Short answers, pulled from the story.
The population of the city of Rome may well have exceeded one million people, making it the largest city in the world at the time. A substantial portion of the broader Empire's population lived in urban centers with at least 10,000 inhabitants, and the most urbanized region of the Empire was Italy, with an estimated urbanization rate of 32%.
Until around 200 BC, Romans ate simply: bread, salad, olives, cheese, fruits, nuts, and cold meat. Wine became common only around 250 BC and was always mixed with water at ratios such as 1:2, 1:3, or 1:4. Estimated daily male wine consumption in the city of Rome was 0.8 to 1.1 gallons.
The native language of Rome was Latin, which over centuries evolved into the modern Romance languages including French, Italian, Portuguese, Romanian, and Spanish. Latin survived through Ecclesiastical Latin, the language of the Roman Catholic Church, and remains an official language of the Vatican City. It also persisted in legal, scientific, and academic terminology.
In 391, under Emperor Theodosius I, Nicene Christianity became the exclusive state church of the Roman Empire, displacing all other Christian denominations and Hellenistic religions. Constantine's formal conversion to Christianity in 312 had set this transition in motion, though he was baptized only on his deathbed in 337 by the Arian bishop Eusebius of Nicomedia.
Greek culture was foundational to Roman civilization across nearly every domain. Roman literature drew on Greek models from its earliest works, Roman philosophy rooted itself in Greek schools such as Epicureanism and Stoicism, and key Roman scientists including Galen and Ptolemy were of Greek-speaking origin. By the time of Augustus, Greek slaves were teaching Roman children and filling roles as doctors, chefs, and decorators.
Roman society was structured around the family unit governed by the pater familias, who held absolute legal authority over his wife, children, slaves, and freedmen. During the Republic, founded in 509 BC, male citizens including both patricians and plebeians could vote, while women, slaves, and children could not. Voting was organized through two assemblies: the comitia centuriata, which elected consuls and censors, and the comitia tributa, which elected quaestors.