CC 302/347
INTRO TO ANCIENT ROME
Outline for
Lecture 15: City Life (i)
Cities of the Pax Romana
- new cities were founded in the West with
- central forum
- vertical & horizontal road grid
- theatres, amphitheatres etc.
Infrastructure
- aqueducts --> public fountains --> water for
drinking, cooking, cleaning
- water (used or unused) --> massive drainage systems
Public Buildings
- many had a religious aspect (esp. temples)
- entertainment/leisure: theatres, amphitheatres, Circus,
Baths
- economic/administrative: basilicas and markets
(macellae)
- every city had a central public square called a forum
City Life
- panem et circenses, that is, free food and
entertainment to the poor.
- good: system of public sanitation; plentiful clean
water supply
- in some cities, overcrowding resulted in poor living
conditions.
- bottom line: in cities, an average life expectancy of
only 25 years
- streets of most cities not lighted: hence dangerous at
night.
Housing
- the rich tended to live in houses on the city hills,
the poor in the valleys
- insulae (apartment buildings) a common feature of Roman
cities
- wealthy citizens on ground floor
- poorer citizens on upper floors (sometimes in cellae,
small undivided rooms rented weekly
- no running water in the insulae
- poor also lived in tabernae (living quarters above
shops)
- the destitute lived in cheap boarding houses or on the
streets
- tombs served as improvised shelter, brothels and
toilets
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