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Culture of ancient Rome

 
Culture of Ancient Rome

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Culture of ancient Rome



 
 
Ancient Roman
Ancient Rome

Ancient Rome was a civilization that grew out of a small agricultural community founded on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 10th century BC....
  culture
Culture

Culture is difficult to define. For example, in 1952, Alfred Kroeber and Clyde Kluckhohn compiled a list of 164 definitions of "culture" in Culture: A Critical Review of Concepts and Definitions....
 evolved throughout the almost 1200-year history of that civilization
Civilization

A civilization is a society or culture group normally defined as a complex society characterized by the practice of agriculture and settlement in towns and city....
. The term refers to the culture of the Roman Republic
Roman Republic

The Roman Republic was the phase of the Ancient Rome characterized by a republican form of government; a period which began with the overthrow of the Roman Roman Kingdom, c....
, later the Roman Empire
Roman Empire

The Roman Empire was the Roman Republic phase of the Ancient Rome, characterised by an autocracy form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
, which, at peak, covered an area from Cumbria
Cumbria

Cumbria is a non-metropolitan county in the North West England of England. Cumbria came into existence as a county in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972....
 and Morocco
Morocco

Morocco , officially the Kingdom of Morocco , is a country located in North Africa with a population of nearly 34 million and an area just under 447,000 km2....
 to the Euphrates
Euphrates

The Euphrates is the western of the two great rivers that define Mesopotamia which flows from Anatolia....
.

Life in ancient Rome
Ancient Rome

Ancient Rome was a civilization that grew out of a small agricultural community founded on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 10th century BC....
 revolved around the city
City

A city is an urban area with a high population density and a particular administrative, legal, or historical status.Large industrialized cities generally have advanced systems for sanitation, utilities, land usage, house, and transportation and more....
 of Rome
Rome

Rome is the capital city of Italy and Lazio, and is Italy's largest and most populous city, with 2,724,347 residents in an urban area of some ....
, its famed seven hills
Seven hills of Rome

The Seven Hills of Rome east of the river Tiber form the geographical heart of Rome, within the Servian Wall of the ancient city.The seven hills are:...
, and its monument
Monument

A monument is a type of structure either explicitly created to commemorate a person or important event or which has become important to a social group as a part of their remembrance of past events....
al structure
Structure

Structure is a fundamental and sometimes intangible notion covering the recognition, observation, nature , and stability of patterns and relationships of entities....
s such as the Flavian Amphitheatre (now called the Colosseum
Colosseum

The Colosseum or Roman Coliseum, originally the Flavian Amphitheatre , is an elliptical amphitheatre in the center of the city of Rome, Italy, the largest ever built in the Roman Empire....
), the Forum of Trajan and the Pantheon
Pantheon, Rome

The Pantheon is a building in Rome which was originally built as a temple to all the gods of Ancient Rome, and rebuilt circa 126 AD during Hadrian's reign....
. The city also had several theater
Roman theatre (structure)

File:Amman Roman theatre.jpgA Roman theatre is a Theater structure influenced by Hellenistic Greece....
s, gymnasium
Gymnasium (ancient Greece)

The gymnasium in ancient Greece functioned as a training facility for competitors in public games. It was also a place for socializing and engaging in intellectual pursuits....
s, and many tavern
Tavern

A tavern or pot-house is, loosely, a place of business where people gather to drink alcoholic beverages and, more than likely, also be served food, though not licensed to put up guests....
s, bath
Thermae

The terms balnea or thermae were the words the Ancient Rome used for the buildings housing their public baths.Most Roman cities had at least one, if not many, such buildings, which were centers of public bathing and socialization....
s and brothel
Brothel

A brothel, also known as a bordello, cathouse or whorehouse, is an establishment specifically dedicated to prostitution, providing the prostitutes a place to meet and to have sex with clients....
s.






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Ancient Roman
Ancient Rome

Ancient Rome was a civilization that grew out of a small agricultural community founded on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 10th century BC....
  culture
Culture

Culture is difficult to define. For example, in 1952, Alfred Kroeber and Clyde Kluckhohn compiled a list of 164 definitions of "culture" in Culture: A Critical Review of Concepts and Definitions....
 evolved throughout the almost 1200-year history of that civilization
Civilization

A civilization is a society or culture group normally defined as a complex society characterized by the practice of agriculture and settlement in towns and city....
. The term refers to the culture of the Roman Republic
Roman Republic

The Roman Republic was the phase of the Ancient Rome characterized by a republican form of government; a period which began with the overthrow of the Roman Roman Kingdom, c....
, later the Roman Empire
Roman Empire

The Roman Empire was the Roman Republic phase of the Ancient Rome, characterised by an autocracy form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
, which, at peak, covered an area from Cumbria
Cumbria

Cumbria is a non-metropolitan county in the North West England of England. Cumbria came into existence as a county in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972....
 and Morocco
Morocco

Morocco , officially the Kingdom of Morocco , is a country located in North Africa with a population of nearly 34 million and an area just under 447,000 km2....
 to the Euphrates
Euphrates

The Euphrates is the western of the two great rivers that define Mesopotamia which flows from Anatolia....
.

Life in ancient Rome
Ancient Rome

Ancient Rome was a civilization that grew out of a small agricultural community founded on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 10th century BC....
 revolved around the city
City

A city is an urban area with a high population density and a particular administrative, legal, or historical status.Large industrialized cities generally have advanced systems for sanitation, utilities, land usage, house, and transportation and more....
 of Rome
Rome

Rome is the capital city of Italy and Lazio, and is Italy's largest and most populous city, with 2,724,347 residents in an urban area of some ....
, its famed seven hills
Seven hills of Rome

The Seven Hills of Rome east of the river Tiber form the geographical heart of Rome, within the Servian Wall of the ancient city.The seven hills are:...
, and its monument
Monument

A monument is a type of structure either explicitly created to commemorate a person or important event or which has become important to a social group as a part of their remembrance of past events....
al structure
Structure

Structure is a fundamental and sometimes intangible notion covering the recognition, observation, nature , and stability of patterns and relationships of entities....
s such as the Flavian Amphitheatre (now called the Colosseum
Colosseum

The Colosseum or Roman Coliseum, originally the Flavian Amphitheatre , is an elliptical amphitheatre in the center of the city of Rome, Italy, the largest ever built in the Roman Empire....
), the Forum of Trajan and the Pantheon
Pantheon, Rome

The Pantheon is a building in Rome which was originally built as a temple to all the gods of Ancient Rome, and rebuilt circa 126 AD during Hadrian's reign....
. The city also had several theater
Roman theatre (structure)

File:Amman Roman theatre.jpgA Roman theatre is a Theater structure influenced by Hellenistic Greece....
s, gymnasium
Gymnasium (ancient Greece)

The gymnasium in ancient Greece functioned as a training facility for competitors in public games. It was also a place for socializing and engaging in intellectual pursuits....
s, and many tavern
Tavern

A tavern or pot-house is, loosely, a place of business where people gather to drink alcoholic beverages and, more than likely, also be served food, though not licensed to put up guests....
s, bath
Thermae

The terms balnea or thermae were the words the Ancient Rome used for the buildings housing their public baths.Most Roman cities had at least one, if not many, such buildings, which were centers of public bathing and socialization....
s and brothel
Brothel

A brothel, also known as a bordello, cathouse or whorehouse, is an establishment specifically dedicated to prostitution, providing the prostitutes a place to meet and to have sex with clients....
s. Throughout the territory under ancient Rome's control, residential architecture
Architecture

The term architecture can refer to a process, a profession or documentation.As a process, architecture is the activity of designing and construction buildings and other physical structures by a person or a computer, primarily to provide shelter....
 ranged from very modest house
House

A house generally refers to a or building that is a dwelling or place for habitation by humans. The term includes many kinds of dwellings ranging from rudimentary huts of nomadic tribes to high-rise apartment buildings....
s to country villas
Roman villa

A Roman villa is a villa that was built or lived in during the Roman republic and the Roman Empire. A villa was originally a Rome country house built for the upper class....
, and in the capital city
Capital City

Capital City was a television show produced by Euston Films which focused on the lives of investment bankers in London living and working on the corporate trading floor for the fictional international bank Shane-Longman....
 of Rome, there were imperial
Roman Empire

The Roman Empire was the Roman Republic phase of the Ancient Rome, characterised by an autocracy form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
 residences
House

A house generally refers to a or building that is a dwelling or place for habitation by humans. The term includes many kinds of dwellings ranging from rudimentary huts of nomadic tribes to high-rise apartment buildings....
 on the elegant Palatine Hill
Palatine Hill

The Palatine Hill is the centermost of the Seven Hills of Rome and is one of the most ancient parts of the city. It stands 40 metres above the Roman Forum, looking down upon it on one side, and upon the Circus Maximus on the other....
, from which the word "palace" is derived. The vast majority of the population lived in the city center, packed into insulae (apartment blocks).

