Life in Ancient Rome: Absorbing Social History - a Vivid Portrait of a Magnificent Age

"This book will be of the greatest service . . . a scholarly and convenient presentation of a vast array of facts." -Times Literary Supplement In this well-written and well-researched social history, F. R. Cowell succeeds in making Life in Ancient Rome alive and dynamic. The combination of acute historical detail and supplementary illustrations makes this book perfectly suited for the student preparing to explore classics, as well as the tourist preparing to explore twentieth-century Rome. Lucid and engaging, Life in Ancient Rome is for anyone seeking familiarity with the greatness that was Rome.

Table of Contents:
Preface Acknowledgment Map of Rome I THE CITY OF ROME The Rise and Growth of the City Apartments and Houses Furniture Gardens II GROWING UP IN ANCIENT ROME Home Education School and Schoolmasters School Education Telling the Time The Calendar Money Weights and Measures Higher Studies III FAMILY LIFE The Spirit of Home Life Women at Home Encouraging Large Families Beauty Treatment Barbers Clothes Meals, Food and Drink Kitchens and Cooking Making Bread Wine Health and Hygiene Death and Burial IV SLAVERY Origins and Development of Slavery Cost of Slaves Slave Labour Treatment of Slaves Slave Revolts Freedmen and Freedwomen V EARNING A LIVING Traditional Attitudes to Industry and Trade Rome's Imports and Their Transport Building Clothing, Milling and Baking Market-Gardening in and around Rome Shops and Markets Professional Life Lawyers Doctors Surgeons Writers Free Food Inns, Taverns and Snack Bars Roman Roads Class Distinctions VI LEISURE HOURS Work and Leisure Hours The Lure of Rome The Baths High Society The Elegant Younger Set Dances Cultural Interests Music Oratory Books and Reading Shows and Spectacles The Stage Chariot Races A Day at the Amphitheatre Roman Dynamism VII RELIGION Traditional Beliefs State Religion Festivals and Games Astrology Mystery Cults Isis and Osiris Mithraism The Rise of Christianity Chronological Summary A Note about Books Index LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 1 A sacrifice in front of the Temple of Juno Moneta 2 Part of Constantine's triumphal procession passing through the Forum Romanum 3 Part of Constantine's triumphal procession passing the Tabularium and ascending the steps of the Temple of Jupiter Capitolinus 4 The atrium, or central courtyard, of a Roman house 5 Hypocaust system of central heating 6 Chair 7 Couch 8 Roman lighting 9 Braziers 10 Earthenware cups and dishes 11 Jewellery 12 A peristyle 13 Lararium, or shrine of the Lar familiaris 14 Schoolmaster flogging a pupil 15 A banker 16 A schoolroom scene 17 Interior of a shop selling belts and pillows 18-22 Some coins of the early Empire 23 Wedding ceremony 24 A baker and his wife 25 A well-to-do lady being dressed by her slave girls 26 Beauty aids 27 Bronze hand-mirror 28 Beards of the Second Century A.D. and the late Republic 29 Fullers at work 30 Full Roman dress 31 Military dress 32 Glassware 33 A Roman kitchen 34 Kitchen utensils 35 Bronze urn 36 Earthenware jars for storing wine and oil 37 Small wine-table 38 Part of a funeral procession 39 Tombs of eminent citizens 40 Columbaria 41 Sale of a foreign slave 42 A rich lady being carried in a litter 43 An aqueduct 44 Slave driving his master's coach 45 Manumission, or ceremonial freeing of a slave 46 Carrier's wagon leaving a wine-merchant's shop 47 A barge, laden with wine, being towed up the Tiber, from Ostia to Rome 48 Loading a barge at Ostia 49 Ass and slaves at work in a flour mill 50 A pharmacy 51 A retail merchant's shop 52 The Forum Trajani, the market built by the Emperor Trajan in A.D. 114 53 A steelyard 54 A cobbler 55 A baker's shop 56 The interior of the Temple of Jupiter Capitolinus 57 A selection of surgical instruments 58 Grain measures 59 An inn scene 60 The frigidarium of the Baths of Caracalla 61 Bathers wrestling in a palaestra 62 Masseur's oil-container, strigils and oil-pan 63 A dinner party 64-7 Roman silverware of the second century A.D. 68 The triclinium of the Palace of Domitian 69 Silver cup 70 Drinking horns 71 Women's hair styles 72 Street musicians and musical instruments 73 An orator 74 Writing equipment 75 The Theatre of Pompey, the Odeon and Stadium of Domitian, and the Baths of Nero and Agrippa 76 The Colosseum and the Colossus of Nero 77 The Circus Maximus 78 A four-horse chariot rounding one of the turning-posts in the circus 79 Gladiator's arms 80 The Colosseum: duel between a retiarius and a mirmillo 81 Altar of Augustus and the Lares 82 Animals being led to sacrifice 83 A priest 84 Part of a Mithraic altar: Mithra slaying a bull 85 Part of the sarcophagus of a Christian and his wife, showing Christ the Good Shepherd