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brizreading's review against another edition
4.0
Delightful! It's like I was there.
Written as a semi-ironic "Lonely Planet"-esque travel guide for Rome circa 200 AD, this was a hoot. Such fun! This scratched the itch that, for example, The other side of history: Daily life in the ancient world failed to. But this! This was what I was after. You feel like you're THERE. It's hilarious. You remember that phrase, "the past is a foreign country". Also, people are just people, everywhere and for all time. Romans are so funny and lovable - always have been*.
Some highlights:
- You can bring traveler's checks.
- Try to stay in an AirBnb-equivalent: i.e. a room in someone's house. Ideally, they'll have visited YOUR town earlier, you'll have succeeded in inviting them into your house, and so they'll owe you one. (Romans are big on face-saving HONOR like hospitality, etc.)
- You'll probably get a dinner invite early in your trip. Make sure to check whether it's a "happy hour" or "full dinner", and whether the drinking will be "Greek style" (i.e. very heavy) - in which case, you need to organize a litter home!
- Men's formal wear = togas that have NO CLASPS, and so they have to keep their arm up ALWAYS or else it unravels, hahaha. Women wear tube dresses.
- At dinner, you might have such delights as gerbil roasted in fermented fish sauce. And asparagus, boy do they like asparagus. Also honey wine!
- Most people think the Colosseum spectacles are gruesome and low-class.
- But eeeerrrrone loves the chariot races at the Circus Maximus. They have four teams - Red, Green, White, Blue - and people get REALLY INTENSE about their team; there are hooligans!
- Avoid the Praetorian Guard at all costs; everybody hates them, they're seen almost as a dangerous gang.
- Rome is WAAAY patriarchal - in a literal sense: fathers have all legal rights over everyone in the house. Men have three names (first name last name nickname), women have one name (their father's name - i.e. Claudius's daughter is Claudia). When a baby is born, it's placed at the feet of the father: if he picks it up, it is ACCEPTED. If he doesn't, it's left to die of exposure (!!!).
- Rome had a magical mystical religious-legal perimeter that defined "The City" in a cosmic sense. On this perimeter, you'd find (a) all the babies that had been abandoned to die of exposure (!!!!!) and (b) all the generals that weren't allowed to enter (no general was allowed to enter the city without abandoning their rank - I guess this was coup fears?), and (c) miles and miles of graves, since only very special people (e.g. the emperor) were allowed to be buried within the City. Everyone else had to go be dead outside.
And so much more!! I LOVED IT. Enjoy your roast fish sauce gerbil!
* A scene from C'eravamo tanto amati, one of my all-time favorite Italian films, wherein the very Roman Antonio (the wonderful Nino Manfredi) exclaims a very Roman exclamation, very adorably. NINOOOOO MANFREDIIIIIIIIIII
Written as a semi-ironic "Lonely Planet"-esque travel guide for Rome circa 200 AD, this was a hoot. Such fun! This scratched the itch that, for example, The other side of history: Daily life in the ancient world failed to. But this! This was what I was after. You feel like you're THERE. It's hilarious. You remember that phrase, "the past is a foreign country". Also, people are just people, everywhere and for all time. Romans are so funny and lovable - always have been*.
Some highlights:
- You can bring traveler's checks.
- Try to stay in an AirBnb-equivalent: i.e. a room in someone's house. Ideally, they'll have visited YOUR town earlier, you'll have succeeded in inviting them into your house, and so they'll owe you one. (Romans are big on face-saving HONOR like hospitality, etc.)
- You'll probably get a dinner invite early in your trip. Make sure to check whether it's a "happy hour" or "full dinner", and whether the drinking will be "Greek style" (i.e. very heavy) - in which case, you need to organize a litter home!
- Men's formal wear = togas that have NO CLASPS, and so they have to keep their arm up ALWAYS or else it unravels, hahaha. Women wear tube dresses.
- At dinner, you might have such delights as gerbil roasted in fermented fish sauce. And asparagus, boy do they like asparagus. Also honey wine!
- Most people think the Colosseum spectacles are gruesome and low-class.
- But eeeerrrrone loves the chariot races at the Circus Maximus. They have four teams - Red, Green, White, Blue - and people get REALLY INTENSE about their team; there are hooligans!
- Avoid the Praetorian Guard at all costs; everybody hates them, they're seen almost as a dangerous gang.
- Rome is WAAAY patriarchal - in a literal sense: fathers have all legal rights over everyone in the house. Men have three names (first name last name nickname), women have one name (their father's name - i.e. Claudius's daughter is Claudia). When a baby is born, it's placed at the feet of the father: if he picks it up, it is ACCEPTED. If he doesn't, it's left to die of exposure (!!!).
- Rome had a magical mystical religious-legal perimeter that defined "The City" in a cosmic sense. On this perimeter, you'd find (a) all the babies that had been abandoned to die of exposure (!!!!!) and (b) all the generals that weren't allowed to enter (no general was allowed to enter the city without abandoning their rank - I guess this was coup fears?), and (c) miles and miles of graves, since only very special people (e.g. the emperor) were allowed to be buried within the City. Everyone else had to go be dead outside.
And so much more!! I LOVED IT. Enjoy your roast fish sauce gerbil!
* A scene from C'eravamo tanto amati, one of my all-time favorite Italian films, wherein the very Roman Antonio (the wonderful Nino Manfredi) exclaims a very Roman exclamation, very adorably. NINOOOOO MANFREDIIIIIIIIIII
louiseisabed's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
informative
lighthearted
fast-paced
4.5
soavezefiretto's review against another edition
3.0
Very fun. Even for people like me who really couldn't care less about life in ancient Rome.