Ancient Roman life was characterized by a highly administered but unhealthy society with low life expectancies. While the population reached an estimated 60 million due to high birth rates, around half of newborns would not survive past early childhood due to diseases and poor sanitation. Gladiatorial contests and public killings were initially religious sacrifices but later became occasions for political grandstanding, reinforcing justice and sovereign power through spectacular violence and punishment that was central to Roman culture.

1. ANCIENT ROMAN LIFE
“INFORMED CONJECTURES”- sources of
information based on tax documents, skeletal
remains, cemetery inscriptions
General Characters:
a.Organized and highly administered
b. Human welfare measured by life expectancy
c. Limited medical development
d.Nasty , brutish and short

11. LIFE EXPECTANCY IN ROME: 25 years for new born girls, 23 for males.
Out of 1,000 new born girls fewer than 50% would live to reach 15
years old.. Out of 1,000 new born boys fewer than 50% would live
to reach 5 years old.
FACTORS:
c. Population’s defenselessness against diseases like typhus, typhoid,
malta fever, malaria, tuberculosis, pneumonia, diarrhea
d. Poor nutrition due to low wages and inability to transport food to
famine stricken areas
e. High violence rate and death by accident not by military death since
army population was less than 1% of the population
f. Poor sanitation-waste dumping in the Tiber river
g. Eastern trade which also brought oriental diseases like smallpox
and measles.

12. Despite such factors, why did Rome’s population reach
as high as 60 million?
• Adult fertility and high reproduction rate-average of 5 to 6
children
• Selective preference for males-more males more
opportunities for marriage, more marriage more children
• Relatively stable domestic life as evidence by monogamy.
• Migration as a result of political unification in the
Mediterranean and lack of formal barriers-entry of eastern
commercial and intellectual classes(Greeks, Syrians,Jews)
and slave migrations which amassed to 15% of total
population.
• ULTIMATE RESULT: GROWTH OF WESTERN EMPIRE

13. Roman gladiatorial contests
• Roman social psychology of violence built after
long years of war to build empire
• War victories brought in human suffering ,
carnage, and money, and high taxation to
support money and entry of slaves.
• Decimation-standard roman punitive means
done to terrify recruits.
• Public executions helped inculcate valour and
fear; children learnt lessons of defeat and
notoriety; they were rituals to maintain
atmosphere of violence even in times of peace.

14. • Bloodshed, violence and military glory and
conquest were central elements in roman
culture.
• PAX ROMANA- 31 BC to AD 14 – inner core of
empire virtually insulated from the experience
of war; artificial battlefields were constructed
in memory of warrior traditions and for public
amusement--- death games of hundreds of
gladiators, mass execution of unarmed
criminals & indiscriminate slaughter of
domestic and wild animals.

15. What was so glorious about gladiator
games and public killings?
• They were Roman rites with overtones of religious
sacrifices, legitimated by the myth that gladiator shows
inspired the populace with ‘a glory in wounds and a
contempt of death’.
• Closely associated to funeral beliefs that souls of the dead
were propitiated by human blood and so at funerals they
sacrificed prisoners of war or slaves of poor quality.
• Sponsorship of games by aristocrats showed the social
grandeur of public killings; later on became occasions for
political grandstanding between ambitious aristocrats who
wished to please , excite, and increase supporters( by
public betting and distribution of meat.

16. Were the games never regulated?
• In 42 BC gladiator games were substituted
with chariot races and were held only twice in
a year as part of official obligations of officers
of state; officials asked to spend more on their
constituents instead of games.

17. How were the games viewed in the
context of Roman governance?
• Justice: reinforced through terror and need to
satisfy the demand for the condemned
• Sovereign Power: reconstituted through
spectacular punishment
• Extensive labor and organization: the capture
and use of wide variety of animals
• Immediate, Bloody, and symbolic power—
animal slaughter from stands

18. Choose 1 from the ff questions:
• Give a general assessment of
the ancient roman life/lifestyle
• Why is the study of roman
culture important in the
understanding of western
civilization?