Cambridge Companion to the Age of
Constantine), p. 82.
30. Pohlsander, The Emperor Constantine, pp. 78–79.
31. Stefan Heid, "The Romanness of Roman Christianity," in A Companion to Roman Religion
(Blackwell, 2007), pp. 406–426; on vocabulary in particular, Robert Schilling, "The Decline and
Survival of Roman Religion", in Roman and European Mythologies (University of Chicago
Press, 1992, from the French edition of 1981), p. 110.

Bibliography
Elizabeth S. Cohen, Honor and Gender in the Streets of Early Modern Rome, The Journal of
Interdisciplinary History, Vol. 22, No. 4 (Spring, 1992), pp. 597-625
Edward Gibbon, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
Tom Holland, The Last Years of the Roman Republic ISBN 0-385-50313-X
Ramsay MacMullen, 2000. Romanization in the Time of Augustus (Yale University Press)
Paul Veyne, editor, 1992. A History of Private Life: I From Pagan Rome to Byzantium (Belknap
Press of Harvard University Press)
Karl Wilhelm Weeber, 2008. Nachtleben im Alten Rom (Primusverlag)
Karl Wilhelm Weeber, 2005. Die Weinkultur der Römer
 J.H. D'Arms, 1995. Heavy drinking and drunkenness in the Roman world, in O.Murray In Vino
Veritas

External links
An interactive Roman map (http://www.acs.ucalgary.ca/~vandersp/Courses/maps/basicmap.ht
ml)
Rome Reborn − A Video Tour through Ancient Rome based on a digital model (http://www.rom
ereborn.virginia.edu/gallery-current.php#videos_2_1)

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