Tag Archives: roman culture
The “madness” of the emperors: Nero I Posted by leire on Jun 23, 2012
Did you know that it is suspected that the origin of the “madness” of certain Roman emperors such as Nero or Caligula, was due to the ingestion of residual lead from the welding plates and glasses? Lead is a very harmful metal for health. Among the Roman emperors there were many insane people and dangerous as…
Roman soccer Posted by leire on May 29, 2012
“It is the game I like the most. It is very intense exercise and you get very tireds by dribbling and turning the neck back violently. So Antiphanes says: “damn, what neck pain!” And commenting the match he said: “He took the ball and passed it to aplayer while dodging another playing laughing. He put…
Roman mythology III Posted by leire on May 11, 2012
Religious festivities The Roman religious calendar reflected Rome’s hospitality to the cults and deities of conquered territories. Originally there were few Roman religious festivals. Some of the oldest survived until the end of the pagan empire, preserving the memory of the fertility and propitiatory rites of a primitive agricultural people. However they introduced new festivities…
Roman mythology II Posted by leire on May 8, 2012
Inclusion of other deities Roman primitive religions were modified both by the addition of new beliefs in later times, and for the assimilation of a great part of Greek mythology. Thus, Roman religion was consolidated before the start of the literary tradition, therefore, the early Roman writers who wrote about their religion were unaware of…
Roman mythology I Posted by leire on Apr 30, 2012
Roman mythology meets the beliefs, rituals and other practices pertaining to supernatural realm that ancient Roman people held or did since the ancient period until Christianity absorbed definitely the religions of the Roman Empire in the early Middle Ages. PRIESTS The Roman religion was very ritualistic and had many priests in charge of the rites…
Roman calendar Posted by leire on Jan 29, 2012
The calendar we use nowadays corresponds with very light variations, to the one that Julius Caesar used. However, in the history of the Roman calendar we can distinguish three stages: initial, Numa Pompilius’ reform, and the reform of Julius Caesar. In the initial phase, which was a lunar calendar, the year was made up of…
Education in Ancient Rome Posted by leire on Jan 25, 2012
OLD PERIOD (until the second century BC): At this time in the history of Ancient Rome, the education of children was limited to the preparation that their father could give. It was an education of farmers, based fundamentally on respect for the customs of the ancestors (mos maiorum). From early childhood they were taught that…