Role Of Animals In Roman Empire

Importance of Animals in the Roman Empire

Section A: Plan of the Investigation

This investigation will assess the importance of animals in the Roman Empire. I will evaluate the animal’s role in the different aspects of the Roman Empire like Roman Religion beliefs and Public Feast. Romans evaluate animal’s value by judging them by their value as food and their value as workers in many aspects of the Roman Empire. The two sources that I will evaluate during this investigation are: “The Roman Games: Historical Sources in Translation “a sourcebook written by Alison Futrell and “Life, Death, and Entertainment in the Roman Empire” written by David Stone Potter. These sources are going to be evaluated by their origins, their purposes, their values
But there are a lot of doubts and questions about this story, however this symbol, the symbol of the wolf giving milk to the babies Romulus and Remus, is linked to the Rome and to the Roman Colosseum itself.

At the domestic level the importance of the animals were placed by their value. This value could be placed by their role as food or their role as workers. Horses were very famous and important in the Roman Empire. They were used as transport for the army.Horses were so valued that Emperor Caligula built a five star stable for a horse that he raised.

Oxen, type of bull, and donkeys were use in the farming field in activities such as ploughing. Oxen and donkeys were used in machinery and in the construction industry. Another animals that the Roman used were the elephants, elephants and oxen were tied up into the trains to carry large and heavy pieces of loads. For example, the obelisks. Elephants were used in military tasks because there were the biggest animals that they have ever seen. The most famous example is when Hannibal the Carthaginian use this huge animals against the Roman army. Dogs, as these days, are used as a very common task as a home pet. Dogs also were used as hunting companions and as guardians. In Pompeii was found a sing that said “cave canem” that is “beware of the
Different animals of different values were used for sacrifice for the gods, Suovetaurilia, was a roman belief, a ritual, and in this ritual you sacrificed three different animals to the gods. These animals were pigs, sheep and bulls. The Suovetaurilia was made for the god Mars , because the Roman Empire had the belief that Mars will purify the land.

Romans also used animals in the reading of gods will and the future of a town or a person. For example, the parts of the animals were used to read the future and meat that was left of the sacrifice was eaten as part of the feast. The types of animals that were used in these rituals were varied.

In Ancient Rome animals had a great variety: the romans loved exoticism. The Roman Empire through its history had conquered a lot of territories and brought war trophies from their victories a lot of times this war trophies were animals, and this animals were part of public feast. The shows at the Colosseum were generally centred at the Venationes. Julius Caesar was famous because for the quantity of lions he brought to the Colosseum and that he killed as part of the public