Sommer, Michael Dirty Rome

Die schmutzige Seite der Antike

In this book, author Michael Sommer doesn't show how Rome shone, but rather how and why it functionedand what price many paid for it. The sordid side of Rome was certainly no accident of antiquity, but the flip side of its greatness. It wasn't on the fringes, but operated deep within: in the air one breathed, in the bread one ate, in the houses one lived in, in the bodies that fell ill, and in the rumors that destroyed entire lives. This book not only sheds light on the dark side of the Roman elite, the senators and empresses, but also takes us right into the loud, dirty, and dangerous lives of ordinary people. Rome was certainly both: a magnificent metropolis, rightfully called the "head of the world," and a filthy garbage dump that reeked to high heavenand not just literally. For beyond sewers and filth-spewing monstrosities, there were other, far more unsavory things in the Roman Empire. Living conditions, medical care, and food supplies were meager by modern standards. Women, slaves, and marginalized people were treated like dirt. And those in power abused it. Corruption, nepotism, and election manipulation were rampant, while a woefully uninformed public was constantly bombarded with rumors and fake news.