Why Are You Calling Me a Barbarian? Essay

Submitted By rickyrichboy
Words: 495
Pages: 2

The lives of the Barbarians and the Romans at the time of the Roman Empire had both their similarities and differences. Although the lived far away from Rome on the fringes of the Roman Empire, the Barbarians actually had a lot in common with the Romans. One of these similarities is their language. Both the Romans and the Barbarians spoke Latin, although over time, some differences were established between the Roman’s form of Latin, and the Barbarian’s form of Latin. Another similarity between the two is clothing. In both cultures, the mothers or the women made the clothing for themselves, their husbands, and their children. The clothes were usually made out of wool, shaved off of sheep. Both wore tunics under their outer clothing, and wore belts. Finally, the Roman and Barbarian religion is very similar. Both cultures believed in gods, and sacrificed animals to the gods, usually by burning them in fire, to keep the gods happy. They were both also polytheistic, meaning they believed in more than one god, the Romans over a thousand, and the Barbarians not as many, but still a lot. Also, they both believed in the afterlife. In both cultures the bodies or the body’s ashes were put into a wooden box and buried, and there was usually a small service or a funeral afterwards. Although these people were similar, they were also very different. One of these differences is what they wore and how they looked. The Romans usually wore a tunic and a toga, for men, and a palla and a stola, for women. The Barbarians would also wear a tunic, but no toga virilis, and the women would wear a simple dress, no palla or stola. Also, their hair colors were different. The Barbarians had different unusual hair colors, like white, but the Romans had traditional hair colors seen today, like red, black, or