Favorite sources for details of provincial daily life?

[Erik Andrus]

Let's leave the Great Men of Rome to the side for the moment....

 

What is your favorite source for details of what daily life was like in the empire? Hopefully one that conveys a sense of what life was like for the rank and file, as they lived lives of growing crops, trading, performing minor civil functions, raising children, or serving in the military at a low rank?

 

I am hoping such accounts exist in the historical record at all...my chief interests are the third and fourth century and Gaul, for what it's worth. If they do exist, then this is the place to ask.

[GhostOfClayton]

It's obviously not a contemporary commentary, but you really get the 'feel' of the lives of the ordinary Romans if you read the Falco books.

Edited December 9, 2011 by GhostOfClayton

[Ludovicus]

Weren't a few provincials writing about conditions in 5th Centuary Gaul? Check to learn what sources author Ian Pears used for the Late Roman Provence scenes in his excellent novel "The Dream of Scipio."

[lothia]

Ave Civitas,

 

If you want a good over view of what life was like in the Western Empire in the last hundred years read Michael Grant's "the Fall of the Roman Empire"

His chapters, each dealing with a separate topic that led to the fall of the Western Empire, give a good accounting of why the Empire collapsed.

Reading this you can get a good idea of what life was like in the provinces.

Tom