5.8.1 Changing Roman society About 90 per cent of people in the Roman Empire were peasants, many of whom were plebeians. Most were workers or tenant farmers . Wealthy Romans lived in luxury, while the gap between rich and poor grew larger. Large Roman towns had well-planned streets, a forum and fancy villas for the rich. They enjoyed banquets with dancers and musicians, sometimes overeating and vomiting to keep feasting. The poor ate bread and porridge, lived in rented slums and relied on public fountains for water (see SOURCE2 ).
SOURCE2 From a description of housing conditions of the poor by the Roman writer, Juvenal, ýrst century CE.
We live in a city shored up with slender props ... for that is how the landlords stop the houses from falling down.
The impact of slavery on social change The main reason for the large numbers of poor citizens in Roman towns was that conquered peoples became slaves. Many displaced Roman farmers moved to cities for work or to survive on the dole. The dole was a state-run social welfare program which gave cheap or free grain and bread to males.
SOURCE3 Public entertainments included ýghts between gladiators, and between gladiators and animals.
SkillBuilder discussion Communicating 1. Describe the weapons that the gladiators are using. 2. What is the setting of the ýght? 3. What would be the modern-day equivalent of this type of entertainment? Did you know? Public entertainments included gladiator ýghts, and ýghts involving gladiators and animals. So many lions were captured for such shows that they vanished from the Middle East.
154 Jacaranda Humanities Alive 7 Victorian Curriculum Third Edition
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