Roman Life compared to Modern LIfe

How similar was Modern Life to Roman Life?
In my following paragraphs I will be discussing the similarities and differences of our modern day life to the ancient Roman’s way of life. I will be outlining the 2 main points of religion and leisure.
Firstly, the Roman had two separate religions; they had the state religion where they had to do their duty as a citizen so others may not perish under the hand of the Gods. The other religion is their private religion where they could’ve believed in anything that they wanted. Romans thought of the state religion as just a duty; something they had to do for the greater good. The religions they practice in their homes are far closer to their hearts. This is because household gods provided more personal protection than other state gods. For example, the Lares protected the whole household and the Penates looked over the store-cupboard. This might seem funny but starvation was a big thing in Rome. Food could’ve rotted very easy so they Romans thought that if they kept the God of the store cup-board happy; their food wouldn’t rot away. Romans had a shrine called a Lararium in the atrium of their villas, which was the main entrance hall, where sacrifices and offerings were held. The Paterfamilias would perform these ceremonies in the household whereas in state religion these ceremonies where performed on altars with Priests.
On the other hand, in modern day, we can believe in any religion we want and we don’t have a duty to follow a certain state religion. In modern day we have many religions that reflect on many different cultures; examples include, Buddhism, Christianity, Islam and many others. In modern day sacrifices are no longer practiced and many prefer to just pray, either for themselves or others they care for. Some religions still have a head priest like the Pontifix Maximus of the ancient Roman Empire. Nowadays your religion is more open to others; whereas in Rome your private religion was kept a secret to people outside your household. Currently religion is not as superstitious as it used to be as we now have science which explains how we came to be with prove that some religion cannot offer. In my opinion religion we slowly die away and in the future we won’t have religion anymore.
Secondly, the Romans enjoyed certain activities that will make us scared to the bones. For example, Roman loved Gladiatorial shows. One of the reasons why they liked it so much was that it was free to attend as political candidates paid for these shows so they gain support or votes from the people. Gladiatorial shows usually lasts a week or so. A day of these shows consists of a large parade and display of fighters in the morning; later venationes were held which were wild beast hunts. People who fought these animals were usually criminals and weren’t given any weapons or armour. After the beast hunts came the humiliores, which was the execution of citizens of lower status; people usually leave for lunch as they did nto enjoy this. In the afternoon were the Gladiatorial fights and then at the end of the afternoon was the ending ceremony and rewards were given out.
But Romans didn’t just enjoy to see blood and gore, they also had other activities that we might find entertaining. One of these types of leisure was the public baths. The Roman loved the baths and made it their daily routine to visit the baths at least once as this was their only way of getting themselves clean, also it was where they met to socialise. Roman baths had many different rooms, some included the apodyterium; a changing room; tepidarium; which was a warm room where bathers would sit in comfortable temperatures; and a caldarium which was a hot room where bathers went to get cleaned. The room was so hot that the bathers wore sandals to stop their feet being burnt by the hot floor.
At this moment in time, people in the modern era still enjoy some blood and gore but not like the Romans did. We enjoy it in movies, where we know it’s not real but still act as if it is. But somehow through all these years we still enjoy pain as it gives us adrenaline. For example, certain people go paint-balling for fun or going bare foot on snow just for a laugh; we know in our minds that it hurts but if do it anyway as it gives a rush which we particularly enjoy. In addition, contemporary people no longer go to baths to get clean as we have baths in our homes. But some people do still go to public baths but not to get clean, they go to socialise with others and meet new people. We don’t have as many rooms in the baths as the Roman and our hot rooms might not be as hot as the Romans but at least our baths get cleaned all the time. Also Roman life was practically based around baths in the afternoon but our lives are based around work. Once you finish your education, you either go work to earn a good salary or get sit down and wait for your inheritance which will likely never come if you do that all day long.
In conclusion, modern and ancient Roman life has its similarities and differences but the most obvious different is that our life are very stressful but a Roman’s life was based on happiness. In my opinion, Roman life was, if not nearly exactly the same as twenty-first century life.