Ancient Rome FAQs
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question that you would like to see answered, just drop me an email. Please
place this in the subject line: Rome FAQs. Please note that all answers
are the express opinion of me! I use internet sites, books, interviews
and library research on which to draw my conclusions.
Ancient Rome FAQs
The gorgeous photo of the Theatre at Orange above, is shown courtesy of Mr.
Lester at Tulane: Period and Style for Designers, I and II
.
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#1. What were the houses like for Romans who were
wealthy?
#2. My social studies teacher requested a five point essay
on why the fall of Rome was inevitable due to crisis and decline
#3. What is the difference between the daily life of the poor
and rich romans?
#4. What did the Ancient Romans eat?
#5. When was it built and how did the Colosseum get it's
name?
#6. What are the differences between the Roman style of government
and the United States style?
#7. When were slaves brought into Roman Society and what was
their life like?
#8. I have this quote that reads, "Greece has conquered
her rude conqueror." What does this mean? Who is "her rude
conqueror"?
#9. What was Rome's attitude toward the Jews of
Palestine?
#10. Name two ways in which Justinian revived the grandeur
of Ancient Rome?
Question #1
Q. What were the houses like for Romans who were wealthy?
The typical Roman home was set up with an impressive vestibule or atrium.
This space often had a fountain or pool as a central feature. It
often included a laraium or household shrine where they could worship domestic
gods and goddesses. Romans who were very wealthy had two homes, a town house
and a country house. The furnishings were kept simple but elegant.
Larger Roman homes typically had few windows to try and keep out the
heat of the sun. Windows were strategically placed near the dining
room, as they liked to eat next to nature. These homes had at least
one open courtyard. The floors were typically made up of marble
or stone tiles, often inlaid with mosaics and elaborate images. Many
of the larger homes had their own plumbed water and were sometimes furnished
with a hypocaust or underground central heating.
Question #2
Q. My social studies teacher requested an essay on why the fall of Rome
was inevitable due to crisis and decline. It has to be a five-point essay.
I already thought of two points: the split of the empire into two,
and the invasion by the barbarians. If you could help me think of another
major reason I would really appreciate it.
There are quite a few reasons that Rome fell, in addition what you mentioned
above:
1. Use of Foreign mercenaries: goes along with the Barbarian invasion
reason.
2. Cost of & Decline of the army
3. Decline/Collapse of the Economy: Money - lack of circulation
4. Split of the Church ideals and policies between the Eastern and Western
Empires
Here is a wonderful summary given by a friend, Ldrs AAC TchMrL, who also
teaches High School History:
The numbers of reasons may vary with the source in which you look, but my
high school textbook does list the following six reasons:
1) Weakened army - the quality of the army dropped. Fewer Roman citizens
volunteered for military service. Soldiers recruited from other parts of
the Empire cared little about Rome's goal of preserving order and spreading
peace;
2) Smaller population - Warfare, famine, a declining birthrate, and plagues
cut the Empire's population of the Empire. Population loss meant fewer soldiers
for the army, fewer taxpayers for the government, and fewer farmers to feed
Rome's people;
3) Oppressive government - Military and economic pressures led the government
to become extremely harsh in its rule, which caused many people to hate and
fear government officials more than they did the Germanic invaders;
4) Declining farms and cities - The heavy hand of the government, along with
barbarian attacks, drove many small farmers out of business. The farms were
snatched up by the nobles who more and more left Roman cities for their country
estates leaving the cities without strong leadership;
5) Stagnant economy - As small farms disappeared and cities decayed, Rome's
economy began to collapse. The widespread use of slave labor meant that common
people and landless farmers had trouble finding jobs and thus could not pay
for goods and business activity thus slowed. Also, fighting in the provinces
worsened the situation by disrupting trade and made tax collection nearly
impossible;
6) Loss of confidence - the government's inability to deal with the problems
it faced shook many Romans' faith in their civilization. For many people,
Rome was simply not worth defending any longer.
