Roman Culture

ROMAN CLOTHING

*Ancient Rome was very much a “face-to-face” society (actually more of an “in-your-face” society), and public display and recognition of status were an essential part of having status.

*Much of Roman clothing was designed to reveal the social status of its wearer, particularly for freeborn men. In typical Roman fashion, the more distinguished the wearer, the more his dress was distinctively marked, while the dress of the lowest classes was often not marked at all.
* Typically, Roman garments were made of wool. In the early Republic, women spun the fleece and created the clothing  the home, and doubtless many women of the less wealthy classes continued this practice throughout the history of Rome.
*The toga was the national garment of Rome, and the color of the toga was significant, marking differences in age and status:

• toga virilis also called toga pura: unadorned toga in the off-white color of the undyed wool that was worn by adult male citizens
• toga praetexta: off-white toga with a broad purple border shown in the right-hand drawing. The only adults allowed to wear this toga were curule magistrates (curule aedile and above).
• toga pulla: toga made of dark-colored wool worn during periods of mourning
• toga candida: artificially whitened toga worn by candidates for political office
• toga picta: purple toga embroidered with gold thread worn by a victorious general during a triumphal parade and later adopted by emperors for state occasions. A variant of this costume was the toga purpura, an all-purple toga worn by the early kings and possibly adopted by some emperors

*Propriety demanded that adult male citizens wear only one item of jewelry, a personalized signet ring that was used to make an impression in sealing wax in order to authorize documents.

 ROMAN FOOD

*Rich people at beef, pork, poultry, fowl, lamb and, fish.
* Ordinary citizens grow their own fruit and vegetables.
*The poor consisted mostly of grain which was cooked into porridge or bread.

ROMAN RELIGION

*religion had played a great role in it's society and was involved in almost every aspect of the life of the Roman citizen. 

*Big feasts were held in honor of certain gods and would include spectacals like chariot races and gladiatoral fights.

*Religious practices are best remembered with grand temples,great festivals and christian persecution to the final acceptance of christianity within the Roman empire over the traditional pagan religious.

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The Roman religious practices can be divided into three phases which span from the founding of the city to the fall of the empire. The First Phase (753 BC to 500 BC) - The first phase of Roman religion dated from the founding of the city to the early republic. This phase occurred before the Roman civilization had really adopted the Greek ways and so the religious practices of this time consisted of only three gods and these gods were known as the Archaic Triad. The Second Phase (500 BC to 313 AD) - Before the end of the 6th century BC Greek influence had begun to affect Roman religion and this resulted in the transformation from the Archaic Triad to the more Greek influenced Captioline triad. The Third Phase (313 AD to 476 AD) - By the early empire ,in the first century AD, the traditional form of Roman religion was beginning to show signs of breaking up. Causes for this breakup could be attributed to the swarms of new religious beliefs that were sweeping through the Roman empire and the fact that most of these theologies promised peace after death to the destitute and uneducated majority of the Roman populace. The most notable of these new religions was Christianity ,which had found it's roots in the rebellious Roman territory of Judea.