Course · History

A Day in Ancient Rome: Life Without the Emperors

The everyday life of the ancient Romans: home and street, food, baths and leisure, work and money, family and gods — history as living, everyday life.

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Unit 1. Home and street

Lesson 1. Where Romans lived: the insula and the domus

7 exercises · Understand how the housing of poor and rich city dwellers differed: multistory insulae and private houses like the domus.

Lesson 2. Inside a domus: the atrium, the impluvium, and the garden

6 exercises · Figure out how a wealthy house was laid out and understand why it faced inward rather than onto the street.

Lesson 3. The street: noise, crowds, and ads on the walls

7 exercises · Get a feel for the atmosphere of a Roman street — the crowds, the dirt, the nighttime rumble of carts, and the writing on the walls.

Unit 2. Food: from flatbread to feast

Lesson 1. What Romans really ate

6 exercises · Learn what Romans really ate day to day and bust the myth of daily feasts of exotic food.

Lesson 2. Street food: thermopolia and garum

8 exercises · Understand how and where city dwellers without a kitchen ate, and meet the Romans' favorite sauce, garum.

Lesson 3. The feasts of the rich

6 exercises · Learn how wealthy Romans held their banquets: the triclinium, the couches, the courses.

Unit 3. Baths and leisure

Lesson 1. The public baths: a social network

6 exercises · Understand what the public baths (thermae) meant to a Roman: not just a place to wash, but a center of socializing and leisure.

Lesson 2. Bathing without soap

6 exercises · Learn about Roman bathing habits and their main tool, the strigil.

Lesson 3. The games: races and the arena through a spectator's eyes

10 exercises · Understand what chariot races and gladiator fights meant to the spectator, and separate fact from myth about the arena.

Unit 4. Work and money

Lesson 1. Crafts and trade

6 exercises · Understand how ordinary city dwellers earned a living and how trade and the advertising of goods worked.

Lesson 2. Slavery and money

9 exercises · Understand the place of slavery in the Roman economy and figure out the basics of how money was counted and spent.

Unit 5. Family and gods

Lesson 1. The family: the father, women, and children

6 exercises · Understand how the Roman family worked: the father's power, the real role of women, and the lives of children.

Lesson 2. Household gods: the Lares and superstitions

8 exercises · Understand how religion lived in every home: the household gods (the Lares), the lararium, and everyday superstitions.

Unit 6. A day in a Roman's life

Lesson 1. From dawn to midday

6 exercises · Put what you've learned together into a single picture: how the first half of an ordinary city dweller's day went.

Lesson 2. From the baths to nightfall

8 exercises · Complete the picture of the day: the afternoon baths, the main dinner, the evening, and the city at night.