Food.

The Romans of the early times had a simple fare, living chiefly on pottage, or bread and pot-herbs. They sat at their meals, using a long table. As the nation grew and wealth increased and they came in contact with older nations, they gave up this simple life and entered among the most luxurious nations in their manner of living.

The Romans had three meals a day. The first meal was in the morning, the ientaculum, or breakfast, which was simple, consisting of bread flavored with salt or dipped in wine, olives, grapes, eggs, and cheese. The second meal was at midday, the cena, or dinner, which with the country people was the principal meal. In the city this midday meal was a lunch, the prandium, while the cena, dinner, was taken later in the day, toward evening, and often became quite an elaborate affair. There was sometimes a fourth meal, comissatio, served late at night, which really was but little more than a drinking-bout.

The meals were usually served in the triclinium, or dining-room. In this was a square dining-table, having on three sides one-armed couches, the remaining side being left open for serving. Each of these couches had room for three persons, who reclined upon the left arm, with the feet outward. About the end of the republic, round tables came into use, with semicircular couches. Some of these tables were quite valuable, being made of rare imported woods. The guests used napkins, which they might have brought themselves or were provided by the host. In later times table-cloths came into use. The principal ornament on the table was the salinum, or salt-cellar, as salt was used not only for seasoning, but also for sacrifices, and the salinum also held the sacrificial cakes. The chief implements for eating were two kinds of spoons, the ligula, shaped very much like the table spoon of the present, and the cochlear, which had a small circular bowl, flat or slightly hollowed, with a pointed handle. Knives and forks seem to have come into use during the later times of the empire.

The chief dish of the poorer classes was porridge, made of a farinaceous substance and which served them as bread. They had such vegetables as the cabbage, turnip, radish, leek, garlic, onion, cucumber, and pumpkin. Meat was rarely eaten, perhaps only on festival occasions. The market afforded all kinds of foods. Among the animals were the rabbit, pheasant, guinea-fowl, common poultry, peacock, kid, pig, and boar; there were various kinds of fish and oysters and snails; beside the plants mentioned above were rue, lettuce, cress, mallow, and sorrell. It would seem that they had quite a number of different kinds of grain; among the fruits were the apple, pear, plum, cherry, quince, peach, pomegranate, fig, olive, and grape; there were lemons and oranges and nuts of various kinds.

Wine was the only drink of an intoxicating nature that the Romans had. It was customary to mix the wine with water, and to drink the wine without putting water into it was considered a sign of intemperance. For a number of years the water-supply was such as could be obtained from the Tiber, wells, and natural springs, and it was not till the time of the republic that the water was brought from outside of Rome, for which means aqueducts were built and which continued to be built until there was an abundant supply of water.

Child and Parent.

The Romans practiced the exposure of infants as in Greece. This was begun in the early times and carried down into the later times. The children so exposed were usually feeble or deformed, but the father had the power to use it on any child and this was sometimes done when the father considered the child to be illegitimate. The new-born child was laid at the feet of the father and it was his duty to take the child up into his arms and declare it to be his child and that he would rear it and support it. In case the father did not so claim it, the child was carried away and placed at some cross-roads, where it would die unless taken up by a slave-merchant to rear it to sell.

The relation which existed between the father and the child was known as the patria potestas. This power of the father was very great in early times. He could sell his children, disinherit them, select a wife for a son or a husband for a daughter, and he even had the power to put them to death. This power ceased only at death or if the father lost his rights of Roman citizenship. The father himself could emancipate his son. Also this power over the son ceased should he become a flamen, or priest, and it ceased over the daughter if she married or took the vestal vows.

Names.

The Romans had three names: These were the prænomen, the individual's own first name; the nomen, the name of the gens or family to which he belonged; and the cognomen, or surname, which distinguished the particular branch or division of the tribe from which he sprung. Thus in the name Marcus Tullius Cicero, Marcus was the prænomen, Tullius the nomen, designating the Tullian family, and Cicero, the cognomen, showing that he was from the Cicerones branch of the tribe.

The boys received the nomen, family name, on the ninth day after birth and girls on the eighth day. On such day the ceremony of purification took place, which was by sprinkling with a branch of olive or laurel dipped in water, the burning of incense, and the offering of sacrifice. The boy was given his prænomen when he put on the toga virilis at sixteen or seventeen and the girl when she was married. The wife at marriage took the nomen of her husband's family, but this was not often a change from her own family as usually marriages were between members of the same gens. In later times, when marriage did not mean so much, and divorces became frequent, the wife did not take her husband's nomen but she was known by the nomen of her father's gens.

