The Culture of Ancient Rome

System of Writing

Language

Although in some remote pockets of Ancient Rome the Greek language strongly accented the primary tongue, the people were a dominantly Latin speaking population. More specifically, Archaic Latin (also known as Old Latin)- the original version of Latin that today’s Modern and Classical editions branch from.

Due to the Ancient Roman Empire conquering many countries over the course of it’s time, a great deal of present-day languages, such as English, French and Italian, originate from Archaic Latin. The Romans forced the people from the new sections of the Empire to speak Latin and therefore prove their true ‘Romaness’.

Latin Writing (above)

Writing

Originating from the early Etruscan Alphabet, the Ancient Roman Alphabet, and indeed their lettering, is not too dissimilar to the Italian lettering used today.

Writing on animal skins and papyrus paper (an idea they stole from the Ancient Egyptians), most people, even the poor, of Ancient Rome learnt to read and write at an early stage in their life. While learning, however, students had to write on a wax tablet, imprinting their letters into it with a pointed stick, called a stylus. Once they had proven to their teacher that they could write proficiently, they were then allowed to write on paper, using quills and ink made from either gum and soot or, occasionally, the ink of an octopus. Paper was very expensive back then, something only the rich could afford- and even then, only boys would usually use.

The Ancient Roman Alphabet

Cities and Grand Structures

The city-state of Ancient Rome had numerous grand and advanced structures, many of which remain in their near perfect former glory right to this day. A few of their most famous ...

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...ould make the same amount of money as a commoner in.

The army of Ancient Rome consisted of approximately 150,000 soldiers at its peak. However, to make things easier, it was broken up into ‘legions’, which contained 4000-6000 soldiers each. Each legion was then split into ‘cohorts’ (around 1000 soldiers in each), which were then split into ‘centuries’ (80-100 soldiers).

The Ancient Roman army was extremely disciplined; this was probably one of the reasons they were so successful in war.

Another factor that helped, however, was tactics. The Ancient Roman’s favourite strategy was to ‘siege’- surround the city and stop anyone from entering or leaving until the inhabitants starved to death. They also used battering rams to destroy buildings and catapulted rotting animal carasses inside the city’s walls to help spread disease amongst the people. How horrible!