From Etruscans and Romans to Modern Times - The Wise World Traveler: Becoming a Part of All that You Meet - page 58

arch and vault, Roman engineers could enclose vast interior spaces. Walls could be thin,
which allowed windows to be cut, letting in sunlight.
Two of the most spectacular domed-arch buildings in Rome are the Pantheon and
the Baths of Caracalla. Arches on high pillars were the basic form of the aqueducts that
brought water to the city. When Rome achieved its greatest population late in the first and
early second centuries CE, its population stood at more than a million. Eventually, eleven
aqueducts served the city and they “carried about 200 million gallons of water daily into
Rome.” [63]
SEEING ANCIENT ROME
Moviegoers know a lot about ancient Rome. They have seen Caesar strolling and gossiping
in the Forum Romanum. They have watched gladiators and Christians die in the Colos-
seum. They have eavesdropped on Senators in the Baths of Caracalla, gossiping about the
emperor and his latest scandal. Of course, most of what appears on movie screens was
built on Hollywood sound stages and backlot locations. The real sites of ancient Rome are
mostly in ruins today. Some were razed during the invasions of the fifth century CE, while
others were “mined” to provide marble and granite for Renaissance rulers. And still others
simply collapsed from centuries of neglect. Rome's population, which stood at one million
in 30 BCE, the beginning of the Augustan Age, dwindled to less than 20,000 in the late
Middle Ages (around 1350).
Hollywood selects the style of Roman life that has box office appeal: the brutality of
gladiator combat in the Colosseum, intrigue surrounding the emperor, heroic generals, and
triumphal parades. But Hollywood and history are often far apart. The Rome of the Repub-
lic and the Caesars was, by today's standards, a cruel and unsanitary place. Streets were
twisting, narrow, and piled high with garbage. Social classes were rigid and rigidly separ-
ated. At the bottom of Roman society were slaves, who worked under brutal conditions in
mines and fields to produce the wealth that supported the city. Family life could also be
cruel. Though not often invoked, the head of the family, the pater familias , was legally em-
powered to put to death disobedient wives and children. A hereditary elite, the patricians,
dominated political and economic life. Commoners, the plebeians, lived in squalid tene-
ments and depended on their aristocratic patrons for favors and food. The wealthy lived
lives of elegance and grace. The poor merely scraped by. Unemployment was widespread.
To keep unruly mobs in check, the government offered blood-sport entertainment in the
Colosseum: fights to the death, humans eaten alive by wild animals, and free food for the
unemployed (known as the famous policy of Bread and Circuses).
Slaves were a visible presence in Rome and all through the empire. Disobedience and
mutiny were constant concerns. Death was the usual punishment for either offense….