Roman Culture and Society

1
Roman Culture and Society

• Chapter 5 Section 3

2
Roman Arts and Literature

• The Romans spread Greco-Roman arts and culture
  throughout the empire
• Developed a taste for Greek statues
• Sculptures produced more realistic works
• Painters painted portraits and landscapes on
  walls of villas
• Excelled in architecture
• Used curved forms
• Arch, vault and dome

3
Art and Architecture

• Concrete helped to construct huge buildings that
  the Greeks could not create
• Remarkable engineers
• Roads, bridges, and aqueducts
• Built 50,000 miles of roads throughout the empire
• In Rome, a dozen aqueducts kept a population of
  one million supplied with water

4
Literature

• Highest point was the Age of Augustus
• Virgil
• The most distinguished poet was in Rome
• Wrote Aeneid
• About Aeneas, the ideal Roman, whose virtues are
  duty, piety, and faithfulness
• Horace
• Enjoyed pointing out some of the follies
• and vices of his age
• Wrote Satires
• Laughs at the weakness of humans

5
Literature

• Livy
• The most famous Latin prose writer
• Wrote The Early History of Rome
• Did not always tell the facts
• Told a good tale, his work told the history of
  Rome

6
Life in Ancient RomeFamily Life and Womens Roles

• City life in ancient Rome had problems similar to
  life today
• Paterfamilias The dominant male head of the
  household
• Included the wife, sons with their wives and
  children, unmarried daughters and slaves
• Unlike the Greeks, the Romans raised their
  children at home
• All upper class(Patricians) boys and girls were
  expected to learn to read

7
Family Life and Womens Roles

• The father was the chief figure
• Decided to teach children himself or acquire a
  teacher to teach his children or send them to
  school
• Roman boys learned
• Reading, writing, moral principals, family
  values, law, and physical training to prepare
  them for being soldiers
• At 16, childhood ended for Roman boys
• Exchanged a purple toga for a white toga

8
Family Life and Womens Roles

• Upper class families hired private tutors for
  their daughters or sent them to primary schools
• When boys were entering secondary school, girls
  were entering marriage
• Roman males believed that the weakness of females
  made it necessary for women to have male
  guardians
• Minimum age to marry was 12 although 14 was the
  most common

9
Family Life and Womens Roles

• For males, the minimum age to marry was 14,
  although most men married later
• Marriages were meant for life, but divorces were
  easy to obtain
• Either husband or wife could ask for a divorce
• By the 100s the paterfamilias no longer had
  authority over his children
• Roman wives were not segregated from males in the
  home

10
Slavery and Slave Revolts

• No people in the ancient world had more slaves or
  depended on slaved more than the Romans
• Large numbers of captured soldiers in war became
  slaves
• Used as household workers, cooks, valets,
  waiters, cleaners, gardeners, farm laborers
• Many slave holders were afraid of their slaves
  b/c they treated them so awful

11
Slavery and Slave Revolts

• If a slave killed his master, the slave would be
  executed and all other slaves would be killed too
• Most famous slave revolt was led by the gladiator
  Spartacus
• In 73 B.C. he led 70,000 slaves
• Defeated several armies
• 6,000 of his followers were crucified or nailed
  to a cross

12
Living Conditions in Rome

• Center of the empire was Rome, one million people
  at the time of Augustus
• Boasted public buildings like no other in the
  world, but also was over crowded and noisy
• The rich lived in comfortable villas while the
  poor lived in apartment blocks called insulae

13
Living Conditions in Rome

• Emperors proved food for the poor
• Large scale entertainment was provided for the
  people of Rome
• 1. Horse and chariot races in Circus Maximus
• 2. Dramatic performances were held in theaters
• 3. Gladiator shows