Life in Rome

In Roman civilization there was no equality. Women were treated as substandard, slave trade was making a come-back, but Rome had become a great civilization. In Roman society, different rules were given to different people.

Only with the permission of their husbands could women do things such as go shopping, go to the baths, and go to things such as festivities. But, they were not allowed to vote unless she was a vestal. She was not allowed to own anything for herself and she had to depend on her father as a wife, and to her husband, a widow.

In Rome it was not considered right to sing and dance, but in Greece it was perfectly fine. In Rome it had been thought that dancing lead to prostitution. However, during the imperial times of Rome, boys and girls were allowed to attend dance classes.

Birth was normally held at home without a doctor. Instead there were female friends and relatives. There could not be any males present during the experience. For the mother, there was a special kind of chair that helped her to sit in a position to give birth in.

In early Rome fathers were the ones that taught their sons to read, write, and use weapons. With their fathers, boys went to religious ceremonies and public functions. When the sons turned 16 they received political teachers. When they turned 17, they spent the year campaigning for the army. In the 3rd century B.C. a new system of education developed in Rome, it was much different than the Greeks system. With his teacher, the young man was taught Greek and Latin literature so that they could develop an effective speaking habit.

To the Romans money was everything. During the Empire, wealth and resources had been unequally divided. In Rome, slaves and their children were considered property of whoever owned them. They were sold and rented and even sometimes exchanged. The way the slave was treated varied. It was rare that a slave was treated poorly because the owner had to keep in mind that if he harmed the slave he would be ruining his investment. Some historians have found out that slaves often worked in chain gangs and were locked up during the night. This mostly occurred in Southern Italy and Sicily. Usually the owners of the slaves would make them wear inscribed metal collars or they would be branded, this was done to lessen the chance of an escape. However, a large sum of slaves worked as teachers, doctors, and architects which helped them earn large quantities of money.