Daily Life In Sixth Century Rome Help Needed

[Gini]

Can anyone give me any ideas on what life was like in Rome at this time. Certainly Rome had been conquered many times. It had had Gothic rulers and its population was more interested in daily living than recapturing their greatess. when Belisarius defended Rome there were no gates to the city as there were no craftsmen to make them This may have been partly due to the time factor though. He defended with phalanxes The aqueducts had been destroyed in the last century by the Goths Were they ever rebuilt?Also when was the forum and the great market (Trajan) finally destroyed andwho did it?

Edited May 30, 2006 by Gini

[Neos Dionysos]

This might help you considering how daily life was, since it covers how the state of affairs developed into what they did from the glory days of Rome. Living conditions, economics and even livestock etc. Hope it helps.

[Gini]

This might help you considering how daily life was, since it covers how the state of affairs developed into what they did from the glory days of Rome. Living conditions, economics and even livestock etc. Hope it helps.

Thanks I've ordered it along with Procopius

[Ludovicus]

There is an archaeological site in Rome, Crypta Balbi, that has been occupied continuously from Republican times. You may find articles on CB that will help you with your assignment. From Wikipedia:

 

"Crypta Balbi

 

Inaugurated in the Campus Martius in 2001, it houses archaeological remains the ancient Roman quadriporticus of the Theatre of Lucius Cornelius Balbus (minor) (including an impressive reconstruction of a stucco arch) and later remains built over it. The first section (" Archeology and history of an urban landscape") presents the results of the archeological excavations conducted on the site from 1981, including the theatre and the nearby statio annonae. A second section (" Rome from antiquity to the middle ages.") is the Museum of Medieval Rome and illustrates the life and transformations of Rome as a whole between the 5th and 10th centuries AD."

[Pertinax]

I suggest any reading matter on the "Plague of Justinian" would help-this catastrophe is in many ways the onset of the Dark Ages, or perhaps more correctly the harbringer of those events..

 

http://images-eu.amazon.com/images/P/01986...02.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

 

 

possibly not a reference you might have expected but worth some library work

Edited May 31, 2006 by Pertinax

[Ludovicus]

Here are four books that you may find helpful:

 

The Transformation of the Roman World: AD 400-900, edited by Leslie Webster and Michelle Brown.

 

Rome in Late Antiquity, Bertand Lancon

 

Museo Nazionale Romano Crypta Balbi (English addition) Electa

 

The Later Roman Empire, Averil Cameron

 

Best of luck. This is a very interesting period of Roman history.

[Northern Neil]

I have just finished reading a rather old book (1973) by Peter Llewellyn, called 'Rome in the Dark Ages. He mentions one or two things I didn't know, some of these being:

 

1) Theodoric allowed more political involvement by the senate than they had enjoyed since the days of the principate.

 

2) Rome, although governed by the Ostrogoths (with much involvement from the senate) governed Italy, Pannonia, Raetia, parts of Gaul and Sicily - more territory than in the final decades of the Western Empire.

 

3) The Ostrogoths continued to maintain the City's monuments and fund the games for the mob, even though they considered the games a waste of time and money.

 

4) Everyday life and material culture in Rome was much the same as in the days of the Empire. This only ended when the Empire re-conquered and wrecked the City, ultimately letting the Lombards conquer a much weakened Italy, thus heralding the start of the middle ages (at least as far as Rome and Italy were concerned) and the rapid demise of Rome.

 

Would it not have been better if Justinian had not bothered to reconquer in the name of the Empire? It seems to me that by now the Goths were well on the way to becoming Romans themselves, and it would only have been a matter of time before the Western throne was filled again.

 

I really don't know which theory to go with. Certainly, Peter Heather in his 'The Fall of the Roman Empire' tells a tale of frightened provincials in Pannonia suddenly bereft of support from central government and fleeing to crude hilltop sites to avoid being taken as slaves, clinging onto a past only dimly perceived by themselves. A similar tale emerges in Britain, where the Romano Brits pathetically maintain their crumbling towns, turning hypocausts with mosaic floors into corn drying ovens and using unroofed forum buildings as open markets. By 600 AD, when the historical record re-opens, the Romano Brits have vanished.

 

I'm not sure it was the same in Italy though, mainly for the reasons stated above. In this period one still comes accross 'real' Romans, and visitors to Rome still describe a vibrant, populous city. Take your pick.

Edited June 2, 2006 by Northern Neil