Roman World
In 753 B.C. when, according to tradition, Romulus laid the first stone of Rome, no one could have guessed that the then village of huts on the Palatine, one of the proverbial seven hills along the Tiber, would grow into a metropolis, the capital of a huge empire. In contrast to the surrounding settlements, Rome quickly sought to extend its power into central Italy.

Etruscan influence
Rome was greatly influenced by the Etruscans and even ruled by them for some time. Politically it was comparable to a Greek polis or city-state, that is, an urban centre with all the essential municipal and economical activities, situated in an agrarian countryside which supplied the necessary food. Tradition says that from 753 to 510 B.C. seven kings governed Rome, each of whom is said to have introduced particular measures. Whereas Romulus was above all a general who ensured the new settlement's security by military means, Numa Pompilius figured as a renowned law maker and Servius Tullius reputedly realized numerous urban projects like the circuit wall and sewerage system.

Republic
In the year when the tyrant Hippias fled Athens - 510 B.C. - in Rome a group of aristocrats led by Publius Valerius and Brutus put an end to the absolute rule of the last Etruscan king Tarquinius Superbus. A new political system was introduced: the republic. Two basic provisions marked the exclusively male election of the state's political leaders: magistrates were chosen in pairs and their term was limited to one year. Initially, the magistrates were drawn from and chosen by upper class males only, but later the active and passive right to vote was expanded to include a larger group.

Civil wars
During the fourth and third centuries B.C., even when Rome was still largely concerned with occupying ever larger areas of the Italian peninsula, its ambition to conquer more distant regions steadily grew. As a direct result of Rome's expansion, the above-sketched government structures began to fall apart. Military rulers, who grew accustomed to exceptional power and acquired enormous wealth from their large-scale campaigns around the Mediterranean, wanted to occupy the office of consul for a longer time and to profit from their position. The best known brawlers were Sulla, Pompey and Caesar. The death of Caesar in 44 B.C. triggered a bloody civil war which resulted in the monarchical rule of his adopted son Octavian. In 27 B.C. Octavian was given the title princeps ('first among citizens') and the honorary name Augustus ('exalted one'), by which he is still remembered today. Although Augustus formally retained the republican political system - consuls continued to be elected until late antiquity - true power lay from that time on in the hands of the emperor.

Expansion
The first two centuries of our era saw the enormous political and economical expansion of the Roman empire, which stretched across the entire Mediterranean basin. The Rhine defined its northern limit, whereas its most easterly point lay in modern Iraq. Egypt and the coast of North Africa acted as the granaries of the metropolis Rome. Latin, Greek or both were spoken everywhere, which created a degree of communal cohesion.

Division of the empire
After A.D. 200 the extraordinary power and prestige of this great empire began to diminish, as different peoples posed larger threats on the borders and various internal groups fought for independence. Evidently, the empire had become too large and too heterogeneous to function unitedly. So by the third century it was divided into four parts and the city of Rome lost its pivotal position. The centre of gravity shifted towards the east and, with the accession of the emperor Constantine, Christianity emerged as the new binding force. The earlier Greek colony of Byzantium was renamed Constantinople and elevated to the status of capital. Rome's population decreased markedly, shrinking from a million inhabitants to no more than 40,000 in the thirteenth century.

Rome
To judge from preserved utensils, furniture and domestic decoration, the general living standard in smaller towns like Pompeii, where sufficient work and accommodations were evidently available, must have been quite high. In the large cities, on the other hand, social differences would have been much wider. Archaeological excavations uncover little evidence of the lower classes because their possessions were humble and impermanent. In contrast, the material and quality of the finds from Rome's religious and political centre, the Forum Romanum, demonstrate they were made for long-term use. Thus our impression of ancient society is sharply biased.

Religion
Religion was not restricted in Rome by generally applicable rules. The state allowed religious freedom, but on the condition that one respected and, if required, honoured the official gods and the rulers. Thus the followers of the imported Egyptian cult of Isis performed their own rites undisturbed, as could the Jews and Christians, whose beliefs came from equally far away, and the Romans who worshipped local nature gods. The core of the official cult comprised deities similar to those of the Greek Olympian pantheon, although the average citizen, it seems, felt little warmth for the solemn and remote Jupiter, Juno and Minerva.

