Why read A Day in the Life of Ancient Rome?

Book cover of A Day in the Life of Ancient Rome: Daily Life, Mysteries, and Curiosities

Book description

The wondrous extravagance of banquets where flamingos are roasted whole and wine flows like rivers. The roar of frenzied spectators inside the Colosseum during a battle between gladiators. A crowd of onlookers gathered at a slave auction. The silent baths and the boisterous taverns...Many books have dealt with the history…

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Why read it?

1 author picked A Day in the Life of Ancient Rome as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Cass Morris

Author

This book provides an exemplary hour-by-hour guide to what life was like for a citizen of Rome at the height of its power. I love that Angela not only gives us the high-society angle, bringing us into the lush gardens and sumptuous homes of Rome’s wealthy and powerful, but also the crowded apartments and streets that were home to the vast majority of the ancient city’s citizens. You walk alongside them, getting a ground-level view of the patterns of a normal day in all its mundane details, from clothing to food to labor to entertainment, rendered in fascinating prose.

From Cass' list on The best books on ancient Roman society.