The Roman world: history, culture, and society

¶ … Roman World

Rome, whose beginning can be traced in 753 B.C., is the capital city of Italy. Initially, kings ruled the city; however, the last king, Tarquin the Proud, was overthrown. Rome, then, became a republic for the next four hundred years. During this time, the republic was ruled by a Senate. The people to do different jobs in the senate were called Senators (Buckleitner, 58). However, not everyone was allowed to vote in these elections: women, slaves, and poor people were not allowed to vote. Those Roman people who were not slaves were called 'citizens'.

In 55 B.C. The Roman general Julius Caesar conquered France (At the time the country was called Gaul, and the Romans called it Gallia). The Gauls fought hard against the Romans and had been helped by Britain. Caesar was disappointed by their assistance and attempted to invade Britain, first in 55 B.C. And then again in 54 B.C. Both times the British warriors and the inclement British weather made his army give up and return to Gallia (Dyck, 54). Nearly a hundred years later in 43 A.D. The Emperor Claudius sent another army to invade Britain; and this time, Romans successfully defeated Britain.

The Romans possessed high level of expertise in construction and engineering works. For example, the Romans were the first people to use "arches" to construct bigger, wider buildings without having lots of rows of pillars to hold the roof up. The Romans used Aqueducts, made from a line of arches joined together, with a channel on the top to carry water, to supply towns with water. The Romans also invented the use of drains in the world. Towns and forts had underground drains to take away dirty water and sewage.

In Roman times, the means of traveling were through horseback; drive carts pulled by oxen; or walk. All the roads, therefore, they constructed were straight as it took them less time to travel between places (Dowling, 171).

Roman roads were carefully built to slope down from the middle to ditches on either side. This way the rain would drain away, without creating the problems of mud in the roads.

Despite possessing expertise in the areas of engineering and construction, Romans had little understanding on the use of the machines. One of the reasons for it was that there were always plenty of slaves to do the menial jobs. For instance, the central heating, which was common in rich people's houses, was manually constructed and installed by slaves. The principle on which central heating worked was that hot air moved through spaces under the floors and up the walls. The space was made through building the floor on top of tile; and the walls between rooms were really two walls with a gap between them (Dowling, 176). This was called a hypocaust. The hot air came from a furnace and it was the slaves' job to keep the furnace well stoked up so that the central heating worked.

Some wealthy Romans lived in villas. Villas were large farms with a luxurious house for the owners. Villas would often have rooms with painted walls and mosaic floors, and even central heating (Purcell, 356). Most towns would also have shops and a market place called a forum. At one end of the forum was a large building called the Basilica. This was a cross between a law court and a town hall. The magistrates carried out all the important business here.