Rome

Farmers grew many things, including livestock and agriculture. Livestock: pigs, goats, sheep, cattle, oxen, donkeys, bees, ducks, geese, and hens. Pigs were raised for their meat, although Romans didn’t eat a lot of meat. Goats and sheep were raised for their milk, (to make cheese,) wool, and sometimes meat. The wool was used to make rope and clothing. Bees were obviously kept for their honey. Honey was used to sweeten and preserve foods. Hens, ducks and geese were raised for their feathers, eggs and meat. Cattle, oxen, and donkeys were usually not eaten but would be beasts of burden. Roman farmers grew a variety of foods and spices. Vegetables like turnips, tomatoes, lettuce, peas, and corn were usually found in farmers’ crops. Also, fruits like figs, olives, grapes, apples, and pears. Farmers grew wheat and grain for bread.

Roman farmers used a number of tools to help them farm. If the soil had stones in it farmers would use picks to pry them out. When the soil was ready cattle, oxen, or donkeys would pull a plow. To keep the soil fresh, farmers would use a method called crop rotation. This meant planting crops in different places each year. To harvest, sickles were used. Sickles were tools with a long handle and a curved blade at the end. They were swung like baseball bats to hack down wheat. Harvesting the fruits and vegetables were done by hand.

For breakfast Romans ate fruit and bread that was topped with something. For lunch people would go to food stands on the side of roads. These stands had bread, cheese, fish, and vegetables. (Poorer people would live on handouts.) Every night’s dinner was a banquet. The appetizer was usually snails, salad, shellfish, and wine with honey in it. The main course was meat with some vegetable sauces. For desert Romans had fruit, honey in wine, and small cakes.
Technology

Ancient Romans had very extensive education for their time. For elementary school, boys went to a private teacher that was called a litterator. A litterator taught them arithmetic as well as reading and writing. Girls went to a litterator until they turned twelve or thirteen, then they stayed at home to be home schooled, or to help their mother and father. Once a boy turned twelve or thirteen, unlike a girl, he would go to a grammaticus where he would learn history, geography, astronomy, and literature. After children turned sixteen they became legal citizens of Rome. Once becoming a legal citizen of Rome, men could go to a rhetor where they would thoroughly learn public speaking. Then there was no more school.

Rome also had many engineers; engineers were the source of innovation. Inventions helped make things a lot easier. One good example is the fifty thousand miles of roads that were made in ancient Rome. The roads were made up by four layers of material. The first layer was rubble, the second was flat slabs in mortar, the third was concrete and gravel, the top layer was closely laid paving stones. In addition to this the roads had curbstones and drainage ditches.

Other inventions contributed by the Romans were the jury system, postal service, fire departments, apartment buildings, aqueducts, concrete, the water wheel, and the arch. Aqueducts were made to get water from near-by lakes. They were made of concrete arches going in a straight line. However, sometimes the water needed to go uphill. Water wheels were used to get water uphill; they were turned by slaves and were very large. Apartment buildings were houses with many stories and made with concrete and arches to support the building. Romans faced a lot of challenges, but they over came them with perseverance, determination, and education.

Bibliography

1. Nardo, Don, Life in Ancient Rome, Lucent Books Inc, 1997
2. Nardo, Don, The Roman Empire, Lucent Books Inc, 1994
3. What Life Was Like When Rome Ruled The World, Time Life Inc. 1997
4. Levy, Pat, Sheehan, Sean, The Ancient World of Rome, Steck-Vaughn Company. 1999
5. Armento, Beverly, Nash, Gary, Salter, Christopher, Wixson, Karen. A Message of Ancient Days. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1991, pp. 396-475.
6. crystalinks.com

Author’s note: My timeline of Rome is on the wall.To learn even more about Rome read these other authors` works: Elona Gurney, Kevin La Varta, Michael Soldate, and Chanel Kogeler.

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