ROMAN LIFE
de Agri cultura The oldest surviving work of Latin prose, a treatise on agriculture by Cato the Elder. Written in ca. 160 BCE, it sets out how to make money from a slave-run, villa estate.
amphitheater A purpose-built elliptical arena for gladiatorial combat and other entertainment events. Not to be confused with theater.
amphora A large pottery vessel used for transporting wine, oil, and other goods. Amphorae are a vital source of evidence for ancient trading patterns.
annona A handout of grain to citizens living in Rome, initially subsidized and then free—a vital part of the “bread and circuses” handed out by emperors.
“bread and circuses” Panem et circenses, a cynical phrase coined by second-century CE satirist Juvenal to signify the emperors’ generosity toward the urban population of Rome through the provision of cheap food and free entertainment.
consul The top magistrate of the Roman republic; each year two were elected, to keep each other in check.
Dacia An eastern Roman province in what is now Romania, finally conquered by Trajan. An important source of metal ore.
denarius (pl. denarii) The most important silver denomination of Roman coinage: a basic unit of currency.
dietetics The careful prescription of diet and lifestyle to restore or preserve health.
garum A fish sauce loved by the Romans, made from salted, fermented fish intestines. An important commodity manufactured and traded throughout the empire, adding an intense salty savor to dishes (the nearest seasoning equivalent today is perhaps a Thai fish sauce). By-products, such as the pungent paste allec, were also used as condiments.
Gaul An area of Roman imperial rule covering present-day France, western Switzerland, northern Italy, Belgium, Luxembourg, and western Germany. Its conquest was completed by Julius Caesar in the 50s BCE. The region was divided into several Roman provinces and remained within the empire until its final dissolution centuries later.
governor The official who ran a province of the Roman empire—usually the position was held by a former magistrate of the Roman state, such as a consul.
Iberia The peninsula containing modern Spain and Portugal was conquered by Rome during the Punic Wars and divided into the various provinces of Roman Hispania from 197 BCE.
obelisk A tall, tapering, four-sided monument carved by the ancient Egyptians out of granite; many were brought to Rome as impressive trophies of conquest.
oleoculture The cultivation of olives to press for oil.
orthogonal Grid-like—a typical Roman way of dividing up land for fields or city streets.
panegyric A formal, setpiece speech containing praise.
pantomime A highly popular Roman form of theater entertainment, involving words, gestures, song, and dance.
Punic Wars A series of three bitter wars between Rome and Carthage (a powerful rival state on the coast of North Africa), fought in the third and second centuries BCE, culminating with the fall and sack of Carthage in 146 BCE.
sestertius (pl. sestertii) A common base-metal Roman coin, worth a quarter of a silver denarius (roughly a day’s wage) or 1 percent of a gold aureus.
tetrarchy The modern name for the college of four emperors introduced by Diocletian in 293 CE (one senior “Augustus” and one junior “Caesar” in each half of the empire, which was divided into east and west).
theater A semicircular building with stage and seating, for plays and pantomimes. Not to be confused with amphitheater.
tribune of the plebs An elected official of the Roman state, traditionally charged with protecting the interests of the common people (plebeians).
De Medicina An eight-book Latin treatise on medicine, originally part of a larger encyclopedia written in the first century CE by Aulus Cornelius Celsus.
viticulture The cultivation of grape vines for wine.
the 30-second history
Agriculture played a fundamental role in the Roman world. In both the republic and empire alike, social standing and political organization were based on landed wealth and many members of the elite took a direct interest in how best to manage their estates and which crops to grow; some even wrote treatises on agriculture. The main cash crops were grain, grapes, and olives (the “Mediterranean triad”). A larger portion of Italy was brought under cultivation in Roman times than in later ages and in regions such as Puglia modern-day olive trees may be the descendants of trees planted by the Romans. Elsewhere in the empire Roman settlers brought with them intensive viticulture and oleoculture; within a few generations, these regions (for example Gaul and Hispania) were exporting their wine and oil widely. Engineering projects, including extensive irrigation works, brought inhospitable regions, such as large portions of pre-desert North Africa, under cultivation. It is often assumed that antiquity was characterized by technological stagnation, but archaeological research has shown that innovations relating to irrigation, including the Archimedean screw, and to agricultural processing (grain and water-powered mills and wine and oil presses) were introduced to many parts of the Roman empire.
