Daily Life in Ancient Rome (Peregrine Books)

PEREGRINE BOOKS Y23 DAILY LIFE IN ANCIENT ROME JÉRÔME CARCOPINO

DAILY LIFE IN A N C I E N T ROME THE PEOPLE AND THE CITY AT THE HEIGHT OF THE EMPIRE BY

JÉRÔME CARCOPINO Director of the École Française de Rome Member of the Institute of France EDITED WITH BIBLIOGRAPHY AND NOTES BY

HENRY T. ROWELL Professor of Latin in the Johns Hopkins University

TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH BY

E. O. LORIMER

® PENGUIN BOOKS

Penguin Books Ltd, Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England Penguin Books Pty, Ltd, Ringwood, Victoria, Australia First published 1941 Published in Pelican Books 1956 Reprinted in Peregrine Books 1962, 1964 This translation Copyright © E. O. Lorimei, 1941

Made and printed in Great Britain by Cox and Wymun Ltd, London, Reading, and Fakcnham Set in Monotype Bembo

This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade, be lent, re-sold, hired out, or otherwise disposed of without the publisher's consent, in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published

TO PROFESSOR EMILE SERGENT The Master of my son Antoine, my Doctor, and my Friend

TRANSLATOR'S NOTE In rendering quotations from Martial and Juvenal, Tacitus, Petronius, and Pliny the Younger, I have gratefully adopted-less often adapted - the phrasing of the Loeb Classics, edited by T. E. Page and Dr W. H. D. Rouse (Heinemann, London). E. o . L.

CONTENTS PREFACE

9 PART ONE

THE PHYSICAL A N D MORAL

BACKGROUND

OF ROMAN LIFE I. THE EXTENT AND POPULATION OP THE CITY

1. The Splendour of the Urbs 13 2. The Precincts of Rome and the Citys True Extent 20 j . The Growth of the Citys Population 26 II. HOUSES AND STREETS

i. Modem Aspects of the Roman House 2. Archaic Aspects of the Roman House 3. Streets and Traffic

34 42 57

III. SOCIETY AND SOCIAL CLASSES

j. 2. j. 4.

Romans and Foreigners Slavery and Manumission The Confusion of Social Values Living Standards and the Plutocracy

65 69 74 78

IV. MARRIAGE, WOMAN, AND THE FAMILY

i. 2. 5. 4. 5.

The Weakening of Paternal Authority Betrothal and Marriage The Roman Matron Feminism and Demoralization Divorce and the Instability of the Family

89 93 98 104 109

V. EDUCATION AND RELIGION

i. 2. 5. 4. j.

Symptoms of Decomposition Primary Education The Routine Teaching of the Grammarian Impractical Rhetoric The Decay of Traditional Religion

116 118 122 129 137

CONTENTS

6. The Progress of Oriental Mysticism 7. The Advent of Christianity

144 152

PART TWO THE DAY'S ROUTINE VI. THE

1. 2. j. 4. VII.

MORNING

The Days and Hours of the Roman Calendar The Roman Begins the Day The Barber The Matron Dresses

161 169 175 183

OCCUPATIONS

i. The Duties of a 'Client* 2. Businessmen and Manual Labourers j . /«5f/ce <w