“Well, like I said, the city looks better from a distance.Once you actually get in the city itself, as you’ll notice in a littlewhile, there are still a lot of truly beautiful buildings, especially the templesand the villas of some of the aristocrats, but the streets are choked with whatare essentially your basic slum tenements. This time of year. it’s not too bad,but in the summer, you wouldn’t believe the stink. They just throw theirgarbage out into the streets. Lot of people die from fever in the summer.
At this point, we’re actually entering the city,” hecontinued. “Passing through the gates of Rome has become sort of a misnomer.Rome has outgrown its walls and gates. The streets and houses are spread outwell beyond them
The citizens of the republic are so secure these days thatthey feel they have no need of protective walls. Except around the betterhouses in the city, to keep the riffraff out.”
“What road is this we’re on?” asked Lucas.
“The Via Flaminia,” said Andell. “You’ll notice that it’spaved, but it’s got two dirt roads running along on either side, like shoulders.The Roman method of building roads is to first excavate a ditch with slopingwalls, then fill it with layers of gravel, stone, and mortar. After the ditchis built up in this fashion, the top layer of stones is laid and the road iscrowned slightly so water runs off to the sides. The dirt roads running alongeither side are for the unimportant traffic, your farm carts, peasants, andslaves. The legions have the right of way over everybody else.
“The outlying areas of the city we just passed through areprimarily farms, olive orchards and vineyards, with several roadside inns alongthe way. Right now, we’re in the suburbs, which will get denser as we comecloser to the old city walls built in the 4th century B.C.
“Here comes your basic geography lesson. Rome itself isbuilt on seven hills: the Capitoline. the Palatine, the Caelian, the Esquiline.the Viminal, and the Quirinal. which ring a small valley that was probably oncea swamp. The seventh hill, the Aventine, is slightly to our south. The RiverTiber flows along the western borders of the city and beyond its opposite bankis a range of hills called the Janiculum.
“As for culture, the wars with Greece and the conquest ofSicily in the First Punic War brought Romans into contact with Greekarchitecture, which they’ve been copying ever since. The first statues in Romewere of Greek origin, brought to the city as spoils of war. Around the middleof the 2nd century B.C., the discovery of a new type of limestone calledtravertine allowed them to build larger and more solid buildings, as well astheir famous arches.”
He turned back toward Lucas. “You probably won’t recognizethe city from when you were here before. There’s been lots more constructionand they’re always building or repairing something. They use a type oflime-mortar that sets up so hard, it can easily be mistaken for modernconcrete. Over there is the first aqueduct to bring water to the city, theMarcian, constructed in 144 B.C’. And the first stone bridge across the Tiberwas built about two years later.”
“How do they build the arches?” Andre asked, consulting herprogrammed “submemory” and not coming up with an answer. ‘file missionprogramming was never totally complete. There were inevitable gaps.
“They’re constructed on wooden scaffolding frames that functionas forms on which the stones are laid and mortared,” Andell explained. “Thenwhen the mortar has set, the forms and scaffolding are taken down. Simple, buteffective. The roads and paths in the city itself were originally gravel, butthey’ve been relaid with stone and volcanic lava from the Alban Hills. The so-called‘Golden Age’ of Rome won’t really begin until the time of the Nerva and Trajan.around 96 A.D., when there’s going to be a tremendous boom in some reallyimpressive construction. However. Caesar’s already started a lot of new projects.some of which won’t be completed until the time of Augustus. He’s bought up allthe land on the north side of the Forum, which we’ll be passing shortly, andpulled down all the houses to start construction of a new square and market,which will be called the Forum Augusti when it’s completed. To the southwest,you’ll probably be able to smell it in a few minutes, is the forum boarium, thecattle market. Right next to it is the forum holitorium, the main market foroil, fruit, and vegetables. So you can get your produce in an atmospherescented with manure.”
“Is that the Forum?” asked Delaney, pointing.
