Ancient Rome Case

Summary: Ancient Rome was not just a place of fancy structures and magnificent architecture; it was an extremely violent place to live. Through looking at the different factors affecting the everyday lives of the ancient Romans we also see the ways in which the social order and law enforcement of that era differs to that of today's society.

People in today's society may assume that ancient Rome was just about the famous buildings and that the only violence was from that of the gladiator games, but this is far from the truth.

In fact, the streets of Rome were a very violent place to be in. Aside from the warfare that occurred very often, there was also crime and violence inside the city, as well as in the country, and also family fights that often got out of hand. These factors greatly contributed to the overall standard of living forced upon the citizens of ancient Rome.

In ancient Rome, warfare was a common but brutal occurrence. They had no guns or automatic weapons like we do today, they instead opted for weapons that could be doubled as hunting tools. They included: slingshots, blazing torches, bows & arrows, pointed sticks, knives, swords and javelins. As you can imagine, the use of any of these weapons would have left rather messy wounds for the opponent, instead of a particularly clean wound that a gun would have inflicted. The damage caused during a war also influenced the breakout of disease.

Even medicine in ancient Rome was violent. This was mainly because the doctors weren't trained like they are now. They were more like butchers, again leaving violent solutions to healing the injured. They used to burn metal rods in the fire, and then place it onto the wound to seal it from germs and contamination.

The soldiers of Rome required physical strength and endurance as a necessity to survive their specific duties and responsibilities.

Crime and violence within the city was also a major factor affecting the lifestyles of the people. In the Republican era, punishments were severely vicious. This was mainly due to the fact that there were no police monitoring the city. Instead, it was the soldiers who maintained order in the city. As personnel trained to fight and inflict pain and torture, you can only imagine the sort of punishments they would apply to those they considered to be criminals. The most serious crimes included rape, murder, treason and cattle rustling. These were all punishable by death. The traditional punishment for committing any of these crimes was to strip the criminal, tie him to a short cross in a public square and beat him to death with wooden rods.

The streets of Rome were so violent that it was essential for ordinary people to carry weapons such as swords or knives even when walking around town. The streets were unlighted after dark, so it was vital for all work and/or errands to be completed before this time.