Care and Treatment of Children.

The birth of a son was a happy day in a Roman household and the door of the house was decorated with flowers and green branches. The boy's ninth day after birth and the girl's eighth day was the day of purification, the lustratio. A branch of laurel or olive was dipped into water and used to sprinkle the child, incense was burned, a sacrifice was made upon the family altar for the child's welfare, and he was carried to one or more of the temples and placed under the protection of the gods. Also, as stated above, the child's name was bestowed upon him at this time. Usually a private record was made of the time of the lustratio, which was sometimes offered in cases of identification. Under Marcus Aurelius there was begun a public registry of births, as it was decreed that within thirty days after birth the name of each child, born free at Rome, should be placed in the public records in the archives of the treasury in the temple of Saturn. The birthday was religiously observed by every Roman, rich or poor, high or low, at which time the members of his family were brought together and offerings were made to the household gods and a festive time made of the day. Many mothers turned over their children to the care of nurses and the wealthy employed wet-nurses. Each Roman child wore round his neck a bulla, which was a small locket of gold or some other metal, sometimes of leather, usually heart-shaped, or circular, and attached to a ribbon or chain. This was a charm against the evil eye. The boy wore his bulla till he put on the toga virilis at manhood and a girl wore hers till her marriage.

"Identical with modern times were the anxious care of mothers, relatives, and nurses, the words of endearment (such as birdie, little dove, little crow, little mother, little lady), and the lisping childish language and the lullabies ('sleep, my child, or suck'), rattles and other means of soothing (such as beating the stone that had hit the child), and the many superstitions, at all ages: such as binding on teeth of horses and boars to alleviate the teething, and old wives' simples and amulets against the evil eye. As a preservative against the strigæ, or vampires, garlic was wrapt up in the swaddling-clothes and hawthorn planted in the windows. A mother, who was passing a temple of Venus, would mumble a prayer for her daughter's beauty and make a vow. The figure of the girls was made artificially perfect. They wore tight stays from early childhood, so as to raise the hips into relief, and nurses' carelessness often produced rounded backs or unequal shoulders."192

Citizenship.

At seventeen years of age the Roman boy became liable for military duty. In earlier times this was the age at which he assumed the toga virilis. In the later times the age for taking the virile robe varied, usually taking place between the fourteenth and seventeenth years, but there were cases where boys were invested with the toga virilis as early as twelve and where it was withheld until nineteen. The time of year for this ceremony was not fixed, although a favorite date was at the time of the Liberalia, or feast of Bacchus, which occurred on March 17th.

"To make the gods propitious, the youth has passed the last night of his infancy covered, like a bride on the eve of her nuptials, with a white material and a saffron-colored sort of net-work. Is not this a betrothal which is now to be completed: the indissoluble union of the new citizen to the city?"193 The bulla was removed from the boy's neck and the toga prætexta taken off him and both were consecrated to the lares, a sacrifice was made, and then the boy was invested with the toga virilis. Then the boy was conducted to the Forum by his father or guardian, accompanied by relatives and friends, and formally presented to the public. He was, probably, also taken to the tabularium under the Capitol and his name enrolled among the list of full citizens.

This was a very important event in the life of the boy, as it freed him from the control of others, as he became by law a man, capable of looking after his own affairs and of holding property. After this he entered upon the affairs of life. If he was of the middle or lower classes, he entered directly into business or work; if of the upper class, he began to prepare for public life or the army.

Inheritance.

Every citizen had the right to make a will and to leave his property to the ones he wished to receive it. There were two kinds of wills recognized, the one made in civil life before the public assembly, and the other was in military life, made when an army was drawn up ready for battle and while the auspices were being taken.

Instead of a written will there might be an oral declaration, which had to be made before the proper authorities and witnesses and recorded in the city registers. If the will of the soldier dying in battle was unfinished, it was valid if there was no doubt as to his intentions. Those by law who could not make a will, or whose will was invalid, were persons under the power of another, minors, the insane, people not capable of managing their own affairs, the civilly dead, and the banished. Where there was no will, the law provided an order of inheritance, the children taking precedence. In case there was neither will nor legal heir, the estate went into the public treasury.

