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Manners & Customs

Roman Society

Equality as we know it was practically unknown the Romans. Women were treated as inferiors, the slave trade was booming, and, as one person put it, Rome was a great civilization for the few built on the backs of many. In any event, Roman society held different rules for different demographics, such as those below....

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Status of Women in Ancient Rome

Women were not citizens of Rome. Only adult free men were citizens. The ancient Roman men believed that a women had to be under a guardianship. That guardianship could be a father or a husband. But they believed a women was unable to direct her own activities. As Cicero once said of early Roman men, 'Our ancestors, in their wisdom, considered that ...

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Ancient Roman Family and Marriage

600 BC to about 1 AD - Before the Imperial Age, in very earlyn Roman times, families were organized rather like mini Greek city-states. Everybody in one family lived in one home, including the great grandparents, grandparents, parents and children. The head of the family was the oldest male. That could be the father, the grandfather, or perhaps eve...

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Roman Children

Only children from wealthy families went to school. Poor families needed their children to help work. Schools were not free. Poor families could not pay the tuition. Often children from poor families were taught by their parents at home. Some Roman families paid school masters to teach their children. The school year started on March 24. Schools we...

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Roman Medicine

Ancient Roman medicine was a combination of some limited scientific knowledge, and a deeply rooted religious and mythological system. While knowledge of anatomy was quite impressive, and many surgical techniques were only surpassed in the modern age, the application of medicines and cures was simplistic and largely ineffective. Much of the Roman sy...

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Roman Entertainment

Entertainment was essential to daily life in Ancient Rome. As noted by Juvenal, it seemed that all Romans were interested in was "bread and circuses." And with theaters, amphitheaters, circuses, and public baths galore, the Romans never seemed to get bored....

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Odyssey Rome: Daily Life

Throughout our exploration of ancient cultures on Odyssey Online, we've used museum objects to learn about the people who made and used them. But, for the most part, we don't know the exact "context," or place, where each object was found. Archaeologists and other specialists study ancient sites and the artifacts found there to try and shed light o...

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Roman Marriage

The chief purpose of Roman matrimony, as stated in marriage contracts and various laws, was the obvious one of producing and bringing up children. The Roman government often made efforts to encourage marriage and large families; in particular, the Emperor Augustus introduced a law which laid down penalties for those who remained unmarried (for exam...

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Medicine in Ancient Rome

The Ancient Romans, like the Ancient Greeks and Ancient Egyptians, made a huge input into medicine and health, though their input was mainly concerned with public health schemes. Though the Roman "˜discoveries' may not have been in the field of pure medicine, poor hygiene by people was a constant source of disease, so any improvement in public heal...

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Roman Funerals

The Romans had a short life expectancy due to disease, limited medical knowledge and almost constant wars. Funerary rituals and practices played an essential part in their lives, as they believed that honouring the deceased members of their family and a proper burial were essential for the Afterlife. Central to the Romans very detailed view of the ...

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