Everyday Life in Ancient Rome

"This book presents a series of concise sketches of key phases of life in the Roman world during its greatest period, the peaceful and prosperous years of the first and second centuries A.D.: what life was like in the city, in the countryside, on the road; what it was like in the various levels of society... The sketches are fashioned to reveal how the inevitable cycle from birth to death that we all share played out in the circumstances of this very special age." -- from the preface

In Everyday Life in Ancient Rome, Lionel Casson offers a lively introduction to the society of the times. Instead of following the standard procedure of social history, he presents a series of vignettes focusing on the "ways of life" of various members of that society, from the slave to the emperor. The book opens with a description of the historical context and includes examination of topics such as the family, religion, urban and rural life, and leisure activities. This revised edition of Casson's engaging work, originally published in 1975 as Daily Life in Ancient Rome, includes two new chapters as well as full documentation of the sources.

"I was reading one of Casson's books [Everyday Life in Ancient Rome] while waiting for [my daughter]... She was late, which would ordinarily have thrown me into a fever of apprehension, but on this occasion I was so wrapped up in the book, I didn't notice. In fact, when she did come back, quite late, I was annoyed because she had interrupted me before I had finished the book. I told Casson this, and he was infinitely pleased." -- Isaac Asimov, from I. Asimov: A Memoir

Lionel Casson is professor emeritus of classics at New York University and has written many books about life in the ancient world, including Travel in the Ancient World,, and Ships and Seamanship in the Ancient World, both available from Johns Hopkins.