Adoption.

It was a sacred duty for a Roman family to preserve its name, its domestic sacrifices, and its traditions. These were transmitted from one generation to the next, so in case there was no son, the head of the family was authorized by law to adopt a son. There were three kinds of adoption. The first was adoption properly so-called; the second was the arrogatio, adrogation; and the third was adoption made by will or testament, to be confirmed by the proper authorities after the death of the testator.

There were three conditions necessary to adoption. The first requirement was that there were no sons in the family, nor hopes of any, and that the father should be about eighteen years older than the one to be adopted as a son; the second condition was that the honor, religion, domestic worship, or sacrifices of the two families, should not in any way be injured; and the third, that there should be no fraud or collusion.

Adoption proper was for minors. The two fathers, the natural and the adoptive, arranged the matter between them and then, with the child, went before the proper authorities and in the presence of witnesses was legally carried out. The adopted son took the rank and the name of the family into which he entered, he was introduced to the domestic sacrifices, and he became a full heir. If there was a daughter in the family, she became his sister and he could not marry her.

Adrogation was the form of adoption used with citizens who were their own masters. This required the consent of the people assembled for the purpose. Under this act a citizen with his property and all persons subjected to him passed into another's power.

"These adoptions finally led to abuse. The patrician, to obtain the tribuneship, would be adopted by some plebeian, and those who were without children, that they might enjoy office to which only fathers of families could be elected, adopted children, whom, after obtaining the offices, they emancipated. This finally required, to remedy it, a decree of the senate in the reign of Nero."194

Sickness and Death.

Throughout the time of Rome, medicine was largely in the hands of slaves and freedmen. Those engaged in the medical practice were mostly Greeks and orientals, especially Egyptians. Up to the middle of the republic, they treated their patients according to certain old prescriptions and nostrums. In the later days of the republic, the practice of medicine began to take on more the form of a profession and later the profession became to be divided into physicians, surgeons, and oculists, and also there were dentists, ear specialists, and the like. There were, too, women physicians and midwives. As those engaged in medicine were not required to be examined and were not held by law to much responsibility, quackery prevailed. The practice of medicine was quite remunerative and the physicians who were successful made large salaries.

Among the Romans the duties to the dead were carefully attended to. They believed that the souls of those who had not received the proper honors accorded to the dead were condemned to wander for a long number of years along the banks of the Styx before they were permitted to cross over into the realms of the dead. The dying person was surrounded by his relatives and when he had breathed his last his eyes and mouth were closed by the nearest relative present and the conclamatio was made, all calling out loudly three times to the deceased as though he might be in a trance. Upon his not awakening, the relatives and friends retired and left the body to the professional undertaker.

The body was washed, anointed, and clothed, the coin to pay Charon, the ferryman of the Styx, was placed between the teeth, and then the corpse was laid upon a couch in the atrium, with feet turned toward the entrance door. Flowers were placed about the couch and the decorations and crowns, if any, of the deceased were displayed about the body. To show that the house was in mourning, branches of cypress or pine were hung in front. The body lay in state for seven days for visitations of kindred and friends.

The day of the funeral having arrived, the funeral procession took place. In ancient times all funerals were in the night time, but later they were held in the day time, yet still later the procession went with lighted torches.

The order of the procession was arranged by the designator, master of ceremonies, and it closely resembled a triumphal procession. At the head marched the musicians, which might have been a single flute-player or a band of musicians with trumpets and pipes and horns; then came the mourning-women, hired for the occasion; next came dancers and mimes, one of whom was dressed up to resemble the deceased, and who acted out his character, imitating his style of speaking, his manner, and exaggerating his peculiarities. Following these came professional actors dressed in the garbs of the ancestors of the deceased and wearing wax masks representing their features, who strove to imitate them in speech and actions. Then were displayed the crowns and rewards the deceased had been honored with and the spoils and standards he had taken in war. Then came the torch-bearers and lictors, with lowered faces, followed by the nearest relatives or friends or slaves set free by the will, bearing upon a lofty bier the corpse extended and exposed in rich garments. Then the family of the deceased followed, the sons with veiled faces and the daughters with heads uncovered and hair loosened. Last came the freedmen, slaves, clients, friends, and the general public.