The town of Rome was the largest megalopolis
Megalopolis

Megalopolis may refer to:* Megalopolis , an extensive metropolitan area or a long chain of continuous metropolitan areas.** Jean Gottmann coined this term and later used it as the title of his 1961 book about the northeastern seaboard of the United States....
 of that time, with a population that may well have exceeded one million people, with a high end estimate of 3.5 million and a low end estimate of 450,000. The public spaces in Rome resounded with such a din of hooves and clatter of iron chariot
Chariot

The chariot is the earliest and simplest type of carriage, used in both peace and war as the chief vehicle of many ancient peoples. Chariots were built in Mesopotamia by the Mesopotamians as early as 3000 BC and in China during the 2nd millennium BC....
 wheels that Julius Caesar
Julius Caesar

'Gaius Julius Caesar' , July 13, 100 BC ? March 15, 44 BC,) was a Roman Republic military and political leader. He played a critical role in the transformation of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire....
 had once proposed a ban on chariot traffic at night. Historical estimates indicate that around 30 percent of population under the jurisdiction of the ancient Rome lived in innumerable urban centers, with population of at least 10,000 and several military settlements, a very high rate of urbanization by preindustrial 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
Roman Forum

The Roman Forum , sometimes known by its original Latin name, is located between the Palatine hill and the Capitoline hill of the city of Rome. It is the central area around which the Ancient Rome developed....
 and temples and 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
Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic , is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia....
 farm
Farm

A farm is an area of land, including various structures, devoted primarily to the practice of producing and managing food , fibers and, increasingly, fuel....
s supplied vegetable
Vegetable

The term "vegetable" generally means the Eating parts of plants. The definition of the word is traditional rather than scientific, however, and therefore the usage of the word is somewhat arbitrary and subjective, as it is determined by individual cultural customs of food selection and food preparation....
s and fruit
Fruit

The term fruit has different meanings dependent on context, and the term is not synonymous in food preparation and biology. In botany, which is the scientific study of plants, fruits are the ripened Ovary of flowering plants....
s, but fish
Fish

A fish is any marine biology vertebrate animal that is typically ectothermic , covered with scale , and equipped with two sets of paired fins and several unpaired fins....
 and meat
Meat

In modern English usage, meat most often refers to animal biological tissue used as food, mostly skeletal muscle and associated fat, but it may also refer to offal, including livers, skin, brains, bone marrow, kidneys, in some countries lungs, and a variety of other internal organs as well as blood....
 were luxuries. Aqueducts
Roman aqueduct

Romans constructed numerous aqueducts to supply water to cities and industrial sites. These aqueducts were amongst the greatest engineering feats of the ancient world, and set a standard not equaled for over a thousand years after the fall of Rome....
 were built to bring water
Water

Water is a common chemical substance that is essential for the survival of all known forms of life. In typical usage, water refers only to its liquid form or States of matter, but the substance also has a solid state, ice, and a gaseous state, water vapor or steam....
 to urban centers and wine
Ancient Rome and wine

Ancient Rome played a pivotal role in the history of wine of wine. The earliest influences of viticulture on the Italian peninsula can be traced to Ancient Greece and wine and Etruscan civilization....
 and oil
Cooking oil

Cooking oil is purified fat of plant origin, which is liquid at room temperature.Some of the many different kinds of edible Vegetable fats and oilss include: olive oil, palm oil, soybean oil, canola oil, pumpkin seed oil, corn oil, sunflower oil, safflower oil, peanut oil, grape seed oil, sesame oil, argan oil and rice bran oil....
 were imported from Hispania
Hispania

Hispania was the name given by the Ancient Rome to the whole of the Iberian Peninsula . When Rome was a Roman Republic, Hispania was divided into Roman provinces: Hispania Citerior and Hispania Ulterior....
, Gaul
Gaul

Gaul is the name used for the region of Western Europe comprising part of present day northern Italy, France, Belgium, western Switzerland and the parts of the Netherlands and Germany on the west bank of the River Rhine....
 and Africa
Africa

Africa is the world's second-largest and second most-populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km? including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area....
.

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.

Eighty percent of the population under the jurisdiction
Jurisdiction

In law, jurisdiction is the practical authority granted to a formally constituted legal body or to a political leader to deal with and make pronouncements on legal matters and, by implication, to administer justice within a defined area of responsibility....
 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
Slavery

Slavery is a form of forced labor where a person is compelled to Labor for another . Slaves are held against their will from the time of their capture, purchase, or birth, and are deprived of the right to leave, to refuse to work, or to receive Remuneration in return for their labor....
 was generally worse than their counterparts working in urban aristocratic household
Household

The household is "the basic residential unit in which production , consumption , inheritance, child rearing, and shelter are organized and carried out"; [the household] "may or may not be synonomous with family"....
s. To stimulate a higher labor productivity most landlords freed a large numbers of slaves and many received wages. Some records indicate that "as many as 42 people lived in one small farm hut in Egypt
Egypt

Egypt is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Western Asia. Covering an area of about , Egypt borders the Mediterranean Sea to the north, the Gaza Strip and Israel to the northeast, the Red Sea to the east, Sudan to the south and Libya to the west....
, while six families owned a single olive tree." . Such a rural environment continued to induce 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 second century BC, in every aspect of the private culture of the upper classes, 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 villa
Roman villa

A Roman villa is a villa that was built or lived in during the Roman republic and the Roman Empire. A villa was originally a Rome country house built for the upper class....
s, or were imitated in Roman sculpture yards by Greek slaves. The Roman cuisine preserved in the cookery books ascribed to Apicius
Apicius

Apicius is the title of a collection of Roman cookery recipes, usually thought to have been compiled in the late 4th or early 5th century AD and written in a language that is in many ways closer to Vulgar Latin than to Classical Latin....
 is essentially Greek. Roman writers disdained Latin for a cultured Greek style. Only in law and governance was the Italic nature of Rome's accretive culture supreme.

Against this human background, both the urban
Urban area

An urban area is an area with an increased Population density of human-created structures in comparison to the areas surrounding it. Urban areas may be city, towns or conurbations, but the term is not commonly extended to rural settlements such as villages and hamlet ....
 and rural
Rural

Rural areas are large and isolated areas of a country, often with low populations. Today, 75 percent of the United States' inhabitants live in suburban and urban areas, but cities occupy only 2 percent of the country....
 setting, one of history's most influential civilization
Civilization

A civilization is a society or culture group normally defined as a complex society characterized by the practice of agriculture and settlement in towns and city....
s took shape, leaving behind a cultural legacy that survives in part today.

Historical and cultural context

Many aspects of Roman culture were taken from the ancient Greeks
Ancient Greece

The term Ancient Greece refers to the period of History of Greece lasting from the Greek Dark Ages ca. 1100 BC and the Dorian invasion, to 146 BC and the Roman Republic conquest of Greece after the Battle of Corinth ....
. In architecture
Architecture

The term architecture can refer to a process, a profession or documentation.As a process, architecture is the activity of designing and construction buildings and other physical structures by a person or a computer, primarily to provide shelter....
 and sculpture
Sculpture

Sculpture is Three-dimensional space artwork created by shaping or combining hard and or plastic material, sound, and or text and or light, commonly Stone sculpture , metal, glass, or wood....
, the difference between Greek models and Roman paintings are apparent. The chief Roman contributions to architecture were the arch
Arch

An arch is a structure that Span a space while supporting weight . Arches appeared as early as the 2nd millennium BC in Mesopotamian brick architecture, but their systematic use started with the Ancient Rome who were the first to apply the technique to a wide range of structures....
, and the dome
Dome

A dome is a structural element of architecture that resembles the hollow upper half of a sphere. Dome structures made of various materials have a long architectural lineage extending into prehistory....
 it made possible. While much Roman sculpture was derivative of Greek models, and all deeply indebted to Greek techniques, the Roman character made portrait
Portrait

A portrait is a portrait painting, portrait photography, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face and its expression is predominant....
ure the strongest and most original aspect of Roman sculpture. Strongly characterized portrait busts like the surviving portrait bust of Cato the Elder
Cato the Elder

Marcus Porcius Cato was a Ancient Rome statesman, surnamed the Censor , the Wise , the Ancient , or the Elder , to distinguish him from Cato the Younger ....
 display a clearly envisioned, strongly individual character, not an idealized type such as are typically found in Greek portrait sculptures.

