Breath The Public Baths example essay topic

-BREATH-Since a Roman's life is very busy and complicated, I picked a couple sub topics for my report. I picked daily meal routines like breakfast, lunch, and dinner, the Forum, Roman school, the public baths, and houses. -BREATH-Most sources say Romans ate three meals a day. The first two would be very small.

-BREATH-The very poor people would be glad to even enjoy one meal a day. -BREATH-Breakfast, called, would consist of bread dipped in watered down wine. Sometimes a little honey would be used or dates and olives. -BREATH-Lunch, called, if eaten at all, would be made up of fruits, bread, cheese, or leftovers from the previous night. -BREATH-Dinner, called cen a, was the main meal of the day, served in the late afternoon. For the lower class, cen a consisted of vegetables and olive oil.

For the high class, it would be a seven-course meal. The typical dinner had three courses. -BREATH-The 1st course, called gust us, was appetizers. Mulsum (MULSUM! ), wine mixed with honey, would be served along with salad, eggs, shellfish, mushrooms, etc.

-BREATH-The 2nd course, the meat course, or called lena, would provide pork, poultry, fish, animals hunted, or exotic birds served with veggies. -BREATH-The final course, called the secund ae men sae or second table was given its name because at dinner parties, the entire table was removed after the first 2 courses, and a new one was put in its place for desert. This course had fruits, honey cakes, nuts, and wine. -LONG BREATH-For my next sub topic is the Forum. The Forum was the main marketplace and the buisnesse center, where the ancient Romans went to do their banking, trading, clothes shopping, and marketing. -BREATH-It was also a place for public speaking.

The ancient Romans were great speakers and loved to talk. They thought the job of an orator was not to argue, but to argue persuasively. People browsing the Forum would stop and listen, then go back and shop, and maybe leave a sacrifice at a temple or two. -BREATH-The Forum was also used for religious ceremonies and festivals. It was a very busy place!

-LONG BREATH-My third topic is Roman school. In school, the goal of education in ancient Rome was to be an effective speaker. The school day began before sunrise, as did all work in Rome. Kids brought candles to use until daybreak. There was a rest for lunch and the afternoon siesta, and then back to school until late afternoon. No one knows how long the school year actually was; it probably varied from school to school.

However, school began each year on the 24th of March! -BREATH-In early Roman days, a Roman boy's education took place at home. If his father could read and write, he taught his son to do the same. The father instructed his sons in Roman law, history, customs, and physical training, to prepare for war. Reverence for the gods, respect for law, obedience to authority, and truthfulness were the most important lessons to be taught. Girls were taught by their mother.

Girls learned to spin, weave, and sew. (Home Ec) -BREATH- About 200 BC, the Romans borrowed some of the ancient Greek system of education. Although they did not add many subjects, they did begin sending their boys, and some of their girls, with their father's permission, to school, outside their home, at age 6 or 7. -BREATH-The children studied reading, writing, and counting. They read scrolls and books. They wrote on boards covered with wax, and used pebbles to do math problems.

They were taught Roman numerals, and recited lessons they had memorized. At age 12 or 13, the boys of the upper classes attended 'grammar's chool, where they studied Latin, Greek, grammar, and literature. At age 16, some boys went on to study public speaking at the rhetoric school, to prepare for a life as an orator. -BREATH-Children, educated outside of the home, were sent to the house of a tutor, who would group-tutor. Children, educated in the home, were taught by intelligent and gifted slaves.

Children, in poorer homes, did not have slaves to teach them; they were taught by their parents, as they were in early Roman days. -LONG BREATH-My next topic is the public Roman baths. In all but the largest baths, there were separate hours for men and women. The women's time slot was apparently much shorter, so that women probably had to be more careful scheduling. Large baths had duplicate facilities. -BREATH-The Public Baths were extremely popular.

Roman women and men tried to visit the baths at least once every day. The baths had hot and cold pools, towels, slaves to tend your every need, steam rooms, saunas, exercise rooms, and hair cutting salons. They had reading rooms and libraries. They even had stores, selling all kinds of things, and people who sold fast food. The baths were arranged rather like a very large mall, with bathing pools. Of course, none of this was free!

-BREATH-The baths were packed. The people loved them. At one time, there were as many as 900 public baths in ancient Rome. Small ones held about 300 people, and the big ones held 1500 people or more! Some Roman hospitals even had their own bathhouses. A trip to the bath was a very important part of ancient Roman daily life.

-LONG BREATH-Last but not least, my final topic is Roman houses. The lower class Romans (plebeians) lived in apartment houses, called flats, above or behind their shops. Even fairly well-to-do tradesmen might chose to live in an apartment-building compound over their store, with maybe renters on the upper stories. Their own apartments might be quite roomy, sanitary and pleasant, occasionally with running water.

But others were not that nice. -BREATH-In the apartment houses, or flats, an entire family (grandparents, parents, children) might all be crowded into one room, without running water. They had to haul their water in from public facilities. Fire was a threat because people were cooking meals in crowded quarters, and many of the flats were made of wood. They didn't have toilets.

They had to use public latrines (toilets). -BREATH-The upper class Romans (patricians) lived very differently. Their homes were single family homes, which in ancient Rome meant the great grandparents, grandparents, parents, and kids of one family lived in a home together. Homes were made of brick with red tile roofs, with rooms arranged around a central courtyard. The windows and balconies faced the courtyard, not the street, to keep homes safe from burglars. There were paintings on the walls and beautiful mosaics on the floor.

There was very little furniture, and no carpeting. Wealthy Romans might have a house with a front door, bedrooms, an office, a kitchen, a dining room, a garden, a temple, an atrium, a toilet, and a private bath. -LONG BREATH-From food to houses, Rome's daily life was very busy, just like ours is today.