Roman Society, Culture, and Urbanism: A Comprehensive Look
Roman Society, Culture, and Urbanism
In the beginning, citizens were only the inhabitants of the city of Rome. However, as the Empire grew, people from other places demanded the same status. That’s how citizenship spread, first to the inhabitants of Italy and, in the 3rd century AD, with Emperor Caracalla, to all free men in the Empire.
Pyramidal Society
Roman society was organized as a pyramid with a minority of powerful and wealthy people at the top and a majority of ordinary people at the base.
Social Groups in Rome
A. Citizens
Not all citizens had the same status:
- Patricians: Patricians formed a kind of nobility. They were descendants of the original citizens of Rome and held political offices, large properties, and slaves.
- Plebeians: The ordinary people: peasants, craftsmen, and merchants.
B. Non-Citizens
A large part of the inhabitants of the Roman Empire were non-citizens:
Children, women, foreigners, slaves, and freedmen (libertos).
- Slaves: They were considered objects without any rights. There were three ways to become a slave:
- By debts
- As prisoners of war
- As a son/daughter of a slave
There were many different levels in slavery. Some slaves did the most difficult and hard jobs (in fields or mines), but others, better prepared, could be assistants, teachers, or artists.
- Freedmen (libertos): Freedmen were former slaves freed by their owners after a good life of service or after they had bought their freedom. Although they were no longer slaves, freedmen had certain dependence on their former owner, were part of his family, and were protected by him in exchange for their loyalty and help.
Culture
Origin of Roman Culture
Roman culture was a mix of different aspects from the cultures they conquered. Two were especially important: the Greek and the Etruscan.
But Romans didn’t simply absorb elements from others. They adapted them to their own character (the practicality and magnificence that built an empire) to make them something truly Roman.
Expansion of Roman Culture: Romanization
In the Roman conquest, the army was as important as the culture. Romanization is the process that converts other people into Roman customs, and it was what permitted the empire to resist so much. Almost all of Europe is the heir of Roman culture: language, law, religion, engineering…
Urbanism
The Importance of Cities in the Roman Empire
Rome was an urban civilization. They developed the pre-existing cities and founded many others. In fact, every empire in history has been urban because cities are the best way to control a big territory.
Of course, the most important city of all was Rome itself. Rome had more than a million inhabitants, an amazing quantity for ancient times.
The Structure of Roman Cities
Romans founded a lot of cities along Europe, many of them from military camps. Their cities were really well organized, following a grid plan (plano hipodámico o en cuadrícula) in which streets run at right angles.
There were two main streets: the cardus, which went from north to south, and the decumanus, from east to west. The forum was at the crossroads.