On Living in the Roman Society Would you rather have lived in the Roman society you described in you last blog entry? Definitely not. The bathing culture, the corporeal and intellectual luxuriousness in the  of the Epicureans, the international and cosmopolitan global culture, the bilingualism (you had to be able to speak both Greek and Latin), even the polytheism with...

Everyday Rome In ancient Rome there were no televisions, no radio, no concerts for the masses, for the most part not even books—for the man on the street the papyrus rolls were too expensive, and he couldn’t read them anyway. The Roman “information society” transmitted its messages orally, for example at the baths. Every day after the conclusion of business...

Roman Readings I From time to time I’ll be presenting here some examples from the literature of the Classic period, so that you get acquainted with the language, style, and culture of the times, and can compare them with the present. Today: SATYRICON of Petronius Arbiter. I was asked about the details of the love of boys that I can’t...