Curiosities of ancient Rome (Society)

There is a widespread – mistaken – belief that the ancient Romans always wore sandals and dressed in tunics to withstand the warm climate in the Mediterranean. It must be remembered, however, that Roman legions conquered also Gaul, Germania or Britain. There, temperatures, like today, were lower and in the winter heavy snow was falling. The Romans, wanting to survive in such conditions, had to protect the body against hypothermia.

Woman in ancient Rome certainly had much more free life than in Greece. For example, during the classical period (up to 323 BCE), Greek women not only did not have civil rights, but they were also under the rule of a man. First, fathers, later husbands, from whom they were completely dependent. The whole life of an Athenian woman was limited to focusing on the home and children; on weekdays the woman was locked in her room, and only during the holidays she could leave hit. The relative improvement of the Greek woman’s status took place in the Hellenic period (323-30 BCE).

Ancient Romans treated slaves like things and did not pay much attention to their lives. Marcus Terentius Varro, a man considered as one of the best-educated ancient Romans, treated slaves as nothing other than speaking tool (instrumentum vocale). In addition, he believed that food should not be wasted on sick and unemployed slaves, and that they should not eat too much.

Today, Roman letters are associated mainly with a monumental square capital, engraved in stone arches and columns. On a daily basis, however, the inhabitants of the empire – writings letters, poems or keeping trade correspondence – used less durable tools.