Critical Analysis of Daily Life in Ancient Rome by Jerome Carcopino - Book Report/Review Example

Daily life in ancient Rome A brief summary of the books content. In the ic book “Daily Life in Ancient Rome” published in 1939, Jerome Carcopino depicts the Roman culture and daily life routines during the reigns of Trajan (98-117), Hadrian (117-138), Marcus Aurelius, and Commodus.  The Roman social life and culture were at the apex in power and prosperity in this period. Jerome Carcopino has smoothly organized 1st and 2nd Century Rome back into picture in his book. Carcopino recreated the magnificence and immorality of the city; it’s dark, narrow crowded streets and daily routines from the vast collection of archaeological evidence and from vivid descriptions by ancient poets, satirists, letter-writers, and novelists like Petronius, Juvenal, Martial, Statius, and Pliny the Younger. While portraying the physical and moral background of Roman life he mentions the contradictions in the mundane characteristics of Imperial Rome. The book endows with the highly sophisticated features of the Roman society, epitomised by the modern aspects of the Roman house, public baths, the public parks, the theatre, and the dinners hosted by the wealthy for their friends. With the same intensity he also describes the hauntingly dark side of Roman society, in particular, slavery, cruel games with man and animals. The book is divided into two parts, "The Physical and Moral Background of Roman Life," and "The Days Routine." Part I is a narration of physical and moral life of Roman society which deals with the characteristic of the population of the city, the architectural aspects of Roman houses, the lay-out and traffic of its streets. The nature and divisions of populations, Romans and foreigners, are also dealt with. He portrays the slavery and manumission cases prevailing at that time, confusion in the social values and also living standards of a plutocratic society. There is a vivid description of life both in family and society existing at that time. It goes on describing, status of women, weakening of paternal authority, betrothal and marriage, role of a Roman matron, feminism and demoralisation, divorce and instability of the family. There is also depiction of the system of education and theological factors. In the second half of the book it covers the ordinary daily routine life of an average Roman. While exposing the morning life of Romans he states that they were early risers and they never wasted their time in washing in the morning and were going to bath at the end of the afternoon either in their private bathroom, if they were rich enough to have had one installed in their own house, or else in one of the public bathing places. Though it may seems to be queer to the present day world certain social customs and ceremonies observed by ancient Romans are noteworthy. For instance shaving was for the Romans a sort of religious right. The occasion in which a young man goes to the barber for the first removal of his beard the Romans observed it as a religious ceremony. 2. The author was trying to accomplish. This book provides the reader a clear depiction of the life of Roman people at the time giving details about their city layouts, streets, houses, their way of life, how they earned money, what were their social customs, amusements, their educational system, their religion and gods they worshipped, etc. Over and above the basic facts and figures from history, the author delivers heartrending observations on the people and their time. The author never hesitates to thrust his opinion on ancient subjects throughout this book. To substantiate his opinion on these subjects he often quotes the observations of contemporary scholars as well as ancient sources. 3. The authors writing style. It is also interesting to note that Carcopino’s usage on certain things do not hold good in the contemporary world. In the book he refers to a play using a ball filled with air like a basketball, which the Romans played elegantly. In that comparison his view on basket ball play stood as one of comparatively substandard status. But in the contemporary world basket ball play is considered as an elegant play. On the contrary, his comparison of a water-clock as a status-co possession of high class Romans of the time of Trajan, with maintaining a piano by high class family during his time is an acceptable theme. Interestingly, we may also come across occasions in which Carcopino’s coloring modern ideas with that of ancient Romans. For example he compared Roman habits to those of Europeans, Americans and even Arabs. Deviating from the classical way of describing history, the author Jerome Carcopino opens his own style in narrating historical factors giving importance to human lives- its nature and sophistication. The book disappoints an average reader who anticipates the history of politics and rivalry of emperors of ancient Rome. It is the main aspect which differentiates the book from other historical books. It is the depiction of the life sketch of ancient Romans, other than narrating historical events, which has been the lively interest towards this book for the last seven decades. His unaffected style with attractive and exciting dramatic French oratory makes the book worth reading. Even while depicting the sophisticated and subtle aspects of social lives, which clearly impress upon us all the sordid and deprived style of Roman life, the author so much imbued with Christian values, highlights the necessity to maintain a high level of morality to his readers. 4. Author’s success in getting his points across Originally the book was published in French, and subsequently translated and republished several times. The sonorous and decorous rendition in the English version might be indigestible to a contemporary young reader. But this feeling would be vanishing as more vivid and human based social pictures are depicted while progressing the reading. But it seems to be a real portrait of ancient social life during the reign of “The Five Good Emperors”. In the book he elaborates too much on certain aspects against the taste of general reader, which may be considered as a drawback of the book. But we cannot underestimate his commendable effort to bring to surface some traces of valuable social life of ancient Rome. But for those who are interested in acquiring knowledge about the life in ancient Rome, this book stands as a beckon light. 5. What we learn from the book. Usually what we get from the historical records are most often superficial matters, describing merely about rule of kings or emperor, merits and demerits of the emperors, about wars fought by them, countries attached to their empire etc. But these historical records fail to provide us vital aspects of social life of respective periods, their culture and religion, their entertainments, their routine life from dawn to dusk and even during night. The author had been a faculty member in many institutions and also member of many archaeological and historical institutes in Europe. This experience has helped him to provide a life touch to whatever things he has explained in the book. 6. Most important facts about the book content. The merits that can be highlighted about this book is that it is devoid of imaginary elements, on the other hand it is a living record of the social life of the Romans pertaining to the period of history mentioned in the book. In the introduction of a new edition of this book, the eminent writer Mary Beard, appraises the book‘s everlasting and even surprising influence and its value for general readers and students. It is worth mentioning the acclamation that has given by the eminent writer Mary Beard to this book for its everlasting and surprising influence and its value for the general readers and for the students, while giving an introduction to a new edition of the book. Reference: Carcopino, Jerome. Daily Life in Ancient Rome. NY: Carcopino Press, 1940. pRINT Read More