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Rome's Way of Life

:|:Life:|:

The lower classes are mainly comprised of farmers, farming is a family business and therefore offers little hope for children to leave the trade.
Though the middle class was small and was made up by traders, artisans, and craftsmen. These jobs were also passed along to the children of the family.
The upper class was aristocrats, government officials, and rulers. To them position was very important and they never failed to show their rank in public; after all what was the point in a high status if no one knew of it?

:|:Women:|:

Women of upper classes didn’t work; and didn’t want to either. Work was seen as something to be done by the lower class and slaves because they didn’t know better. These women, though restricted from going out in public without being accompanied by their husbands or legal male guardian, managed to maintain a very active social life.
They did not go waving a sword around and screaming cries of war, if they did they probably would have been dead within seconds.
Many of these women flexed their ability to influence politics through their husbands. It wasn’t uncommon for men to accept advice from their wives and it became socially acceptable as long as it was done in private.
Not much is known of women of the lower and middle classes. They worked in the home, cooking, cleaning etc and cared for the children. As with the upper class women they remained behind the scenes.

:|:Slaves:|:

Slavery is not racially targeting a group. Those emitted into slavery are for the most part prisoners of war or badly in debt citizens. Talented slaves were most likely treated better than those who knew nothing and slaves working for wealthy families may even have had a pleasant life. It wasn’t uncommon for upper class families to have hundreds of slaves but middle class may have only had two or three and lower class families may have had one, if that. The conditions a slave lives in varies from master to master, though manumitting (freeing) is rare.
Female slaves were at the mercy of male masters and often times taken advantage of. Though society looked down upon the relationship law was always on the males side. Should a child be born of master and slave the child was a slave. The master could free the child but was not permitted to adopt it.
If a slave was freed he or she would be considered a freedman or freedwoman; not a citizen. They could marry and their children would be considered citizens.
Slaves could not marry but some were permitted to be together to increase the population of slaves. A slave family could be broken up upon the masters will by selling one member and not the others.
Slaves were also expected to be loyal to their masters even when freed and in turn their masters were expected to provide support should the slave ever need it.

:|:Marriage:|:

Marriages are often times arranged and therefore divorce is common.
Adultry is highly frowned upon by society, especially when committed by the woman.
Men handled economic affairs and women household chores but if they were rich then the woman could expect to have many slaves and servants helping.

:|:Other Aspects:|:

Single women worked as servants.
Single men usually worked in the army.
For anyone single life was a challenge. For example a single man may make enough to feed himself but not have the time to prepare meals.
Another aspect of life was prostitution. Prostitutes were banned from marriage, as were actors, and would end up as mistresses to unmarried men. That status however provided little economic stability for they could be discarded easily without getting any of their boyfriend’s wealth. (Prositutes even had income taxes!)

:|:Things to Stress:|:

It was rare for slaves to be freed. People did not buy slaves simply to free them.
The differences in the social class was great because there was a very small middle class. Peasants were looked down upon and slaves even more so. Keep that in mind while you play.
The rights of men and women varied greatly, even to the extent where a law for a woman would change, for the better, for a man. One such example was if a woman was caught by her husband cheating then he was by law required to divorce her and she would have many penalties as a result of conviction. But if the scenerio happened vice versa society would disapprove but the law would be on the mans side. So keep in mind that things were very different from our society.

Rome