You can get more information about the Fall of Rome at my Ancient Rome web
site. Here is the hotlink for the Fall of Rome:
Ancient
Rome
http://member.aol.com/TeacherNet/AncientRome.html#Fall
By the way, I also liked some of the reasons listed under the 5th site: The
Fall of the Roman Empire: Some (Sometimes Silly) Explanations. You may be
able to work some of those in under a misc. heading.
Question #3
Q. What is the difference between the daily life of the poor and rich
romans?
Wealthy ancient Romans had slaves. In some homes, slaves were treated like
valued servants, in others, they were severely abused. Slaves kept the furnaces
burning in the bath houses, cooked meals in smoking chimneys in the kitchens,
cleaned, sewed, and did the household and garden labor for wealthy Romans.
Rich citizens escaped to their country estates to oversee their farms, but
mostly to enjoy some rest from the social duties of the city. The poor had
no one to do any of this for them.... they had to do all the work
themselves.
You can learn more by going to the following sites I have listed:
Ancient
Rome - Daily Life
http://members.aol.com/TeacherNet/AncientRome.html#Daily
Question #4
Q. What did the Ancient Romans eat?
The ancient Romans ate foods like bread, salads, fruits, fish, and so forth,
but no tomatoes!
The well-to-do Romans dined on such unusual dishes as boiled ostrich, roast
parrot, flamingo boiled with dates, and larks' tongues. You may run across
this in the websites.
You might want to take a look at the following websites I have listed:
Ancient
Rome - Food
http://members.aol.com/TeacherNet/AncientRome.html#Food
Question #5
Q. When was it built and how did the Colosseum get it's name?
The Colosseum is the most famous monument of Ancient Rome. Its original name
is Flavian Amphitheatre. It was started by Vespasian and then completed by
his son, Titus in around 80 A.D. It was built on the site where Nero had
had a huge villa for himself. Vespasian wanted to build something for the
people rather than for himself. It got its popular name, the Colosseum, because
it was built near where Nero had erected a huge statue, or colossus of
himself.
You can learn more about it at the following sites I have listed:
Ancient
Rome - Colosseum
http://members.aol.com/TeacherNet/AncientRome.html#Colosseum
Question #6
Q. What are the differences between the Roman style of government and
the United States style in the following areas: Branches of Government, Voting,
Citizenship, Executive leaders, Territorial Expansion, Military Power and
Religion?
Here is another wonderful answer by :LDRS AAC TchMrL:
1. Branches of Government - there were none in the Roman system. All power
was centered in the People and Senate during the Republic, and in the emperor
in the empire. The concept of governmental branches is American.
2. Voting- in ancient Rome were free-born male & female citizens who belonged by birth or assignment to one of the twelve tribes allowed to cast votes in the comitium (voting place). In the USA, all citizens over the age of 18 who register and who have not been convicted of a felony can vote.
3. Citizenship - in Rome was granted to free-born males born to Roman citizen fathers. The idea of citizenship was all-inclusive meaning that women too were also allowed to vote and had similar, but somewhat lesser rights than men. ( In Roman society women were respected and dignified, but they were still considered to be somewhat lesser to men and a women's place was at home.) Citizenship could also be granted for service in the army, for services to the state, or for payment of appropriate sums of money to various influential officials. In the USA, citizenship is achieved by birth to citizens, birth within the borders of the US, or naturalization.
3. Executive leaders- in Rome were the two consuls elected by the Senate for one-year terms. Their responsibility was for the day-to-day management of the governmental affairs of Rome. In the USA, the President is the Chief Executive and Commander in Chief. He is in charge of all military forces and is also in charge of all departments of the Executive branch of the federal government, including all cabinet posts and their staffs.