There were demonstrations of grief displayed by the mourners, the nearest relatives tearing their clothing, pulling out their hair, and covering their heads with dust, the women smiting their breasts, scratching their faces, tearing their hair, and the like.

If there was to be a funeral oration, the procession went to the forum, the bier being set down in front of the rostrum and surrounded by the wearers of the ancestral masks. A near relative, usually, mounted the tribune and delivered a eulogy upon the deceased and his ancestors. An informal eulogy might be given at the place of interment, in which case the procession did not stop at the forum. At the close of the oration the procession passed on. The burial place might have been public, along some one of the great highways leading out of Rome, or it might have been private, upon the suburban estate of the deceased. The vestal virgins had the right of burial within the city itself. The body was placed in the tomb, those present were then sprinkled, in order to purify them, three times with a branch of olive or laurel dipped in pure water, and then all returned from the funeral.

The above description refers to the funeral of the wealthy and illustrious. The bodies of the middle classes were placed in the columbaria, which were built up or cut out of rock, being super-imposed niches. These were often built by joint-stock companies who would keep them in order, letting out the niches as they were wanted. The poor were given a place in the common burial-ground, their bodies being carried out at night by the vespillones, carriers of corpses. Persons killed by lightning were buried at the place they fell, which was enclosed with a wall. The bodies of malefactors were left unburied, exposed to the elements and to the birds and the beasts.

The earlier Romans interred their dead. Burning the body gradually came into practice and became general near the close of the republic and almost universal under the empire. As Christianity grew, cremation gradually fell into disuse and interment became the practice.

In one way of cremation, perhaps the earlier form, a grave about three and a half feet deep was made and filled with fuel. The body was placed on the fuel and as it burned the bones and ashes of the body fell into the pit with the coal and ashes of the fuel. The remains of the body were gathered up and put into an urn which was set up in the grave and the dirt heaped around so as to form a mound and then a wall was built around the place.

In another way, a funeral pile, made of wood and in the form of an altar, was built up outside the city and near the family burial place. The eyes of the corpse were opened and it was wrapped in a shroud and laid upon the pile. The nearest relative impressed a last kiss upon the lips of the deceased and then with a burning torch and head averted set fire to the pile, the others present raising a conclamatio. While the pile was burning there was thrown upon it incense, perfumes, clothing, ornaments, weapons, and other things, as last presents to the deceased. When the body was consumed, the fire was extinguished with wine. The bones and ashes of the body were collected, dried, sprinkled with perfumes, and put into an urn, which was placed in a tomb. The last farewell was spoken, those present were purified with a sprinkling of pure water, and then all departed.

Relatives and friends came together the day after the funeral and partook of the funeral feast. If the deceased had been a great or wealthy man, scenic games were given and raw meat distributed among the people. The mourning continued for ten days, during which time none of the relatives could be summoned to a court of justice. On the ninth day a banquet was held, bringing the whole family together again, and on the tenth day the house was purified and the funeral ceremonies ended.

"The purification of the house ended the funeral ceremonies, but the 'paternal Manes' had three festivals which brought together again families: in March, the three nights of the Lemuralia, to appease the Manes whom forgetfulness might irritate; in February, the Parentalia, 'the day of the dear kindred,' which Ovid calls also the festival of the Caristies, and in the summer, that of roses, Rosalia, which were then scattered around the tomb. On this day all the relations were united at the same table, socias dapes, in order that the festival might lead to forgetfulness of quarrels: 'This is the time,' says the poet, 'when concord takes pleasure in descending among us.'"195

Industries.

Agriculture was the most important industry of the early Romans. The farms were small and many of the leading citizens followed the calling of farming. Later there arose large landed estates, which greatly changed the manner of farming. The proprietors did not work themselves and most of the work was done by slaves. Large tracts of land were used for parks and pleasure grounds and others were kept in pasturage. Thus agriculture decreased or changed and as the population grew the people of Rome were no longer able to supply their own food and food-stuffs were imported from other countries. The time came when immense supplies of grain were brought in by the government and distributed free among the people or sold at a nominal price.

On a great estate the dwelling of the master, the villa proper, stood apart from the other buildings, which were built around a court-yard and all were enclosed with only one entrance which was guarded by a porter with a fierce watch-dog. The slaves that could be trusted worked out in the fields and the others were kept within the enclosure, often in underground chambers, and did indoor work. A great deal of the farm work was done by hand and for which they had a number of implements, such as spades, mattocks, rakes, hoes, and forks. They had different kinds of plows to suit the nature of the soil. They usually used oxen for plowing.