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When Rome destroyed Carthage in 146 BCE Mago’s agricultural treatise was the only expression of Carthaginian culture that the Roman senate deemed worth saving.
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Many parts of the Roman countryside were intensively settled and farmed. Farms and villas dotted the landscape and the Roman field system, characterized by orthogonal grids creating regular plots, still survives in the modern landscape in some regions. Whereas in the Republican period Italy exported wine—an amphora of wine would be traded for a slave among Celtic tribes—later, large quantities of grain, wine, and oil were imported into Rome to sustain her one million inhabitants.
RELATED HISTORIES
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LUCIUS QUINCTIUS CINCINNATUS
519–430 BCE
Statesman and figure of early Rome; he was plowing his modest plot when called upon to defend Rome as military dictator
MARCUS PORCIUS CATO
234–149 BCE
Statesman and author of the earliest Latin treatise on agriculture (de Agri cultura), which survives in its entirety
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Annalisa Marzano
Under the Romans, farming practice shifted from substistence to demand-led production.
the 30-second history
Trade played an important role in the Roman world; many extraction and manufacturing activities, from quarrying, mining, pottery, and glass-making to food-processing and textiles, were connected with trade. Roman towns had shops and workshops: sometimes entire streets specialized in the manufacture and sale of specific items. Pottery and salted fish are interesting examples of large-scale production and trade. From the first century BCE, Arretine tableware (from ancient Arezzo, Tuscany) was very popular in the Roman world, with branch workshops established outside of Italy. At La Graufesenque (France), collaboration among workshops allowed for impressive results; the 24-acre (10-ha) settlement had 50 kilns and some 200 workers, producing one million items per season. The production of the fish sauces (garum, allec) used as seasoning in Roman cuisine took place at many coastal sites, often on a large scale. Fish-salting factories with batteries of masonry salting vats were present in southern Spain, North Africa, Sicily, Normandy, and around the Black Sea. Their produce, packed in amphorae, was exported throughout the empire as far as Hadrian’s Wall in the north and the Garamantian settlements in the Saharan south (modern Libya).
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Throughout the Roman world standardization and division of labor improved both production and distribution in many sectors.
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Long-distance trade contributed to state revenues because of a 25 percent custom tax across the empire’s frontiers and a 5 percent tax across provincial boundaries. Such trade levies could add considerably to the state coffers, given that, according to Strabo, every year 120 ships sailed to India from the Red Sea and surviving documentary sources show that enormously valuable cargoes, each worth millions of sesterces, could be carried.
RELATED HISTORIES
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51–96 CE
Emperor (81–96 CE) who passed legislation to reduce the number of vineyards in the provinces, possibly to favor the export of Italian wine
AULUS UMBRICIUS SCAURUS
fl. 60s/70s CE
Pompeian businessman running a successful garum-manufacturing business in Pompeii, whose products were widely exported
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Annalisa Marzano
Archaeological finds indicate that goods were traded across huge distances in the empire and beyond.
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Until the early third century BCE Rome made official payments using uncoined masses of bronze (aes rude) and cast bronze ingots (aes signatum). When Rome started to mint coins it took as model the coinage of the nearby Greek city of Neapolis (Naples) and used its mint. By 211 BCE Rome had its own mint and coined silver denarii, which for centuries remained the most important denomination of the Roman monetary system, and smaller bronze denominations. Later, Augustus introduced a gold coin (aureus), whose value was linked to the denarius. However, the Greek world kept its monetary system based on the silver drachm rather than the denarius and provincial mints continued to issue their own bronze coins for local circulation; every major city had money exchangers able to convert different currencies. During the third century CE the weight and metal content of Roman coins diminished sharply, until Constantine reformed the monetary system by introducing the gold solidus. The quality and metal content of early imperial aurei and denarii meant they were widely appreciated as means of exchange: hoards of Roman coins have been found in India, fruit of the long-distance trade that brought to the Mediterranean spices and pearls.