Rome has also had a tremendous impact on Western cultures following it. Its significance is perhaps best reflected in its endurance and influence, as is seen in the longevity and lasting importance of works of Virgil
Virgil

Publius Vergilius Maro was a classical Roman poet, best known for three major works?the Bucolics , the Georgics and the Aeneid?although several Appendix Vergiliana are also attributed to him....
 and Ovid
Ovid

Publius Ovidius Naso was a Roman Empire poet known as Ovid to the English language-speaking world, who wrote about love, seduction, and Roman mythology transformation....
. Additionally telling are the many aspects of Classical culture
Classical antiquity

Classical antiquity is a broad term for a long period of cultural history centered on the Mediterranean Sea, comprising the interlocking civilizations of Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome....
 that have been incorporated into the cultures of those states rising from the ashes of the Roman Empire. Latin
Latin

Latin is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Through the Military history of the Roman Empire, Latin spread throughout the Mediterranean and a large part of Europe....
, the empire's primary language, remains used in religion
Religion

A religion is an organized approach to human spirituality which usually encompasses a set of myth, symbols, beliefs and practices, often with a supernatural or transcendence quality, that give meaning to the practitioner's experiences of life through reference to a higher power or truth....
, science
Science

In its broadest sense, science refers to any systematic knowledge or practice. In its more usual restricted sense, science refers to a system of acquiring knowledge based on scientific method, as well as to the organized body of knowledge gained through such research....
, and law
LAW

LAW may refer to:* Anti-tank warfare, e.g. the US Army M72 LAW or the British Army LAW 80*Palestinian Society for the Protection of Human Rights ...
. Christianity
Christianity

Christianity is a Monotheistic religion #Christian view religion centered on the life and teachings of Jesus as New Testament view on Jesus' life....
 was adopted by the official culture in the later 4th century; its triumph over rival officially sanctioned cults, of Mithras
Mithraism

The Mithraic Mysteries or Mysteries of Mithras was a mystery cult which became popular among the military in the Roman Empire, from the 1st to 4th centuries AD....
, Isis
ISIS

ISIS is an industry standard interface for technologies, developed by Pixel Translations in 1990 .ISIS is an open standard for scanner control and a complete image-processing framework....
, or Sol Invictus
Sol Invictus

Sol Invictus was the Roman official religion sun god created by the emperor Aurelian in 274 and continued, overshadowing other Eastern cults in importance, until the abolition of paganism under Theodosius I....
 can be partly attributed to its promotion by Roman authorities.

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 blood relations but also by the legally constructed relation of patria potestas. The Pater familias
Pater familias

for the episode of Ghost Whisperer, see Pater Familias.The pater familias was the highest ranking family status in an Ancient Rome household, Patriarchy....
 was the absolute head of the family; he was the master over his wife (if she was given to him sub manu, otherwise the father of wife retained patria potestas), his children, the wives of his sons (again if married sub 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. Roman law recognized only patrician families as legal entities.

Slavery
Slavery

Slavery is a form of forced labor where a person is compelled to Labor for another . Slaves are held against their will from the time of their capture, purchase, or birth, and are deprived of the right to leave, to refuse to work, or to receive Remuneration in return for their labor....
 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
Property

Property is any physical or virtual entity that is ownership by an individual or jointly by a group of individuals. An owner of property has the right to consumption, sell, Renting, mortgage, transfer and exchange his or her property....
. Many slaves were freed by the masters for fine services rendered; some slaves could save money to buy their freedom. Generally mutilation
Mutilation

Mutilation or maiming is an act or physical injury that degrades the appearance or function of the body, usually without causing death....
 and murder
Murder

Murder as defined in common law countries, is the unlawful killing of another human being with intent , and generally this state of mind distinguishes murder from other forms of unlawful homicide....
 of slaves was prohibited by legislation although, outrageous cruelty continued.

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
Clientela

Clientela was a Ancient Rome social convention that linked plebs with the legal, social, and sometimes economic protection of Patrician families....
 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
Gens

In ancient Rome, a gens was a clan, caste, or group of families, that shared a common name and a belief in a common ancestor. In the Roman naming convention, the second name was the name of the gens to which the person belonged....
. 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 three tribes (Ramnenses, Titientes, Luceres).

During the time of the Roman Republic
Roman Republic

The Roman Republic was the phase of the Ancient Rome characterized by a republican form of government; a period which began with the overthrow of the Roman Roman Kingdom, c....
 (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.

Customs and daily life

Life in the ancient Roman cities revolved around the Forum
Forum (Roman)

The Forum was the public space in the middle of a Ancient Rome city.A gathering place of great social significance, it was often the scene of diverse activities, including political discussions, meetings, et cetera....
, the central business district
Central business district

A central business district is the commercial and often geographic heart of a city. In Australia, China , Republic of Ireland, Kenya, New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore and South Africa, the phrase is commonly used, and is often colloquially abbreviated to "CBD"....
, where most of the Romans would go for marketing
Marketing

Marketing is defined by the American Marketing Association as the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large....
, shopping
Shopping

Shopping is the examining of goods or Service from retailers with intent to Trade at that time. Shopping is the activity of selection and/or purchase....
, trading
Trade

Tradeis the willing exchange of goods, Service , or both. Trade is also called commerce. A mechanism that allows trade is called a market. The original form of trade was barter , the direct exchange of goods and services....
 banking, and for participating in festivities and ceremonies. The Forum was also a place where orators would express themselves to mould public opinion
Public opinion

Public opinion is the aggregate of individual attitudes or beliefs held by the adult population. The principle approaches to the study of public opinion may be divided into 4 categories:...
, and elicit support for any particular issue of interest to them or others. Before sunrise
Sunrise

Sunrise is the instant at which the upper edge of the Sun appears above the horizon in the east. Sunrise should not be confused with dawn, which is the point at which the sky begins to lighten, some time before the sun itself appears, ending twilight....
, 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 and women. The main difference was that the women's baths were 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 night. Huge crowds gathered at the Colosseum
Colosseum

The Colosseum or Roman Coliseum, originally the Flavian Amphitheatre , is an elliptical amphitheatre in the center of the city of Rome, Italy, the largest ever built in the Roman Empire....
 to watch events like gladiator
Gladiator

A Gladiator was a slave, criminal or professional fighter in ancient Rome. Gladiators fought other gladiators, wild animals and condemned criminals, sometimes to the death, for the entertainment of Spectator sport in cities and towns of the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire, from the 3rd century BCE to the 5th century CE....
s, combats between men, or fights between men and the wild animals. The Circus Maximus
Circus Maximus

The Circus Maximus is an ancient hippodrome and mass entertainment venue located in Rome. Situated in the valley between the Aventine Hill and Palatine Hill hills, it was the first and largest circus in ancient Rome....
 was used for chariot racing. Life in the countryside was slow but lively, with numerous local festival
Festival

A festival is an event, usually and ordinarily staged by a local community, which centers on some unique aspect of that community.Among many religions, a feast or festival is a set of celebrations in honour of God or Polytheism....
s 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 the 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 market
Market

A market is any one of a variety of different systems, institutions, procedures, social relations and infrastructures whereby persons trade, and goods and services are exchanged, forming part of the economy....
s. The day ended with a meal, generally left over from the noon time preparations.

Clothing

Toga Illustration
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 and slaves was made from coarse and dark material, whereas the tunic
Tunic

A tunic is any of several types of clothing for the body, with or without sleeves, and of various lengths reaching from the shoulders to somewhere between the hips and the ankles....
 worn by patricians was of linen or white wool. A magistrate would wear the tunica augusticlavi; senators wore a tunic with broad strips, 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. Magistrates in office also wore this. The toga virilis, (or toga pura) or man's toga was worn by men over the age of 16 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
Footwear

Footwear consists of garments worn on the foot, for protective clothing against the environment, and adornment. Socks and other hosiery are worn between the feet and the footwear, except for Sandal s and flip flops ....
 indicated a person’s social status. Patricians wore red and orange sandals
Sandal (footwear)

Sandals are an open type of footwear, consisting of a sole held to the wearer's foot by straps or thongs passing over the instep and around the ankle....
, senators had brown footwear, consuls had white shoes, and soldiers wore heavy boots. Women wore closed shoes of colors like white, yellow or green.

The bulla
Bulla (amulet)

Bulla, an amulet and worn like a locket, was given to children, at the time of birth, in Ancient Rome. A bulla was worn around the neck as a locket to protect against evil spirits and forces....
 was a locket
Locket

A locket is a pendant that opens to reveal a space used for storing a photograph or other small item such as a curl of hair. Lockets are usually given to loved ones on holidays such as Valentine's Day and occasions such as Christening, wedding and, most noticeably during the Victorian Age, funeral....
-like amulet worn by children. When about to marry, the woman would donate her bulla to the household gods, along with her toys to signify maturity and womanhood.

Men typically wore a toga
Toga

The toga, a distinctive garment of Ancient Rome, was a cloth of perhaps twenty feet in length which was wrapped around the body and generally was worn over a tunic....
, and women a stola
Stola

The stola was the traditional garment of Ancient Rome women, corresponding to the toga that was worn by men. In ancient Rome, it was considered disgraceful for a woman to wear a toga; wearing the male garment was associated with prostitution....
.

The woman's stola looked different than a toga, and was usually bright colored. A fibula (or brooch) would be used as ornamentation or to hold the stola in place. A palla, or shawl also accessorized a Roman woman.

