#MOVIES LIKE ROOM IN ROME PORTABLE#
While Romans did not have ovens, they did have portable braziers with hot coals.
#MOVIES LIKE ROOM IN ROME SERIES#
in ancient Greek and Roman history and runs the YouTube series "Questions About Ancient Greece and Rome You Were Afraid to Ask in School." To make matters worse, fire-preventative building codes enacted by Nero appeared to have gone ignored, according to professor Garett Ryan, who holds a Ph.D. There was a lot of wood in these buildings, with wood floors and even a wooden roof covered in tiles. Not only the tenants, but even the mice have moved out!" "Two of my buildings have fallen down, and the rest have large cracks. Here's how Cicero described one of the buildings in "Letters to Atticus": A total collapse was possible, especially if the builder cheaped out on cost. Insulae were made of mud-brick and wood and had a reputation for being unsafe. It also was not uncommon to hear the agony of childbirth if your neighbor was a pregnant woman, as women gave birth at home in Rome.Īnd the buildings were cheap, so the insulation was terrible. Poorer folk had to rent apartments with several other roommates, who were day laborers, so the places stunk.
There was no running water or sanitation in the insulae. Richer citizens lived on the bottom floors. If the building burned, you'd need to haul it down those stairs. And unlike today, the worst apartments were on the top floor, where it was darker, more cramped, and less safe. These buildings were built so close together that one man wrote that he and the man in the apartment across from him could stretch their arms out and shake hands from their windows. Most Romans lived in tall (up to 100 feet), rectangular apartment buildings called insula, meaning "island." Rome was crammed with these buildings, which were spaced very closely together, creating a labyrinth-esque network of narrow alleys. If You Were Poor, You Lived in a High Rise A Roman insula, or apartment building. But what was it really like to live there? Where did the common Roman person live? What were the Roman games really like? And just how bad were some of those Roman emperors?įrom the streets to the senate to the games, this is what life was like in ancient Rome. On the battlefield, the Romans were a force the world had never seen before, an unparalleled war machine that could sweep through cities and absorb entire countries into its borders.Īt the heart of it all was Rome, the epicenter of the world. No other civilization in human history has fascinated the world quite like the Roman Empire. But would you want to live there? What Life in Ancient Rome Was Really Like "Pollice Verso" (Thumbs Down), an 1872 painting by French artist Jean-Leon Gerome, depicts a gladiator fight in ancient Rome. Exploding toilets, deadly gladiators, cruel punishments and psychotic rulers - ancient Rome had it all.