What it was like to be an Ancient Roman

Published by Barrington Stoke

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First published in 2023

Text © 2023 David Long

Illustrations © 2023 Stefano Tambellini

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For the young Roman girl who lies beneath St Mary Axe

THE GREAT INVADERS

Who Were the Romans?

More than 2,000 years ago, the Romans ruled one of the largest empires the world had ever seen. Their armies conquered vast areas of Europe, Africa and Asia. This meant that the Roman Empire stretched from England all the way to Turkey, and across the Mediterranean Sea to Egypt and t he coast of North Africa.

More than a fifth of all the people on Earth at that time lived in the Roman Empire. The empire lasted for hundreds and hundreds of years, despite many attempts to defeat the Romans in battle.

The Roman Empire in 117 ce

The creation of such a vast empire was impressive considering that the Romans started out as just a small, warlike tribe. They lived in a village called Rome in what is now Italy. Rome had been founded in around 750 bce by brothers called Romulus and Remus, according to ancient legend. Romulus and Remus were twins, and the legend said that they had grown up in the wild, fed and protected by a gigantic wolf.

The village of Rome began as a group of stone huts on a hilltop. It went on to become

the largest and most important city in the world at the height of the empire, with a population of more than a million.

Rome was home to many powerful emperors who ruled over everyone living in the empire. Some of these emperors were good to their people and treated them well, but others were greedy and cruel. A few emperors were very bad indeed, and one of them was only 13 years old.

Rome’s original hilltop location made it easier to defend against attacks from rival tribes. As more and more people moved to Rome to live, other groups of huts were built across six nearby hills overlooking the River Tiber.

The Tiber was important because it flowed straight into the sea only 25 kilometres away. The river meant the Romans could grow rich by sending wooden ships called galleys

THE GREAT INVADERS

to trade with other countries around the Mediterranean. Later, the river also made it possible to invade many of those countries

by sending warships full of soldiers down the river and across the sea.

It took the Romans several centuries to build such a large empire, even with the advantages of the hilltops and the river. It involved more than just wooden ships and winning battles. The soldiers of the Roman army built an amazing 80,000 kilometres of new roads when they weren’t fighting. Incredibly, some of these are still in use today.

Roman architects and engineers also constructed hundreds of new towns and cities along these roads, many of them in the countries the army had invaded. These had beautiful temples and other spectacular buildings made of brick and stone.

The families living in these towns and cities could enjoy things many of them had never seen before. These included clean water supplies, theatres and large sports arenas,

impressive public bath houses. They even had homes with central heating, which worked by blowing smoke into the walls and beneath the floors.

The Romans spoke a language called Latin, and they introduced new ways of counting and writing. They had a calendar that was similar to the one most people use today. They were responsible for many brilliant inventions, such as newspapers, books, concrete, surgeon’s tools

and even an efficient postal system. These helped to improve the lives of many people living in the empire.

Slavery wasn’t invented by the Romans, but several million men and women in the empire were enslaved, along with tens of thousands of young children. Most ancient societies had their own version of slavery, and unfortunately it was regarded as a normal part of life for thousands of years. Enslaved people had to work hard from early morning to late at night. But at least, under the Romans, it was possible for them to earn their freedom. Many did this, and a few even went on to become very rich with large houses and slaves of their own.