“That’s it,” Andell said. “The Forum Romano, the most famouscity square in all of history. That black stone building over there is the tombof Romulus. And there’s the Sanctuary of Venus the Purifier. Across from theBasilica over there is the Temple of Castor and Pollux, the twin gods. And overthere, the Temple of Saturn. You can’t see it from here, but right next to itis the Golden Milestone, from which all miles on roads leading to Rome are measured.And there’s the Rostra, where they conduct trials and, on occasion, the Senatemeets there, as well, when it’s warm enough. Otherwise, until they build thepermanent Senate House, the Curia Julia, they usually meet in the Temple ofJupiter, which is just to the east of here. On a nice day. you can stand in theForum and hear someone like Cicero speak. lithe wind is right, you can alsosmell the fish market. So much for historical glamour.”
They passed the Forum and entered a residential area.
“A lot of the buildings are more run-down than I expected,”Andre said. “It’s a bit like towns and cities in medieval times.”
“Yeah. there’s a similarity.” said Andell. “Few Romansexcept wealthy aristocrats and merchants can afford to live in a townhouse or avilla. The majority of the city’s population lives in blocks of tenements likethis, no more than three or four stories high.”
“The streets are narrower than I expected, too,” said Andre.
“They won’t be widened until Nero’s time,” Andell replied. “Moststreets in the city, neighbors across the street from one another can reach outfrom their balconies and shake hands. When Augustus comes in, he’ll put aheight limit of seventy feet on houses because of the poor construction.Sometimes the tenements just collapse all of a sudden, so be careful when youwalk the streets. The average apartments are made up of small rooms overstreet-level shops, with shuttered windows looking out over the street or outinto an interior courtyard. Tenants can buy a room outright, so you’ve got youroriginal condos, but most people can’t afford it. so they rent. You can make agood income as a landlord. The rents in Rome are about four times higher thanin the country, anywhere from two thousand to thirty thousand sesterces. Forthat kind of money, you can buy a small house within sixty miles of Rome. Water’savailable from lead pipes coming from the aqueducts, but it’s a luxury only thewealthy can afford. They pay for it accor
ding to the size of their pipes. Mosttenants have no water pipes and they have to bring water from a public fountainor a bath. They also have to go to commercial bake and cook shops for theirfood, because most apartments don’t have kitchen facilities. So Romans tend toeat out a lot.”
“I don’t see many carts or wagons,” Lucas said.
“Just coaches and light carriages during the day.” Andellsaid. “That’s something new. By Caesar’s order, the heavy wheeled traffic isonly allowed in the city at night so nights in the city can get noisy, especiallyin the business districts. It’s like trying to get a good night’s sleep in NewYork, with sirens and shit going off all the time. Same thing. Carts and wagonsgoing by all night. drivers shouting, cracking whips, oxen bellowing … notthe best idea in the world. if you ask me, but it does cut down on trafficduring the day.”
The buildings look like a real fire hazard,” Andre said.
“That they are. Fires are real common, especially this timeof year. when people leave open braziers burning all night to keep warm. Theydon’t have anything like an organized fire department. at least they won’tuntil Augustus’ time, when he’ll form a sort of combination police and firebrigade called the Cohortes Vigilum. recruited from freedmen who’ll get fullcitizenship after six years’ service. But right now, a lot of people die infires. They usually just let the damn things burn, then knock down what’s leftand start all over. You get maps of the city in your programming?”
“Yes,” said Lucas.
“Good. You’ll need ’em. You’ll notice that there aren’t anystreet signs and the houses aren’t numbered. It can be hard to find your wayaround.”
They swung down another street. heading back toward the Tiber.”Travershas himself a villa by the river,” Andell said, “so you won’t be staying in oneof those rattraps. Being buddies with the imperator has its perks. It’sstill early, but in a few hours, things’ll really start picking up. They’reholding chariot races in the Circus today. Maybe some gladiator combat, too.Eventually, that’ll all move to the Colisseum, but it won’t be built for yearsyet. If you want to get a good feel for what’s going on, the place to go is thebaths. You can meet everyone from senators down to the tinker, the baker, andthe candlestick maker. One quadrans gets you in for the whole day, butdon’t look for soap. And most of the baths are for men only. I’m afraid,” hesaid, glancing at Andre.
“So I’ll stink,” she said.
“I don’t think you’ll have to do that,” Andell said with agrin. “Travers has a small bath at his villa. That’s a big-time status symbolthese days. Just make sure you don’t bathe yourself. Have the slaves do it,even if you don’t like the idea. It’s expected.”
“Male slaves or female slaves?” asked Andre.
Andell shrugged. “That’s up to you. I guess.”