To acknowledge all the modern books upon which the writer has drawn heavily would be to present a list of almost all the important handbooks or discussions of Roman life and antiquities. It is proper to say, however, that such secondary sources have been mainly useful so far as they reënforced a fairly exhaustive study of the Latin writers themselves, especially of Horace, Seneca, Petronius, Juvenal, Martial, and, last but nowise least, of Pliny the Younger. Inevitably this volume follows the lines of its companion “A Day in Old Athens,” published several years ago, a book which has enjoyed such public favor as to prove the usefulness of this method of presentation; but life in the Roman Imperial Age has seemed so much more complex than that in the Athens of Demosthenes, and our fund of information is so much greater, that the present volume is perforce considerably longer than its companion. The “day” devoted to Rome will probably seem therefore a somewhat lengthy one. To my colleague and friend Dr. Richard C. Cram, Professor of Latin in the University of Minnesota, I am deeply grateful for a careful reading of the manuscript and for many helpful and incisive suggestions; and for a careful checking over of every feature of the work I must once again gladly acknowledge the gracious and untiring services of my wife. The illustrations, which, it is hoped, add considerably to the interest of the book, have been collected from many sources. Many of the highly informational “restorations” included are from the monumental work of Jakob von Falke, _Hellas und Rom_, the English version whereof has long ceased to be available to American readers. W. S. D. THE UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA MINNEAPOLIS CONTENTS PAGE LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS xxi Chapter I. The General Aspect of the City SECTION 1. The Prosperity of Rome in the Reign of Hadrian (A.D. 117–138) 1 2. Increasing Glory of the Imperial City 2 3. Population and Crowded Condition of Rome 3 4. The Country around Rome 5 5. The Tiber and Its Valley 6 6. A View over Rome from the Campus Martius 7 7. The Seven Hills of Rome 9 8. Building Materials Used in Rome 10 9. The Great Use of Concrete 11 10. Greek Architectural Forms Plus the Arch and Vault 12 Chapter II. Streets and Street Life 11. The Regions of Rome: Fashionable and Plebeian Quarters 15