Dining


Since the beginning of the Republic until 200 BC, ancient Romans had very simple food habits. Staple food was simple, generally consumed at around 11 o’clock, and consisted of bread
Bread

Bread is a staple food prepared by baking a dough of flour and water. It may be leavened or unleavened. Edible salt, fat and a leavening agent such as yeast are common ingredients, though bread may contain a range of other ingredients: milk, Egg , sugar, spice, fruit , vegetables , Nut or seeds ....
, salad
Salad

Salad is a mixture of cold or hot foods, usually including vegetables and/or fruits, often with a dressing, occasionally nuts or croutons, and sometimes with the addition of meat, fish, pasta, cheese, eggs, or whole grains....
, olive
Olive

The Olive is a species of small tree in the family Oleaceae, native to the coastal areas of the eastern Mediterranean region, from Lebanon, Syria and the maritime parts of Turkey and northern Iran at the south end of the Caspian Sea....
s, cheese
Cheese

Cheese is a food consisting of proteins and fat from milk, usually the milk of cattle, Water Buffalo, goats, or sheep's milk. It is produced by Coagulation of the milk protein casein....
, fruit
Fruit

The term fruit has different meanings dependent on context, and the term is not synonymous in food preparation and biology. In botany, which is the scientific study of plants, fruits are the ripened Ovary of flowering plants....
s, nut
Nut (fruit)

Nut is a general term for the large, dry, oily seed or fruit of some plant. While a wide variety of dried seeds and fruits are called nuts, only a certain number of them are considered by biologists to be true nuts....
s, 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 stool
Stool

A stool can refer to:*A type of chair without back and Armrest.** A bar stool ** Footstool* A flush toilet, in some dialects* Feces:* A living stump capable of producing sprouts or cuttings....
s around a table
Table (furniture)

A table is a item of furniture comprising a surface supported by a base or legs. It may be used to hold articles such as food at a convenient or comfortable height when sitting, and is therefore often used in conjunction with chairs....
. Later on, a separate dining room with dining couches was designed, called a triclinium. Fingers were used to take foods which was prepared to be handled with fingers beforehand and spoon
Spoon

A spoon is a utensil consisting of a small shallow bowl, oval or round, at the end of a handle. A type of cutlery , especially as part of a table setting, it is used primarily for serving and eating liquid or semisolid food , and solid foods such as rice and cereal which cannot easily be lifted with a fork....
s were used for soups.

Wine was considered a staple drink, consumed at all meals and occasions by all classes and was quite cheap; however, it was always drunk mixed with water. This was the case even during explicit evening drinking events (comissatio) where an important part of the festivity was choosing a arbiter bibendi (Judge of Drinking) who was, among other things, responsible for deciding the ratio of wine to water in the drinking wine. Common 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-consummation of wine per day in the city Rome has been estimated to 0.8 - 1.1 gallons for males and about 0.5 gallons for females. Even the notoriously strict Cato
Cato

Cato may refer to:...
 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 nonwatered wine on an empty stomach was regarded as boorish and a sure sign for alcoholism
Alcoholism

Alcoholism is a term with multiple and sometimes conflicting definitions to describe the detrimental effects of alcohol intake.In common and historic usage, alcoholism refers to any condition that results in the continued consumption of alcoholic beverages despite health problems and negative social consequences....
 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
Cicero

Marcus Tullius Cicero was a Ancient Rome philosopher, statesman, lawyer, political theorist, and Constitution of the Roman Republic. Cicero is widely considered one of Rome's greatest rhetoric and prose stylists....
 and Caesar
Caesar

Caesar or C?sar may refer to the following:...
. Prominent Roman alcoholics include Mark Antony
Mark Antony

Marcus Antonius , known in English as Marc Antony, was a Roman Republic politician and General. He was an important supporter and the best friend of Julius Caesar as a military commander and administrator, being Caesar's second cousin, once removed, by his mother Julia Antonia....
, Cicero's own son Marcus (Cicero Minor
Cicero Minor

Marcus Tullius Cicero Minor or Cicero the Younger was the second child and only son to Rome?s most famous orator, consul and senator Marcus Tullius Cicero from his first marriage to Terentia....
) and the emperor Tiberius Claudius Nero
Tiberius Claudius Nero

Tiberius Claudius Nero may refer to several individuals of the Roman Republic and Roman Empire:* Tiberius Claudius Nero, the son of Appius Claudius Caecus...
 whose soldiers gave him the unflattering nickname Biberius Caldius Nero (lit. boozer of pure wine, Sueton Tib. 42,1). Cato the Younger
Cato the Younger

File:Silver_denarius_of_Cato_47_46_BCE.jpgMarcus Porcius Cato Uticensis , known as Cato the Younger to distinguish him from his great-grandfather , was a politician and statesman in the late Roman Republic, and a follower of the Stoicism philosophy....
 was also known as a heavy drinker, frequently found stumbling home disorientatedly in the early hours of morning by fellow citizens.

During the Imperial period, staple food
Staple food

A staple food is a food that can be stored for use throughout the year and forms the basis of a traditional diet. Staple foods vary from place to place, but are typically inexpensive starchy foods of vegetable origin that are high in food energy and carbohydrate....
 of the lower class Romans (plebeians) was vegetable porridge
Porridge

Porridge, or porage, is a simple dish made by boiling oats or another cereal in water, milk, or both. It is eaten in a flat bowl or a dish....
 and bread
Bread

Bread is a staple food prepared by baking a dough of flour and water. It may be leavened or unleavened. Edible salt, fat and a leavening agent such as yeast are common ingredients, though bread may contain a range of other ingredients: milk, Egg , sugar, spice, fruit , vegetables , Nut or seeds ....
, and occasionally fish
Fish

A fish is any marine biology vertebrate animal that is typically ectothermic , covered with scale , and equipped with two sets of paired fins and several unpaired fins....
, meat
Meat

In modern English usage, meat most often refers to animal biological tissue used as food, mostly skeletal muscle and associated fat, but it may also refer to offal, including livers, skin, brains, bone marrow, kidneys, in some countries lungs, and a variety of other internal organs as well as blood....
, olive
Olive

The Olive is a species of small tree in the family Oleaceae, native to the coastal areas of the eastern Mediterranean region, from Lebanon, Syria and the maritime parts of Turkey and northern Iran at the south end of the Caspian Sea....
s and fruit
Fruit

The term fruit has different meanings dependent on context, and the term is not synonymous in food preparation and biology. In botany, which is the scientific study of plants, fruits are the ripened Ovary of flowering plants....
s. 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. Their 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
Writing

Writing is the representation of language in a textual Media through the use of a set of signs or symbols . It is distinguished from illustration, such as cave drawing and painting, and the recording of language via a non-textual medium such as Magnetic tape sound recording....
 and counting
Counting

Counting is the mathematics action of repeatedly adding one, usually to find out how many objects there are or to set aside a desired number of objects , or for well-ordered objects, to find the ordinal number of a particular object, or to find the object with a particular ordinal number....
. By the age of twelve, they would be learning Latin
Latin

Latin is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Through the Military history of the Roman Empire, Latin spread throughout the Mediterranean and a large part of Europe....
, Greek
Greek language

Greek is an Indo-European languages native to the southern Balkan peninsula, the language of the Greek people. It forms an independent branch within Indo-European....
, grammar
Grammar

Grammar is the field of linguistics that covers the conventions governing the use of any given natural language. It includes morphology and syntax, often complemented by phonetics, phonology, semantics, and pragmatics....
 and literature
Literature

Literature is the art of written works. Literally translated, the word means "acquaintance with letters" . In Western culture the most basic written literary types include fiction and non-fiction....
, followed by training for public speaking
Public speaking

Public speaking is the process of Speech communication to a group of people in a structured, deliberate manner intended to inform, influence, or entertain the listeners....
. Oratory
Oratory

Oratory is a type of public speaking.Oratory may also refer to:* Oratory , a power metal band* Oratory , a place of worship* a religious order such as...
 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
Education

File:Inukshuk Monterrey 1.jpgEducation can be seen as a product or a process and considered in a broad sense or a technical sense. According to philosophy of education George F....
 and learning
Learning

Learning is acquiring new knowledge, behaviors, skills, Value s, preferences or understanding, and may involve synthesizing different types of information....
. Poor children could not afford education. In some cases, services of gifted slaves were utilized for imparting education.