The Romans understood about fertilizing and drainage and rotation of crops. It seems they had many different kinds of grain and practiced both fall and spring sowing. Next in importance to the grains were various kinds of pulse, the most useful being the faba, some variety of bean. They raised turnips as food for cattle and sheep.

Among the animals raised on the farms were cattle, bred mostly for draught rather than for beef; horses and mules, race-horses commanding the highest prices; sheep and goats and hogs. Poultry-raising was quite important. Doves and thrushes and peacocks were raised and for which there was quite a demand. Since honey took the place of sugar, great attention was given to bee-culture.

Two of the greatest industries were the raising of grapes for wine and olives for oil. Market-gardening employed quite a large number and it was quite profitable, especially near cities and large towns. There were various kinds of fruit-trees and grafting was a common practice. Beside fruit-trees other trees were raised, in particular trees for shade and ornament.

"In considering the Roman farmer's year as a whole, we find that he computed rainy days and festivals at forty-five and reckoned on thirty days after the sowing when there was no field labor to be done. But on these thirty days, and on the stormy ones, there were ropes to make, baskets to weave, and other home-made utensils to prepare; while all the other instruments of the husbandman—his 'mute servants,' as Verro calls them—had to be repaired and thoroughly cleaned. Even on feast-days certain kinds of work were allowed, such as the cleaning of drains and the mending of highways, so that only the December Saturnalia seem to have afforded a complete holiday to the slaves.

"On New Year's day, a little work of every kind was done for good luck; but then followed a time of complete relaxation. In the latter half of January, the ground was cleared of brambles, and the trimming of the vineyards completed; while the autumn-sown grain and the beans, if they were sufficiently grown, were hoed for the first time. Early trees were now grafted, and the stock was planted. Vineyards were also cultivated, and young orchards set out, grass sown and ground broken, fields manured and osier-beds renewed. Vine-sets were also transplanted, if needful and the late fruit trees grafted.

"In March, the vegetable garden was prepared, the autumn grains received their second hoeing, and the spring grains were sown. In April, came weeding, sheep-washing, the setting out of new vineyards, the trimming of old vines, and the olive-grafting.

"May brought the earliest mowing, and in this month the earth was first spaded up about the olive-trees, and the vineyards dug over, this latter process being repeated each month until cold weather. The olives were also trimmed, the vine-shoots nipped; in warmer latitudes the sheep were shorn, and the lupins, which had been sown as fertilizers, were ploughed in. In June the first ploughing was finished and the second done, the threshing-floor was made ready, vetches mown, beans picked, and honey taken from the hives.

"Grain-harvest took place in July, and the cutting of the straw and gathering of leaves for the winter fodder of cattle. In August, figs and grapes were dried for winter use, and brakes cut for litter.

"September was, par excellence, the month of the vintage, and then, too, turnips were planted, and the later grains harvested. In October, winter grains were sown and harrowed in, trees trimmed, and the olive-picking begun.

"November was devoted to a general cleaning-up of autumn work. The making of oil was finished in December, and the vines trimmed, and we may close the brief résumé of the work of the Roman agricultural year by a few general precepts from the natural history of the elder Pliny: 'He is no farmer who buys what his estate can supply. He is a bad head of a household who does by day what can be done by night—except in case of foul weather; he is a worse who does on working-days what is permitted on holidays; the worst of all is he who on a pleasant day chooses to work within doors rather than in the field."196

The upper classes in Rome held in low esteem, and even in contempt, the tradesmen and mechanics. This might have been because these people performed for the masses the duties that slaves did for the higher classes, and so all were put on the same footing. These people were, with few exceptions, debarred from serving in the legions and in consequence they became cowardly and likewise at times unruly. Yet the laboring class, as everywhere and in all times, were greatly needed at Rome and did perform a large amount of honest and useful labor. The great commerce carried on needed a large number of sailors and in the ports dock hands and porters and clerks. The city, too, needed a large number in the trades, as, bakers, tailors, shoemakers, potters, carpenters, and various kinds of smiths. There were needed plenty of small shops where the people could procure the things necessary for life and such shops would call for the employment of many people.

