Roman Empire · 1-200 AD

Everyday life in a Roman city

Crowded apartment blocks, public baths, free grain and the games: students explore how ordinary people lived in Rome and its port Ostia, and who did the work that kept a city of perhaps a million people running.

Teach it live New Open on the map
Length
45 minutes
Ages
10–13
On the map
3 steps, AD 100
Live lesson
7 rounds, 3 on the map
Worksheet
Two A4 pages, with Classroom
You need
A projector; phones for live

Live lesson · new in Classroom

Teach it live. The class answers on their phones.

Put the board on the projector. Students join with a six-digit code, no account needed, and tap the map: where was the frontier, where did the grain come from. Their pins drop in together when you reveal, and the closest student takes the round.

€19 per month: every lesson live, every worksheet, cancel anytime. Rome at its height runs live for free.

A live lesson on the projector: the class's pins on the map around Alexandria, the closest students listed beside it A student's phone: the question and a map to tap
7 rounds
3 places to find on the map, quiz questions, a class vote and a one-line answer.
About 15 minutes
Run it as the map step, or to open the discussion. You move on with the space bar.
A report
Every answer, per student and per round, to read back or print after the lesson.
1

Introduction

5 min

Read aloud

Crowded apartment blocks, public baths, free grain and the games: students explore how ordinary people lived in Rome and its port Ostia, and who did the work that kept a city of perhaps a million people running.

By the end of the lesson, students can

  • Describe the homes, food, work and free time of ordinary people in a Roman city.
  • Explain how Rome was fed and supplied by sea through its ports at the mouth of the Tiber.
  • Compare the lives of rich and poor, free and enslaved, in a Roman city.
2

Explore the map

12 min

Project the map, or let students follow on their own devices. Each step opens the map at the right year and place.

a

AD 100

A giant city

Open the map in AD 100 and turn on the Cities layer. Find Rome: the dot is sized by population. Compare it with Alexandria and Antioch. Which is biggest?

Open this view on the map
b

AD 100

Feeding the city

Zoom in on the coast west of Rome, where the Tiber meets the sea. Grain ships unloaded at Ostia and the new harbors of Claudius and Trajan, then barges carried the grain up the river. Why not sail all the way to Rome?

Open this view on the map
c

AD 100

Roads and buildings

Turn on Trade Routes and Historical Events. Find the Via Appia and the markers for the Colosseum and the Pantheon. Which of these would ordinary Romans have used every day?

Open this view on the map
3

Class discussion

14 min

Pick two or three. They run from what happened to why it mattered.

  1. Most Romans lived in apartment blocks called insulae, and the poorest lived on the top floors. Why were the top floors the worst?
  2. Public baths had hot and cold rooms, exercise yards and sometimes libraries. Why were they so important to city life?
  3. The poet Juvenal mocked Romans for wanting only "bread and circuses". What did he mean, and was he fair?
  4. Enslaved people did much of the work in a Roman city, from cleaning to teaching. How might the city look different through their eyes?
  5. Which parts of Roman city life, such as fast food, apartments or traffic, remind you of cities today?
4

Game round

9 min

Play one round of Rule History as Augustus, who rebuilt much of Rome, set up its fire brigade and put an official in charge of its grain supply. Discuss: which of your choices would have made life better for ordinary people in the city?

Open Rule History
5

Worksheet

5 min

This worksheet comes with Classroom

€19 per month unlocks every worksheet, every live lesson and the class workspace. The free lesson prints without a subscription.