Overview of History (753 BC-180 AD)

• Founding of Rome:
• by whom in legend
• reality
• The Republic (508-30 BC)
• Development/Spread (508-260s)
• key to spread?
• 3 ways they treated those they conquered
• Conquest of Mediterranean (260s-130s)
• whom did they defeat
• system for treating those they conquered
• The end of the Republic (130s-30 BC)
• salient features are internal ? and external ?
• The Roman Empire (30 BC-180 AD)
• Augustus
• key change in governmental system
• key change in expansion
• 3 principal gains for those under Rome's rule
• The Principate
• continuation/expansion of the 3 prinicpal gains
• areas added to Empire

• The nature of the evidence
• what are the types of evidence we have
• strengths or weaknesses of the evidence
• The Ideal Roman
• Key Roman virtues
• Place of tradition
• Class Structure
• three main factors
• three main 'classes' and their distinctions
• position of slaves and freedmen/women
• Patron/Client
• definition
• how do each benefit

• The Calendar, etc.
• three key days of the Roman month (origin, function)
• Nundinae-what are they
• hours: how divided, how different from modern
• types of clocks (reliability?)
• The Roman Male
• time gets up
• bedroom & bed like?
• sleeps in?
• puts on?
• washing?
• The Barber
• services provided
• instruments used
• The Roman Female
• time gets up?
• bedroom & bed
• sleeps in?
• puts on (clothes)?
• hair care
• make-up

• Basics:
• food preservation, methods
• food cooking, methods
• Meals
• number, times, what eaten and drunk typically, length
• where eaten, with whom, how (seated?), with what utensils
• menus: for poor, for rich
• entertainment at
• customs at

• Food and the customs relating to food often provide important clues in the nature of a society. What can one conclude about Roman society from an examination of their methods of food preservation and cooking and from an examination of a "typical" Roman dinner? Make sure you give specific examples to back up your observations/conclusions.

• What similarities can you find in your own or American society, or in what you have experienced of "college society" so far to the Roman patron/client system or the Roman administration of justice? What conclusions can you draw based on these? Make sure you give specific examples to back up your theses.