Customer Reviews

Life in Ancient Rome (Perigee)

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If you are already familiar with Rome, with her institutions, with her laws, with her senate and emperors, and you're looking for more, or if you're just interested in how ordinary, everyday Romans lived, this book is for you.

With superb organization and enjoyable, erudite illustrations throughout, F.R. Cowell introduces the reader to what it was like to grow up in ancient Rome, what education was like, what religion was like, what people ate, how people dressed, how people earned a living, and what they did in their free time. In doing so, he also addresses darker issues like slavery, the Colosseum's blood baths, and mob rule. The reader comes away from this book with a better sense of what it was like to be Roman, but the book is not perfect either.

Sometimes F.R. Cowell's writing style is a bit dry (except when he discusses the legal and medical professions in Rome, and the opening days of the Colosseum, which are superb!), his use of quotes from Roman writers is decent but could have been more plentiful, as could have been his discussion of archaeology.

Overall, however, this is a worthwhile, enjoyable book that will certainly fill in gaps in one's knowledge of the Romans.

I first discovered this book at a library the same summer I first took an interest in the Roman Empire, and am still reading and using it today. This is the single best book I have discovered that looks at life in the Roman Empire, particularly in the Eternal City herself, from the perspective of the middle and lower class inhabitants.

The author doesn't make all sorts of claims of questionable accuracy throughout the book, but instead lets the people and contemporaries of the Empire do the talking for him; virtually every page has one or more quotes by a Classical writer or politician. He examines every facet of life, from family life to entertainment to food to clothing in a manner that is clear, if somewhat dry, and every several pages there is a black and white illustration for the current topic.

Overall, a highly recommendable book for those with an interest in the daily life and experiences of SPQR, and is equally useful to the beginner and those more seasoned in Roman studies.

"Life in Ancient Rome" is a book aimed at a young-adult readership, yet older adults and high-school students alike will also enjoy it as an introductory reference. F. R. Cowell succeeds in colorfully portraying the basic aspects of ancient Roman life from clothesmaking to religious observances. Complemented with photographs and illustrations, the text is clear yet rich in detail, and a chronological summary provides a good outline of the principal events of Roman history from 753 B.C. to A.D. 476. Mr. Cowell also includes excellent references in the book's bibliography (which he simply titles "A Note About Books"). For those interested in studying Roman social history, "Life in Ancient Rome" is a recommended starting point

Life in Ancient Rome was a fascinating book not only for its account of the past, but also its glimpse at the origin of many things in the present. The reader is easily able to link matters of law, culture and language from the distant past to present times. As a reader, one really gets the sense of daily life as well as the Roman value system. The author's style is very readable and enjoyable for young and old readers alike. This book is an excellent read!

The book could almost be titled: "A Comparison of Lives in Ancient Rome and Medieval Europe". Cowell draws many parallels between the two, especially England, a motif I appreciated. The illustrations, mostly drawings, are simple but provide visual information about a variety of everyday objects not usually found even in books on this subject. For the first five and a half of the seven chapters, Cowell provides fascinating information some of which I had not come across before.

Unfortunately, the author's interest seems to lag (not just a matter of reaching a word limit) about half way through chapter 6: Leisure Hours. The book comes to a desultory ending in Chapter 7: Religion. While providing much information on more private entertainment, he greatly shortchanges spectacle, especially the circus and ampitheatres events. This is a pity as both of these not only were outgrowths of the society, but shaped that society as well.

At one point, Cowell relies on an unnamed French writer for a description of a day at the gladiatorial games that owes far more to lurid imagination than historic and archeological resources. He also claims gladiatorial games were held in the Circus Maximus for which there is, to my knowledge, no historical or archeological proof (though wild beast hunts may have been held there).

(Prior to the building of the Flavian Ampitheatre, i.e. the Colosseum, these shows were held at tombs--as they were originally religious observations--in the Forum and temporary theatres as well as, possibly, in the small scale ampitheaters found in some of the ludi.)

Cowell likewise falls into the trap of trying to impose moral judgments on Roman society based, as I find in all too many books on life in historic Rome. This horrified outrage that at once seems hypocritical-- considering popular entertainment all through history even to our present time--and even artificial as if the author is afriad if he or she does not shake the moralizing finger they will be thought to be in agreement with the Romans.

GENERAL SOAPBOX TIME: I am an avid student of Roman history and have read a number of books on various aspects of Roman culture and society. This moralizing tendancy, as I have mentioned, seems to be a widespread problem, not just with Cowell. Often, when authors give such vent, they tend to shortchange details about, especially, the gladiatorial games and/or rely on popularized fantasies that seldom reflect what primary source histories and archeology have uncovered. These authors usually ignore what primary sources have to say about reasons for the games popularity and support by authority.

I wrote the previous in order to state that Cowell's book, despite its flaws, is an easy read and well worth adding to any reference library on Roman history and, especially, Imperial Roman society, at all levels. Its flaws are those of many books on the same subject for which I would suggest finding books specifically about Roman mass entertainment and religion for better treatment of both those subjects. And Cowell's book Life In Ancient Rome for a good overview of much of the rest.

This is a pretty good read, but it is much more a book to be dipped into than to be read straight through. While I learned many interesting tidbits that are of value to supplement my fascination with Rome, as will every reader, long sections of it are dry and rambling. It is a text that would fit into an introductory history of Rome at the undergraduate level or perhaps for an advanced high school student.

The book is supposed to tell us what every day life was like, from religion and slaves to the economics of getting through the day. For example, the author goes on about how slaves - cheap labor - inhibited the development of more sophisticated energy-saving technologies as well as denigrated the craft professions that were regarded as "slave's work". He also goes into the crudity of Roman culture, which produced far fewer literary, intellectual, or artistic masterpieces when compared to the innovations of the Greeks. These kinds of facts are covered cogently and well, but they are not exactly news to Rome history enthusiasts.

I particularly enjoyed the sections on the development of culinary preferences, from gruels to more refined dishes brought in from conquests abroad, or the necessity of bakers to have heir own mills to grind the wheat grains they got from the dole. It enabled me to picture how many practical issues of everyday life were solved. The chapters on religion and festivals were also enlightening for me, filling gaps in my understanding, in particular explaining how with so little there to do for the average Roman in their massive city, leaders stepped in to provide entertainment as a political necessity.

This is fun stuff, but the method of the book - using literary sources almost exclusively - dates it. Sure, you can get a lot out of close readings of Ovid or Martial, but its utility is rather limited without knowledge of the archaeological discoveries from the early 1960s. Instead, what I found was the pedantic product of a desk-bound scholar who knows all the literary sources backwards and forwards but only rarely visited excavation sites and has little feel for the physical texture of what artifacts can tell us about life. It doesn't help that there are many banal illustrations of men wrestling in baths, slaves carrying the litters of rich women, or men talking in taverns - only if you have never seen or imagined such things would such scenes be useful.

REcommended with these limitations in mind. This is a valuable book, but only to supplement a freshman survey course. The memories of what I learned from it are already receding into vague generalities that I will not savor.

I received the product in record time and it was in great condition.

I am a World History teacher and this book has so much more information than the textbook. My students really enjoyed it. If it the book had been delayed we would not have been able to enjoy it. Thanks for the great service.