What Did The Romans Do in the Evening?

[Viggen]

Title says it all, how did the Romans usually spent their time between sunset and going to bed?

 

I assume there was a big difference between upper and lower class...

 

cheers

viggen

[phil25]

I see this question as one of the key differences between modern society (ie with electric light - even gas or effective oil - and predecessor cultures.

 

Even in the C19th the patterns of life were very much dictated by sunrise and sunset - the length of Roman hours and the split of day and night reflected this. Longer hours of daylight in summer, of darkness in winter.

 

I wonder whether there was a "twilight" period in the Roman day - the sunset is comparatively sudden in the Mediterranean compared to say the long evenings in Britain.

 

I seem to recall reading that it took hundreds of candles/oil lamps to equate to the wattage of even a small electric light bulb, and they would have given a flickering light. Not easy to sew or read by.

 

Mealtimes reflected the periods of the day too, with dinner (the evening meal) taken early so guests did not have to return home during the dangerous hours of darkness.

 

I once had an interesting conversation with a custodian of the "Cadfael Experience" in Shrewsbury - we agreed that in the UK about 1950 was the "end of a thousand years. Up until that date (roughly) the patterns and rythmns of life in the UK had changed little from (say) the Dark Ages - farming was often still seasonal and used horses or tractors that were little better than mechanical equivalents; the seasons marked the foods available and the times of getting up etc.

 

Until the need for national rail timetables in the mid C19th, different cities in the UK had their own times (rather like time-zones in the USA I suppose) - Oxford was about 15 minutes behind London.

 

Edited to add - I don't think we can now entirely capture or understand those ancient rythmns - like the silence before the industrail age, it is gone beyond recall. perhaps those who go and live with native cultures in undeveloped regions might touch it.

 

My assumption is that for the average working Roman, the end of the working day was a time to eat and sleep, with dawn the start of the next working day. So it was up betimes in darkness. The richer classes might have had more scope for amusement, but the lighting problem still had to be tackled.

 

So my answer remains, sleep!!

 

Phil

Edited October 14, 2006 by phil25

[docoflove1974]

I wonder if modern culture isn't still a (partial) reflection of that time table. For example, the typical Mediterranean 'main meal' is in the middle of the day, and there is a lighter fare at twilight. I don't think one could argue against the immeasureable influence that electric light has had on the daily routine, but I think the nutritional habits, particularly away from the huge cities, have changed less. At least, that's my guess.

[phil25]

I've just read a book about how eating habits and the times (and names) of meals changed in the UK through the Victorian period. It was affected by many things, but it seems the day began much earlier than most of us would conceive today, but finished earlier. In the mid C19th, the main meal (dinner) appears to have been at about 3.00pm.

 

Phil

[caldrail]

Title says it all, how did the Romans usually spent their time between sunset and going to bed?

 

I assume there was a big difference between upper and lower class...

 

cheers

viggen

 

A big difference indeed, and also a big difference between rural and urban communities I suspect. Well someone has to say and I guess it has to be me... We're ignoring sex. They did do it you know! Prostitution was readily available in Rome and very cheap too. Prostitutes painted their adverts on walls offering special services for a few copper coins. It wasn't unknown for men of status to have alcoves built into the wall in the alleyway behind their house which they could rent to ladies of the night, whilst the older less attractive women desperate for customers might ply their trade in the tombs out of town which was free.

 

Of course we know that deliveries in Rome were made at night after the ruling of Julius Caesar. So mule skinners and wagon drivers were winding their way through the maze of pitch black streets. They must have needed lantern bearers surely?

 

Party goers weren't likely to stay too long into the night, and if sensible a handful of slaves accompanied the tipsy gentleman to his home. If not, then possibly a mugging at knifepoint or even a murder might take place.

 

Did taverns stay open all night? I don't recall any law mentioning drinking hours. Taverns were common - a place to drink and socialise - or perhaps seal that deal behind someones back.

 

I can also imagine a poor family having a sing song in those winter evenings to entertain themselves and their livestock.