Language

Calligraphy
The native language of the Romans was Latin
Latin

Latin is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Through the Military history of the Roman Empire, Latin spread throughout the Mediterranean and a large part of Europe....
, an Italic language
Italic languages

The Italic subfamily is a member of the Indo-European languages language family's Centum branch. It includes the Romance languages derived from Latin , and a number of extinct languages of the Italian Peninsula, including Umbrian language, Oscan language, and the aforementioned Latin....
. An inflection
Inflection

In grammar, inflection or inflexion is the way language handles grammatical relations and relational categories such as grammatical tense, grammatical mood, grammatical voice, grammatical aspect, grammatical person, grammatical number, grammatical gender, grammatical case....
al and synthetic language
Synthetic language

A synthetic language, in linguistic typology, is a language with a high morpheme-per-word ratio. This linguistic classification is largely independent of morpheme-usage classifications , although there is a common tendency for agglutinative languages to exhibit synthetic properties....
, Latin relies little on word order
Latin grammar

The grammar of Latin language, like that of other ancient Indo-European languages, is highly inflection, which allows for a large degree of flexibility when choosing word order....
, conveying meaning through a system of affix
Affix

An affix is a morpheme that is attached to a word stem to form a new word. Affixes may be derivation , like English -ness and pre-, or inflectional, like English plural -s and past tense -ed....
es attached to word stem
Word stem

In linguistics, a stem is the part of a word that is common to all its inflection variants. Stems are often root , e.g. atomic, its root is atom, but its stem is atom?ic....
s. Its alphabet, the Latin alphabet
Latin alphabet

The Latin alphabet, also called the Roman alphabet, is the most widely used alphabetic writing system in the world today. It evolved from the western variety of the Greek alphabet called the Cumae alphabet, and was initially developed by the Ancient Romes to write the Latin....
, is based on the Old Italic alphabet
Old Italic alphabet

Old Italic refers to several now extinct alphabet systems used on the Italian Peninsula in ancient times for various Indo-European and non-Indo-European languages....
, which is in turn derived from the Greek alphabet
Greek alphabet

The Greek alphabet is a set of twenty-four letters that has been used to write the Greek language since the late 9th century BC or early 8th century BCE....
.

Although surviving Latin literature
Latin literature

Latin literature, the body of literature in the Latin language, remains an enduring legacy of the culture of ancient Rome of ancient Rome. The Romans produced many works of poetry, comedy, tragedy, satire, history, and rhetoric, drawing heavily on the traditions of other cultures and particularly on the more matured Greek literature....
 consists almost entirely of Classical Latin
Classical Latin

Classical Latin is the form of the Latin used by the ancient Rome in what is usually regarded as "classical" Latin literature. Its use spanned the Golden Age of Latin literature—broadly the 1st century BC and the early 1st century AD—possibly extending to the Silver Age—broadly the 1st and 2nd centuries....
, an artificial and highly stylized and polished literary language
Literary language

A literary language is a register of a language that is used in literary writing. This may also include Sacred language. The difference between literary and non-literary forms is more marked in some languages than in others....
 from the 1st century BC, the actual spoken language of the Roman Empire was Vulgar Latin
Vulgar Latin

Vulgar Latin is a blanket term covering the popular dialects and sociolects of the Latin which diverged from each other in the early Middle Ages, evolving into the Romance languages by the 9th century....
, which significantly differed from Classical Latin in grammar, vocabulary, and eventually pronunciation. Also, although Latin remained the main written language of the Roman Empire, Greek
Greek language

Greek is an Indo-European languages native to the southern Balkan peninsula, the language of the Greek people. It forms an independent branch within Indo-European....
 came to be the language spoken by the well-educated elite, as most of the literature studied by Romans was written in Greek. In the eastern half of the Roman Empire, which became the Byzantine Empire
Byzantine Empire

Byzantine Empire and Eastern Roman Empire are conventional names used to describe the Roman Empire during the Middle Ages, centered on its capital of Constantinople....
; Greek was the main lingua franca as it had been since the time of Alexander the Great
Alexander the Great

Alexander the Great , also known as Alexander III of Macedon was an ancient Greeks King of Macedon . He was one of the most successful military commanders of all time and is presumed undefeated in battle....
, 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.

The expansion of the Roman Empire spread Latin throughout Europe, and over time Vulgar Latin evolved and dialect
Dialect

A dialect is a variety of a language that is characteristic of a particular group of the language's speakers. The term is applied most often to regional speech patterns, but a dialect may also be defined by other factors, such as social class....
ized in different locations, gradually shifting into a number of distinct Romance languages beginning in around the 9th century. Many of these languages, including French
French language

French is a Romance language spoken around the world by around 80 million people as first language, by 190 million as second language, and by about another 200 million people as an acquired tongue, with significant speakers in 54 countries....
, Italian
Italian language

Italian is a Romance languages spoken by about 63 million people as a first language, primarily in Italy. In Switzerland, Italian is one of four Linguistic geography of Switzerlands....
, Portuguese
Portuguese language

Portuguese is a Romance language that originated in what is now Galicia and Portugal. It is derived from the Latin language spoken by the Romanization Pre-Roman peoples of the Iberian Peninsula around 2000 years ago....
, Romanian
Romanian language

Romanian or Daco-Romanian ; self-designation: limba rom?na, ) is a Romance languages spoken by around 24 to 28 million people, primarily in Romania and Moldova....
, and Spanish
Spanish language

Spanish or Castilian is a Romance languages that originated in northern Spain, and gradually spread in the Kingdom of Castile and evolved into the principal language of government and trade....
, flourished, the differences between them growing greater over time. Although English
English language

English is a West Germanic language that originated in Anglo-Saxon England and has lingua franca status in many parts of the world as a result of the military, economic, scientific, political and cultural influence of the British Empire in the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries and that of the United States from the mid 20th century onwa...
 is Germanic rather than Romanic in origin—Britannia
Britannia

Britannia was the term originally used by the Roman Empire to refer to the island of Great Britain. The term was later used to describe a Roman province covering much of the island, apart from the area beyond the Antonine Wall belonging to the Picts in the north, which was known as Caledonia....
 was a Roman province
Roman province

In Ancient Rome, a province was the basic, and until the Tetrarchy , largest territorial and administrative unit of the empire's territorial possessions outside of the Italia ....
, but the Roman presence in Britain had effectively disappeared by the time of the Anglo-Saxon
Anglo-Saxons

Anglo-Saxons is the term usually used to describe the invading tribes in the south and east of Great Britain starting from the early 5th century AD, and their creation of the English nation, lasting until the Norman conquest of England of 1066....
 invasions—English borrows heavily from Latin and Latin-derived words, drawing from ecclesiastical usage, from Romance languages like French, and even, more recently, consciously adapting words from Classical Latin authors.

Although Latin is an extinct language
Extinct language

An extinct language is a language which no longer has any speakers .Extinct languages may be contrasted with Language death: no longer spoken as a main language....
 with very few remaining fluent speakers, it remains in use in many ways. In particular, Latin has survived through Ecclesiastical Latin
Ecclesiastical Latin

Ecclesiastical Latin is the Latin used by the Roman Catholic Church in all periods for ecclesiastical purposes. It can be distinguished from Classical Latin by some lexical variations, a simplified syntax in some cases, and, commonly, an Italianate pronunciation....
, the traditional language of the Roman Catholic Church
Roman Catholic Church

The Roman Catholic Church, officially known as the Catholic Church is the world's largest Christianity Ecclesia , representing over half of all Christians and one-sixth of the world population....
 and one of the official languages of the Vatican City
Vatican City

Vatican City , officially the State of the Vatican City , is a Landlocked country sovereignty city-state whose territory consists of a walled enclave within the city of Rome, the Capital of Italy....
. Although distinct from both Classical and Vulgar Latin in a number of ways, Ecclesiastical Latin was more stable than typical Medieval Latin
Medieval Latin

Medieval Latin was the form of Latin used in the Middle Ages, primarily as a medium of scholarly exchange and as the liturgical language of the medieval Roman Catholic Church, but also as a language of science, literature, law, and administration....
, and more Classical sensibilities eventually re-emerged in the Renaissance
Renaissance

The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe....
 with Humanist Latin
Humanist Latin

Renaissance Latin is a name given to the distinctive form of Latin style developed during the European Renaissance of the fourteenth to fifteenth centuries, particularly by the Renaissance humanism....
. Due to both the prevalence of Christianity
Christianity

Christianity is a Monotheistic religion #Christian view religion centered on the life and teachings of Jesus as New Testament view on Jesus' life....
 and the enduring influence of the Roman civilization, Latin became western Europe's lingua franca
Lingua franca

A lingua franca is a language systematically used to communicate between persons not sharing a mother tongue, in particular when it is a third language, distinct from both persons' mother tongues....
, a language used to cross international borders, such as for academic and diplomatic usage. 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
Academia

Academia, Academe, or the Academy are collective terms for the community of students and scholars engaged in higher education and research....
 in general.

The Arts


Literature

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

During the reign of the early emperors of Rome there was a golden age of historical literature. Works such as the 'Histories
Histories (Tacitus)

Histories is a book by Tacitus, written c. 100–110, which covers the Year of Four Emperors following the downfall of Nero, the rise of Vespasian, and the rule of the Flavian Dynasty up to the death of Domitian....
' of Tacitus
Tacitus

Publius Cornelius Tacitus was a Roman Senate and a historian of the Roman Empire. The surviving portions of his two major works—the Annals and the Histories —examine the reigns of the Roman Emperors Tiberius, Claudius, Nero and those that reigned in the Year of the Four Emperors....
, the 'Gallic Wars
Commentarii de Bello Gallico

Commentarii de Bello Gallico is Julius Caesar's firsthand account of his nine years of Gallic Wars, written as a third-person narrative. The Latin title, literally Commentaries about the Gallic War, is often retained in English translations of the book, and the title is also translated to About the Gallic War, Of the Ga...
' by Julius Caesar
Julius Caesar

'Gaius Julius Caesar' , July 13, 100 BC ? March 15, 44 BC,) was a Roman Republic military and political leader. He played a critical role in the transformation of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire....
 and 'History of Rome
Ab Urbe condita (book)

Ab Urbe condita , written by Titus Livius , is a monumental history of Rome, from its legendary founding in c.753 BC . It is often referred to as History of Rome....
' by Livy
Livy

Titus Livius , known as Livy in English language, was a Ancient Rome historian who wrote a monumental history of Rome, Ab Urbe Condita, from its founding through the reign of Augustus in Livy's own time....
 have been passed down to us. Unfortunately, in the case of Livy, much of the script has been lost and we are left with a few specific areas: the founding of the city, the war with Hannibal, and its aftermath.

