Setting                  The setting of this book is in ancient

Setting The setting of this book is in ancient Rome. This place was once a small collection of village huts of the eighth and seventh centuries B.C. into this big "city" of the first century A.D. In Rome there were the "seven hills". Six of those seven hills were the Capitol, Palatine, Caelian, Esquiline, Viminal and Quirinal. It was a valley which is the earliest times must have been a swamp. To the south of this ring lay the seventh hill called the Aventine. To the west of those hills flowed the river Tiber which was yellow with sand and mud and over beyond on its other bank was a longer range of hills called the Janiculum.

By the beginning of the fifth century B.C. the villages that had formed on the Palatine, Quirinal, and the Esquiline had grown and united into a more compacted community. Later the slopes of the seven hills were cleared out, as the wooden huts were slowly replaced by single-storied housed of brick and tile, above which stood out two temples, crowned by a larger Temple to Jupiter called the father-god of Rome, on the Capitol.

[Forum Boario, Rome, Italy] (LOC)

[Piazza Navona, Rome, Italy] (LOC)

Rome

All things begin to change time after time. Some buildings were destroyed and some were rebuilt. There were also some plants that were grown in around these area. The olives and vines began to be planted and new plants began to grow. Slowly the old lanes and alleys were given a better surface. Larger and more solid buildings, temples, arches and bridges were built from stone that first came from the ancient Romans.

Main Characters The main characters in this book is of course the Romans. There were the lower class Romans called the plebeians and the higher class Romans called the patricians. As you know the plebeians weren't all that great to be living. They live in apartments and wasn't really all that fancy. They had to work hard to earn a good living. As for the patricians, everything was fancy for them. They live in fancy single family homes. They dressed differently than the plebeians. They were more royal and had more freedom.

The Roman Men wore rings a lot. Those were the only jewelry worn by Roman citizen men, and good manners dictated only one ring. Of course, some men did not follow "good taste", and wore as many as sixteen rings. Hairstyles and beards have been change over a couple of times. In early Roman times, men wore long hair and full beards. For a while, they were clean-shaven with short hair. Roman Women enjoyed gazing at themselves in mirrors of highly polished metal (not glass). The ancient Roman women loved decorative necklaces, pins, earrings, bracelets and friendship rings. Pearls were their favorites. Women often dyed their hair, usually golden-red. They used false hairpieces to make their hair thicker or longer. Sometimes, Roman women wore their hair up, in some sort of styles, held with jeweled hairpins. Women might carry fans made of peacock feathers, wood or stretched linen. Women's street shoes were made of leather, like a man's. In the house, most Romans wore sandals. Women's sandals were brightly colored. Some were even decorated with pearls.

The Roman Boys wears a tunic down to their knees. Once a boy became a man, he put aside his old childhood clothes, and wore an all-white tunic.

A boy became a citizen at age 16 or 17. The year was selected by choosing the date which came closest to March 17th. Becoming a citizen was quite a celebration. On a boy's sixteenth or seventeenth birthday, the boy dressed himself in a white tunic. The day ended with a dinner party, given by the father, in honor of the new Roman citizen. There were also schooling for the children. Schooling was a major part of growing up. If their parents know how to read and write, they had to teach their kids at home the same way they were taught. There were different kind of characters in this book but it was mostly about either a Roman that was in the higher class or the lower class.

Theme The theme in this book focuses on the everyday life in ancient Rome. It tells you the beginning of civilization in Rome of how it all started. It tells you about what did the Romans did and how Roman had rise and grew into this big "city". This book also tells you what did the Romans did for a living. Some parents were stayed home and cook, while the kids go to school and learn. It shows different sides of aspects of what Rome was really like. There were different kinds of sporting, the clothes they were, the food they eat, the religion, entertainment and arts, and of course architectures. This book shows you what is like to be living in Rome and how much it has risen as of it today.

Genre On one section of paragraphs, the author tells you different kind of things such as in one section it tells you about Doctors and the next section it tells you about Surgeons and then so on. In some pages it gives you an illustration to look at. I think illustrations are imported in these kind of books that has many facts in it. The reason why there should be because it lets the reader to understand that section better. The reader might not know the author is really telling you. So pictures are important in these books. The author also tries to narrow down the main part of view of many subjects such as sporting and the Olympics. In the beginning of the book it gives you the preface and at the end it shows you the Chronological Summary and the Index. The preface is somewhat important because it kind of tells you what this book is about and the Chronological Summary is sort of similar to an index at the end of the book.

