Daily Life in Ancient Rome: The People and the City at the Height of the Empire (Penguin History)

In this portrait of life in Ancient Rome, the author begins by painting a backcloth on which the social, political, cultural and religious aspects of the community are drawn. He enlarges on the details of everyday life, following the typical routine of a normal day from dawn to dinner and the talk that continued long into the night. This study, which includes a bibliography and notes by Professor Rowell, describes the houses and multi-storeyed apartments of the city of over a million inhabitants, the social classes from senators to slaves and the Roman family and the position of women.

"Carcopino's pledge to his readers was to open up to them some traces of the world that lay underneath the grandeur that remains the public face of ancient Rome. . . . No one has ever done it better."-Mary Beard, from the Introduction