Virgil
Virgil

Publius Vergilius Maro was a classical Roman poet, best known for three major works?the Bucolics , the Georgics and the Aeneid?although several Appendix Vergiliana are also attributed to him....
 represents the pinnacle of Roman epic poetry. His Aeneid
Aeneid

The Aeneid is a Latin Epic poetry written by Virgil in the late 1st century BC that tells the legendary story of Aeneas, a Troy who traveled to Italy, where he became the ancestor of the Rome....
 was produced at the request of Maecenas and tells the story of flight of Aeneas from Troy
Troy

Troy is a legendary city and center of the Trojan War, as described in the Epic Cycle, and especially in the Iliad, one of the two epic poems attributed to Homer....
 and his settlement of the city that would become Rome. Lucretius
Lucretius

Titus Lucretius Carus was a Roman Republic poet and philosopher. His only known work is the epic philosophical poem on Epicureanism De rerum natura, translated into English as On the Nature of Things....
, in his On the Nature of Things
On the Nature of Things

File:Rutherford atom.svgDe rerum natura is a first century BCE poem by the Roman Republic poet and philosopher Lucretius with the goal of explaining Epicurean philosophy to a Roman audience....
, attempted to explicate science
Science

In its broadest sense, science refers to any systematic knowledge or practice. In its more usual restricted sense, science refers to a system of acquiring knowledge based on scientific method, as well as to the organized body of knowledge gained through such research....
 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
Ovid

Publius Ovidius Naso was a Roman Empire poet known as Ovid to the English language-speaking world, who wrote about love, seduction, and Roman mythology transformation....
 produced his Metamorphoses
Metamorphoses (poem)

The Metamorphoses by the Ancient Rome poet Ovid is a Narrative poetry in fifteen books that describes the Creation myth and history of the world....
, written in dactylic hexameter
Dactylic hexameter

Dactylic hexameter is a form of meter in poetry or a rhythmic scheme. It is traditionally associated with the quantitative meter of classical epic poetry in both Greek language and Latin, and was consequently considered to be the Grand Style of classical poetry....
 verse, the meter of epic. It was noted in classical times that Ovid's work lacked the gravitas
Gravitas

'Gravitas' is a quality of substance or depth of personality.Gravitas is one of the several Roman virtues expected Man to possess, along with pietas , Dignitas , and Justice ....
 possessed by traditional epic poetry.

Catullus
Catullus

Gaius Valerius Catullus was a Roman poet of the 1st century BC. His work remains widely studied, and continues to influence poetry and other forms of art....
 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
Horace

This article is about the Roman poet Horace. For other uses, see Horace .Quintus Horatius Flaccus, , known in the English language world as Horace, was the leading Roman Empire Lyric poetry during the time of Augustus....
 continued the tradition of shorter poems, with his Odes and Epodes. Martial
Martial

Marcus Valerius Martialis , was a Latin language poet from Hispania best known for his twelve books of Epigrams, published in Ancient Rome between AD 86 and 103, during the reigns of the Roman emperor Domitian, Nerva and Trajan....
, writing under the Emperor Domitian
Domitian

Titus Flavius Domitianus , commonly known as Domitian, was a Roman Emperor who reigned from 14 September 81 until his death. Domitian was the last emperor of the Flavian dynasty, which ruled the Roman Empire between 69 and 96, encompassing the reigns of Domitian's father Vespasian , his elder brother Titus , and that of Domitian himself...
, was a famed author of epigram
Epigram

An Epigram is a brief, clever, and usually memorable statement. Derived from the "to write on - inscribe", the literary device has been employed for over two millennia....
s, poems which were often abusive and censured public figures.

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
Terence

Publius Terentius Afer , better known as Terence, was a playwright of the Roman Republic. His comedies were performed for the first time around 170–160 BC, and he died young probably in Greece or on his way back to Rome....
, a freed Roman slave captured during the First Punic War
First Punic War

The First Punic War was the first of Punic Wars fought between Carthage and the Roman Republic. For 23 years, the two powers struggled for supremacy in the western Mediterranean Sea....
.

A great deal of the literary work produced by Roman authors in the early Republic was political or satirical in nature. The rhetoric
Rhetoric

Rhetoric is the art of using language as a means to persuade. Along with logic and dialectic, rhetoric is one of the three ancient arts of discourse....
al works of Cicero
Cicero

Marcus Tullius Cicero was a Ancient Rome philosopher, statesman, lawyer, political theorist, and Constitution of the Roman Republic. Cicero is widely considered one of Rome's greatest rhetoric and prose stylists....
, 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
Etruscan civilization

Etruscan civilization is the modern English name given to the culture and way of life of a people of ancient Italy and Corsica whom the ancient Romans called Etrusci or Tusci....
 influences, particularly in the practice of political painting. In the 3rd century BC, 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 proportions, evolving later into a mixture of realism and idealism. During the Antonine and Severan periods, more ornate hair and bearding became prevalent, created with deeper cutting and drilling. Advancements were also made in relief sculptures, usually depicting Roman victories.

Music

Pompmusic
Music was a major part of everyday life in Ancient Rome
Ancient Rome

Ancient Rome was a civilization that grew out of a small agricultural community founded on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 10th century BC....
. Many private and public events were accompanied by music, ranging from nightly dining to military parades and manoeuvres. In a discussion of any ancient music, however, non-specialists and even many musicians have to be reminded that much of what makes our modern music familiar to us is the result of developments only within the last 1000 years; thus, our ideas of melody, scales, harmony, and even the instruments we use would not be familiar to Romans who made and listened to music many centuries earlier.

Architecture


In initial stages, the ancient Roman architecture reflected 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 the civil engineering
Civil engineering

Civil engineering is a Professional Engineer discipline that deals with the design, construction and maintenance of the physical and naturally built environment, including works such as bridges, roads, canals, dams and buildings....
 and building
Building

In architecture, construction, engineering and Real estate developer the word building may refer to one of the following:# Any man-made structure used or intended for supporting or sheltering any use or continuous occupancy, or...
 construction
Construction

In the fields of architecture and civil engineering, construction is a process that consists of the building or assembling of infrastructure. Far from being a single activity, large scale construction is a feat of multitasking....
 technology
Technology

Technology is a broad concept that deals with an animal species' usage and knowledge of tools and crafts, and how it affects an animal species' ability to control and adapt to its Natural environment....
 became developed and refined. The Roman concrete
Concrete

Concrete is a construction material composed of cement as well as other cementitious materials such as fly ash and slag cement, construction aggregate , water , and Chemistry admixtures....
 has remained a riddle, and even after more than 2000 years some of 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 , like the Amphitheatre, Verona
Verona

Verona is a city in Veneto, northern Italy, one of the seven provincial capitals in the region. It is one of the main tourist destinations in north-eastern Italy, thanks to its artistic heritage, several annual fairs, shows and operas, such as the lyrical season in the Arena, the ancient amphitheatre built by the Romans....
, Italy
Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic , is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia....
; Arch of Hadrian, Athens
Athens

Athens , the Capital and largest city of Greece, dominates the Attica periphery; as one of the List of cities by time of continuous habitation, its recorded history spans around 3,400 years....
, Greece
Greece

Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , is a country in southeastern Europe, situated on the southern end of the Balkans. It has borders with Albania, Bulgaria and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia to the north, and Turkey to the east....
; Temple of Hadrian, Ephesos, Turkey
Turkey

Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country that stretches across the Anatolian peninsula in southwest Asia and Thrace in the Balkans region of Southern Europe....
; a Theatre at Orange, France
France

France , officially the French Republic , is a country whose Metropolitan France is located in Western Europe and that also comprises various Overseas departments and territories of France....
; and at several other locations, for example, Lepcis Magna, located in Libya. Roman cities were well planned, efficiently managed and neatly maintained. Palace
Palace

A palace is a grand residence, especially a royal residence or the home of a head of state or some other high-ranking dignitary, such as a bishop or archbishop....
s, private dwelling
Dwelling

Dwelling - as well as being a term for a house, or for living somewhere, or for lingering somewhere - is a philosophical concept which was developed by Martin Heidegger....
s and villa
Villa

A villa was originally an upper-class country house, though since its origins in Roman Republic times the idea and function of a villa has evolved considerably....
s, were elaborately designed and town planning 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
Vitruvius

File:Vitruvius.jpgMarcus Vitruvius Pollio was a Ancient Rome writer, architect and engineer , active in the 1st century BC. By his own description Vitruvius served as a Ballista , the third class of arms in the military offices....
, a 1st century BC Roman architect’s treatise “De architectura
De architectura

File:De Architectura027.jpg is a treatise on architecture written by the Ancient Rome architect Vitruvius and dedicated to his patron, the emperor Caesar Augustus as a guide for Caesar Augustus#Building projects....
”, with various sections, dealing with urban planning, building materials, temple construction, public and private buildings, and hydraulics
Hydraulics

Hydraulics is a topic of science and engineering dealing with the mechanical properties of liquids. Hydraulics is part of the more general discipline of fluid power....
, remained a classic text until the Renaissance
Renaissance

The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe....
.

