Everyday Life in Ancient Rome

Lionel Casson is professor emeritus of classics at New York University and has written many books about life in the ancient world, including Travel in the Ancient World,, and Ships and Seamanship in the Ancient World, both available from Johns Hopkins.

A series of concise sketches of key phases of life in the Roman world during its greatest period, the era of peace and prosperity in the first and second centuries A.D. Of Ages Past Magazine I was reading one of Casson's books [ Everyday Life in Ancient Rome] while waiting for [my daughter]... She was late, which would ordinarily have thrown me into a fever of apprehension, but on this occasion I was so wrapped up in the book, I didn't notice. In fact, when she did come back, quite late, I was annoyed because she had interrupted me before I had finished the book. I told Casson this, and he was infinitely pleased. -- Isaac Asimov I. Asimov: A Memoir

• List of IllustrationsPrefaceChapter 1. The TimesChapter 2. The Family Chapter 3. On The FarmChapter 4. In The CityChapter 5. A Roman GentlemanChapter 6. The SlaveChapter 7. Two Resurrected CitiesChapter 8. The SoldierChapter 9. Many GodsChapter 10. Fun and GamesChapter 11. On The roadChapter 12. The EngineerChapter 13. The EmperorAppendix: Table of Roman EmperorsAbbreviationsNotesIndex