Th e elite in Rome did not have to work. Because many
owned large estates in the countryside, their source of in-
come was secure, so they turned to public service. When they
could, they lived in large villas on these estates. Th e elite re-
ceived preferential treatment in many ways. Th ey were able to
eat fresh game meat and fi sh from the Mediterranean or spe-
cially stocked fi shponds at lavish banquets and at everyday
meals, while the diet of commoners consisted largely of beer,
bread, lentils, processed fi sh sauce, and occasionally vegeta-
bles and bits of fruit. Th e elite oft en got away with criminal
off enses and, unlike commoners, could not be tortured by the
authorities if they were arrested. Even those convicted of a
capital crime such as murder received preferential treatment.
Commoners were thrown to beasts, crucifi ed, or burned
alive, but aristocrats were put to death relatively humanely
with swords—assuming they were convicted. Among the top
of the elite, the emperor heard cases and would probably have
been reluctant to pronounce a death sentence on a member of
his imperial court.
It has been estimated that the population of the city of
Rome was about 500,000, but many scholars believe that the
number was closer to a million, including a large population
of slaves. An elite family lived in a single-story dwelling called
a domus. Such a house typically had several rooms and a cen-
tral courtyard. But as much as a quarter of the city of Rome
was taken up with public buildings, so masses of commoners
had to live in apartment buildings called insula. Th ese build-
ings were a constant danger. Th e upper stories were supported
by wooden beams that sometimes collapsed, and the threat of
fi re was ever present. Additionally, the streets were dark at
night, making them dangerous and not just because of crimi-
nals. Commoners frequently discarded objects or emptied
chamber pots through windows onto the street, oft en to the
dismay of people walking below. Conditions were similar in
other Roman cities, where aristocratic elites held power and
commoners lived in less comfortable conditions.
Privilege among the upper classes extended to the educa-
tion of children, especially boys. Early in the Roman Republic
there was no system of education. Children learned what they
needed to learn, usually farming, at home. But during the
Macedonian Wars with Greece (215–148 b.c.e.), many Ro-
mans gained exposure to Greece and the system of education
it had for its sons. Because many Romans wanted to imitate
the lifestyle of the Greeks, they began to believe that Rome
needed a similar education system as a means to a successful
public career as an administrator or even a senator.
Wealthy Romans hired tutors for their children. For the
less wealthy, private schools provided instruction in reading,
writing, and arithmetic; the teachers in these schools were
oft en Greek or Greek-speaking slaves. At the age of 12 or 13,
talented students went on to attended a grammaticus, where
they continued their studies in rhetoric, philosophy, history,
literature, music, astronomy, geometry, and the Greek lan-
guage. Th e very best students completed their studies in Ath-
ens, studying Greek oratory. In the wealthiest homes, bookswere highly valued and slaves were oft en employed as copy-
ists to produce a copy of a book for the home.
Th e lower classes of the Roman Empire consisted of a di-
verse set of people. Th ey included, of course, poor citizens,
but also noncitizens, slaves, and freedmen, or people who had
formerly been slaves. Manual laborers were regarded as lower
class, but so too were large classes of people who in modern
life wou ld be rega rded as professiona ls. Th ese people included
craft speople, actors, musicians, and philosophers. Many peo-
ple even scorned doctors as members of the lower classes.
Doctors were oft en hated because they did not pay taxes.
To represent their interests, members of the lower classes
joined collegia. Th ese were similar to modern-day fraternal
lodges. Th ey gave poor people a place where they could fi nd so-
cial relationships. Th e y a l s o f u nc t ione d a s bu r ia l s o c ie t ie s to en-
sure that poor people received proper burials. Th ey were oft en
under the patronage of a wealthy citizen, who provided money
for banquets and other activities. Patrons also gave members of
a collegium some measure of legal protection. In return, the col-
legium honored the patron with prayers and respect. Collegia
were open to slaves and freedmen as well as poor citizens.
Slaves were the lowest class of Romans. Estimating the
number of slaves is diffi cult, but historians put the number
between two million and 10 million, with as many as a half
million living in and around the city of Rome. Slavery was an
odd institution in ancient Rome. Slavery was never based on
race or ethnicity. Slaves were prisoners of war, people in debt,
or people who voluntarily sold themselves into slavery as a
way of escaping debt or crushing poverty to a way of life that
at least provided them with shelter and food. Many people
treated their slaves with great kindness; others, especially in
the countryside, were cruel. A slave had no legal status and
was regarded as property. A male slave was responsible for
his master’s welfare to the extent that if the master was mur-
dered, the slave was put to death for failing to protect him.
Yet slaves could testify in court. Many were able to save their
own money and eventually buy their freedom. Perhaps the
oddest thing of all was that some Roman slaves themselves
owned slaves.
Slaves served their masters in many capacities. Th e larg-
est class included agricultural laborers. Many slaves worked
on construction projects in and around cities. Still others
worked in Roman households. Many slaves were relatively
well educated and had talents that led to work as barbers,
schoolteachers and tutors, accountants, secretaries, hairdress-
ers, carpenters, messengers, goldsmiths, and even doctors.
Th e most talented and educated slaves served as architects,
business managers, and civil servants in the empire’s bureau-
cracy. Owning slaves was a mark of status. While many Ro-
mans owned just one or two slaves, with 10 or fewer being a
common number for middle-class people, others owned huge
numbers; the historian Pliny claimed that one slave owner he
knew owned 4,000 slaves.
Freedmen were slaves who had gained their freedom.
In some cases, slave owners freed slaves for meritorious1038 social organization: Rome0895-1194_Soc&Culturev4(s-z).i1038 1038 10/10/07 2:30:51 PM