Daily Life in Ancient Rome: The People and the City at the Height of the Empire

by Jérôme Carcopino, Jerome Carcopino, Henry T. Carcopino, Jerome;Rowell, et al.

Book Overview

This classic book brings to life imperial Rome as it was during the second century A.D., the time of Trajan and Hadrian, Marcus Aurelius, and Commodus. It was a period marked by lavish displays of... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0300000316
• ISBN13: 9780300000313
• Release Date: September 1960
• Publisher: Yale University Press
• Length: 342 Pages
• Weight: 0.96 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.3" x 8.1"

Customer Reviews

Classical work on Ancient Rome...

The beauty and horrors of the City of Rome comes out in detail - the people, the smells, the dirt and the energy. You may notice a few complaints about the age of the book, the old fashion feel to the author's writing (which I happen to enjoy) and some complaints about the sources he uses. But think about it - even poetry can be used to understand a culture. So even flawed history or fiction can be used to understand a time period - it tells us about the thoughts, ideals and view points of the author. And the author is a product of his time. So, I have no issues with the sources Jerome Carcopino uses and feel the book is a wonderful excise in bringing to life the Roman people of the temples, baths, games, the busy streets. Can't you just picture the crowds of shouting venders, the begging homeless, the screaming children, the grumpy old people and the people whining about how good it was in the old days? The smell of fish, fresh bread, urine, unwashed peoples, perfumes and spices. Books like this give us the image of what Rome was like. The passion and the glory, the Holidays and the slavery, the Emperors and the Gods. What more do you want?

objective portrait of Imperial Capital

Nice and readable presentation of the daily life in imperial Rome. You can ''see'' ordinary Romans from each social class living their everyday life. If you do not want to be affected by hollywood-like productions about antiquity, which present strongly artificial image of this epoch you have to read this book.

The glory, the gore and the grind of daily life, vividly presented

You might want to turn directly to the last chapter in which the gluttony and debauchery of Imperial Rome is most clearly spelled out. Then again you might want to wait for that as one does for a dessert. Then again I shouldn't be such a smart aleck. Jerome Carcopino who had this published in France in 1939 is a Latin and Greek scholar from the old school, from the days when Latin was required in our public schools and any educated person had at least a smattering of the dry stuff. This book presumes some Latin and some knowledge of Roman history. Additionally the Latin is not always translated into English--I presume it is the same in Carcopino's original French. And he refers to personages in Roman history without giving dates or even a sense of temporal order such as an American author might refer to Emerson or the Nixon administration and feel comfortable knowing that his readers would be able to form an approximate time frame. Furthermore, there is a pedant's feel to much of the book with Carcopino giving us again and again the exact Latin terminology in italics following the English expression. Readers interested in learning or brushing up on their Latin will find this most agreeable, and readers like me, who have little Latin and less Greek, will enjoy recognizing the Latin originals in their ancient usage that have given us English cognates. Thus "frigidarium" refers to the cold part of the Roman bath, and a "paedagogus" was a slave who served as a tutor. Sometimes Carcopino (and I must say his able English translator, E. O. Lorimer) gives us the English translation following the Latin, and often it is a famous Latin phrase that will delight the eyes of the learned. For example on page 336 we find this observation explaining the use of a certain room near the feasting room: "vomunt ut edant, edunt ut vomant (they vomit in order to eat, and eat in order to vomit)." I found it interesting to notice Carcopino's views on certain subjects and how they differ from today. For example he writes that the Roman players fought for a ball "blown full of air...as in basketball, but with more elegance." (p.320) I doubt that such a line would be written today considering how graceful and elegant basketball has become since those early days of the sport from which Carcopino writes, circa 1939. I also note that as Carcopino was banging the typewriter keys the storm clouds of impending war were once again gathering over Europe. I kept looking for some indication as to where our author stood vis-à-vis the rise of the Storm Trooper mentality in Germany and elsewhere, but he remained true to the historian's credo of not judging current events. Interesting too are the occasional references to the modern world as colored by Carcopino's zeitgeist. For example he sometimes compared Roman habits to those of Europeans, Americans and even Arabs. Thus he writes "As among the Arabs still, belching was considered a politeness, justified by philosophe

Daily Life in Ancient Rome

A highly engaging, well thought-out book. The author dares to have an opinion--very refreshing.The upper classes were diminished by low birth rates and had to be augmented by people who, several generations ago, were slaves. Those of the upper classes who survived considered the burden of empire too great they simply could not provide the leadership or the administration necessary for such a great enterprise. Finally, the education system did not teach their upper-class students to wrestle with real-life problems, and completely avoided subjects like philosophy and science which could have given them the enthusiasm and the tools to beneficially modify their society.I sense the beginnings of some of the unfortunate Latin traits which followed the Iberians to South America.

The Sharp Contrasts of Roman Society.

Reading Jérôme Carcopino's timeless account of life in ancient Rome brings the reader back to the dark, narrow, crowded Roman streets, flanked on both sides by teetering, five-story tenements. Although written in a style of long ago, therein lies the charm of this book. Jérôme Carcopino has effortlessly summoned 1st and 2nd Century Rome back to life. And what a society of contrasts he evokes: on the one hand, the highly refined aspects of Roman society, epitomized by the public baths, the public parks, the theater, and the dinners hosted by the wealthy for their friends; on the other hand, he describes compellingly the dark side of Roman society, in particular, slavery and the gladiatorial games which entertained the Roman public with the appallingly casual slaughter of both man and beast. His detailed accounts depict horrific spectacles pitting man against man, man against beast, beast against beast -- and woman against dwarf. The most interesting part of his book, though, is his insight respecting the toxic impact slavery had upon Roman society, both upon the poor pleb in general and upon the Roman family in particular. This book is a must for anyone captivated by Roman social history.