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A glimpse of teenage life in ancient Rome - Ray Laurence

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    It's March the 17th in A.D. 73.
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    We're visiting ancient Rome to watch the Liberalia,
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    an annual festival that celebrates the liberty of Rome's citizens.
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    We're looking in at a 17-year-old named Lucius Popidius Secundus.
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    He's not from a poor family, but he lives in the region known as the Subura,
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    a poorer neighborhood in Rome, yet close to the center of the city.
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    The tenants of these apartments are crammed in,
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    which poses considerable risk.
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    Fires are frequent and the smell of ash and smoke in the morning is not uncommon.
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    Lucius, who awoke at dawn, has family duties to perform today.
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    His 15-year-old brother is coming of age.
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    Half the children in ancient Rome die before they reach adulthood,
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    so this is a particularly important milestone.
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    Lucius watches his brother stand in his new toga before the household shrine with its protective deities
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    as he places his bulla, a protective amulet, in the shrine with a prayer of thanks.
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    The bulla had worked. It had protected him.
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    Unlike many others, he had survived to become an adult.
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    At 17, Lucius has almost completed his education.
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    He has learned to speak well, make public speeches,
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    and how to read and write both Latin and Greek.
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    His father has taught him the types of things you can't learn in the classroom:
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    how to run, how to swim, and how to fight.
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    Lucius could choose, at 17, to become a military tribune
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    and command soldiers on the edge of the Empire.
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    But in other ways, Lucius is still a child.
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    He's not trusted to arrange business deals.
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    His father will take care of that until he is 25.
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    And Dad will arrange Lucius' marriage to a girl 10 years younger.
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    His dad has his eye on a family with a 7-year-old daughter.
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    Back to the Liberalia.
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    As Lucius leaves with his family, the shops are open as the population goes about its business.
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    The streets are full of itinerant traders selling trinkets
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    and people bustling from place to place.
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    Large wagons are not allowed in the city until after the ninth hour
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    but the streets are still crowded.
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    Fathers and uncles take the kids to the Forum Augustus
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    to see statues of Rome's famous warriors
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    like Anaeus, who led Rome's ancestors, the Trojans, to Italy.
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    And Romulus, Rome's founder.
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    And all the great generals of the Republic from more than 100 years earlier.
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    Lovingly, we can imagine fathers and guardians with their now adult childen
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    remembering stories of Rome's glory
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    and re-telling the good deeds and sayings of the great men of the past:
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    lessons on how to live well, and to overcome the follies of youth.
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    There is a sense of history in this place, relevant to their present.
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    Romans made an empire without end in time and space.
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    Rome was destined to be eternal through warfare.
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    Wars were a fact of life, even in A.D. 73.
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    There are campaigns in the north of England
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    and into Scotland,
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    to the north of the River Danube into Romania,
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    and on the frontier between Syria and Iraq to the east.
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    It's now the eighth hour -- time to head for the baths.
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    Lucius and his family head up the Via Lata, the wide street,
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    to the Campus Martius, and the enormous Baths of Agrippa.
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    The family members leave the clients and freedman outside,
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    and enter the baths with their peer group.
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    Baths would change from dark, steamy rooms to light ones.
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    The Romans had perfected window glass.
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    Everyone moves from the cold room
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    to the tepid room
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    and to the very hot room.
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    More than an hour later, the bathers leave
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    massaged, oiled, and have been scraped down with a strigil to remove the remaining dirt.
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    At the ninth hour, seven hours after they left home,
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    the men return for a celebratory dinner.
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    Dinner is an intimate affair, with nine people reclining around the low table.
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    Slaves attend to their every need
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    if the diners, through gestures, demand more food and wine.
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    As the day closes, we can hear the rumble of wagons outside.
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    The clients and freedmen, with a meal of robust -- if inferior -- food inside them,
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    shuffle off to the now tepid baths before returning to their apartment blocks.
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    Back at Lucius' house, the drinking continues into the night.
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    Lucius and his stepbrother don't look too well.
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    A slave stands by in case either of them needs to vomit.
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    With hindsight, we know Lucius' future.
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    In 20 years' time, the Emperor Vespasian's youngest son, Domitian, as emperor,
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    will enact a reign of terror. Will Lucius survive?
Title:
A glimpse of teenage life in ancient Rome - Ray Laurence
Speaker:
Ray Laurence
Description:

View full lesson: http://ed.ted.com/lessons/a-glimpse-of-teenage-life-in-ancient-rome-ray-laurence

Welcome to the world of Lucius Popidius Secundus, a 17-year old living in Rome in 73 AD. His life is a typical one of arranged marriages, coming-of-age festivals, and communal baths. Take a look at this exquisitely detailed lesson on life of a typical Roman teenager two thousand years ago.

Lesson by Ray Laurence, animation by Cognitive Media.

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Video Language:
English
Team:
closed TED
Project:
TED-Ed
Duration:
06:35
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