Transcript Roman Society

6th Grade UBD - Unit 6 - Roman Culture Life and Legacy
 How did the
spread of Roman
culture influence
life throughout
the Empire?

Roman culture and
influence spread
through the ancient
world and continues
to influence people
and nations today.

The center of Roman society was the called the
familia, or family. Family was important to the
people of ancient Rome.
.

A pyramid-style hierarchy, or order, determined
the roles of every person within the society.

Ancient Roman society
was organized into three
classes: patricians,
plebeians, and slaves.

Patricians were the ruling
class, and plebeians were
commoners.

The center of Roman society
was the family, or familia.

Societal roles were
determined by a pyramidstyle hierarchy.

The father was the head of
the family, or the
paterfamilias, and had
absolute power.

The bottom of the
pyramid consisted of
women, children, and
slaves.

Women focused on
domestic chores and
managed household
slaves.

As the Roman Empire
grew, its slave
population soared.
Slaves worked in a
variety of roles, including
mining, farming, and
domestic work.

Some slaves were forced
to fight to the death as
gladiators.

Gladiators were
professional fighters.

There were no laws to
protect slaves, and they
had no rights.

Because of the harsh conditions slaves lived in, Romans feared a slave
revolt.

To prevent slave revolt they used the possibility of manumission, the
ability to buy one’s freedom.

Even so, slave revolts did happen. A famous example is a slave revolt led
by the gladiator Spartacus. After years of fighting, his rebellion was
harshly suppressed.

Since slaves did much of
the work in the Roman
Empire, many plebeians
had no jobs and fell into
poverty.

Plebeians were forced to
survive on food handouts
from the government.

The increasing inequality
of Roman society led to
tensions between the
upper and lower classes.

To appease the lower
classes, patricians used a
tactic called “bread and
circuses.”

Bread and Circuses refers
to distracting the people
from their long-term
problems by offering them
food handouts (bread) and
entertainment such as
chariot races and gladiator
fights (circuses).

Chariot races were held in a large Ushaped stadium called the Circus
Maximus.

Another stadium, called the
Colosseum served as an arena for
gladiator fights and other
entertainments.

The games were an
expensive but an
effective way of keeping
the poor entertained.

The state also provided
free or low-cost grain to
the poor to keep them
happy.

Like sports fans today, the Romans pass through the gates and head for their
seats. Where they sit, however, depends on who they are. The emperor and his
guests are seated nearest to the field on a magnificent platform.

Roman engineers and architects developed styles
and ways of doing things that were their own.

Public baths spread throughout the empire.

Many Roman buildings and roads throughout the empire
still exist today because of the invention of concrete.

Rome used Greek building styles. However, it built larger,
taller, and heavier buildings than the Greeks built. Romans
did this by adding their own ideas, such as vaults, arches,
and the use of concrete.

The Romans constructed a vast
network of roads to hold the
empire together.

These roads made it possible for
Roman armies to control the
population in all areas of the vast
empire.

The roads were built to last—in
fact, some of them are still used
today.

The Romans provided water to
their cities using aqueducts that
carried water over long distances
for drinking, irrigation, and baths.

Public baths were a part of daily
life in ancient Rome.

At these baths, men would
discuss business, politics, and
local gossip.

Women had smaller, less
luxurious baths.

Roman artists adopted techniques used
by the Greeks and applied them to art
forms such as landscaping and
portraiture.

The Romans also specialized in making
practical art, such as jewelry, coins,
fountains, and mosaics.

The Romans used an
architectural element
called the dome in
some of their
buildings, such as the
Pantheon.

Roman culture often imitated
what it admired and improved on
what it needed from other
cultures.

As a result, it came up with useful
inventions, such as concrete.

Latin became the common language of the Roman Empire.

Latin became the official language of the Roman Catholic
Church.

Latin is still used in terms for law, science, and
mathematics. The spread of Latin changed the
languages of some Europeans. This change resulted
in the forming of various Romance languages.

English contains many Latin-based words.

Latin was the common
language of the empire.

It helped unite the diverse
cultures within the Roman
Empire.

It influenced the development
of many modern languages.

Today, many modern
languages, including French,
Spanish, Italian, Portuguese,
and Romanian, are called
Romance languages because
they developed from Latin.

With the decline of the
Roman Empire and the rise of
Christianity, Latin became the
spoken and written language
of the Roman Catholic
Church.

Classical Latin continues to be
used in science, mathematics,
and legal terminology.

Rome’s legacy has
been ensured by the
multiple ways the rest
of the world has
recognized, admired,
and adopted aspects of
its unique character.