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 river. 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 and exercise, which included jumping
Jumping

Jumping or leaping is a form of locomotion or movement in which an organism propels itself through the air along a ballistic trajectory....
, wrestling
Wrestling

Wrestling is part of the martial arts. A wrestling match consists of physical engagement between two people in which each wrestler strives to get an advantage over, or control of, the opponent....
, boxing
Boxing

Boxing is a combat sport where two participants, generally of similar human weight, fight each other with their fists. Boxing is supervised by a referee and is typically engaged in during a series of one to three-minute intervals called rounds....
 and racing
Racing

A race is a competition of speed, against an objective criterion, usually a clock or to a specific point. The competitors in a race try to complete a given task in the shortest amount of time....
. Riding
Equestrianism

Equestrianism refers to the skill of riding or driving horses. This broad description includes both use of horses for practical, working animal purposes as well as recreational activities and animals in sport....
, throwing
Throwing

Throwing may refer to:*Throw , a martial arts and grappling technique that involves off-balancing or lifting an opponent*Throwing , bowling a delivery in cricket with an elbow flexion degree higher than that set by the ICC...
, and swimming
Swimming

Swimming is the movement by humans or animals through water, usually without artificial assistance. Swimming is an activity that can be both useful and recreational....
 were also preferred physical activities. In the countryside, pastime also included fishing
Fishing

Fishing is the activity of catching fish. Fishing techniques include Fish net, Fish trap, Spearfishing, angling and Gathering seafood by hand. The term fishing may be applied to catching other aquatic animals such as different types of shellfish, squid, octopus, turtles, Edible frog and some edible marine invertebrates....
 and hunting
Hunting

Hunting is the practice of pursuing living animals for food, recreation, or trade. In present-day use, the term refers to lawful hunting, as distinguished from poaching, which is the killing, trapping or capture of the hunted species contrary to law....
. Females did not participate in these activities. Ball playing was a popular sport and ancient Romans had several ball game
Ball game

A ball game is a game played with a ball. Someone who plays a ball game is known as a ballplayer.There are many popular games or sports involving some type of ball or similar object....
s, which included Handball (Expulsim Ludere), field hockey, catch, and some form of Soccer.

Board game
Board game

File:Game_of_life_board.jpgA board game is a game in which counters or pieces that are placed on, removed from, or moved across a "board" . As do other form of entertainment, board games can represent nearly any subject....
s played in ancient Rome included Dice
Dice

A die is a small polyhedron object, usually cubic, used for generating Statistical randomnesss or other symbols. This makes dice suitable as gambling devices, especially for craps or sic bo, or for use in non-gambling tabletop games....
 (Tesserae or Tali
Venus Throw

The Venus Throw was the highest roll in the Ancient Rome gambling game of tali, or knucklebones. The game was played with four sheep's or goat's knucklebones, 4-sided rectangular dice numbered I, III, IV and VI ....
), Roman Chess (Latrunculi
Ludus latrunculorum

Ludus latrunculorum, latrunculi, or simply latrones is a board game played by the ancient Ancient Rome. It is said to resemble chess or draughts, but is generally accepted to be a game of military tactics....
), Roman Checkers
Draughts

Draughts or checkers is a group of abstract strategy board games between two players which involve diagonal moves of uniform pieces and mandatory captures by jumping over the enemy's pieces....
 (Calculi), Tic-tac-toe
Tic-tac-toe

Tic-tac-toe, also spelled tick tack toe, and alternatively called noughts and crosses, hugs and kisses, and many other names, is a paper and pencil game for two players, O and X, who take turns marking the spaces in a 3×3 grid, usually X going first....
 (Terni Lapilli), and Ludus duodecim scriptorum
Ludus duodecim scriptorum

Ludus duodecim scriptorum, or XII scripta, was a Tables popular during the time of the Roman Empire. The name translates as "game of twelve markings", probably referring to the three rows of 12 markings each found on most surviving boards....
 and Tabula
Tabula

Tabula was a board game in the Tables family, and is generally thought to be the direct ancestor of modern backgammon.The earliest description of tabula is in an epigram of Byzantine Emperor Zeno , given by Agathias of Myrine , who describes a game in which Zeno goes from a strong position to a very weak one after an unfortunate dice rol...
, 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
Colosseum

The Colosseum or Roman Coliseum, originally the Flavian Amphitheatre , is an elliptical amphitheatre in the center of the city of Rome, Italy, the largest ever built in the Roman Empire....
, Rome’s amphitheatre
Amphitheatre

An amphitheatre is an open-air venue for spectator sports, concerts, rallies, or theatrical performances. There are two similar, but distinct types of amphitheatres: Ancient amphitheatres, built by the ancient Rome, were large central performance spaces surrounded by ascending seating, and were commonly used for spectator sports; these comp...
, 50,000 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.

Religion


Roman religious beliefs date back to the founding of Rome
Rome

Rome is the capital city of Italy and Lazio, and is Italy's largest and most populous city, with 2,724,347 residents in an urban area of some ....
, around 800 BC, but the Roman religion commonly associated with the Roman Republic
Roman Republic

The Roman Republic was the phase of the Ancient Rome characterized by a republican form of government; a period which began with the overthrow of the Roman Roman Kingdom, c....
 and the Roman Empire
Roman Empire

The Roman Empire was the Roman Republic phase of the Ancient Rome, characterised by an autocracy form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
 did not start forming until around 500 BC when Romans came in contact with Greek
Ancient Greece

The term Ancient Greece refers to the period of History of Greece lasting from the Greek Dark Ages ca. 1100 BC and the Dorian invasion, to 146 BC and the Roman Republic conquest of Greece after the Battle of Corinth ....
 culture and adopted many of the Greek’s religious beliefs including the representation of Greek gods in the form of humans.

Private and personal worship was an important aspect of religious practices of ancient Rome. In a sense, each household
Household

The household is "the basic residential unit in which production , consumption , inheritance, child rearing, and shelter are organized and carried out"; [the household] "may or may not be synonomous with family"....
 in ancient Rome was a temple
Temple

A temple is a structure reserved for religious or spiritual activities, such as prayer and sacrifice, or analogous rites. A ??templum?? constituted a sacred precinct as defined by a priest, or augur....
 to the gods. Each household had an altar (lararium), at which the family members would offer prayers, perform rite
Rite

A rite is a subsesquitent contemporary file of complaints that are sent to the secretary of taste and is a jeremiah was a bull frog.Rites fall into three major categories:...
s, and interact with the household gods.

Many of the gods that Romans worshiped came from the Proto-Indo-European pantheon
Proto-Indo-European religion

The existence of similarities among the Deity and religious practices of the Indo-Europeans peoples allows glimpses of a common Proto-Indo-Europeans religion and mythology....
, others were based on Greek gods. The three central deities were Jupiter
Jupiter (mythology)

In Roman mythology, Jupiter or Jove was the king of the gods,and the god of sky and thunder. He is the equivalent of Zeus in the Greek pantheon....
 (who was the god of rain, thunder, and lightning, of Proto-Indo-European
Proto-Indo-Europeans

The Proto-Indo-Europeans were the speakers of the Proto-Indo-European language, and likely lived around 4000 BC, during the Copper Age and the Bronze Age, or possibly earlier, during the Neolithic or Paleolithic eras....
 origin), Mars
Mars (mythology)

Mars was the Roman mythology warrior God , the son of Juno and Jupiter , husband of Bellona , and the lover of Venus . He was the most prominent of the military gods that were worshipped by the Roman legions....
 (the god of warfare), called Ares
Ares

In Greek mythology, Ares is the son of Zeus and Hera. Though often referred to as the Twelve Olympians God of warfare, he is more accurately the god of bloodlust, or slaughter personified: "Ares is apparently an ancient abstract noun meaning throng of battle, war."...
 by the Greeks, and Quirinus
Quirinus

In Roman mythology, Quirinus was an early god of the Roman state. In Augustan Rome, Quirinus was also an epithet of Janus , as Janus Quirinus....
 (who watched over the senate house), one of the truly Roman gods who was associated with the Sabines and with the founder of Rome, Romulus
Romulus and Remus

Romulus and Remus are the traditional Founding Fathers of Rome, appearing in Roman mythology as the twin sons of the Vestal Virgin Rhea Silvia, fathered by the god of war, Mars ....
.

