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THE LATEST PROGRAMME |
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Using contemporary accounts from all levels of society, from the chattering classes to humble foot-soldiers, from senators to slaves, The Roman Way explores different aspects of everyday life, two millennia ago.
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Filling the Mind
Education was very important to the Roman citizen: just as today, it was believed to be a ticket to a better life. What was on the curriculum and who were the pupils? One of the topics which was popular then, but which has slipped somewhat from school-lessons today, was rhetoric. Rhetoric was seen as a vital social and professional skill. How was it taught, who wanted to learn it, and why did Roman citizens place so much emphasis on it?
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Writing tablet from the entrepreneur Octavius to Candidus, Roman Britain, late 1st or early 2nd century AD
picture copyright The British Museum
We also explore the development of the novel and the passion for public readings. From romantic novels to science-fiction, what books were the Roman equivalent of best-sellers? Who attended the readings and what sort of person was considered a celebrity?
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Fragments of painted plaster, Roman Britain, 1st or 2nd century AD
picture copyright The British Museum |
The people of the Roman Empire cared deeply about posterity, and liked to think that their memory would live on after they'd died. What sort measures did rich and poor take to ensure that they wouldn't be forgotten?
Further reading
Peter Jones
An Intelligent Person's Guide to Classics
Duckworth
P Jones & K Sidwell
The World of Rome
Cambridge 1997
Jerome Carcopino
Daily Life in Ancient Rome
Penguin
Fergus Millar
The Roman Empire and Its Neighbours
Duckworth
Anthony Birley
Garrison Life at Vindolanda - A Band of Brothers
Tempus
Pliny (tr) Betty Radice
The Letters of the Younger Pliny
Penguin Classics
Marcus Aurelius (tr) Maxwell Staniforth
Meditations
Penguin Classics
Seneca (tr) Robin Campbell
Letters from a Stoic
Penguin Classics
Tim Cornell & John Matthews
Atlas of the Roman World
New York: Facts on File c1982
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