MAKING HISTORY Roman lives – the patricians


Wealthy and powerful Romans were called patricians. The patricians controlled the Roman Senate which made the laws for Rome. Patricians lived in private houses in the city, called a domus. They also had country villas (houses), with a farm run by a manager and worked by slaves. ● The domus looked plain from the outside, with blank walls facing the street. Shops often occupied the front of the house.


Peristylium (or garden) Atrium


Dining room Bedrooms Walls around the house Shop


The family entered the house through a narrow corridor that led to the atrium, an open courtyard with a pool in the middle to catch rain water. The main rooms of the house – the bedrooms, kitchen and the dining room – were grouped around the atrium.


● At the rear of the house was the peristylium, or walled garden.


Patrician families


In patrician families, the family group was large, including husband, wife and children, but also other relations. The father was fully in charge, and the children were expected to obey their father even after they had grown up. ● The main job of the mother was to run the household. She gave orders to the slaves, who did the work.


Marriages were often arranged to increase a families’ wealth and influence. Girls were allowed to marry at 12 years of age and boys at 14.


Men and women wore short-sleeved, knee-length tunics, tied at the waist. Wealthy Roman men wore a toga over the tunic. Wealthy women wore a stola (a long tunic) over the undertunic.


28 Toga Stola Tunic


A cut-away drawing of a domus (a private house) in Rome. Some of these houses used a hypocaust or heating chamber to heat the house.


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