Home and household goods
Roman houses were multifunctional. The family could comprise different generations as well as staff (mostly slave servants), and its members fulfilled different tasks in and outside the home. The men of well-off families ran a home office. They received guests frequently and gladly, not only out of heartfelt hospitality, but more so out of a desire to display their prosperity and wellbeing. Considerations of family prestige were foremost, as conveyed by the murals, mosaics and furniture. A room could have multiple functions, too, which also applied to the furniture. A bed or couch was used by night for sleeping and by day and evening as both a conversation couch (with the interlocutors usually reclining) and a kind of dining-room chair. Small tables placed beside it held the food and dining service.

Oil lamps
The meal and its subsequent drinking party were held in the late afternoon and early evening. As lighting was necessary, archaeologists have sometimes discovered lamps in the rooms where these gatherings took place. Nearly all of them were meant for use with oil-burning wicks. They occur in all shapes, materials and sizes. On the other hand, candles and torches are rare. The representations adorning some oil lamps are targeted at particular situations: an erotic picture on a lamp for placement next to a bed, a cross or a Christogram for a Christian. The lamps often hung from a cord tied to a bronze stand, resembling a modern standard lamp.

Drinking vessels and cutlery
The most beautiful and complete sets of vessels and cutlery have turned up in graves: after all, the dead had to eat and drink too! Strikingly, most vessels found in domestic and funerary settings were meant for liquids. Any low, open shape which might be included was for serving. The Romans usually ate from bowls, using spoons or their fingers. Therefore Roman cutlery includes serving and eating spoons and knives but no forks. Besides metal, glass and pottery, wood would also have been made into cups, bowls and plates, especially for simpler households. But few of these perishable objects have survived.

Portraiture
For the Greeks and Romans a portrait had a special significance. Not everyone was allowed to have one made at whim, nor was money the sole criterion. At first, distinguished people could be honoured in public with a statue only after death. From the first century B.C. on, however, politicians began to have themselves portrayed during their lifetime in sculpture and on coins. The new practice was linked to the above-mentioned pretensions of late Republican generals: they imitated the Hellenistic rulers whom they had defeated on the battlefield, even though the former maintained a much higher cultural level. A distinct category of Roman portraiture is the death mask. Wax casts of the heads of deceased family members stood in the houses of the elites and were carried around in funeral processions.

Imperial portraits
The emperors spread their portraits across the empire. Various fixed images of them were familiar to everyone, as seen on coins and in other media. Although found in Asia Minor, for example, the portrait of Tiberius in fig. 180 would easily be recognized by someone in Spain. From the Augustan age on, the emperors and their wives set the fashions: their hair styles and even physical traits were copied, so we can date images of commoners on the basis of imperial portraits. The imperial children and grandchildren were also represented.

Care of the dead
The Romans paid as much attention to the care to the dead as did the Etruscans. Rome has yielded few funerary finds from Republican times when cremation was the rule and the ashes were stored in an urn which was interred. In the first century A.D. the high price of marble decreased as more of it was imported from the provinces, and white marble began to be quarried in central Italy, for instance Carrara. Previously, marble was largely destined for sculpture and architecture. Now the highest quality marble was used not only for the adornment of buildings but for funerary urns, reliefs and altars. As the desire for greater social standing and prestige increased, the containers for human remains become steadily more imposing. Around A.D. 100 a shift can be discerned from cremation to inhumation in sarcophagi. Presumably, religion played no role in the change which, moreover, was never complete, for in later times the emperors and their families continued to be cremated. At any rate, a large sarcophagus was, of course, much more impressive than a simple urn.

Burial practices
As in Greece, religious law prohibited burial within the settled area. The sarcophagi were placed in mausoleums along the main roads entering Rome. Alternatively, the corpses were laid in niches built into the walls of such monuments or, underground, in alcoves or trenches cut out of the tuff. A sarcophagus or relief covering a burial niche made an especially big public impression because it would be seen by many people on the festival days commemorating the dead. The structure might feature a portrait of the deceased, or more often, a mythological subject or a genre scene.