Just Finished Reading: 24 Hours in Ancient Rome – A Day in the Life of the People Who Lived There by Philip Matyszak (FP: 2017) [253pp] 

History is written by the victors and, by and large, historical documents are written by (and about) the rich, powerful and educated. So, its unsurprising that most – but not all – historical writing centres on the rich and shameless. The fact that this book focuses on people at street level – in the main – therefore made this doubly interesting. 

Going through a typical day, hour by hour, the author takes slices of the lives of night watchmen, prostitutes, slaves on their way to market to buy food, bakers producing the daily bread for the city, farmers bringing in their crops to feed the hungry mob, gladiators ‘moonlighting’ as bodyguards and leg-breakers, Vestal virgins gathering water from a sacred well, lawyers offering advice to busy magistrates and so on... 

My favourite insight was during a dinner party given by the wife of an up-and-coming merchant. One of his guests, invited because of his entertaining story-telling ability and who is only apparently well-travelled, is roundly ridiculed by a spice trader who has indeed been all over the Mediterranean and even as far east as the west coast of India in his search for the much sort after and very profitable condiment pepper. It is all too often assumed that ancient peoples stayed close to home and inevitably knew little or nothing of the world much beyond their borders. Nothing could be further from the truth. Certainly not everyone travelled long distances, but a surprising number did so – either for conquest (I’m looking at YOU Alexander), pleasure, exploration or trade. Rome traded with half the world and a great deal of its silver ended up in India and points east in its never-ending search for spices. Romans, and indeed Greeks, travelled FAR beyond the Mediterranean basin to the far north of Europe and Britain, beyond Egypt into the Middle East and, as did the spice trader here to India. They knew about China and were certain that the world was much bigger than the Empire. European coins as well as European genes spread across the known and the ‘unknown’ world. 

This was a fast, fun and informative read. It was nice to step out of the palace and into the street (but watch where you walk and what you step in), to see the markets, schools and law courts, to hear the traders shout their wares and smell the cooking in people's houses. Recommended if you have an interest in the Ancient World or Rome in particular.