When we were assigned the Culture Research Project, I wasn’t very sure what I could have done. I instantly thought of my friend Gabe to work with. We agreed on 3 topics, and we got our choice of Roman aristocrats vs poor Romans.
For our research, we learned that the aristocrats ate a variety of food, and had many parties for dinner, with expensive and exotic foods that they would have chefs cook. They had a light breakfast, a snack at noon and a heavy dinner. Some foods were goat and fruit. For the poor, they ate more bland food like fish and cheese. The rich lived on big houses away from the city noise and smell. They had multiple rooms with slaves that helped with cooking, cleaning, and everyday life. The poor, on the other hand, had small houses in the city with no kitchen so they had to buy food outside, and baked their bread in the bakery.
After doing the research, we decided that for our product, we made a board game that represented they everyday life of the Romans. The game was similar to “The Game of Life”, and we made cards that you would pick up when you landed on the block. There was a rich and poor pile, and the rich had cards that let you go forwards may times, and got “gold coins”, which were the currency that we used in the game, similar to denarii. The poor got the opposite, losing coins and going backwards. Whoever had the most coins at the end would be the winner. Since in the ancient times the rich had a lot more privileges, we made the game so that the rich could win much easier. Some jobs that the rich had were praetors and senators that were higher up in the hierarchy. The poor have lower jobs like farming, and they have less power.
“Occupations: The Elite.” World Eras, edited by John T. Kirby, vol. 3: Roman
Republic and Empire, 264 B.C.E.- 476 C.E. Gale, 2001, pp. 198-202. Gale
Virtual Reference Library, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/CX3034800116/
GVRL?u=sant55114&sid=GVRL&xid=5d01d749. Accessed 22 May 2018.
“Occupations: The Non-Elite.” World Eras, edited by John T. Kirby, vol. 3: Roman
Republic and Empire, 264 B.C.E.- 476 C.E. Gale, 2001, pp. 202-203. Gale
Virtual Reference Library, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/CX3034800117/
GVRL?u=sant55114&sid=GVRL&xid=bc2a33f7. Accessed 22 May 2018.
PBS.org. www.pbs.org/empires/romans/empire/life.html.
“Primary History – Romans – Family and Children.” BBC, BBC, www.bbc.co.uk/schools/primaryhistory/romans/family_and_children/.
“Social Class System and the Economy: Overview.” World Eras, edited by John T.
Kirby, vol. 3: Roman Republic and Empire, 264 B.C.E.- 476 C.E. Gale, 2001,
pp. 180-183. Gale Virtual Reference Library, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/
doc/CX3034800109/GVRL?u=sant55114&sid=GVRL&xid=703cdf4f. Accessed
21 May 2018.
This is a great blog post! I love your idea for your product and I think the game would be very fun to play. An interesting fact I have is that wealthy Romans always ate laying down, while poor Romans ate sitting down.
This was a great blog post. I liked your product and thought it was very creative. One question that still have is how will the poor people eventually become rich or is that not possible.
In real ancient Rome, people could work in the army or become a gladiator, and if you were lucky enough, you could have gone up the ranks and retire after becoming rich. In our board game, there wasn’t a way for the poor to become rich, but the poor, if lucky enough, could have ended up being richer than the rich.
I really enjoyed how you were able to ompare and contrast between Roman aristocrats and Poor Romans. I also, like that you were able to create a game that shows how the Aristocrats were able to succeed and the Poor Romans were destined to fail. One question I still have is, was there a middle class in Rome, or a class in between Aristocrats and Poor Romans?
there was a middle class, but it would be hard in add it into the board game, so we decided to only look at the rich and poor.
I think that this is a very good product. I really enjoy how you made something that teaches you about Rome and it’s people, and is also a fun thing to play that is interactive. I do wonder what the middle class was like and what they had.
there was a middle class, but after looking at the notes we took, we decided that it would be too hard to add it in to our game.