People of the same trades would naturally associate together and attachments would be formed, so that guilds came into existence at an early date, both from this natural instinct of association and for the protection of their trades. Among the crafts represented in the guilds were weavers, carpenters, dyers, leather-workers, tanners, smiths, porters, and a number of others. They were modeled after the gens or family, with a religious center and a patron deity. They had separate inns for their meetings. They had festive days at which times they went in procession through the streets carrying their emblems and banners. They provided for the funerals of their members, they had their widow's fund, and in other ways they looked after the interests of the ones belonging to the guilds.

Rome had an extensive commerce. Traders went along with the soldiers or quickly followed after them to open trade with the conquered provinces. Thus London in 61 A. D., only eighteen years after the conquest, had a large number of Roman merchants among its people. The roads built from Rome into all parts of the world greatly promoted commerce. The traders did not stop with the boundaries of the empire but went out among peoples not under Roman sway. As an instance of this was their going out into the North of Europe to the Baltic for amber and at one time there was quite a trade in this and in other articles. Even before Cæsar's conquest of Gaul, Roman traders had entered it over the St. Bernhard pass and had even gone among the Belgæ. The Mediterranean, the Black Sea, and the Atlantic were full of Roman ships trading with the various provinces and countries. The conquest of Egypt opened up a great trade, not only with that country but through it also with Arabia, Ethiopia and even India.

The Spectacles.

The public games, or Spectacles, were the greatest amusements the Roman people had. Originating in early times as religious celebrations, they became so fixed as to make them a public necessity, a means of keeping the mass of the people busy so as to keep their attention away from affairs of state. As it became a duty of the government to provide grain free or at a nominal cost, so it became its duty to furnish free entertainment for the masses. These games were provided by the officials and made free to the public. There were four phases of the spectacles. Horse and chariot races were held in the circus, gladiatorial fights and fights with animals and also sea fights in the amphitheater, scenic representations in the theater, and athletic and musical contests in the stadium.

The Circus Maximus was located in Rome in the valley between the Palatine and Aventine hills. It was of an oblong circular form, about a mile in circumference, and seated 150,000 or more people. Among the displays were exploits on horseback, such as leaping from horse to horse while running, picking up things from the ground with the horse in full gallop, and the like. Young men in full armor gave mock-fights, and sometimes there would be military drills, and again boys from senatorial families and young princes went through cavalry exercises in glittering armor. The greatest displays of all were the chariot races. Factions arose with their colors, at first but two with white and red, and then four with white, red, blue, green, and later gold and purple were added but soon dropped out, leaving the four factions and colors. Heavy bets were made by the factions and there were fierce contests and often fights between them. Sometimes two chariots raced, usually four, and again at times six, and there were two or four horses to each chariot, rarely three. The victor in the race was crowned and received a cash prize and his was greeted with great applause.

The amphitheater was an elliptical building with an arena in the center and with tiers of seats leading up all around. The Coliseum at Rome was the greatest of all, being computed to have contained 87,000 seats. In the amphitheater were held the gladiatorial fights. Just how these originated is unknown but the first public exhibition of gladiators at Rome was given in 264 B. C., by the brothers Marcus and Decimus Brutus at their father's funeral. Such continued at funerals and then they were given at other times, the number of days and number of fighters gradually increasing, till Trajan, upon his return after a victorious campaign on the Danube, gave gladiatorial games for 123 days, in which 10,000 fighters took part. The gladiators were captives, slaves, and criminals, and under the empire knights and senators and even women were enrolled among them. There were schools for the training of gladiators. Emperors, senators, and all classes of people attended these fights and although women at first were excluded, later they were admitted freely. The gladiators wore helmets and had leather coverings for their legs and they carried shields. Their weapons were the lance, dagger, sword, and rapier. There were others who used the trident and the net for entangling their opponents. They were usually matched by pairs and when one was overcome his life depended upon the people, who would turn down their thumbs for his life to be spared and upon the turning up of their thumbs the wounded gladiator was slain by his opponent. The victor received a palm crown, sometimes money, and he might be given his freedom.