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The Latin word for bronze, aes, was the colloquial word for money, showing that bronze always remained important within the Roman monetary system.
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Besides being a means for commercial exchanges, Roman coins, with their images and legends, played an important role in spreading messages to the people: publicizing military victories, imperial building projects, or popularizing the image of the ruling emperor. Julius Caesar was the first to use his own portrait on coins instead of that of one of his ancestors, as had previously been customary.
RELATED HISTORY
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IUNO MONETA
Goddess; the Roman mint in her temple gives us the words “money” and “mint”
188–217 CE
Emperor who devalued the denarius strongly and introduced the antoninianus, with the nominal value of two denarii
244–311 CE
Emperor, creator of the tetrarchy, who reformed the monetary system, introducing two new coins, the silver argenteus and the bronze follis
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Annalisa Marzano
Several Roman military conquests were driven by the need to control key sources of ore required for coinage.
the 30-second history
Romans took three meals a day, but the nature of these varied depending on an individual’s wealth. Eating and drinking marked religious ceremonies and public distributions of food paid for by prominent citizens. Rome even had its state-sponsored system of distribution of grain (annona). Eating, whether at private or public banquets, had an important social function; such dinners could be extended and elaborate affairs, serving “all the products of land and sea, rivers and air.” The wealthier the person the more he tried to impress by serving guests a large selection of costly and rare foods or by having everyday foods prepared in unusual ways. Banquets were also the occasion to reinforce social hierarchy by serving different-quality foods and wines according to the guests’ social standing. Ordinary Romans, however, relied on taverns and street vendors for cooked food, since many urban dwellings were without kitchens. Staples were olive oil, wine, and cereals consumed either as bread or porridge, supplemented by pulses, vegetables, cheese, eggs, and, occasionally, meat and fish, although in coastal settlements options were greater: excavations at Herculaneum, a city destroyed (like Pompeii) by Vesuvius in 79 CE, revealed that inhabitants enjoyed various forms of seafood.
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While eating and drinking in ancient Rome conjure an image of lavish banquets and orgies, many city-dwellers did not have the means to cook at home.
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Imperial Rome’s food supply was politically crucial (hungry people tend to revolt). From the time of the republic, politicians had instituted monthly distribution of grain (annona), in order to win votes; as such, the distributions never went to the poorest people. Later, wine and salted pork were added. The state also subsidized the shipment of olive oil from abroad as testified by Monte Testaccio, an artificial hill in Rome 110 feet (33 m) high, made entirely from discarded oil amphorae.
RELATED HISTORIES
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L. LICINIUS LUCULLUS
1st century BCE
Roman general famous for his lavish banquets from whose name derives the English adjective Lucullan
37–68 CE
Roman emperor who passed legislation restricting inns and taverns to sell only boiled vegetables
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Annalisa Marzano
The wealthy Roman’s diet can be inferred from archaeology, art, and a cookbook believed have been written by Caelius Apicus in the third or fourth century CE.
The physical remains of Roman civilization can tell us a great deal about everyday life in ancient Rome, but they are not our only record of how people lived; sometimes their testimony can be supplemented by information contained in literary sources of the period. Particularly valuable in this respect are the letters of Pliny the Younger, whose correspondence sheds fascinating light on life in Rome and its provinces at the turn of the second century CE. Born during the reign of Nero, Pliny studied with the famous orator Quintilian and progressed through the conventional stages of an aristocratic Roman political career, becoming consul in 100 CE. He was later appointed governor of Bithynia-Pontus by the emperor Trajan, and the final book of his letters contains Pliny’s correspondence with the emperor on administrative matters concerning his province, including consultation on the appropriate methods for dealing with a troublesome new sect—the Christians.
In addition to many details of Roman life, business, and manners at the time (including chariot racing, literary recitation, and the treatment of slaves), Pliny’s letters preserve the fullest account we have of the eruption of Mount Vesuvius that destroyed the towns of Pompeii and Herculaneum in 79 CE. Pliny himself was an eyewitness to this catastrophe, in which his uncle, the writer Pliny the Elder, died, and in two letters to the historian Tacitus he gives a dramatic description of the different phases of the eruption and of the panic as those caught in the disaster attempted to escape the suffocating cloud of volcanic ash. We also learn much about Pliny’s properties, about the site and layout of his villas, and about the legal cases in which he was involved; and there are touching declarations of affection from the author to his absent wife.
For all their value as a source for political and social history, Pliny’s letters are by no means a purely objective record of their author’s life and times; the letters were written for publication, and the writer is concerned to project an image of himself as a conscientious administrator, a cultured and versatile man of letters, and a devoted and sympathetic friend. This carefully orchestrated self-presentation is also valuable to the historian, however, since it provides important evidence for the attitudes, values, and expectations prevalent among the senatorial class at this time.
Luke Houghton
Born Gaius Caecilius Cilo in Comum (modern Como), northern Italy
79 CE
Witnesses eruption of Vesuvius; takes the name Gaius Plinius Caecilius Secundus through adoption in his uncle’s will
88/89 CE
Serves as quaestor on the emperor’s staff
91 CE
Serves as tribune of the plebians
93 CE
Serves as praetor
100 CE
Consul from September to October; delivers panegyric on the emperor Trajan
110 CE
Appointed governor of the province of Bithynia-Pontus by the emperor Trajan
1471
First printed edition of Pliny’s letters published in Venice
c. 1500
Fra Giovanni Giocondo discovers a manuscript containing the tenth book of Pliny’s letters (correspondence with Trajan) in Paris
the 30-second history
The Roman year (which began in March until 153 BCE, when January became the first month) was governed by calendars marking days suitable and unsuitable for public business, religious festivals, and other events. There was also an eight-day weekly cycle, marked A to H in inscribed public calendars. Over the years, this civic calendar got badly out of step with the natural solar year. Julius Caesar remedied this by making the year 46 BCE 445 days long and then imposing the Julian calendar, which was based on sound astronomical calculation and is still used by the Orthodox churches. The Romans, like the Greeks, dated events by magistrates’ years of office, in their case the consuls. An absolute numerical date could also be given in years from the foundation of the city of Rome, traditionally held to be 753 BCE. For telling the time, night and day were each divided into 12 equal hours. Since daylight varies by date and latitude, hours were not the same length from season to season or in different places, but this did not greatly matter—a relative measure of time was good enough for most practical purposes, and sundials were reliable timepieces in the sunny Mediterranean.
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The Roman calendar set the official and religious framework of the twelve-month year which, until it was replaced by the Julian calendar, was 355 days long.
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Caesar’s Julian calendar drew on mathematical and astronomical expertise from the Greek world, which in turn learned from Egyptian and Babylonian models. His successor, Augustus, demonstrated this broad learning by laying out a huge public sundial in Rome, using an Egyptian obelisk as its pointer. Here Roman fascination with eastern astronomy combined with the suggestion that Augustus’s rule was ordained by the cycle of the heavens.
RELATED HISTORIES
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JULIUS CAESAR
ca. 100–44 BCE
Roman general, dictator of Rome, and creator of the Julian calendar
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Matthew Nicholls
To reinforce the idea that Augustus’s rule was supported by the heavenly cycle, the months of Quintilis and Sextilis were changed to “July” and “August” (derived from Julius and Augustus.)
the 30-second history
Gladiatorial combat in the Colosseum is one of the defining images of ancient Rome. Romans certainly loved large public entertainments, though not all involved the spilling of blood. Games of all sorts evolved gradually from entertainments put on by candidates for political office (and, in the case of gladiatorial games, ritual funeral combats) into enormously elaborate and expensive displays of largesse whose success could make or break an emperor’s reputation. All manner of theater shows—tragedy, comedy, mimes, dances, recitals—took place in semi-circular theaters, constructed first of wood and later of stone. Athletic contests, adopted from the Greek world, included boxing, wrestling, and the Roman favorite, chariot-racing—any open ground would do, but a purpose-built circus displayed a city’s wealth and sophistication. Combat spectacles, in public squares and then in special elliptical amphitheaters, were particularly popular in Italy and the western empire and included gladiatorial combat between distinctive types of fighter. Trained and armed at considerable expense, successful gladiators could amass fame and fortune, while by some accounts one chariot racer, Diocles, was the highest-paid sportsman in human history.
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Cities throughout the Roman empire hosted public entertainments on a grand scale, from pantomime to gladiatorial combat and public executions.
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Public spectacles, as they evolved in complexity and scale, came to be reflections of the whole Roman world in miniature. The splendid architecture, links to the politics of “bread and circuses,” rules governing who was allowed to sit where, and punishment of criminals, all made a day at the games an experience that would remind the spectator of his place in the Roman world even as it entertained him.
RELATED HISTORIES
THE COLOSSEUM & CIRCUS MAXIMUS
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PRISCUS & VERUS
fl. first century CE
First gladiators to fight in the Colosseum
GAIUS APPIUS DIOCLES
ca. 130–210 CE
Roman Spaniard who amassed an incredible fortune as a successful chariot racer
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Matthew Nicholls
Combat was only one event in the arena of death; beast hunts and criminal executions, sometimes through the enforced enactment of mythical tales, were other entertainments.
the 30-second history
Ancient medicine was part of a wide variety of therapeutic options, ranging from rational, proto-scientific treatment by doctors, and practical assistance from surgeons and midwives, through to amulets, spells, and folk remedies. Much of this leaves little trace; our understanding of ancient medicine depends on archaeological finds and surviving literary records. As in so many fields, Rome took much of its medical learning from Greece; the scientific method of Aristotle and the body of work ascribed to the Greek doctor Hippocrates, with its four bodily ‘humors’ (blood, phlegm, and yellow and black bile), were especially influential. Roman doctors learned from this tradition and added to it. Celsus wrote on the division of medicine into lifestyle (“dietetics”), pharmacology, and surgery. Galen, a Greek who came to Rome as physician to the emperors, left an enormous body of writings (of which some three million words survive) on anatomy, medical methods, physiology, and pharmacology, which was enormously influential throughout the history of western medicine. Archaeological finds fill out the picture. Portable medical kits containing bronze surgical instruments, ranging from simple scalpels to forceps, drills, catheters, and specula, suggest a high degree of skill. There were no anaesthetics.
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Roman doctors built on the different schools of Greek medical knowledge, using diet, drugs, and surgery.
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There was no universal training for doctors, or recognized system of qualifications. Rival schools of thought competed for reputation and business, and doctors had an intellectual grounding in what we would regard as non-medical disciplines. Galen started off as a gladiator physician (a good training in practical anatomy and surgery); he excelled as a doctor and researcher, dissecting animals and often proceeding by experiment and logic. However, he was also trained in rhetoric and philosophy and wrote several works on language, grammar, and literature.
RELATED HISTORIES
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[AULUS] CORNELIUS CELSUS
fl. first century CE
Author of a key medical history De Medicina
ca. 130–210 CE
Greek physician and surgeon who brought the practices of Hippocrates and others to Rome
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Matthew Nicholls
Though ancient doctors had some scientific knowledge and therapeutic ability, prayer, sacrifice, and offerings to the gods remained important for those hoping for a cure.