4. Territorial expansion- was an established feature of both the Republic and the Empire. Through expansion they could further enrich their treasury and also insure that the core of the Roman state was always safe from attack. The USA had a policy of Manifest Destiny throughout the 19th century, which declared that the US was destined to control the North American continent from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Since that time, the US has gained possessions and territories through treaty and war. Most of these possessions have since been granted full independence. Exceptions to this are the Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, Guam, Samoa and a few other Pacific areas.
5. Military Power- The Roman army was the greatest military power ever seen on the earth up until their own time. They were considered an invincible force and effectively conquered most of the world for the Roman state. The army's dominant position fell into decline when the soldiery became mostly foreigners and mercenaries, rather than dedicated citizen-soldiers. Then, too, the legions became political power brokers, who eventually were able to deliver the emperorship to whomever they wished for the right price. The present-day US military in all its branches is probably the strongest armed force ever to exist. The US is presently the only ranking superpower, as the world has come to understand this modern political concept.
6. Religion - The Romans had a complicated religious system which was based on hundreds of gods and so on. However, the role of religion was quite different because people usually had temples in their own homes, thus the effect of sermons bringing people together was not present in roman times. The American system tries to accomplish a seperation between Church and State. The American system is supposed to respect that not all people have or believe in the same religious view and also that some do not believe in any type of organized religion at all. Therefore, the government is not supposed to ascribe to any one religious view in governing.
Question #7
Q. When were slaves brought to Roman Society and what was their
life like?
The family was the cornerstone of society. The word 'familia' was an extended type of family which included more than only parents and children. Also slaves and former slaves belonged to the family. The First Punic War - 264-241 BC - brought 17,000 slaves to Rome and in the first part of the second century BC there came another 250,000. The original inhabitants of Rome, who were a bit old fashioned, spoke full of shame about the people who had slaves do all the work. They urged the citizens on, to go back to work on the fields again. Not many people followed this advice. Most slaves lived hard lives. They were often chained together and nobody took a slave's life very seriously. The wealthier the the family was, usually the better the treatment of the slave in terms of the quality of the food and clothing worn by the slave. Valuable slaves would run the farms of the Romans who had country homes.
You can read more about Slaves in the Roman times by going to the following
sites I have listed:
Ancient
Rome - Slavery
http://members.aol.com/TeacherNet/AncientRome.html#Slavery
Question #8
Q. I have this quote that reads, "Greece has conquered her rude conqueror."
What does this mean? Who is "her rude conqueror"?
This quote was by Horace – a Roman poet early in the Pax Romana; he
observed the Greek culture and heritage that the Romans had absorbed; "Greece
has conquered her rude conqueror;" wrote odes praising Rome. Simply this
means that Rome was the rude conqueror. Greece had the last laugh
as Rome adopted a lot of Greece's laws, customs and heritage into it's culture
and then claimed it as their own.
Here is where you can look at this:
Chapter
8 Terms
Question #9
Q. What was Rome's attitude toward the Jews of Palestine?
It depends on what time period you are asking about, before or after Christianity
was chosen for the Romans? I will clarify a few aspects of the Romans
and the Jewish Relations for you and then give you the web sites that will
help you learn about their relations during whatever time period you are
looking for.
1. Romans ruled Jerusalem by aristocrats and their priests, the Sadducees.
(They were a sect that had gone over and collaborated with the Romans. They
were still Jewish by religion -- but had accepted the Romans as their civil
government. They were despised by the other sects for this reason.) The Jews
did not crucify Jesus.... this was done by order of the political council
called the Sanhedrin and presided over by Jerusalem's High Priest, Caiaphas.
(All Roman) - Pontius Pilate – the Roman official who saw Jesus as a
threat to Rome’s authority in Palestine and therefore punished him to death
by crucifixion.
