Ancient Rome on 5 Denarii a Day

Thames Hudson 5... a Day

by Philip Matyszak

"History buffs (or, indeed, anyone with a vivid imagination) will enjoy this witty and erudite―and most unusual―travel guide."― Chicago Tribune This entertaining guide provides all the information a tourist needs for a journey back in time to ancient Rome in AD 200. You just have to pack your imagination and a toothbrush! Here is advice on arranging the sea journey to Italy, how to negotiate the road to Rome, and what to see on each of the city's famous seven hills. You'll learn what to take to a fancy dinner party (dining robe, your own napkin, and indoor shoes) and where to find the best markets and public baths.

A series of walks takes in all the sights of the eternal city, from the opulence of the imperial palace on the Palatine hill through the bustle of the Forum to the grandeur of the Pantheon and the Temple of Jupiter. The largest and most populous city in the ancient world has over one hundred spectacles to offer, including chariot races and events at the Colosseum where gladiators fight to the death. Philip Matyszak's ingenious book will appeal to anyone who has ever wondered what it would have been like to visit the greatest city of ancient times. 43 illustrations, 11 in color

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Travel, Ancient History, Historical, Roman History, Roman

144 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2007

About the author

Philip Matyszak is a British nonfiction author, primarily of historical works relating to ancient Rome. Matyszak has a doctorate in Roman history from St. John's College, Oxford. In addition to being a professional author, he also teaches ancient history for Madingley Hall Institute of Continuing Education, Cambridge University.

Reviews

[Glòria Ibars · Rating 5 out of 5]

ANCIENT ROME ON 5 DENARII A DAY - PHILIP MATYSZAK

Ancient Rome on five denarii a day de l'autor Philip Matyszk és una guia de viatge, no solament en termes geogràfics, sinó també en termes temporals. El llibre està escrit seguint l'estil i el format de les guies turístiques contemporànies, no obstant això, en realitat està introduint de manera immersiva la vida de la Roma imperial de l'any 200 aproximadament.

Aborda temes històrics de manera amena i entretinguda, i l'ús d'un format divertit no exclou el llibre del contingut divulgatiu i educatiu. Si bé per a un expert en la matèria aquest llibre no li aportarà nous coneixements, es tracta d'una molt bona opció per introduir contingut educatiu d'assaig de manera diferent i atractiva, combinant informació densa amb consells, curiositats i extractes d'escrits, plaques i grafitis de l'època.

Al llarg de la guia es tracten temes diversos, començant per l'organització del viatge i com arribar a Roma, on allotjar-se, què menjar i què veure. Es descriuen els costums quotidians de la ciutat, els codis socials, els espais de socialització, les diferents tipologies d'entreteniment, la religió, les seves festivitats i els must-see sights de la ciutat.

Entre alguns dels must-see sights es troben les descripcions del fòrum romà i del fòrum imperial; de l'arc de Titus i la columna Trajana; el circ màxim i el coliseu; el camp de Mart, el complex imperial del palatinus i alguns dels banys més destacats de la ciutat. També s'explica l'estructura de la ciutat, els aqüeductes, les diferents portes i els set turons que la conformen.

I una de les millors parts del llibre és la selecció de frases útils amb expressions genèriques llatines, des de frases per ser cordial o interactuar al mercat fins a relacionades amb les cites i els bars. A més, la maquetació realitzada per l'editorial Thames & Hudson està molt ben cuidada, i si bé no totes les necessàries, inclou gran part de les il·lustracions monocromàtiques i fotografies a color per entendre allò que està explicant.

[Diana · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ancient Rome on 5 Denarii a Day [2007] – ★★★★

In this non-fiction pocket book, Philip Matyszak takes the reader on a journey to ancient Rome, starting by enumerating ways to get to Rome and finishing with banqueting with a Roman. Despite not providing a lot of information, the book is still insightful as the author talks about various elements of Roman life, from aqueducts and gladiator battles, to the state of medicine, and law and order.

[Annika Unterberger · Rating 3 out of 5]

Review to come

—> 3,5 stars

[Alisa Kester · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a fun book, but not especially informative - as a previous reviewer said, the author is attempting to cover hundreds of years of history, which doesn't allow for in-depth coverage. I do like the way it's written though, as an 'ancient roman' travel guide similar to the Fodor's or Frommer's guides today. And definitely check out the list of useful phrases in the very back of the book - it made me laugh out loud; want to learn how to say a quote from Winnie the Pooh in latin? This is your book!

[Ijorabi · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fun little book that's meant to give a small amount of insight into Roman culture. It's for the person who has very little understanding of how much the ancient world was similar to our modern world. If you want a definitive book of Roman culture, this is not your book. Treat this as a brief introduction.

[Alex · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5⭐

This was a fun book, blending history with the vibes of travelling in Ancient Rome. Definitely an adventurous and immersive guide.

😍 The good:
I liked the structure of the book, including a language guide, chapters with relevant topics, images and tips/facts. It took me a while to go through it due to the abundance of data, but it was nevertheless an interesting experience and made me curious about reading more history books written in this style. It also helped me in learning a bit more than what I already knew about the topic.

