75 interesting facts
- Houses
- Romans made the first high-rise apartments
- Rich Romans had more than one home like a villa outside the city.
- Most Roman homes had popular pets like dogs, cats and birds. Some owners buy exotic animals as pets from foreign countries such as monkeys, snakes and tortoises.
- Rome's 2,000 richest family got to live in the most hugest and splendid houses, whilst the poor families were forced to live in approximately 46,000 apartment blocks. The poor families that lived on the top floors of rented apartments, had to climb up 100-150 stairs. There were also no toilets or baths there.
- In some places of a Roman house, an opening in the roof would replace windows from letting sunlight into the house.
- Roman houses roofs, were made of clay mixed with sand, terracotta.
- Only rich Romans had their own kitchen in their house.
- Men and women did not take baths together.
- Romans were only allowed to bath every nine days!
- Instead of using soap to bath, the Romans used oil which they rubbed on their skin and afterwards they scraped all the dirt and sweat away using a curved scraper a strigil.
- Many Romans didn't have a bath at home so they went to public pools.
- In public pools, it was more than a place to get cleaned, there were also fitness centers and a place to meet friends.
- Women usually took baths in the mornings, while men were at work, so men took baths in the afternoon.
- The frigidarium was the coldest pool in public pools.
- The tepidarium was a cool pool in public pools.
- The caldarium was the hottest pool in public pools.
- Romans ate very little in the morning.
- They ate their main meal at 4pm.
- Rich Romans had 3 separate meals which could last up to 3 hours!
- Romans enjoyed to lie down on couches and eat.
- Poor Romans went to eating houses for their main meal or bought takeaway food.
- Roman boys learned 3 main subjects at school, reading, math and public speaking.
- Boys went to school from the age of 7 to 16.
- Girls didn’t go to schools, they learned how to cook, clean and look after children.
- Romans didn't have paper to write on so they wrote on wax tablets which is also erasable, but if they wanted to keep something important like a document, they would write it on a polished calfskin or on a papyrus.
- Roman ink was made of soot.
- Romans liked reading while standing up, because a papyrus scroll was at least 10 meters long and had to be scrolled down a section at a time.
- Romans invented Valentine's Day but was actually named Lupercalia.
- Roman families included everyone that lived and worked together in the same household. Servants and slaves were also classified at part of a family.
- Sons were more valuable than daughters in ancient Roman times.
- Girls were allowed to get married by 12 years old, and usually became mother by the age of 15.
- Marriages were arranged by families to gain political power or wealth. Meaning that love was not important.
- The Roman emperor Augustus, Rome's first ever firefighting service with 7 brigades and 1,000 firefighters, known as vigiles. The vigiles were equipped with handpumps and buckets to fight the fire. In 64 AD, a huge fire which lasted for 9 days, burnt numerous wooden homes. After this accident, a new law was made. By law, every house has to have fire-fighting equipment, and all public water tanks were to be kept filled at all times.
- Water was transported into different Roman towns through one long aqueduct.
- Aqueducts transported 750 million liters of fresh, clean water into Rome everyday.
- Since the Roman towns were growing so quickly, so were the congestion of traffic. In 45 BC, a new law was made and that was to ban all carts from entering Rome 'between sunrise and the tenth hour', unless if the carts were carrying materials to building any public works. Anyone who disobeyed this law would find their cart either removed by day, emptied with no contents left, or loaded with dung.
- In around 350 AD, an official survey showed the different facilities that Rome had. Below are the results.
Baths
Eating and Drinking
Education
Love
Public Facilities
- Slaves
- Out of the around 6-7 million people in Rome during the 1st century, over 3 million of them were slaves. They came from all over Europe, Africa and the Middle East.
- Slaves maybe captured in war, purchased from slave auctions or was born as a slave.
- Slaves did all kinds of work, including farming or taking care of the children.
- Slaves may sometimes be treated very nicely but most of the time got beaten up by their owners.
- Slaves were sometimes given freedom from their owners, if they were sick or dying soon.
- Some slaves became very successful once they were freed and became very rich.
- All Romans wore toga at that time.
- Different types of toga represented how important you were.
- Most Roman clothes were made without sewing.
- Rich Roman women, spent a lot of time on their hairstyles.
- At that time, Romans didn't have sharp scissors or razors, so when beards had to be shaved, Roman barbers had to pull every beard out by its roots, one hair at a time!
- Ancient Roman combs were made from either bone, ivory or wood.
- Slaves helped farming on country sides and worked on big estates to support food for countries surrounding the Mediterranean Sea.
- It was very tough work to be a farmer since there were no machines to help them and it all relied on them and using animals.
- Roman housed the world's first shopping mall.
- Market-stalls closed at noon so Roman shoppers had to get up early to buy different goods.
- Olives were the most valuable fruit in Rome, since Romans used it with food, preserving food, medicine and even for fuel in lamps.
- The Romans learned the skill of glass making from Syria.
- All Roman actors wore masks.
- Almost all Roman actors were men.
- A small amphitheater was big enough to hold over 12,000 people.
- The Colosseum opened up on 80 AD in Rome and could seat up to 80,000 spectators.
- The Circus Maximus in Rome was a round race-track which could hold up to 250,000 people.
- Most gladiators were prisoners who were forced to fight with other gladiators or beasts.
- Many lions from North Africa became extinct here because they were used here to fight with gladiators which killed them.
- A myrimillion had a short sword and a long rectangular shield.
- A Thracian had a curved dagger and a small square shield.
- A Retiarius had a trident and net. The net was to trap their enemy.
- A Samnite had a short sword and a long curved shield.
- Rome was a well-protected city with strong stone walls and had 39 gates which were highly guarded with soldiers and watchmen.
- The Roman Empire conquered many countries surrounding the Mediterranean Sea such as Spain, Portugal, France, Britain, Greece, Turkey, Egypt and Northern Africa.
- Romans needed soldiers to defend its land from attacking soldiers from different countries.
- Being a soldier gets paid a lot if you didn't get killed. If you did good, you might get extra pay. After a soldier retires after around 20-25 years of service. He was given money to help him start a business.
- Roman soldiers carried three main weapons, swords, daggers and javelins. Each soldier had to buy their own set of weaponry.
- The Roman soldiers used a defensive tactic called the 'testudo' which means tortoise in English.
- The Roman army advanced at least 30 kilometers a day.
- Over a million people lived in Rome by around 300 AD and it was the largest city in the world.
- Many people still have Roman names today, such as Amanda, Diana, Laura, Virginia, Julius, Antony, Martin, Marcus, Victor and Vincent.
Clothing
Barbers
Farming
Shopping
Skills
Theaters
Arenas
Gladiators and Beasts
Types of Gladiators
Security
The Roman Empire
The Roman Army
Others