When children learn about the Romans, they often hear about gladiators, legions and emperors. But what was life like for children in Ancient Rome? What did they wear, where did they go to school, and what games did they play?
The answer depends a great deal on who you were. A child born into a wealthy Roman family lived a very different life from the child of a farmer, a shopkeeper or an enslaved family. Let's step back around 2,000 years and find out what everyday life was really like for Roman children.
Growing Up in a Roman Family
Roman families were led by the paterfamilias, the oldest male in the family, usually the father or grandfather. By law he had enormous power over everyone in his household, including his grown-up children. In everyday life, though, many Roman parents were loving and proud of their children, and some wrote warmly about them in letters and poems.
A new baby was officially welcomed into the family at a naming ceremony called the dies lustricus, which means "day of purification". It took place on the eighth day after birth for girls and the ninth day for boys. Family and friends brought gifts, and the baby was given their name.
Roman names worked quite differently from ours. Girls were usually given a feminine version of their father's family name. That's why so many Roman women in the history books share the same name: every daughter of the Julius family was called Julia, and every daughter of the Cornelius family was called Cornelia!
The Bulla: A Lucky Charm
Freeborn boys were given a bulla, a small locket worn around the neck. Wealthy families' bullae were made of gold, while poorer families used leather or cheaper metals. Inside was a charm that Romans believed would protect the child. Girls wore a similar crescent-shaped pendant called a lunula.
What Did Roman Children Wear?
Most Roman children wore a simple tunic, a knee-length garment belted at the waist, made from wool or linen. On special occasions, freeborn children from citizen families wore the toga praetexta, a white toga with a purple border. The same purple-edged toga was worn by important officials, which shows how highly Romans valued their children.
Growing up was marked by changing clothes. When a boy reached his mid-teens, usually somewhere between 14 and 16, he took off his bulla and his purple-bordered toga and put on a plain white toga virilis, or "toga of manhood". This ceremony often took place during the festival of Liberalia on 17 March. Girls usually kept their childhood clothes until they married, which often happened in their teens.
Going to School in Ancient Rome
There were no free state schools in Ancient Rome. Parents who could afford it paid a teacher, so schooling was mainly for children from better-off families. Some wealthy children were taught at home by a private tutor, who was often an educated enslaved Greek.
Roman education usually came in stages:
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Ludus (from about age 7): A primary school run by a teacher called the ludi magister. Boys and some girls learned to read, write and do arithmetic.
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Grammaticus (from about age 11 or 12): A secondary teacher who taught Latin and Greek literature, poetry and grammar. Most pupils at this stage were boys.
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Rhetor (mid-teens): Older boys from wealthy families studied rhetoric, the art of public speaking, to prepare for careers in law and politics.
A Roman School Day
School started very early, often around sunrise, and lessons could take place in a rented room, a shop front or even under an awning at the edge of a busy street. Pupils wrote on wax tablets using a pointed stylus. The flat end of the stylus could smooth the wax so the tablet could be used again and again. For sums, children used their fingers, counting stones or an abacus.
Lessons involved lots of copying and reciting out loud. Teachers could be very strict, and pupils who misbehaved might be punished, something many Roman writers later complained about when they remembered their school days!
Learning in Roman Britain
Roman schooling reached as far as Britain. At the fort of Vindolanda, near Hadrian's Wall, archaeologists have found hundreds of wooden writing tablets. One contains a line from Virgil's famous poem, the Aeneid, which historians think may have been a writing exercise. Lots of children's shoes have been found at Vindolanda too, a reminder that families lived alongside the soldiers.
Toys and Games
Roman children loved to play, and archaeologists have found plenty of their toys. Popular pastimes included:
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Dolls: Made from rag, wood, clay, bone or ivory. One famous ivory doll with jointed arms and legs was found in the tomb of a young woman named Crepereia Tryphaena in Rome in 1889.
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Knucklebones: Small bones from sheep or goats were thrown and caught, a bit like the modern game of jacks.
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Nuts: Children rolled and threw walnuts and hazelnuts in games similar to marbles.
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Hoops and spinning tops: Hoops were rolled along with a stick, and tops were spun with a whip.
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Ball games: Balls were made from leather or animal bladders and used in catching and throwing games.
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Board games: Roman board games were scratched onto steps and pavements, and some can still be seen today.
Some Roman writers suggest that, as they grew up, children dedicated their childhood things, such as a boy's bulla or a girl's toys, at the family shrine, a sign that they were ready to become adults.
Food and Family Meals
Roman children ate a simple diet. Breakfast was usually light, perhaps bread with cheese, honey or fruit. Many ordinary families relied on puls, a thick porridge made from grain, along with vegetables, beans, olives and bread. The main meal, called the cena, was eaten later in the day. In wealthy homes, adults might enjoy grand dinner parties, but children often ate separately.
Not Every Childhood Was the Same
For most Roman children, life was not about lessons and toys. Children from poorer families usually started helping with work at a young age, on farms, in workshops or selling goods in the market. Girls learned household skills such as spinning wool and weaving cloth. Enslaved children had the hardest lives of all and could be made to work from a very young age.
Life could also be uncertain. Without modern medicine, many babies and young children became seriously ill, and families knew that not every child would grow up. This makes the toys, shoes and writing tablets that survive feel even more special, because they help us picture the real children who once used them.
Questions to Explore Together
Learning about Roman children is a lovely way to help your child connect with the past. You could ask:
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Would you rather go to a Roman school or a modern school? Why?
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What would you write on a wax tablet if you had one?
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Can you invent a game using only nuts, pebbles or bones?
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How is your name different from a Roman child's name?
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What do you think a Roman child would find most surprising about your life?
You could even make your own wax tablet by pressing modelling clay into a shallow tray and writing in it with a lolly stick or a blunt pencil.
Continue Your Roman Adventure
Want to help your child discover even more about Ancient Rome? Mysteries in Time brings history to life by pairing an exciting storybook with a colourful history fact magazine, so children can enjoy an adventure and learn the real history behind it at the same time.
Explore our Roman adventure and the rest of our history collection at Mysteries in Time.