Romans lived on these higher floors. There was no running water and rubbish was thrown into the streets below. There was a constant danger of fire from wood-burning stoves for cooking. Fire could spread quickly through the wooden structures.
CHECKPOINT!
1. Explain the following terms: patrician; plebeian; toga; stola; domus; insulae. 2. What are the most important differences between a domus and an insulae? 3. Describe a domus house. 4. Describe an insulae apartment block. 5. Why was there a risk of fire in the insulae?
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I understand the differences between patricians and plebeians and can describe Roman homes.
Slaves
Slavery was an everyday feature of Roman life. By law, slaves were the property of their masters. In Rome itself there were over 300,000 slaves, who came from a number of different sources:
• Any prisoners of war became slaves.
• The children of slaves were automatically slaves themselves.
• People captured by pirates or bandits while travelling were often sold as slaves.
• Parents in debt sometimes sold their own children into slavery.
Thousands of slaves worked on Rome’s public building projects such as aqueducts. Most patricians would have owned several dozen. In a domus, the slaves did the cooking, cleaning and other manual labour. Others worked on huge farms or in mines, where they were treated harshly and often worked to death. A runaway slave was branded with his master’s initials. These cruel conditions led to some rebellions – the most famous was led by the gladiator Spartacus in 71 BC.
TIME TO GO BACK I CAN MOVE FORWARD
Slaves being sold
Well-educated slaves, often Greeks, were highly valued and were treated well. They were usually employed as teachers, secretaries and doctors and were sometimes given their freedom after many years of service to their master. This was called manumission.
