Populus

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Dead bodies floating down the Tiber, frenzied crowds, talking ravens, and obscene stage shows. Rome was a dangerous and dynamic place where the air was fouled by the fumes from countless hearths and religious sacrifices, and footpads stalked the streets at night. Everyone from senators to slaves crowded into theatres and circuses to watch their favourite singers, pantomime, and comedies, and scream approval at their favourite charioteers. The Romans relaxed and gossiped in filthy baths, stole water from aqueducts, partied, dined to excess if they had the funds, and the lucky celebrated the joy of life in their tombs. Inequality and brutality were everywhere, but so also were beautiful public buildings, leisure, poetry, and art. From cookshops to quacks, public executions, murderous electoral mobs, and pedestrians being knocked aside by the rich in their litters careering through the city on the shoulders of slaves, Populus is filled with the sights and sounds of life in ancient Rome at its height. Drawing on numerous written sources, Guy de la Bédoyère lays bare everyday life in the ancient world's greatest city.