For our History lessons this half term, Year 3 will be undertaking a thematic study of Crime and Punishment through the ages. To kick off our fascinating new topic, the children learnt the basics about the legal system introduced to Britain by the Romans - some of which is still used to this day! For example, did you know that Courts, Judges and Juries were all Roman inventions?
Thankfully, though, some aspects of Roman justice no longer apply: in Roman times, a person's social status had just as much impact on their punishment as the crime they had committed! A noble criminal would be more likely to escape really dreadful punishment, while the poor slaves usually came to a sticky end.
Having had a whistle-stop tour of the legal framework, the children learnt about some of the gruesome punishments inflicted on Roman criminals. In our class courtroom, six rotten Roman criminals were put through their paces by the rest of the class, who acted as the Prosecutors, Judges and Juries.
For the crime of spreading nasty gossip about someone, our noble criminal was exiled (sent away from the country forever), while a slave who merely overheard another servant talking about wanting to poison the master of the house ended up being sentenced to crucifixion! A murderous Roman citizen was sentenced to be sewn into a sack with a variety of fierce animals and thrown into a river, while an arsonist was sentenced to being burnt to death.
We ended the lesson with time to reflect on the harshness of Roman justice, and a class discussion as to whether a person's social status should really make any difference to the way they are treated.
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