Books.org participates in affiliate programs including Bookshop.org and the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program. We may earn a commission from qualifying purchases made through links on this page, at no additional cost to you.
Overview
To walk through Rome today is to find the past made present at nearly every corner. For John Stambaugh, this continuity of fabric, form, and function affords an extraordinary view of the ancient city, the experience of its inhabitants, and the Roman way of life. Exploring ancient Rome as both a physical and social environment, he has written the first extended survey of its development in English - and a vivid "guidebook into the living past of one of the most emphatically urban cities the world has ever known."The Ancient Roman City synthesizes recent work in archaeology and social history and draws on physical, literary, and documentary sources to illuminate ancient Rome as a functioning city. Stambaugh conveys a remarkable sense of the details and texture of daily existence - of apartment houses and street vendors, taverns and graffiti, water deliverymen and dry cleaners. Focusing on individuals and groups all levels of society - from senators to slaves - he also considers the ways in which the physical city reflected and influenced the needs, aspirations, and attitudes of its people.
Explores ancient Rome as both a physical and social environment, providing a guide to the living past of one of the most emphatically urban cities the world has ever known.
Synopsis
To walk through Rome today is to find the past made present at nearly every corner. For John Stambaugh, this continuity of fabric, form, and function affords an extraordinary view of the ancient city, the experience of its inhabitants, and the Roman way of life. Exploring ancient Rome as both a physical and social environment, he has written the first extended survey of its development in English - and a vivid "guidebook into the living past of one of the most emphatically urban cities the world has ever known."
The Ancient Roman City synthesizes recent work in archaeology and social history and draws on physical, literary, and documentary sources to illuminate ancient Rome as a functioning city. Stambaugh conveys a remarkable sense of the details and texture of daily existence - of apartment houses and street vendors, taverns and graffiti, water deliverymen and dry cleaners. Focusing on individuals and groups all levels of society - from senators to slaves - he also considers the ways in which the physical city reflected and influenced the needs, aspirations, and attitudes of its people.
Library Journal
Stambaugh aims at a comprehensive view of urban life in the ancient Roman world. Offering an overview of political history, liberally seasoned with a survey of the architectural development of Rome, he incorporates a catalog of the best known statesmen and authors; these figures are later invoked for the light they can shed on urban values and perspectives. The book's latter half provides a panorama of various aspects of Roman city living. The topography and the city's architecture provide a distinctive emphasis for an introductory account much like L. Richardson Jr.'s Pompeii: An Architectural History , which joins Stambaugh's in the new series ``Ancient History and Society.'' James S. Ruebel, Iowa State Univ., Ames