Opinion I think this book was very interesting to read about the ancient Rome's cultures and their everyday life. For example, the part about death and burial ground. All members of the family were expected to stand by, mourning. Professional undertakers prepared the body for burial. If the dead man held high office, he was dressed in his official robes and crowned with oak or laurel leaves which were sometimes gold. Ordinary citizens were dressed in togas. The body lay in state in the atrium of the house and was attended by hired mourners. I never thought that the Romans were all prepared like this just like the Egyptians.

I thought this book was written thoughtfully and has a lot of details put into it. Though it was kind of hard to read because of the sentences putting together. It was kind of difficult to read because maybe of the words are used in paragraphs but it does describe a lot of details and facts. What helps this book easy to read are the illustrations. The pictures shows you what is going on of that page. It makes you look at it and think about it easier.

The theme of this book is "Life in ancient Rome" and I thought this subject was great to read. It describes the different stories of what ancient Rome was really like. It was how they Romans were dressed like, the architectures, the entertainment of art and music, and what was like living in Rome. I never thought that Rome was what I thought it was. I thought Rome was kind of boring and no fun to read about its cultures. But now I changed my mind and found it very interesting. What interested me was actually what was like living in Rome. I thought Rome was all about the government and wars, but now I know that it has been hard living in Rome. The book describes almost everything that I don't know about. For instance, about the food they ate, schooling, and the hard work trying to survive in everyday life.

Quotes 1. "In Rome, you have to pay for everything." 1. p18. Juvenal's Quote This quote helps you when the Romans that lived in Rome had droved up all the prices and increased the cost of living. Everybody had to pay for everything and some people didn't like that.

2. "A man who has not been flogged is not trained." 2. p43. Greek Playright Menandar This quote helps you that the Romans has different aspects on punishing their pupils and ways of punishing slaves. The quotes means if a person is not punish then the person wont be disciplined.

3. "As turn as the boy has learned to read and write without difficulty, it is the turn of the teacher of language and literature." 3. p44. Quintilian, Spanish-born Protester This quote means if a boy has learned how to read and write with ought no difficulty, that that boy must become a teacher of language and literature. This quote helps when people of Rome has their own rights and freedom. They don't need to be told to do something or become something.

4. "It would be hard to say what is the most prejudicial to their intellectual growth, the place itself of their fellow students or the studies they pursue." 4. p53. Tacitus 's Quote on Higher Studies This quote would be helpful in presenting an argument of how the Romans were supposed to be trained in the art of persuading and of controversial arguments, what poor quality is shown in their themes 5. "It's useful that there should be gods, so let's believer there are, and let the incense and wine be brought to their ancient shrines.' 5. p181. Poet Ovid on State Religion This quote put up a very good argument because the Romans have been taken over this belief in early times and kept it alive. But by the end of the Republic and the early days of the Roman Empire the few educated Romans seemed to have being against this belief in the existence of the gods.

6. "You must work to earn a living" 6. p111. Earning A Living You must work to earn a living. If you don't then you probably wont have a good life. After schooling you need to know what to do to get a job. Getting a job is important so you can get food, clothing, and shelter.

7. "If women cook, then the men should too" 7. p56. Women At Home Women should also have the same freedom just as much as the men have. Women just doesn't cook but clean and takes care of the kids. Why cant the men cook too. It's hard work for the women and they need more freedom and justice. This put up a good fight because everyone should have their rights.

8. "Never did I see human beings more like asses, so toughened with beating that when you flog them you hurt yourself more than you hurt them." 8. p102. Plays of Plautus Like I said all human beings should have all equal rights and have more freedom. If you are punishing a slave for doing nothing wrong then you are hurting yourself because you show a side of yourself of being a bad person. The slaves, the lower class, the higher class are no difference. Everybody are human beings and should be treated the same way was we do.

9. "Everyone should be educated" 9. p40. Schooling I think that everyone should be educated. The reason why I think that because everyone needs to have a chance to learn on how to read and write. Maybe some people can help build Rome a better place. They can build new buildings and the roads. If all those people were educated maybe some of them can educated other people. But this can also put an argument into it because if you did educated the slaves, the slaves might have plans on thinking about escaping or some other idea.

10. "The government of Rome should be changed" 10. p115. Government Some people disagreed about the government of Rome. Maybe some Romans believed that they didn't have that much freedom and didn't have the rights to say something if you were in the "lower class" of the Romans. Some people felt that everybody should be equal and no matter if you were in the "lower class" or the "upper class" and this puts up a big argument.

Rome

Rome

Portrait of a woman of the Flavian period, marble ...