A Day in the Life: Ancient Rome
Step into a world long gone and live a single day inside it. "A Day in the Life" is an immersive history series that drops you into a place and time and lets a local show you around — the sights, sounds, smells, work, and rituals of an ordinary day. In this first journey, your guide is Marcus Valerius, a citizen of Rome at the height of the Empire, who walks you from dawn to dusk through the greatest city in the ancient world: the bread and the baths, the Forum and the games, the gods, the crowds, and the everyday life of Romans both grand and humble.
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A Handshake and a Broken Jar: Seeking Law in 110 AD
A Lead Curse for a Stolen Cloak
Morning at the Forum: Reading Rome's Daily News
A Roman Wedding, from Veil to Threshold
A Pinch of Memory: Witnessing a Roman Debt
A Day at the Circus Maximus: Rome’s Races and Rivalries
A Place at the Patron’s Table
Under the Spear: An Eviction Auction in Ancient Rome
Flames in the Insula: Night with the Roman Fire Watch
Surviving the Streets of Ancient Rome
Short Measures and Broken Pots in the Roman Market
Rent Day in Trajan's Rome
How Ancient Rome Kept Time
Roman Key Rings, Locksmiths, and Burglars Through the Wall
Rome’s Booksellers Row and the Rise of the Codex
Resin, Water, and Wine in Ancient Rome
Inside a Roman Bakery: Bread, Donkeys, and Panis Quadratus
Rome’s Grain Dole: Lead Tokens, Bread, and Citizenship
Inside a Roman Latrine
Hauling Water in Trajan’s Rome
Inside Trajan’s Baths: Sweat, Steam, and Roman Crowds
Roman Barbershop Danger and Daily Gossip
Six Sesterces at Dawn: Inside Rome’s Patronage Ritual
Inside Rome’s Street Food Counters
How Romans Tested Fake Coins
Inside a Roman Fullonica: Urine, Wool, and Sulfur
Rome’s Neighborhood Bosses and the Power of the Purple Border
Roman Nights: Soot, Smoke, and Oil Lamps
Rome’s Hidden Game Boards Beneath the Basilica Julia
Rome’s Oil Mountain: The Story of Monte Testaccio
Roman Street School and the Road Out of the Subura
Roman Hobnails, Cobblers, and Footwear Rank
Pawned for Rent in Ancient Rome
Rome’s Daily News Board
Two-Copper Fortunes Beneath the Circus Maximus
Inside Rome’s Noisy Inheritance Court
Roman Street Ads, Gladiators, and the Velarium
Roman Eye Salves and the Oculist Stamp
The Shaved Pound: Roman Market Fraud
Rome’s Midnight Fire Brigade
The Tooth Worm and the Roman Smoke Cure
Roman Funerals: Mourners, Masks, and a Brutal Roast
Rome’s Traffic Law Was a Nightly Nightmare
Inside Rome’s Fermented Fish Sauce Market
Trajan’s Forum and the Treadwheel Giants
Inside Rome’s Bread Ration Line
Inside Rome’s Marble Latrine
Inside a Roman Bookshop on the Argiletum
Baths of Trajan: Sweating, Stealing, and Cursing
Roman Barbers, Razor Cuts, and Spider-Web Bandages
Roman Morning Routines: Toga, Patron, and Handful of Coppers
Rome’s Street Kitchens: Popinae, Stew, and Dice
Rome’s Water: 63 Steps Up, Slops Down