😅 The not-so-good:
Packed with a bit too many details and numbers for some topics and lacking on others. I would have also liked to see more sources/further reading clearly provided.

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a fun and easy read! Some prior knowledge of Rome might have made it more enjoyable in my case, but I do think Matyszak does a good job as usual about creating a solid picture of Roman culture. I always appreciate the little tidbits of info, and in this one it was neat little tidbits about daily life that don't always come across in heavier historical tomes.

[Wayne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Since I'm going to Rome in a few weeks it seemed only fitting to read a mock travel guide set in the time of the empire. I like that he covers a handful of major monuments that no longer exist, as I'll attempt to hunt down their location in modern day Rome.

[Hadley Priest · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really nice overview on the city. Historically accurate with humorous bits here and there. Not my favorite genre to read but was a really good quick read between books

[Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ancient Rome on Five Denarii a Day is the Rough Guide to a rough town, teeming with brigands, cutpurses, rowdies, hooligans, poop, prostitutes, and wacked out emperors. I loved every page. Matyszak is silly at times, but he’s nearly always informative, and his little book did more to bring ancient Rome to life for me than all of Livy’s decades or Cicero’s long-winded orations. What you get in this book is Rome at its greatest, and its worst: intricate aquaducts funneling water over hundreds of miles, jackbooted Praetorian guards intimidating all in their way (including the emperors), squalid slums in the very heart of the city, bloody sacrifices and bloodier games in the arenas, fantastic public baths, obscene pantomimes, feasts for all, and enough bizarre holidays to keep all lead-poisoned Rome jolly throughout the year. The book is an indispensable vademecum for anyone setting out on the study of classical antiquity.

[Pete daPixie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Think I maybe slightly over generous with four stars here, but it's Sunday and the sky is blue. However, I did really like this one, though it is only just over 130 pages. Published in 2007,
Philip Matyszak's book is a travel guide for the pilgrim of around 200ad. So this is a funny, tongue in cheek, time travellers guide to the eternal city. Replete with all the standard guide booky info and advice on safe travel, where to buy, where to eat, best places to stay, what to wear and with latin phrase book included!
Actually, I think this works for the modern day tourist too, helping with the geography of a stroll around the Forum, or a wander through the Palatine. Love the colour plate of the city in it's pomp. Original, and lots of fun.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a terrific book - equally funny and educational. Can't wait to read the Athenian version!

[briz · Rating 4 out of 5]

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

[Chejo · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Quidquid Latine dictum sit, altum videtur."
(Cualquier cosa que digas en latín, suena más profunda)

Con esta frase —que el autor utiliza al finalizar el libro en su serie de expresiones en latín— no solo se cierra la lectura, sino que de algún modo también define la esencia misma del libro. Me agrada el trabajo del autor, pero siento que en este caso la traducción no está a la altura.

Dejando de lado ese aspecto, el libro se disfruta como una pequeña guía de viaje... al pasado. ¿A cuál? Eso depende de la época y los personajes que uno desee visitar. El texto recorre distintos momentos de la historia romana, pero lo hace sin una estructura lineal, lo cual puede resultar confuso al inicio y solo se aclara hacia el final. Por eso, no lo recomendaría como una lectura introductoria para quien no esté familiarizado con la historia de la Ciudad de la Loba. Sin embargo, esto no impide disfrutarlo: sigue siendo una lectura amena, fascinante y repleta de detalles poco conocidos, centrados más en el pueblo común que en los grandes nombres, lo que le da un valor especial.

Aunque contiene imágenes y mapas, habría agradecido un mayor contenido gráfico y, sobre todo, una mejor integración de estos elementos, ya que al estar ubicados en secciones aisladas interrumpen la fluidez de la lectura.

En cuanto al formato, soy fan de los libros de tapa dura y que sea parte de una saga, aunque el ensamblaje lo vuelve algo rígido; cuesta abrirlo del todo sin arriesgarse a dañarlo levemente... a menos que eso no te preocupe.

Quizás esta reseña suene ambigua o incluso contradictoria, pero lo cierto es que sí, vale la pena sumar este libro a tu biblioteca.

[Mike DePue, OFS · Rating 5 out of 5]

Anyone with even the slightest interest in history is likely to enjoy and learn from this book. An interest in the early Christian Church was my impetus; “the setting for this guide is Rome in about AD 200, but it draws on sources ranging over 300 years.” (p. 140)

For me at least, the “You Are There” approach wore well throughout the book and my interest never flagged. The Useful Phrases, illustrations, and map greatly enhance the book. One comes to marvel at the author’s grasp of all the minutiae of his subject; a reading list of some of his trusted sources would have been an added attraction.

Possible examples of what’s in store for the reader abound, but I’ll focus on Chapter VII. (Use of Roman numerals is discreet and never goes beyond what most people these days seem to know of them.) This chapter is entitled “Entertainment” and (true to the culture) includes the gladiatorial “games,” the horrors of which were customarily presented “with a panache seldom, if ever, equalled in human history.” (p. 80) “The first event will probably be a parade of the participants. If any of these hurl missiles into the crowd, try to grab one. This is the Roman equivalent of the national lottery, with prizes ranging from a good meal to a mansion to an elephant or a broken pot.” (pp. 83-84)

[A · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hmm overall I liked this book. I enjoy the travel guide style of non-fiction history books and this was a good addition to their number. It built a living breathing world and covered many different aspects of society and life so that it felt real.

