Objective Proficiency p 16. Meet the Romans. Extra Listening

When we think of ancient Rome what comes to mind is a city of marble ruins, 1._________ amphitheaters and imperial power. A world of emperors and armies and 2.________ spectacle, with gladiators fighting to their death. 

We are going to turn this images upside down. In Rome today you can still find evidence for a very different ancient city. The forgotten voices of its bakers and 3._________, its slaves and children. 

This wasn't just a 4.___________. This was mass murder.

This series explores the lives of ordinary Romans through the extraordinary stories they tell us on their tombstones. Rome became the world's first global city, where life was full of luxury and laughter, but also 5.___________ and danger. In the final part, we want to 6._______ even deeper and go behind the closed doors of the Roman Home, to 7.______/ ________/ _______ on their personal lives and 8._________ possessions.

We come across a precious piece because it's the only 9.__________ to survive from the Roman world.

And will meet some extraordinary, ordinary Romans who'll reveal an 10._________, at times dark but very surprising picture of the Roman family.

A Roman home is a place 11.________/ ________ stories. There are not only loving couples but also teenage pregnancies, abandoned babies, drunken housewives,12_________ slaves, ménages à trois and a very nasty case of domestic violence.

In a conventional Roman home you come through the front door into a 13.___________ formal hall with several rooms 14. ________ / _________. There is also a pool for collecting water, and opposite the front door, a 15. _________/ __________/ _________/ _________ . At the back of the house, in the private 16._________ is where we find the wife and kids and the cook, 17._________/ __________ over a hot oven.

We are tempted to take a rather 18._________ image of our own families, dress them up in togas, add a couple of slaves and say, "19._______/ __________ That's a Roman family." In part this is true, for example there is a "20._________ of the dog" sign at a front door. 

However, if we want to know what really went on 21.________ the walls of a Roman home, we should look at what the Romans themselves tell us from beyond the grave. 

When you come into a place like this, what first 22.______/ _____/ ______/ _____/ _____ are the statues of the rich, 23. _______ emperors and ladies with expensive 24.__________. However, there are also thousands of ordinary Roman voices, 25.__________ us to read their stories. Some have 26._______/ _____ on portraits, others on just a few lines of text. But they all tell us about who they loved and lived with.

We can see a 27._______ little boy with his pet dog. There is also a dad who is 28.___________ his daughter, Giulia. We can see her with a really 29.__________/ ____________. She must have been quite 30._________/ __________.

To see why we have inherited such a traditional view of the Roman family we should start with Roman marriage. A husband and his wife holding hands is the absolutely classic image of the Roman married couple. It's really such a 31.__________ logo of Roman marriage that stone carvers would have 32._________ these things out by the dozen. It would all be prepared, and the 33.____________ would just put your faces onto the heads. However, it isn't an equal relationship. In the stereotype, the husband has all the control. The wife's job is to serve him 34.______/ ________/ __________.

Some epitaphs sum up a woman's life with a list of her service. She talked nicely, she walked nicely, she had kids, she 35._______/ _________, she made wool. There's a lovely story about the Empress Livia, the 36.___________, poisoning wife of the Emperor Augustus. She's supposed to have taken great care that people saw her, in the Imperial Palace itself, 37.___________/ ______/ ___________ the wool for her husband's togas. 

Apparently these tombstones show us a rather 38._________, cool, even cold view of Roman marriage.  But there's plenty of other evidence that helps us go beyond these stereotyped impressions.

At the British Museum in London there is a wonderful collection of Roman rings covered in the same 39.________.  

KEY

1. colossal

2. lavish (extravagant)

3. butchers

4. mugging (the crime of attacking somebody violently, or threatening to do so, in order to steal their money, especially in a public place. E.g. Mugging is on the increase. There have been several muggings here recently.)

5. disease

6. delve (dig. Delve into something to try hard to find out more information about something. She had started to delve into her father's distant past.

7. lift the lid (lift the lid on something/ take/blow the lid off something to tell people unpleasant or shocking facts about something. E.g. Her article lifts the lid on child prostitution.)