From simplest form of such private worships and religious practices, religion in ancient Rome developed into an elaborate system, with temple
Roman temple

In the ancient religion of Roman paganism, practitioners often performed their worship at a temple....
s, altars, rituals and ceremonies, priesthood, beliefs of traditional paganism
Paganism

Paganism is the blanket term given to describe religions and spiritual practices of pre-Christian Europe, and by extension a term for polytheistic?traditions or folk religion?worldwide seen from a Western or Christian viewpoint....
 and the cult of the Roman emperors. The power of ancient Rome spread ever further across a vast geographical area and Romans met with other cults and religions, like cults of Cybele
Cybele

Cybele , was the Phrygian deification of the Earth Mother. As with Greek Gaia , or her Minoan civilization equivalent Rhea , Cybele embodies the fertile Earth, a goddess of caverns and mountains, walls and fortresses, nature, wild animals ....
, Bacchus
Dionysus

In classical mythology, Dionysus or Dionysos , is the God of wine, the inspirer of ritual madness and ecstasy, and a major figure of Greek mythology, and one of the twelve Olympians, among whom Greek mythology treated Dionysus as a late arrival....
, and Isis
ISIS

ISIS is an industry standard interface for technologies, developed by Pixel Translations in 1990 .ISIS is an open standard for scanner control and a complete image-processing framework....
, as well as Judaism
Judaism

Judaism is a set of beliefs and practices originating in the Hebrew Bible , as later further explored and explained in the Talmud and other texts....
.

With its cultural influence spreading over most of the Mediterranean, Romans began accepting foreign gods into their own culture, as well as other philosophical traditions such as Cynic
Cynic

The Cynics were an influential group of philosophers from the ancient School of Cynicism. Their philosophy was that the purpose of Personal life was to live a life of Virtue in agreement with Nature....
ism and Stoicism
Stoicism

Stoicism was a school of Hellenistic philosophy founded in Athens by Zeno of Citium in the early third century B.C. The stoics considered passionate emotions to be the result of errors in judgment, and that a Sage , or person of "moral and intellectual perfection," would not have such emotions....
. There were even attempts by many Roman and Greek philosophers to accept other gods that countered their religion, such as the Jewish deity Yahweh
Yahweh

Image:Tetragrammaton scripts.svg[Aramaic alphabet|Aramaic]] and Hebrew alphabet Yahweh is the English rendering of , a vocalization of the Tetragrammaton that was proposed by the Hebrew scholar Gesenius in the 19th century....
 (viewed as the only supreme God by the Israelites) by stating that the Jews merely worshiped Jupiter but just under a different name and therefore there should be an acceptance of the Jewish culture. With the fall of the Roman Republic
Roman Republic

The Roman Republic was the phase of the Ancient Rome characterized by a republican form of government; a period which began with the overthrow of the Roman Roman Kingdom, c....
 and the start of the reign of the emperors which created the Roman Empire
Roman Empire

The Roman Empire was the Roman Republic phase of the Ancient Rome, characterised by an autocracy form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
 in, the Roman emperors were considered to be gods incarnate.

Two major philosophical schools of thought that derived from Greek religion and philosophy that became prominent in Rome
Rome

Rome is the capital city of Italy and Lazio, and is Italy's largest and most populous city, with 2,724,347 residents in an urban area of some ....
 in the 1st and 2nd century AD was Cynic
Cynic

The Cynics were an influential group of philosophers from the ancient School of Cynicism. Their philosophy was that the purpose of Personal life was to live a life of Virtue in agreement with Nature....
ism and Stoicism
Stoicism

Stoicism was a school of Hellenistic philosophy founded in Athens by Zeno of Citium in the early third century B.C. The stoics considered passionate emotions to be the result of errors in judgment, and that a Sage , or person of "moral and intellectual perfection," would not have such emotions....
 which, according to Cora Lutz were “fairly well merged” in the early years of the Roman Empire
Roman Empire

The Roman Empire was the Roman Republic phase of the Ancient Rome, characterised by an autocracy form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
. Cynic
Cynic

The Cynics were an influential group of philosophers from the ancient School of Cynicism. Their philosophy was that the purpose of Personal life was to live a life of Virtue in agreement with Nature....
ism taught that civilization was corrupt and people needed to break away from it and its trappings and Stoicism
Stoicism

Stoicism was a school of Hellenistic philosophy founded in Athens by Zeno of Citium in the early third century B.C. The stoics considered passionate emotions to be the result of errors in judgment, and that a Sage , or person of "moral and intellectual perfection," would not have such emotions....
 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
Lucian

Lucian of Samosata was an Assyrian people rhetorician, and satire who wrote in the Greek language. He is noted for his witty and scoffing nature....
 attacked the Cynics in his book "The Philosophies for Sale" in which he mocked the Cynics by 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 your are happier than the Great King...Frequent the most crowded market place...and in [it] desire to be solitary and uncommunicative..."

Much of the Roman practices of their religion and philosophy began to dwindle after 312, when the Roman Emperor Galerius
Galerius

Galerius Maximianus , formally Gaius Galerius Valerius Maximianus was Roman Emperor from 305 to 311....
 legalized Christianity, hitherto brutally suppressed. Soon after his death, Emperor Constantine switched allegiance from Apollo to Christus as his patron, and won the battle of Milvian Bridge in 313. Under Constantine's direction, the Council of Nicaea
First Council of Nicaea

The First Council of Nicea was convened in Nicaea in Bithynia by the Roman Emperors Constantine I in 325 CE. The Council was historically significant as the first effort to attain consensus decision-making in the church through an legislature representing all of Christendom....
 (325) was held to decide the elements of orthodox Christianity
Christianity

Christianity is a Monotheistic religion #Christian view religion centered on the life and teachings of Jesus as New Testament view on Jesus' life....
, although Constantine himself was only baptized shortly before his death. Through all this, a few pagans clung to the old Roman religion – even enjoying something of a brief Renaissance under Julian the Apostate
Julian the Apostate

Flavius Claudius Julianus, known also as Julian or Julian the Apostate , was Roman Emperor of the Constantinian dynasty. He was the last non-Christian Roman Emperor, and expended much energy during his reign attempting to supplant the growing power of Christianity within the empire with officially revived Religion in ancient Rom...
 (361–63) – and continued to be tolerated until the reign of Theodosius I
Theodosius I

Flavius Theodosius , also called Theodosius I and Theodosius the Great , was Roman Emperor from 379 to 395. Reuniting the eastern and western portions of the empire, Theodosius was the last emperor of both the Eastern Roman Empire and Western Roman Empire....
, who finally outlawed paganism in 390.

Christianity
Christianity

Christianity is a Monotheistic religion #Christian view religion centered on the life and teachings of Jesus as New Testament view on Jesus' life....
 had originally arisen in the Roman province of Judea
Judea

Judea or Jud?a is the name given to the mountainous southern part of the historic Land of Israel , an area now divided between Israel and the West Bank ....
, growing out of Judaism
Judaism

Judaism is a set of beliefs and practices originating in the Hebrew Bible , as later further explored and explained in the Talmud and other texts....
, and picking up influences from Greek philosophy as it spread throughout the Roman Empire
Roman Empire

The Roman Empire was the Roman Republic phase of the Ancient Rome, characterised by an autocracy form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
.

See also

  • Ancient Rome
    Ancient Rome

    Ancient Rome was a civilization that grew out of a small agricultural community founded on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 10th century BC....
  • Classical antiquity
    Classical antiquity

    Classical antiquity is a broad term for a long period of cultural history centered on the Mediterranean Sea, comprising the interlocking civilizations of Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome....
  • Gallo-Roman culture
    Gallo-Roman culture

    The term Galo-Roman describes the Romanized culture of Gaul under the rule of the Roman Empire. This was characterized by the Gaulish adoption or adaptation of Roman mores and way of life in a uniquely Gaulish context....
  • Roman Britain
    Roman Britain

    Roman Britain refers to those parts of the island of Great Britain controlled by the Roman Empire between AD 43 and 410. The Romans referred to their province as Britannia....
  • Social class in ancient Rome
    Social class in ancient Rome

    Social class in ancient Rome played a major role in the lives of Romans. Ancient Roman society was social hierarchy. Free-born Roman citizenship were divided into several classes, both by ancestry and by property....
  • Theatre of ancient Rome
    Theatre of ancient Rome

    This article is about theatrical performances in ancient Rome. For the building, see Roman theatre .The theatre of ancient Rome refers to dramatic performances performed in Rome and its dominions during classical antiquity....
  • Sexuality in ancient Rome
    Sexuality in Ancient Rome

    Sexuality in ancient Rome generally lacked the modern categories of "heterosexual" or "homosexual." Instead, the differentiating characteristic was activity versus passivity, or penetrating versus penetrated....


External links