"These gladiatorial exhibitions proclaim the true nature of the Roman character. When the vestal virgin, the Roman matron, and the young lady could find amusement in such scenes of human slaughter, it can certainly surprise no one that the Roman character, in its constituent elements, possessed so much hardihood, and could remain such firm proof against every tender feeling of humanity. The school of blood in which the young were reared, and the old matured, was eminently calculated to form precisely the character which the Roman possessed. It is thus that the manners and customs of a people are influenced by, and in their turn, influence the character from which they originate."197

Another great amusement of the Romans was the venatio, or exhibit of wild animals. The first known display of wild animals at Rome was given by Marcus Fulvius Nobilior, the conqueror of Ætolia, in 186 B. C., eighty years after the first gladiatorial exhibit. These displays grew until all parts of the world were searched to find animals. There were bears, elephants, deer, hares, stags, boars, bulls, crocodiles, hippopotamuses, rhinoceroses, lynxes, apes, giraffes, tigers, ostriches, hyenas. They were made to fight with one another. They were starved to make them fierce with hunger and then driven into the arena against one another with whips, pricked with lances, burnt with hot irons, and in other ways tormented to make them extremely angry. There were also fights between men and beasts. These were often captives and criminals compelled to fight, but there were others, bestiarii, who were trained, as the gladiators, in schools to fight against animals. These men sometimes were assisted by dogs trained to hunt and to fight wild animals. In some exhibits, captives and criminals were bound to stakes and animals set upon them or they were sent unarmed or poorly armed against the wild animals. There were, too, exhibits of trained animals and animal-training became a regular profession under Augustus.

Another form of the spectacle for the entertainment of the Roman public was the naumachia, or naval battle. As in the other contests, usually the combatants were captives and criminals. These were held in the amphitheater, in which case the arena was flooded with water, or great ponds were dug for the purpose. The first naval battle on a large scale was given by Julius Cæsar in 46 B. C., the two sides having biremes, triremes, and quadriremes, with 1,000 marines and 2,000 oarsmen on each side. Claudius in 52 A. D. gave a naval contest in which there were 100 triremes and quadriremes and 19,000 warriors and oarsmen. Other large naumachiæ were produced by Augustus, Nero, Titus, and Domitian. In these conflicts real fighting took place and large numbers were killed.

There were no theatrical entertainments in the early times of Rome. In 364 B. C., during a plague which could not be stopped, to appease the wrath of the gods scenic performances were first introduced into Rome. Actors from Etruria were brought to Rome, who gave mimic dances to the accompaniment of a flute. For a long time there were no theaters erected at Rome, a temporary wooden stage being erected for the occasion. Later wooden theaters were built and then torn down after the performances were over, being used but one time. The first stone theater was built on the Campus Martius in 55 B. C. by Pompey, and which was large enough to hold 40,000 people. Comedies, tragedies, and pantomimes were given. Tragedy was never popular with the masses as they were too much used to seeing real tragedies enacted in the arena for any great impression to be made upon them by the imitations of the stage. Pantomime attained to the most significance of all performances upon the Roman stage and especially under the empire. The professional actors were mostly slaves and freedmen or natives of other countries, as there was a prejudice against the profession in Rome. Noted actors were paid high fees for their performances. Many of the most famous actors belonged to the imperial households.

The last of the great spectacles were the athletic, literary and musical contests. These contests were not common under the republic but they grew on the people till they became popular under the empire. Athletic contests were first introduced into Rome at the same time as the exhibit of wild animals and by the same person, in 186 B. C., by Marcus Fulvius Nobilior, who brought athletes from Greece for the purpose. These contests continued to be given and they increased in popularity till a stadium for them was built in 28 B. C. on the Campus Martius and the demand from the people became so great that the officials who provided the state games included athletic contests with the other games. The Capitoline Agon was instituted by Domitian in 86 A. D., and it took rank with the Olympian. For these contests he built a stadium large enough to accommodate 30,000 or more spectators. There were contests in oratory and poetry, in music, and in athletics. The oratorical contests ceased in later times, but those in poetry increased in importance and the most talented poets in the empire competed for the prize of oak-wreath, bestowed by the emperor upon the winner after the decision of the judges. The gymnastic contests for men and boys were the same as in Greece. The Spartan custom of races for girls was introduced but soon discontinued because of the feeling against it.

Other Amusements.

Among the sports of the Romans was that of hunting. They kept parks for this purpose and they also hunted in fields and forests. They used dogs in hunting and they were trained for hunting various kinds of animals, as, the lion, the bear, the stag, the hare, and the like. Boar-hunting was one of their most common pastimes. They had hawks and other birds of prey trained for hunting. Fishing was another sport and they made use of rod and line and net. In winter when the water was frozen over they would cut holes through the ice for fishing. They had large fish-ponds on their country estates.

