This four-book series takes a close-up look at life in the Roman Empire during the period 27 BCE to approximately 200 CE. Each volume is illustrated in full color, makes use of quotations from primary sources, and includes information on women's roles and activities and on childhood in the various segments of Roman society.

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"Hinds does an admirable job of crafting a useful, well-organized. and historically correct series on the Roman Empire. Using clear and understandable language, Hinds presents a distinct picture of everyday life. In each of the four books, The City, The Countryside, The Patricians, and Religion, the roles of men, women, and children are addressed. Quality photographic reproductions of artifacts, sites, and individuals appear on almost every page. Full-page sidebars add additional information. In The City, pastimes, recreation, housing, and surviving city life are all addressed. A sidebar explains the importance of Roman baths to the social realms of Roman citizens, encompassing much more than a cleanliness issue. Sacred places, priests, influences of mythology, Roman holidays, and festivals are all addressed in Religion. This series stands out from most other books on ancient Rome by its easy-to-read format, logical organization, and succinct text. Lavish illustrations are well selected and captioned and enhance the text. Students utilizing these books will be well informed about all aspects of ancient Roman life. Each book has a glossary, index, for further information reading, online information, and a bibliography. These books are beneficial and beautiful cover to cover. No doubt about it, this series should be included in every middle and high school media collection. Highly Recommended."

--Library Media Connection (starred review)

"Grades 4-6 will appreciate Kathryn Hinds' 'Life in the Roman Empire' series of a solid in-depth set of references suitable for reports, each holding 72 pages of text and concluding with an index, bibliography, glossary, and more. The separation of the topic into four outstanding titles allows for a narrowed, more in-depth focus. . . . An excellent reference ."

"Beautifully presented material gives insight to the patrician sector of Roman life. . . . Well documented with bibliography and source notes."

Kathryn's
LIFE IN THE ROMAN EMPIRE
series was awarded second place
in the category of
Middle/High School Book Series
at the
2005 Annual New York Book Show.

The judges' comments:
"Cover and text work well together. Attractive covers and good selections of photos to illustrate the interiors."

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. . . . Nearly every urban neighborhood had a public well or fountain, near which people often lingered for a chat. Marketplaces were good locations for socializing as well as shopping. As in a modern city, friends or business associates frequently met up on the sidewalk; in some Roman cities the sidewalks were shaded by roofs supported by columns. There were taverns, food stands, and cookshops, too.

Public bathhouses were among the favorite places for people to meet, whether to socialize or talk business. At one point there were more than eight hundred bathhouses in Rome alone. Many of them were huge, splendid buildings, decorated with colored marble and works of art. Public lavatories (which charged an entrance fee) were also favorite gathering places, for the Romans were experts at making a virtue of a necessity. A public restroom in an ancient Roman city usually had about twenty seats arranged in a semicircle or open rectangle. The seats were often of marble, and behind them niches held statues of heroes, gods, and goddesses. Channels of constantly running water flowed under the seats to carry away sewage. In the middle of the bathroom there might be a fountain, and sometimes the room was heated by a furnace under the floor. For urban Romans, it seemed perfectly natural to sit down to a friendly conversation in these surroundings.

--Life in the Roman Empire: The City

Upper-class children were largely cared for by slaves, often including a woman who nursed them. But most rural babies were breastfed by their own mothers, probably for about two years. A peasant mother had little assistance with childcare, unless she had an older daughter who could help out.
Soon after children were toddling, they were probably given simple chores to do. Still, while they were quite young, they did have some playtime. Most rural children were likely to have few toys. On the other hand, they would find plenty of things around the farmyard and fields to play with. A fallen branch could be a pretend sword; a large flower might make a beautiful, if not long-lasting, doll. A poem by Tibullus mentions country children building miniature cottages out of sticks. There was also plenty of room to run around in the fresh air, and we know that children enjoyed games similar to leapfrog, tag, and blindman's buff.

Various ball games were popular, too, including ones that resembled dodgeball, soccer, and field hockey. On a farm it was easy to find materials to make a ball. Some ancient types of balls were made of wool. Others were constructed from inflated pig bladders wrapped tightly in pigskin or leather. A ball that bounced fairly well could be made from cut-up sponges with string wound around them to make a sphere, all sewn into a cloth cover.