8. prized (valued)

9. cradle

10. intimate

11. brimming with (brim to be full of something; to fill something. E.g. Tears brimmed in her eyes. Brim with something Her eyes brimmed with tears. The team were brimming with confidence before the game.)

12.  runaway (having left without telling anyone. E.g. runaway children)

13. grand (impressive and large or important. E.g. It's not a very grand house. The wedding was a very grand occasion.)

14. off it (off [Prep.] leading away from something, for example a road or room. E.g. We live off Main Street. There's a bathroom off the main bedroom.)

15. reception room-cum-study

Reception room: a room in a house where people can sit, for example a living room or dining room.

Cum: (used for linking two nouns) and; as well as. E.g. a bedroom-cum-study. He's a barman-cum-waiter.

16. quarters (quarters [plural] rooms or buildings for people to live in. E.g. We were moved to more comfortable living quarters. Married quarters (Sp. viviendas para familias)

17. slaving away (slave (away) (at something) to work very hard. E.g. I've been slaving away all day trying to get this work finished. I haven't got time to spend hours slaving over a hot stove (= doing a lot of cooking).

18. idealising

19. Hey presto! ([exclamation]something that people say when they have just done something so quickly and easily that it seems to have been done by magic. E.g. You just press the button and, hey presto, a perfect cup of coffee!)

20. Beware

21. within (inside something/somebody. E.g. The noise seems to be coming from within the building. There is discontent within the farming industry. Despite her grief, she found a hidden strength within herself.)

22. hits you in the eye (hit somebody (straight/right) in the eye to be very obvious to somebody)

23 stern (serious)

24. hairdos (hairstyles)

25. compelling (compel /kəmˈpel/ to force somebody to do something; to make something necessary. E.g. compel somebody to do something The law can compel fathers to make regular payments for their children. I feel compelled to write and tell you how much I enjoyed your book.)

26. forked out (fork out (for something) / fork out something (for/on something) (informal) to spend a lot of money on something, especially unwillingly. E.g. Why fork out for a taxi when there's a perfectly good bus service? We've forked out a small fortune on their education.






27. cute (pretty and attractive. E.g. a cute little baby)





28. commemorating (commemorate: /kəˈmeməreɪt/)



29. natty hairdo (natty: /ˈnæti/ neat and fashionable. Sp. arreglado, acicalado. E.g. a natty suit)






30. fashion-conscious





31. clichéd (/ˈkliːʃeɪd/ [adj] a phrase or an idea that has been used so often that it no longer has much meaning and is not interesting. Sp. Estereotipado. E.g. a clichéd view of upper-class life.



32. churned ( churn something out: (informal, often disapproving) to produce something quickly and in large amounts. Sp. producir como salchichas E.g. She churns out novels at the rate of three a year.)





33. stonemason (/ˈstəʊnmeɪsn/ a person whose job is cutting and preparing stone for buildings)



34. every which way ( in all directions. E.g. Her hair tumbled every which way.)



35. Kept house (keep house to cook, clean and do all the other jobs around the house)



36. scheming (/ˈskiːmɪŋ/ often planning secretly to do something for your own advantage, especially by cheating other people. Sp. maquinador)



37. spinning and weaving






38. poised (/pɔɪzd/having a calm and confident manner and in control of your feelings and behaviour. Assured. Sp. tranquilo, sereno. E.g. He is a remarkably poised young man.)





39.  imagery (/ˈɪmɪdʒəri/ pictures, photographs, etc. Sp. imágenes. E.g. satellite imagery (= for example, photographs of the earth taken from space))

TRANSCRIPT

Today when we think of ancient Rome this is what we see: a city of marble ruins, colossal amphitheaters and imperial power. A world of emperors and armies and lavish spectacle, all those gladiators fighting to their death. 

But what happens if we turn that upside down? We take a look at Rome from the bottom up. Hidden away. all over the modern city, you can still find evidence for a very different ancient Rome. The forgotten voices of its bakers and butchers, its slaves and children. 

