LIFE IN THE ROMAN WORLD OF NERO AND ST. PAUL

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LIFE IN THE ROMAN WORLD OF NERO AND ST. PAUL

PREFACE


The reception accorded to my Life in Ancient Athens has led me to write the present companion work with an eye to the same class of readers. In the preface to the former volume it was said: "I have sought to leave an impression true and sound, so far as it goes, and also vivid and distinct. The style adopted has therefore been the opposite of the pedantic, utilizing any vivacities of method which are consistent with truth of fact." The same principles have guided me in the present equally unpretentious treatise. I agree entirely with Mr. Warde Fowler when he says: "I firmly believe that the one great hope for classical learning and education lies in the interest which the unlearned public may be brought to feel in ancient life and thought."

For the general reader there is perhaps no period in the history of the ancient world which is more interesting than the one here chosen. Yet, so far as I know, there exists no sufficiently popular work dealing with this period alone and presenting in moderate compass a clear general view of the matters of most moment. My endeavour has been to represent as faithfully as possible the Age of Nero, and nowhere in the book is it implied that what is true for that age is necessarily as true for any other. The reader who is not a special student of history or antiquities is perhaps as often confused by descriptions of ancient life which cover too many generations as by those--often otherwise excellent--which include too much detail.

I have necessarily consulted not only the Latin and Greek writers who throw light upon the time, but also all the best-known Standard works of modern date. It is perhaps scarcely necessary to state that in matters of contemporary government, administration, and public life my guides have been chiefly Mommsen, Arnold, and Greenidge; for social life Marquardt, Friedländer, and Becker-Göll; for topography and buildings Jordan, Hülsen, Lanciani, and Middleton; nor that the Dictionaries of Smith and of Daremberg and Saglio have been always at hand, as well as Baumeister's Denkmäler, and Guhl and Koner's Life of the Greeks and Romans. The admirable Pompeii of Mau-Kelsey has been, of course, indispensable. I have also derived profit from the writings of Prof. Sir W. M. Ramsay in connexion with St. Paul, and from Conybeare and Howson's Life and Epistles of the Apostle. Useful hints have been found in Mr. Warde Fowler's Social Life in Rome in the Age of Cicero, and in Prof. Dill's Roman_ Society from Nero to Marcus Aurelius_. A personal study of ancient sites, monuments, and objects of antiquity at Rome, Pompeii, and elsewhere has naturally been of prime value. Those intimately acquainted with the immense amount of the available material will best realize the difficulty there has been in deciding how much to say and how much to "leave in the inkstand."

For the drawings other than those of which another source is specified I have to thank Miss M. O'Shea, on whom has occasionally fallen the difficult task of giving ocular form to the mental visions of one who happens to be no draughtsman. For the rest I make acknowledgment to those books from which the illustrations have been directly derived for my own purposes, without reference to more original sources.

I am especially grateful for the permission to use so considerable a number of illustrations from the Pompeii of Mau-Kelsey, from Professor Waldstein's Herculaneum, and from Lanciani's New Tales of Old Rome.



Table of Contents

LIFE IN THE ROMAN WORLD OF NERO AND ST. PAUL
PREFACE
  INTRODUCTION
  CHAPTER I
  EXTENT AND SECURITY OF THE EMPIRE
  CHAPTER II
  TRAVEL WITHIN THE EMPIRE
  CHAPTER III
  A BRIEF SURVEY OF THE PROVINCES
  CHAPTER IV
  THE IMPERIAL SYSTEM: EMPEROR, SENATE, KNIGHTS, AND PEOPLE
  CHAPTER V
  NERO THE EMPEROR
  CHAPTER VI
  ADMINISTRATION AND TAXATION OF THE EMPIRE
  CHAPTER VII
  ROME: THE IMPERIAL CITY
  CHAPTER VIII
  STREETS, WATER-SUPPLY, AND BUILDING MATERIAL
  CHAPTER IX
  THE ROMAN TOWN HOUSE
  DINING-TABLE
  CHAPTER X
  THE COUNTRY HOMESTEAD AND COUNTRY SEAT
  CHAPTER XI
  ROMAN FURNITURE
  CHAPTER XII
  SOCIAL DAY OF A ROMAN ARISTOCRAT--MORNING
  CHAPTER XIII
  SOCIAL DAY OF A ROMAN ARISTOCRAT
  CHAPTER XIV
  LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AND LOWER CLASSES
  CHAPTER XV
  HOLIDAYS AND AMUSEMENTS: THEATRE, CIRCUS, AMPHITHEATRE
  CHAPTER XVI
  THE WOMEN: MARRIAGE, THE ROMAN MATRON, AND HER DRESS
  CHAPTER XVII
  CHILDREN AND EDUCATION
  CHAPTER XVIII
  THE ARMY: MILITARY SERVICE: PUBLIC CAREER
  CHAPTER XIX
  ROMAN RELIGION--STATE AND INDIVIDUAL
  CHAPTER XX
  STUDY AND SCIENTIFIC KNOWLEDGE AMONG THE ROMANS
  CHAPTER XXI
  PHILOSOPHY--STOICS AND EPICUREANS
  CHAPTER XXII
  THE ROMAN PROFUSION OP ART
  BASILICA AEMILIA
  CHAPTER XXIII
  THE LAST SCENE OF ALL--BURIAL AND TOMBS


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