Ancient Rome (cont.)

Leisure and entertainment

Gladiators were slaves who fought wild animals or each other to the death held in aphitheatres(colusseum) used swords,nets,tridents,shields,daggers

Chariot Racing-4 teams(red,blue,green,white) held in circus maximus(250,000 people) raced around central spine 7 times

Plays were held in open-air theatres during the day actors wore masks

baths-went each day in early afternoon 1000 private and 11 public ones in rome 3 types-tepidarium(warm room)-caldarium(hot room)-frigidarium(cold room) covered body in oil and scraped it off with a strigil women had seperate baths

Romans at work

Farming most important occupation richer romans became generals or senators(polititions) poorer romans worked as craftsmen(baker,glassworker,carpenter) in their own shops

Roman Army

divided into legions(groups of 5,000) and centuries(groups of 100) some soldiers lived in permenent forts along the empire went on long fast marches and built temporary camps at night used swords,shields,helmets,javelins discipline was strict-every 10th man was executed if mutiny was suspected sevred for 20 years cost of uniform and food taken from their wages

slaves

Did most of the work on farms and in towns owned by roman citizens or the gov. bought and sold at markets most were treated badly-many staged rebellions(most famous led by sparticus)

Roman Art And Architecture

Romans used rounded arches,domes and pillars in their buildings

decorated their inside walls with murals or wall painting(called frescos-done on wet plaster) style described as classical(it was later copied during the renaissence 15th + 16th century)

Religion

very important worshipped many gods and goddesses venus-goddess of love jupiter-father of gods mars-god of war neptune-god of the sea

Funerals and burial customs

some believed their spirit was carried to the underworld by Charon the ferryman(they placed coin in mouth to pay him) some wanted to be remembered with death masks and inscriptions on tombs rich romans died they were dressed in togas carried in a proccesion of reletives musicians and mourners ashes were placed in urns(pottery jars) and buried in cemeteries outside town or city walls poorer romans also had proccesion,were cremated and were buried in simple graves

Christianity

spread from palestine to rome refused to follow gods and goddesses(were then persecuted) became state religion after emperor constantine was converted were not cremated and were buried in catacombs

Decline of roman empire

collapsed at the end of the 5th century weakened by civil wars,high taxes and prices,attacks from barbarian tribes

Achievements of roman empire

towns and cities-owe their origin to roman builders and planners architecture and sculpture-copied by renaisence and used in many modern buildings(white house) language-many modern languages are based on latin christianity-bishop of rome became pope(leader) of roman chatholic church

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