Daily Life in the Roman City: Rome, Pompeii, and Ostia (The by Gregory S. Aldrete

By Gregory S. Aldrete

Although the vast majority of the population of the Roman Empire lived an agricultural lifestyles and hence resided outdoor of city facilities, there isn't any denying the truth that the middle of Roman civilization?€”its crucial tradition and politics?€”was established in towns. Even on the furthest obstacles of the Empire, Roman towns shared a striking and constant similarity when it comes to structure, paintings, infrastructure, and association which was once modeled after the best urban of all, Rome itself. In Gregory Aldrete's exhaustive account, readers may have the chance to see into the internal workings of lifestyle in old Rome, to witness the entire diversity of glory, cruelty, sophistication, and deprivation that characterised Roman towns, and should maybe even achieve new perception into the character and historical past of city lifestyles in the US today.Included are debts of Rome's historical past, infrastructure, govt, and population, in addition to chapters on lifestyles and dying, the hazards and pleasures of city residing, leisure, faith, the emperors, and the economic climate. extra sections discover different vital Roman towns: Ostia, an commercial port city, and Pompeii, the doomed playground of the wealthy. This quantity is perfect for top college and school scholars, in addition to for an individual drawn to reading the realities of lifestyles in old Rome. A chronology of the period of time, maps, illustrations, a bibliography, and an index also are incorporated.

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Additional info for Daily Life in the Roman City: Rome, Pompeii, and Ostia (The Greenwood Press Daily Life Through History Series)

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The city grew steadily, and another burst of activity took place around 180 BC, focusing on the Emporium district, which was the area where ships unloaded. This commercial region stretched from the Forum Boarium south along the bank of the Tiber to below the Aventine hill. In 179 BC, the first stone bridge was built, connecting the Transtiberim with the Forum Boarium. Also around this time, the docks along the Tiber were improved, and south of the Aventine, the Porticus Aemilia was built, which was a long, covered colonnade that served as a general-purpose, commercial clearinghouse.

This was the first marketplace of the city, and the original natural site would have been very swampy, with several streams running through it. Nevertheless, this was where most of the main streets converged. Another such crossroads was the open space below and between the Palatine and the Aventine on the bank of the Tiber. This area, known as the Forum Boarium, was where the ferry that went across the river landed. Rome's first bridge was built here, spanning the ferry passage. " However, it would have been an unsuitable place to gather cows, and the name is probably derived from a famous early bronze statue of a bull that was erected there.

Three key pieces of hard data have to do with the number of people who received monthly handouts of free grain from the government, a set of statistics that give total numbers of dwellings in the city, and estimates that are based on the area of the city. One ancient source states that in 5 BC, 320,000 inhabitants of the city received the free monthly grain dole. To be eligible for this dole, you had to be three things: an adult, a male, and a citizen. If there were this many adult, free males, one can perhaps double this number to account for women, add the same number again for children, and then add an estimate for the number of slaves.

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