KEY WORDS AND VOCABULARY: ANCIENT ROME

KEY WORDS

Commemorative column:Column that is not part of a building, it was built to commemorate various events, such as military victories. Ex: Trajan´s column.

Mosaic: Form of decoration for floors and walls; usually made of small, square pieces of marble, glass or pottery.

Aqueduct: Building to take water to the cities. They had one or several tiers of arches supported by pillars. Ex: Aqueduct of Segovia.

Basilica: Building where took place meetings and trials and commercial activities. Ex: Basilica of Majencio.

Amphitheatre: Building where took place gladiator and animal fights and also simulated naval combats. Ex: Colosseum.

Circus: Building for chariot races, rectangular shape. Ex: Circus Maximus.

Triumphal arches: Commemorative building, it had several entrance. Ex: Arch of Titus.

Theatre: Building where actors performed comedies and tragedies, semicircular shape. Ex: Theatre of Emerita Augusta.

Thermal baths: Public baths with several rooms: changing room (apodyterium), warn room (tepidarium), cold room (frigidarium), hot room (caldarium). Ex: Baths of Caracalla.

Temple: House of the gods, rectangular or circular shape. Ex. Maison Carré.

Catacomb: Underground passageway where the first Christians held their ceremonies and buried their dead in secret.

Villa: Large country house, consisting of a farm and residential buildings built around a courtyard.

Christianity: Religion founded by Jesus Christ in the 1st century A.D.

Senate: Roman institution during the Republic responsible for foreign policy and also controlled the army, religion, the law and the courts.

Monarchy: Form of government in which the highest authority is the king or queen, who usually inherits his or her position.

Republic: Form of government in which citizens or and assambley of representatives elect the people who governed them.

Patricians: Minority of the roman population, they held all political rights and they were very rich. Senators, magistrates, landowners...

Plebeians: The majority of the population, they demanded the same political rights as the patricians.

VOCABULARY

idealised, realistic, relief, mortar, arches, vault, column, shape, gladiator, calendar, legislation, treatise, spread, deity, edict, cardo, decumanus, forum, grid system, debt, slaves, tenant farmers, salted food, fallow, conquests, barbarian invasions, colony, to be founded, depose