Editing Roman Republic (section)

===City of Rome===
[[File:Servian Wall.JPG|thumb|The ruins of the [[Servian Wall]], built during the 4th century&nbsp;BC, one of the earliest [[ancient Roman defensive walls]]]]

Life in the Roman Republic revolved around the city of Rome. The most important governing, administrative and religious institutions were concentrated at its heart, on and around the [[Capitoline]] and [[Palatine Hill]]s. The city rapidly outgrew its original sacred boundary (''[[pomerium]]''), and its [[Servian Wall|first city walls]]. Rome's first [[Roman aqueduct|aqueduct]] (312), built during the Punic wars crisis, provided a plentiful, clean water supply. The building of further aqueducts led to the city's expansion and the establishment of public baths (''[[thermae]]'') as a central feature of Roman culture.{{efn|For the earliest likely development of Roman public bathing, see {{harvnb|Fagan|1999|pp=42–44}}}} The city also had several [[Roman theatre (structure)|theatres]],{{sfn|Jones|2000}} [[gymnasium (ancient Greece)|gymnasiums]], and many taverns and brothels. Living space was at a premium. Some ordinary citizens and freedmen of middling income might live in modest houses but most of the population lived in apartment blocks ([[Insula (building)|''insulae,'' literally "islands"]]), where the better-off might rent an entire ground floor, and the poorest a single, possibly windowless room at the top, with few or no amenities. Nobles and rich patrons lived in spacious, well-appointed town houses; they were expected to keep "open house" for their peers and clients. A semi-public ''[[Atrium (architecture)|atrium]]'' typically functioned as a meeting-space, and a vehicle for display of wealth, artistic taste, and religious piety. Noble ''atria'' were also display areas for ancestor-masks (''[[Roman funerals and burial#Funerary art|imagines]]'').{{efn|"The architecture of the ancient Romans was, from first to last, an art of shaping space around ritual:" {{harvnb|Lott|2004|p=1}}, citing {{harvnb|Brown|1961|p=9}}. Some Roman ritual includes activities which might be called, in modern terms, religious; some is what might be understood in modern terms as secular – the proper and habitual way of doing things. For Romans, both activities were matters of lawful custom (''[[mos maiorum]]'') rather than religious as opposed to secular.}}

Most Roman towns and cities had a [[Roman Forum|forum]] and temples, as did the city of Rome itself. [[Aqueduct (Roman)|Aqueducts]] brought water to urban centres.{{sfn|Greene|2000|p=39}} Landlords generally resided in cities and left their estates in the care of farm managers.