Ancient Rome, 1940s

in our classrooms we study the life and times of the past for a better understanding of our own life and times of the historic periods we study none is more important than that of ancient rome first as a city then as a republic and finally as a capital of an empire rome dominated the people of its times in our own times rome the eternal city is still the center of human events as it has been for almost 3 000 years in the city we will find remnants of the roman past the past from which we draw so much of the pattern of our own lives rome began as a small hilltop settlement but soon expanded until it occupied all of the famous seven hills along the tiber river the tiber float and down to the mediterranean sea thus giving ancient rome a waterway for commerce on the shores of the mediterranean roman ettlers founded many colonies the first of these was ostia at the month of the tiber once the port of the ancient city still remains one of the many segments that became part of a vast empire around the mediterranean the roman empire that eventually stretched from asia minor to britain all roads lead to rome goes the old thing and so roads that many of them are still in use with a red pavement laid 2 000 years ago looking down the famous appian way we can imagine what this road was like in roman times when it was a busy thoroughfare thrawn with chariots and wagons and people and splendid companies of soldiers the roads were lines of communication that held the great empire together over these highways rolled roman war chariots such as this one followed by legions of soldiers roman soldiers on foot and on horseback as we see in this carving woman's left many records in stone of their triumphant battles and campaigns to commemorate important victories the romans built great triumphal arches sculpture and in words they left the story of their achievements today in rome people walk through an arch of triumph that once rang with the shouts of victorious roman armies victory parades passed through the arches and along with sacred via the sacred way that led through the forum the forum today is in ruins but when it was the civic center of ancient rome it looked as we here roman citizens with plebeians and patricians gather to discuss politics here they exercise their freedom of speech here cato spoke here cicero delivered his orations strom came great expressions of liberty of justice under the law of the meaning of citizenship these ideas have endured so that they still challenge us today to the ancient romans the forum was also the religion there are many remains of great temples including the famous temple of vesta in this temple burn the sacred flame tended by the six vestal virgins statues of the vestals are still in place in the forum these six maidens played an important part in the complicated roman religion looking at the forum we can recall three things that were important the romans their law their religion and their military triumphs what were these romans in the face of the emperor trajan we can see some of the strength of character that helped the romans to dominate the ancient world this aurelius last of the great emperors was noted for an unswerving devotion to duty another quality of character that was typical of roman at their best in the reign of augustus in the first century the roman empire reached its height in accomplishments augustus and many of the succeeding emperors lived above the forum on the hill called palatine luxurious palaces whose ruins still stand the patricians of rome dwelt in wealth and comfort in those days the palatine hill was covered with beautiful homes and temples we must remember that these broken walls were once covered with colored model panels and carved decorations in their palaces and gardens the emperors entertained such famous roman writers as virgil horst livy and ovid the emperors were continually adorning rome with great buildings this is the ruin of one of the public baths of rome built by the emperor caracalla the baths looked like this when they were used as a recreation center by roman citizens water for the baths and for general use in the city was carried from the mountains in aqueducts such as this one still standing near rome in large scale engineering of this kind the romans excelled the use of the arch in building act ducks and bridges was one of the roman gifts to the world in architecture the romans borrowed ideas from the greeks the greek styles of ionic doric and corinthian can be seen in many roman structures the romans were particularly fond of the corinthian style that we see in this column in architecture as in other things which they borrowed from older cultures the romans added modifications of their own the domed roof for example is a roman contribution to building how did the ancient romans live we are continually learning more about the lives of roman citizens by digging out the remains of roman buildings ancient homes and stores still stand in rome and in other cities of europe in some places entire streets lined with shop departments remained along these streets romans walked and shopped and in these homes romans sat at their windows just as city dwellers do today in their homes the romans used furnishings which looked like ours benches and tables and kitchen utensils that are similar to our own food was cooked in pots of brats or iron or clay the roman house was lighted oil lamps these were often artistically designed to make them decorative as well as useful decorative tool with a beautiful glass dishes and vases of the roman household this is a warehouse that was once filled with grain hides the merchandise of everyday roman life here we see wine and olive oil in business the romans weighed merchandise with scales and are counting on a device called an abacus we learn how the romans dressed the men wore a loose outer cloak called the toga a single broad piece of woolen cloth women wore a kind of metal called a palla like the toga this was an outer garment although these costumes are different from modern dress we can see that the people themselves must have been quite like us this roman citizen isn't much different from men of our own time and there are many boys and girls today who resemble these roman school children at school children wrote their lessons in latin on a wax tablet using appointed stylets they used roman numerals and letters which we still use today for entertainment the romans attended pageants and plays in theaters ruins of their tremendous theaters still remain originally some of them look like this model roman actors performed tragedies comedies and ballets on the stage which was almost always in the open air just as we see it here but it was at the coliseum in rome where the most exciting entertainment was presented during roman times the coliseum was much like one of our modern football stadiums inside the coliseum romans filled these tiers of seats to watch the public games gladiator fights were always popular the roman words coliseum and circus are still part of our vocabulary and so many ideas link our modern world to the roman world to the romans we owe much are thinking in government law language and literature architecture and engineering the pattern of our daily lives today has inherited much from the pattern of living in ancient rome