Gosh, this is a sad one. He lived for just one year. Vixet Annum Unum. The death of a baby.

Here we've got a young slave girl, aged 17. Africana. She came from Africa.

This wasn't just a mugging. This was mass murder.

In this series, I've been exploring the lives of these ordinary Romans through the extraordinary stories they tell us on their tombstones. We've already seen how the Empire turned Rome into the world's first global city, a place where a million people from three continents lived together, where life was full of luxury and laughter, but also disease and danger. In this final film, I want to delve even deeper and go behind the closed doors of the Roman Home, to lift the lid on their personal lives and prized possessions.

It's a really, really precious piece because it's the only cradle to survive from the Roman world.

And take you to meet some extraordinary, ordinary Romans who'll reveal an intimate, at times dark but very surprising picture of the Roman family.

Step through the front door into a Roman home and you'll find a place brimming with stories, from the shocking to the sweet, loving couples, that's for sure, but also teenage pregnancies, abandoned babies, drunken housewives, runaway slaves, ménages à trois and a very nasty case of domestic violence. Welcome to my Rome.

This house in Pompeii is the perfect example of a conventional Roman home. You come through the front door into a grand formal hall with several rooms off it. Pool for collecting water, and opposite the front door, a reception room-cum-study called, in Latin, the tablino. 

The standard view is that this is where the master of the house presided, dressed in his toga, receiving his guests, while at the back of the house, in the private quarters is where we find the wife and kids and the cook, slaving away over a hot oven.

The problem with that is there's a touch of the Frankie Howerd Mr and Mrs Pompeii about it. Or to put it another way, there's temptation for us to take a rather idealising image of our own families, dress them up in togas, add a couple of slaves and say, "Hey presto! That's a Roman family." And it's not actually entirely wrong, and there's some strikingly familiar things about a Roman house, right down to some of them having a "Beware of the dog" sign at the front door. But if you look a bit harder, you find it isn't quite so simple.

So, how do we start to bring back to life what really went on within the walls of a Roman home? And how do we get close to a real Roman family?

Well, the best way is to look at what the Romans themselves tell us from beyond the grave. 

When you come into a place like this, what first hits you in the eye are the statues of the rich, stern emperors and ladies with expensive hairdos.

But if you look behind them, you'll find thousands of ordinary Roman voices, compelling us to read their stories.

Some have forked out on portraits, others on just a few lines of text. But they all give you clues about who they lived with and who they loved.

Here's a cute little boy with his pet dog. Here's a dad. He's commemorating his daughter, Giulia. There she is. Really natty hairdo. She must have been quite fashion-conscious, I think.

But one of the most striking things about all these tombstones is how Roman husbands and wives portray themselves in death. And if you want to know why we have inherited such a traditional view of the Roman family, then the best place to start is with Roman marriage.

So, this is one end of a big Roman marble coffin. We don't know who was originally inside it, but this end, at least, talks to us about marriage. We've got a husband, wife, and they are holding hands. That's the absolutely classic image of the Roman married couple. It's really such a cliched logo of Roman marriage that stone carvers would have churned these things out by the dozen. This will all be prepared, and the stonemason will just put your faces onto the heads. Whatever it looks like, it isn't an equal relationship, though. In the stereotype, the husband has all the control. The wife's job is to serve him every which way.

You even get some epitaphs that sum up a woman's life, just by listing her service. She talked nicely, she walked nicely, she had kids, she kept house, she made wool. Enough said.

And it goes right to the top of Roman society, too. There's a lovely story about the Empress Livia, the scheming, poisoning wife of the Emperor Augustus. She's supposed to have taken great care that people saw her, in the Imperial Palace itself, spinning and weaving the wool for her husband's togas. That was what Roman women were supposed to do.

On the surface, then, these tombstones show us a rather poised, cool, even cold view of Roman marriage. But tombstones tend to give that impression. Even today, they trade in cliches. But there's plenty of other evidence that helps us get behind these stereotyped impressions.

At the British Museum in London is a wonderful collection of Roman rings covered in the same imagery.