Biography Help

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Question: Julius Caesar?

What are some activities people did for fun during Caesar's time?

Please include source information.

Answer: Lots of surprisingly modern activities.

Theater. A Roman play usually lasted about two hours, with the lower classes preferring comedies, while the more refined Romans preferring tragedies (remind you of any modern activity?)

Baths. The Thermae were as much a swimming pool as they were a bath. People of all classes (even slaves!) went there to get clean, to play, to discuss politics, and to mingle. There was tepid pools, cold pools, and warm pools. Both sexes had their own separate area. Some baths were even equipped with steam rooms, working in principle the exact same way a modern sauna does! A foreigner once asked one of the Emperors why he took one bath a day. His response was because he didn't have time to take two baths a day!

Played sports. Romans loved sports, though they did not take it religiously as some of the Greek cults of athletics did.
Here is a fresco of two Roman women in bikinis playing a ball game

http://www.vroma.org/images/mcmanus_images/gymnast2.jpg

Here is another fresco of women in a bikini exercising, one with dumbbells, the other with a medicine ball (looks like women as far back as ancient Rome worried about their butts being too fat!^_^)

http://www.jameshull.com/images/apr.10.piazza.am.girls.jpg

The men prefered manlier activities, such as hunting:

http://www.travelguides.it/piazza_armerina/piazza_armerina2.jpg

Large scale public entertainment: included chariot races (culminating in the construction of the Circus Maximus in the early imperial era) and the games (culminating in the construction of colosseum).

The Gladiatorial games, Rome's most infamous pasttime, was an event where condemned criminals were granted a glorious death in battle. These games became so popular that volunteer gladiators began cropping up, and increasingly large arenas had to be built to accomodate them. Emperor Titus was the emperor credited with completing the Flavian amphitheater, more commonly known as the colosseum, in 80 A.D. Though famous for their bloody gladiator fights, the colosseum also put on trained animal shows for the children (similar to modern circuses).

Went out to eat: excavations at Pompeii indicate that there were numerous small eateries located throughout the city, with tables large enough to seat families. The astonishingly large number of them indicate that it was very popular for middle class families to go out to grab a meal. Just very recently, a Roman-era wreckage was located underwater that contained jugs which were at one point in time full of salad dressing! Flamingo tounges were a delicacy, and ice imported from Scandinavian countries was a hot ticket item in the warm mediteranean summer. Furthermore, some of those shops were set up specifically for expediency, so that Romans could grab food on the go without much fuss. That's right, ladies and gentlemen, the Romans were the first ones to invent fast food!

I hope this gives you some insight into the daily life of a Roman citizen. It is startling as to how complex and modern Roman lives were in the high Imperial era.

R&D helps raise yields

Re: ''Govt announces new bonds issue,'' BP Business, Jan 11, 2010. My main interest in this article is not in the issuing of the government bonds, but in the statement made by Charoen Pokphand Group's chairman of the board of directors, Dhanin Chearavanont, who expects gross domestic product to rise by 10% this year.

Heathen Origins Of New Years Day.wmv