--Life in the Roman Empire: The Countryside

A Birthday Invitation from an Army Wife

Until 197 CE, ordinary soldiers in the Roman Empire were not allowed to marry, but the story was different for commanders. Often they brought their wives and children with them to their postings. Archaeologists working at a fort near Hadrian's Wall in Britain discovered the following letter from one auxiliary officer's wife to another. Dated to around the year 100 CE, this invitation is one of the very few writings by a woman of the Roman Empire to have survived to the present.

Claudia Severa to her Lepidina greetings.

On the third day before the Ides [fifteenth] of September, sister, for the day of the celebration of my birthday, I give you a warm invitation to make sure that you come to us, to make the day more enjoyable for me by your arrival, if you come.

Give my greetings to your [husband] Cerealis. My [husband] Aelius and my little son send you ... their greetings.

I shall expect you, sister. Farewell, sister, my dearest soul, as I hope to prosper and hail.*

Claudia Severa and Lepidina were not really sisters. We can imagine, however, that being among the few women at an isolated military base in an unfamiliar country, they must have come to feel a family-like closeness.

[quotation from Judith P. Hallett, "Women in the Ancient Roman World," in Women's Roles in Ancient Civilizations: A Reference Guide, edited by Bella Vivante. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1999, p. 285.]

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The Roman economy was greatly dependent on slave labor. Keeping slaves from rebelling, therefore, was always a concern. Until the second century slaves had no legal standing or protection, and owners could treat them however they wanted. Some masters used violence or the fear of violence to keep slaves obedient. We read of a cook being beaten for burning a meal, of a lady's maid having her hair pulled and her clothing torn for not curling her mistress's hair properly.

In 61 CE a mistreated slave killed his master, a high-ranking city official in Rome. The victim's friends wanted all 400 of his slaves put to death, to discourage other slaves who might think of murdering their owners. Many Romans protested against this cruel punishment. The Senate debated the matter and finally decided to allow the mass execution. As one senator put it, "You cannot control these dregs of society except through fear."

Other Romans, however, felt that it was better to treat slaves with some kindness and respect. Well-treated slaves who had the hope of eventually gaining their freedom were liable to be more accepting of their state of servitude. Besides, some Romans argued, to treat slaves decently was simply the right and humane thing to do. This idea was expressed by the playwright-philosopher-statesman Seneca the Younger when he wrote to a friend,

I was happy to learn from people who had just visited you that you live on friendly terms with your slaves.... Some people say, "They're just slaves." But they are our fellow human beings! "They're just slaves." But they live with us! "They're just slaves." In fact, they are our fellow slaves, if you stop to consider that fate has as much control over us as it has over them.... I don't want to engage in a lengthy discussion of the treatment of slaves, toward whom we are very arrogant, very cruel, and very abusive. However, this is the essence of my advice: "Treat those of lower social rank as you would wish to be treated by those of higher social rank."

[quotations from Jo-Ann Shelton, As the Romans Did: A Source Book in Roman Social History, 2d ed., New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998, pp. 176, 182-183.]

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A Multilingual Empire

The Romans' language was Latin, and this was the tongue used in government and by the upper classes throughout the empire. In the eastern part of the Roman world, Greek was equally important. But outside of Italy and Greece, these languages might not be widely understood. The poet Ovid, exiled to a frontier town on the western Black Sea coast, wrote about his interaction with the local people, "They communicate in the tongue they share; I must make myself understood by gestures. Here it is that I am a barbarian, understood by nobody."

Long after their lands became Roman provinces, numerous country people continued to speak their native languages. Modern Welsh, for example, is the direct descendant of the Celtic dialect spoken in Britain when the Romans invaded. As this fact demonstrates, it was often possible, away from the centers of power, for many aspects of a people's traditional culture to survive the process of romanization.

The following table shows many of the languages, besides Latin and Greek, that were spoken in the Roman Empire. Those in capital letters are still in use (in modern forms), even if to a limited degree in some cases; for clarity, the table gives modern place names.

[quotation from Naphtali Lewis and Meyer Reinhold, eds., Roman Civilization, Sourcebook II: The Empire, New York: Harper & Row, 1966, p. 108.]