Social structure

Roman society had three groupings: freeborn, freedmen and freedwomen, and slaves.

Freeborn (ingenue)

  • Freeborn Romans were, as the name suggests, those who were born free.
  • The wealthiest owned huge estates, where wine and olive oil were produced. They dominated the political system.
  • The middle class included artisans, shopkeepers, businessmen and farmers who owned their own land.
  • The poor worked for others as urban or farmer labourers.
  • Freeborn men could participate in politics. The wealthy (patrons) depended on their clients to support them politically.
  • Many senators had villas in Herculaneum.

Freedmen and freedwomen (liberti)

  • These were former slaves, who had either purchased their freedom or had been granted it by their masters.
  • Most freedmen in Pompeii worked as craftsmen, traders, shopkeepers, bakers, inn-keepersor owners of other small businesses. Many worked for their former masters.
  • Some freedmen rose very high in society.

Slaves (servi)

  • People became slaves by being captured in territories conquered by Rome, by being convicted of a crime, or by being born into slavery.
  • As the Roman Empire expanded, so did the number of slaves. In the 1st century AD, it is estimated that up to 40 percent of the population of Italy were slaves.
  • Most slaves worked as domestic servants – washers, cooks, entertainers, nurses, tutors, clerks, physicians. Those living in the countryside worked on agricultural estates ploughing fields, harvesting crops, tending vines and picking grapes.
  • There was a rigid hierarchy within the slave class, with educated slaves on top and labourers at the bottom.
  • Slaves had no legal rights. They could not marry, and their children belonged to theirmasters.
  • Rome kept slaves in line by a combination of brutal punishment for infractions and rewards for obedience. The main reward was freedom. Slaves could be freed or buy their freedom. They could then rise up the social ladder and become wealthy.

Women

  • Roman women did not have equal rights to men, but they did have rights. They could inherit money, but not dispose of their property. Nor could they vote.
  • Some women became rich by inheriting the estates of their husbands.
  • The role of women was to look after the household. However, many women worked as shopkeepers, cloth dyers, tailors, butchers, barmaids, midwives and prostitutes. Women could also go into business for themselves.

Some prominent members of society

  • Marcus UmbriciusScaurus controlled the production of garum (fish sauce).
  • Lucius CaeciliusJucundus was a prominent banker.
  • Poppaea Sabina married the emperor, Nero. She owned two large houses in Pompeii.
  • Julia Felix was a wealthy widow who inherited her money from her family. She owned a huge villa in Pompeii.
  • Eumachia was another wealthy woman in Pompeii, who inherited money from her father. She used her wealth to finance a beautiful building in the forum, and to become an important priestess in the city. The building contains a statue of her.
  • Lucius Aeneas Mammius Rufus paid for the construction of the theatre in Herculaneum.
  • Marcus NoniusBalbus was a proconsul from Herculaneum. There were many statues of him in that city.

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