Ancient Rome
Ancient Rome was a powerful civilization which
began almost 3000 years ago.
No one knows exactly how Rome was
founded. Legend says that twin brothers, Romulus and Remus, were the founders
of Rome, The legend says that the twin boys were cast
into the Tiber River as babies, They were saved by a she-wolf, who
raised them. As young men, they built a city on the spot where the wolf
had pulled them from the river. The city was Rome.
The lives of the ancient Romans
centered around the forum, an open marketplace where public meetings were
held. Many of the Roman rulers built their own forums.
Today, ruins of these forums still stand, including the forum of the great
Roman emperor, Elulius Caesar.
The Romans lived in houses which
consisted of one large four-sided room called an atrium. Wealthy Romans added
many more rooms around their atriums. Some homes even
had piped-in water.
The Ancient Romans ate three meals a day. Their breakfast
was usually bread and honey. For lunch they ate meat
and fruit. Dinner was their largest meal, often served as a banquet. It
included eggs, fish, meat, vegetables and fruit. In place of butter, the
Romans used olive oil. Instead of sugar, they used
honey.
The Romans wore a garment called
a tunica. A tunica had short sleeves and hung to the knees. Tunicas were
worn by both men and women. The men wore a draped cloth,
called a toga, over the tunica.
The Romans worshipped many gods,
such as Juno, Mars and Jupiter. The Romans later adopted some of the Greek
gods and goddesses and gave them new names. For example,
the Greek goddess Aphrodite became the Roman goddess,
Venus.
The ancient Romans were very interested
in law and government. ! They established principles of law that are still
used today. One principle was called equity. It meant
that a law should be flexible enough to fit different circumstances.
The ancient Romans were famous
for their many festivals which were usually held in the huge open theater
called the Colosseum. There they watched gladiators
either fight each other or wild beasts.
One of the most popular events
was the chariot races held in a large arena called a circus. The largest
circus in ancient Rome was called the Circus Maximus,
which held 180,000 Roman spectators.