2. The persecution of the Jewish people (Anti-Semitism*) has been around
since biblical times. You can trace it's roots back almost to the beginning
of the Christianity. Belief in one God (monotheism*) and refusal to accept
or convert to the dominant Christian religion, always seemed to set the Jewish
people apart from other groups. The Romans were one of the first to persecute
the Jewish people soley for their religious beliefs. Before Christianity
was made the state religion of the Roman empire under Constantine, the Jewish
people were allowed to practice their religion freely. Once Constantine declared
the state religion, Judaism became the target of Roman authorities. One of
his first acts was to prohibit under punishment of death the marriage between
a Jew and a Christian woman. He reenacted the laws of his predecessors forbidding
Jews to live in Jerusalem and to engage in any proselytizing activity.
ORB
Online Encyclopedia--Overview of Late Antiquity Section 8: Religion and the
Roman Empire -- Jud
www.unipissing.ca/department/history/orb/OVC1S8.HTM
- Jews consciously stood apart from the rest of Mediterranean society, refusing
to sacrifice to the gods of the city or, in imperial times, to the divine
emperor who symbolized Roman order.
ORB
Online Encyclopedia--Overview of Late Antiquity: Section 9: Religion and
the Roman Empire
www.unipissing.ca/department/history/orb/ovc1s9.htm
- Christianity was in origin a sect among the Jews, one of many. The first
Jewish Christians were convinced that Jesus of Nazareth was the Messiah
("anointed one," in Greek "christos") foretold in scripture and precursor
and agent of the Last Judgment. Like the synagogues, Christian churches united
a people who rejected all other obligations. Christians, after all, believed
that they were the New Israel, the chosen people of the one God.
Jews and Christians
in Rome's Golden Age
www.fsmitha.com/h1/ch19.htm
- Scroll to this paragraph: The Death of Resurrection of Jesus
Jesus was taken before a political council called the Sanhedrin, presided
over by Jerusalem's High Priest, Caiaphas......
Rome
and the Jews, Part I
web.reed.edu/academic/departments/classics/JewsandRome1.html
-- excellent - it also includes how the Jews were treated in Rome
and their expulsion from it.
- Judea enjoyed a political independence, of sorts, from the revolt of the
Maccabees against Seleucid (Syrian) domination beginning in 166 BC.
Interestingly, it was in the initial stages of the revolt that the Jews had
their first diplomatic contact with Rome; in 164...
- Rome became directly involved in Jewish politics in the years 66-63 BC,
when two Hasmonean brothers (Hyrcanus II and Aristobulus II) were engaged
in a civil war over the throne, and each appealed to the Roman legate in
Syria for support.
Rome
and the Jews, Part II
web.reed.edu/academic/departments/classics/JewsandRome2.html
- . Undeniably, the threat of Caligula to desecrate the Temple of Jerusalem
strengthened the hand of the Jewish nationalists, just as abusive government
by corrupt prefects and procurators had in the past, and would again....
We
remember: a reflection on the Shoah
www.vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_councils/chrstuni/documents/rc_pc_chrstuni_doc_16031998_shoah_en.html
- Scroll to: III. Relations between Jews and Christians
I have collected relevant web sites on the issue of Roma and the Jews below,
it is located on my Ancient Rome page:
Ancient
Rome - Judaism
members.aol.com/TeacherNet/AncientRome.html#Judaism
Question # 10
Q. Name two ways in which Justinian revived the grandeur of Ancient
Rome?
1. His extensive building program has left us the most celebrated example
of Byzantine ecclesiastical architecture that still survives: Hagia Sophia
in modern Istanbul. Also the Nea (New) Church of St. Mary and the Cardo in
Jerusalem.
2. Justinian's greatest accomplishment was the codification of Roman law,
commonly called the Corpus Juris Civilis. It gave unity to the centralized
state and greatly influenced all subsequent legal history. The Codex Justinianus,
the Institutes and the Digest of Roman jurisprudence, all commissioned by
Justinian, are monuments to the past achievements of Roman legal heritage.
See the following sites listed to learn more:
Ancient
Rome - Justinian
http://members.aol.com/TeacherNet/AncientRome.html
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