MMORPG.com Roma Victor Correspondent Phil Zieg writes this overview of the character system in the roman-era based game.

Creating a Character

To create a character, a player must login to the RV forums and go to the Participant Menu>Account Page. Characters can be either Roma (Roman) or Barbaricum (barbarian).

Roman characters begin the game as “slaves” at Corstopitum, a Roman town south of Hadrian’s Wall. Being a slave does not mean the character must serve other players. It is a class designation for Roman characters who have not achieved citizen status. There is very little real difference between a Roman slave and a Roman citizen, although it may be a factor in roleplay. But citizenship, and its benefits and advantages, is another topic. Romans can also choose from a much greater number of ethnicities, as the Roman Empire ruled many areas, and included peoples of a wide array of cultural and ethnic origin. Character ethnicity is for roleplay purposes only. There are no inherent benefits or bonuses for any character ethnicity. Roman characters begin with white undergarments. The undergarments change to red when citizenship is attained.

Read Character Systems Part Two

The first image in Part 2 is supposed to show a workaround for barbarian ethnicity from the character creation screen.  In editing the relevant part of the image was chopped off.  Below is a link to the image that shows the workaround:

http://img509.imageshack.us/my.php?image=char22correctionjz6.jpg

Apparently no one from MMORPG.com gives a crap about the discrepancies, as I pm'd the editors long ago about it, more than once.  Oh well.

Please note that some recent changes to RomaVictor mechanics have made some parts of the article obsolete. From RV server changelog:

The new diet system
-Food can be used to heal certain attributes faster or to buff existing attributes.
-Players will be able to eat up to 3 pieces of food depending on how hungry they have become.
-It is not possible to eat if your vigour is less than 50.
-Drinking water when thirsty now boosts vigour instead.
-Eating no longer boosts vigour.
-Buffs decay by one point per real minute.
-High quality well prepared foods may directly raise strength, shape or fitness.
-Wounds now recover at one point or more per real minute depending on where they are (guildhall, bathhouse etc).
-Major increases have been made to the effect of wound treatment - new physicians and doctors are encouraged to experiment.
 

The most notable change is that a player can no longer count on "stacking" buffs to compensate for weaknesses in character build. This makes some of the info on character creation no longer applicable.