10 Cool Facts About Daily Life in Ancient Rome

Daily life in Ancient Rome was full of surprises! Romans lived in a busy world with weird habits and clever ideas. Want to know what it was like? Here are 10 cool facts about daily life in Ancient Rome that will amaze you!

Ancient Roman Food : Brain pudding, anyone?

For us food is more than just fuel for the body.  We center many of our social events around food.  We time our days around our meals.  Some people make food their whole life by becoming chefs, restaurant owners, food critics, and gourmets.  Food was an important part of daily life in Ancient Rome too, and similar to our culture, the food consumed was different depending on what each individual or family could afford.

Early Roman Government and the Pater Familias

The early Roman government was a monarchy with a hint of democracy, and it had its roots in a very important idea of Roman family culture - the pater familias.  The pater familias -- Latin for family father  -- was the basic structure of the Roman family and society, and it became the basic structure of the Roman government in its different forms from the earliest days of Roman kings, through the republic, and all the way to the Roman Empire and beyond.  For now though, let's focus on the pater familias and the early government of Rome.

Romulus and Remus - The Mythical Founding of Rome

The stories behind the beginning of a civilization or culture play a big part in shaping the way the culture views itself, whether they are true or not. For example, the George Washington cherry tree story teaches Americans that our first president (and therefore, theoretically all those that followed) was an honest man that could not tell a lie.

Government of the Roman Republic - Consuls

The consuls were the two highest elected officials in the Roman Republic. They were elected by the comitia centuriata, and almost all other magistrates within the Republic had to follow orders and submit to the will of the consuls.

Comitia Tributa - Roman Assembly in the Republic

The comitia tributa was an assembly just for plebeians or the “tribes” of Rome. This plebeian assembly started with minimal power, but its power grew as the republic evolved and the balance of power shifted from one group to another.

Comitia Centuriata - The Roman Assembly During the Republic

In time, the comitia centuriata became the true legislative body of the Roman Republic. When we talk about SPQR (Senatus Populusque Romanus – the Senate and People of Rome), “people” refers to the citizens; the citizens were the comitia centuriata.

Comitia Curiata - The Roman Assembly During the Republic

The comitia curiata was one of the earliest popular assemblies of Rome. There is some debate as to when it began, but likely the comitia curiata began meeting just prior to the creation of the Republic (prior to 509 BC), when Rome was still ruled by kings.

The comitia curiata was possibly the first popular legislative body of Rome. That is, it was the first body with the power to approve or reject laws set before it by the republican magistrates (or before the republic, the kings). Only members of the elite families of Rome – patricians – could participate in the comitia curiata.

With the creation of the comitia centuriata, the comitia curiata lost most of its legislative power and became more of a ceremonial body. For instance, the comitia curiata had the power to inaugurate various priests and give the power of imperium to magistrates (consuls, praetors, etc…) each year when new ones were elected and ready to take office.

Government of the Roman Republic - The Senate

The Roman senate had much of the real power during the time of the republic. The senate was made up of 300 powerful Roman men (although it was increased to as many as 900 in the later years of the republic). Many Roman senators had held another high office before being appointed to the senate. In fact, once a Roman had served in a high office in the republic (consul, praetor, etc…), he was made a senator for life.

Researchers Investigate Pompeii’s Fading Paint

Mount Vesuvius erupted and buried the Roman city of Pompeii on August 24, AD 79.

Wall paintings in Pompeii often contained a bright crimson pigment called cinnabar (mercury sulfide). Since the wall paintings were removed from their volcanic ash sealed tomb, the cinnabar has begun to turn black.

Research is ongoing to determine the causes for the degradation of cinnabar, and the results will help in the effort to preserve similar works of Roman art in museums and ruins.

Some factors believed to contribute to the darkening cinnabar are atmospheric contamination, exposure to sunlight and rain, and possibly from a preservative applied to the paintings by the original artists called “punic wax.”

For more details on this research, read the press release from the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility.