Literary Sources (Roman City Life)

Literary Sources (Roman City Life)

Literary Sources on Roman City Life

Appearance and Layout

  • Pliny the Younger’s letters offer snapshots of city life, including descriptions of buildings, streets, and city services.
  • Vitruvius provides detailed architectural rules and norms of the time in his work “De Architectura”. This gives us invaluable insights into the physical place that was the city.

Social Hierarchy

  • Authors like Juvenal and Martial depict a society organized around wealth and status, where the urban rich lived in grand houses and the poor in crowded apartments.
  • Cicero’s speeches also mention the distinction between the classes and the pride Romans felt for their city.

Everyday Life

  • The poet Horace offers an image of the daily routines, street crowds, noise, and vibrant city life.
  • The works of Petronius and Persius also offer unvarnished views of both the pleasures and difficulties of life in a Roman city.

Politics and Administration

  • Sources such as Tacitus detail the politics and governance of the city, depicting an active citizenry and a complex administrative structure.
  • Julius Caesar’s “The Gallic Wars” offers insights into the city’s symbolic role in a wider empire and the political and military workings thereof.

Leisure and Entertainment

  • Professional authors like Terence and Plautus who wrote scripts for theatrical performances, provide insights to popular Roman entertainment.
  • Suetonius in his “The Lives of the Twelve Caesars” recounts stories of public spectacles - essential for understanding the immense cultural value Romans attached to leisure and entertainment.

Religion and Belief

  • Religious texts and mythologies such as Ovid’s “Metamorphoses” offer insights into the religious beliefs, rituals, and ceremonies of Romans.
  • Virgil’s “Aeneid”, although largely a mythical legend, offers glimpses of religious practices exhibiting Roman values and beliefs.

These literary sources collectively provide a rich mosaic of life in a Roman city, allowing us to piece together a picture of the world as experienced by Romans themselves.