Walking was used as a means of exercise and as a pastime. This was done in the open air and also there were covered walks built at different places and in particular about the Campus Martius and the Forum. There were also places provided for horseback riding and for pleasure driving in vehicles.

There was a game similar to chess in which the chess men were glass, ivory or metal colored. Dice were in great use and gambling with dice prospered in spite of laws against it. Under the empire there arose an entertainment similar to a lottery, in which tickets were distributed free to the guests or sold to them and a drawing was made for the prizes. At their banquets and elsewhere the guests were entertained with musicians, mimics, dancers, jugglers, acrobats, rope-dancers, and other kinds of performers.

The Bath.

The Romans in early times took their baths in the Tiber. Later, the lavatrina, or washhouse, connected with the kitchen by a heating apparatus, served as a bathroom. In those days they bathed only for health and cleanliness. Under the empire, bathing became a fashion and it was carried to excess. When the supply of water became abundant by means of the aqueducts, baths multiplied rapidly and public baths were established. The public baths were at first arranged for and used only by the common people, but their importance grew gradually until all classes used the public baths and they were enlarged and beautified and different kinds of baths provided, as, hot, tepid, cold, and shower. The usual time for the bath was in the afternoon shortly before the evening meal. It also became the custom to take a bath after the meal and then the number was often increased till the bath was taken seven or more times during the day and evening.

The thermæ, baths, at Rome, under the empire, covered large spaces, with magnificent structures adorned with paintings and sculptures, the walls lined inside with marble, with marble columns, and silver mouthpieces for the water pipes. There were rooms not only for bathing, but also large halls for swimming, and rooms for places of meeting for conversation, for listening to the reading of poems by their authors, for gymnastic exercises, and the like, and provided with libraries and museums. Thus these thermæ became centers for gatherings of various kinds and places of amusement.

Games and Plays.

Children in Rome played a great deal, just as do children everywhere. They had their dolls and hobby-horses and toy-houses. They played with carts and used them very much as the children of the present. They skipped stones and walked upon stilts and spun tops. They used nuts for playing a number of games, one being called ludus castellorum, in which three nuts were to be so arranged that a fourth nut could be placed upon them without displacing them, the winner receiving all the four nuts. They played par impar, odd or even. The boys and even sometimes the young men would roll a large iron hoop, which had iron or brass rings fastened around it and kept up quite a clatter while the hoop was rolling. Some of these hoops were five or six feet in diameter and required quite a little skill to roll them, being rolled and guided by means of an iron rod.

Ball was a game especially liked by the boys and young men of Rome. There were three kinds of balls used—a large hollow ball, a small hollow ball, and a ball stuffed with feathers. At the country villas about Rome there was usually a place for ball-playing. The boys used the streets and squares of Rome for ball-playing, particularly before the butchers' shops in the Forum Romanum. They played ball alone or with a few or with many. In one game the ball was thrown up into the air and all tried to catch it. The trigon, or pila trigonalis, was a favorite way of playing ball, the players being placed in a triangle and they were to fling the ball at one another, the one failing to catch it and return it being the loser. There was a game in which they would choose sides and have the ground marked out as for lawn-tennis.

Religion.

The Romans were of a deeply religious nature even down into the times of the empire. Religion entered into the life of the Romans in a practical way and touched upon the civic duties and social relations, as the events of life were held to be of a sacred nature. The Roman life was closely connected with religion, as every activity of life was presided over by a deity, whom it was necessary to worship properly in order that the activity might prove successful.

The child came in contact with religion at his very earliest life in the home in the worship of the household gods, the Penates and Lares, the former being the gods of the hearth, who guarded the stores and provisions of the family, and the latter were the spirits of departed ancestors, who were the protectors of the family. In the atrium was the image of the chief lar between two penates, to whom were offered sacrifices each morning by the father as priest, and birthdays and marriages and the putting on of the toga virilis by the boy and the return of a member of the family after a long absence were occasions of special religious exercises. The young people, too, were led further into religion as the gens and the state carried on similar sacrifices and ceremonies for the common good, for the state had its common hearth, presided over by the Vestal Virgins, who guarded the sacred fire upon the altar, which symbolized the home.