UNIDAD 11: ROMA Y SU IMPERIO
ACTIVITY 29: RELIGION, FAMILY AND TECHNOLOGY
http://www.thaliatook.com/pix/ceres.jpg
1. Read the text.
How did the Romans worship?
For a long time the Romans believed in many different gods and goddesses. They thought they were all part of a family and people told stories or myths about them.
Each god or goddess looked after different people
or things. These are a few of them:
Saturn: one of the oldest gods, who was once the ruler, but his place was taken
by his son (Jupiter).
Jupiter: god of the sky, he was the most important god.
Juno: Jupiter's wife, who looked after women.
Neptune: Jupiter's brother, who was the god of the sea.
Minerva: goddess of wisdom and women's work, such as weaving cloth.
Mars: god of war.
Venus: goddess of love, who was the lover of Mars.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/romans/religion.shtml
http://www.cwhistory.com/history/fullimag/ElecHseEm6.jpeg
2. Read the text.
People worshipped the gods in temples where they made sacrifices of animals and precious things.
The Romans believed that your spirit went to the underworld when you died. To get there the dead needed to cross the river Styx. The dead person's family would give them a coin to pay the ferryman, Charon.
Romans also believed that the Emperors became
gods, so everyone had to make a sacrifice to the Emperor. Christians often got
into trouble because they refused to do this, and they had to worship in secret.
Despite this secrecy, more people became Christian.
By the 4th century A.D. Christianity was so popular the Emperor Constantine
decided to make it the official religion of the Roman Empire.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/romans/religion.shtml
http://www.vroma.org/images/mcmanus_images/familysarcophagus2c.jpg
3. Read the text.
What was life like in a Roman family?
Life in Roman times for women was quite hard. The father was the most important member of the family. He had the power of life or death over everyone. When a new baby was born it would be laid at its father's feet - if the father picked the baby up it would live, and if he ignored the baby it would be taken away to die. Mothers and children were never seen as important.From the 1st century B.C. women began to have more rights and could divorce unkind husbands. But they were never seen as really being equal to men.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/romans/families.shtml
4. What were aqueducts?
Aqueducts were made from a line of arches joined together, with a channel on the top to carry water. The Romans used them to supply towns with water.
The arches would be higher or lower as the aqueduct covered rough ground but it would always have a slight slope towards the town so that the water could run downhill.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/romans/tech.shtml
5.Virtual Reconstruction.
Click here to visit some Rome places reconstructed