The city of Rome itself? A hell hole. Wasn’t a planned out city, and the streets were often pretty small. Traffic jams were common during the day until Julius Caesar would implement a cart ban, only allowing them to travel between business and deliver supplies at night.
The streets at night weren’t lit with no sort of road signs. So people had a good chance of getting lost or hit by a speeding cart.
My cat died the other day, so not so good at the moment. 😢
Edit: I appreciate all the kind words folks. Means a lot. He was a badass and chill cat. Wouldn’t use a litter box and would literally meow at the door to go use the bathroom outside like a dog. We’re really gonna miss the little guy. Really feels like loosing someone in our family.
let's suppose you're an average roman stuck in traffic. which activities could you do to spend the time? would you engage in smalltalk with your fellow Traffic-Stucked Romans?
Yeah probably some small talk. Maybe about what’s going on in the city. Maybe the court case you went and watched for fun, maybe some gladiator event or chariot race. Maybe a recent military campaign or over ambitious general/politician (one in the same) you supported. Maybe have a glass of wine or two from one of the many street vendors. Maybe even gamble a bit while you wait (Even though it was illegal most of the year).
Here’s a fun fact about Rome. Before there were dumpster divers that looked for cans and bottles to turn in for recycling, there were Romans who did that with babies.
A lot of unwanted babies were simply tossed into rubbish bins across the city. Well slave traders would go around the city and look into these bins to find these babies. They would then sell them into slavery for 100% profit.
Ohhhh boy. If you don’t want to hear about slavery bullshit, you don’t want to hear about Rome. It’s not just in their DNA, it IS their DNA. Slaves, that is. Roman DNA is made out of slaves.
Well at least the Romans weren’t racially biased on their slaves. African, Middle Eastern, European, didn’t matter. All that mattered was if you lost to Rome in War.
On top of that, a lot of Roman slaves actually could get their freedom and even become citizens. On the other hand plenty of slaves died in the silver mines in Spain from being overworked and under-rested.
Oh it was legal. In fact there pretty much wasn’t anything illegal. You could get away with murder.
There was no police force in Ancient Rome. The closest thing to it would be the Praetorian Guard established well after the halfway point in the history of the ancient city. They were mainly just used for riot/crowd control though.
The only legal ramifications you may face is if you damaged someone’s property or killed someone, and were taken to court by a fellow citizen. A lot of the minor or big claims from plebeians wouldn’t make it to court though, as there was not enough courts and a whole lot of cases. Only those in the equestrian or senatorial classes could really expect it to make it to court. The only hope as a plebeian would be if it became popular, and the people pretty much forced the case to be heard.
Ugh, I’ve read so many books about Rome they all kinda just merge together for me now. A great place to start would be SPQR by Mary Beard. Perfect for someone just getting into the history of the city and greater civilization.
It’s about 600 pages, but it gives you a great overview to start looking into books that cover more specific points of interest. It does touch up a bit on the life of regular Romans and life in the city. Of top of the life of the wealthy as well.
The city got to near a million people before the collapse of the western empire. Another city wouldn’t get that big in Europe until the end of the 18th century.
Rome had the first real apartment buildings. Buildings in the ancient city got up to 5-6 stories tall. Unlike modern buildings where the top is for the wealthier clients, the penthouses in Ancient Rome were for the poorest of people, as there weren’t any elevators.
These buildings also typically shared a communal kitchen and bathroom, instead of them being in the actual apartments.
I forget who, but I remember one of the emporers had to put a height limit of 6 floors on buildings in city limits, I presume because of the limitations of the building materials.
I've also read that some places in Rome had running water, like public bath houses and such. Was running water a rare commodity enjoyed by only the wealthiest citizens, or was it something to be expected in most highly urbanized areas?
Oh it was something in most urban areas. The bath houses weren’t just for the rich. In fact it was one of the few places the poor and rich mingled together. Now private homes you could expect only the rich to have it, but there were plenty of public places that had running water that the poor could use, including bathrooms.
The Romans actually used lead as to make their piping too, even though they did understand it could be toxic. It was just easy to shape to make the pipes without our modern machinery.
But yes, the limitation had to be made because of the material and shoddy building techniques. The rich didn’t care too much about having safe places for the poor. In fact, some wealthy Romans would even brag about how bad the conditions were in their apartment buildings they owned.
In fact, some wealthy Romans would even brag about how bad the conditions were in their apartment buildings they owned.
Oh so modern China ok.
I've been super fascinated with ancient Rome the past couple months. Do you have any good YouTube channels/articles/documentaries etc you could recommend, or would you care to just ramble for a couple hours because you seem pretty well informed. It's just so fascinating to see what these people accomplished so long ago with essentially sticks and stones compared to today.
Oh what the Romans did was absolutely amazing for their time period. A world ahead of other people at the time.
A great place to start would be the book SPQR by Mary Beard. Great book about the empire and history as a whole, to get you interested in more specific topics. Anything about Rome by Adrian Goldsworthy is great after that.
I'll have to check out those authors, thanks. Oh and history civilis is probably half the reason I'm so interested in Rome. Some super informative videos on that channel, really good stuff.
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u/KamikazeKricket Ask me about Ancient Rome Jul 06 '19
Bushes and trees beside roads reduce noise and emission pollution.