However, I had a couple of qualms with this.

1) Sources for information that is not in text citation is pretty much non-existent. Given that the author has a doctorate degree in a topic related to this, some calling on knowledge learned years ago and remembered without knowing the source is understandable. But to have a non-fiction book with no notes or sources section felt a bit strange, even for something as light-hearted as this.

2) The author obviously let his biases slip into his description. In descriptions of food there was a lot of 'woah such wacky and strange foods' instead of just descriptions of foods and allowance for readers to make their own opinions. Also, in a book that covered prostitution and sexual relationships between men and women, there was a surprising lack of mention of homosexuality which the Romans were known to engage in, which felt like an intentional exclusion.

[Will · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you don't know much about "Ancient Rome" but are considering learning more, you could do much worse than start with this book. The basic premise of being a "travel guide" is both entertaining and not really that anachronistic (looking at you, Herodotus). This isn't an exhaustive scholarly work, but then it doesn't pretend to be. What it is, is very readable and fun. There is a lot of information, sometimes given with little context, but if it sparks your curiosity and inspires you to read more, so much the better. It's also a nice "view from the street", with a pretty good picture of what day to day life for the average Roman citizen was like, rather than dwelling on the emperors, senators, generals and famous philosophers and orators. Overall a very enjoyable read.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is what it promises: a travel guide, laying out all of the things one might expect for a guide to Rome at the height of the Empire. What are travel costs? How does one travel? Where can you stay? Where's a good place to nosh? What can't you miss? It's all there, and the depth of the research and the accessible writing really give a lovely rich spin on the history of it all.

A quibble: I do wish, honestly, that it was a little physically easier to read. The print was grey, and in what must have been at best an eight point font. I know, I'm getting older, but seriously. That's a little egregious.

Three point five.

[Becca · Rating 5 out of 5]

A humorous aside to a lot of in depth research I was doing. An excellent source for anyone with a passing interest in Ancient Rome (please pay attention to the disclaimer, this is not a textbook) with information on everything from The Flavian Ampitheatre to where to find the best prostitutes and (more importantly) what you get for your money when you do find them ;) if by some magic I ended up in Ancient Rome I'd want this book with me, if only so I can adequately flirt or order a drink using the list of handy phrases in the back!

[María (NefertitiQueen) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Si tienes algo de dinero ahorrado, cinco denarios al día es lo que necesitas para descubrir la Roma del año 200 d. C. En este libro de Philip Matyszak disfrutas de la ciudad y de cómo vivían en esa época los romanos y los visitantes. Narrada de manera amena, didáctica, a veces muy divertida, con esta guía "viajas en el tiempo" al recorrer distintas zonas de la ciudad y te sientes como un turista del siglo III d. C.
Es un libro muy entretenido, de fácil lectura y como no es muy extenso, lo acabas de leer en pocas horas, lo que provoca que quieras echarle otro vistazo muy pronto. 😉

[Clara · Rating 1 out of 5]

Mira, una estrella porque este libro, como objeto, es una m***. No se puede abrir más de 45° y la traducción está hecha por alguien que no conoce los usos básicos del subjuntivo. Es un libro imposible de leer. Me da una rabia tremenda porque el concepto me encanta y he estado buscando a ver si lo encuentro en inglés para el kindle, pero sin éxito. Un saludo desde aquí al genio pensante de la editorial Akal que tuvo la idea de sacar este libro a la venta.

[Lynne · Rating 4 out of 5]

This entertaining travel guide will take you through the ancient capital of the Roman Empire, as though you were there in about 250AD, with occasional comments about the future. Like any good travel guide, you get tips about where to stay and what to do, and things & people to beware of. From the Forum Romanum to the Circus Maximus and the Flavian Amphitheater, you can see the sites and people without making errors in manners or dress, as long as you take the guide to heart. It's a fun read.

[Anson Cassel Mills · Rating 4 out of 5]

This brief tongue-in-cheek guide to ancient Rome (very roughly c. 200 AD) is witty and clever and doesn’t take the conceit of being an actual guide book so far as to not provide some interesting information that a real time traveler to Rome couldn’t know or, for that matter, wouldn’t care about. Both general readers and more sophisticated ones will discover interesting tidbits here. Just don’t take the book too seriously or expect a profusely illustrated Fodor’s guide.

[Rissie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really fun introduction to the culture and customs of Ancient Rome by presenting the information in the form of a modern travel guide. Very cleverly! ... I have seen other reviewers complain that the book didn’t have enough depth and detail, but I don’t think that’s the goal. The book is intended to be a starting place for people who know almost nothing about Ancient Rome. Good thing, because I’m one of those people.

[Lauren de Lange-van Zoonen · Rating 4 out of 5]

A time traveller’s guide to Ancient Rome! Geweldig leuk boek, dat bijzonder informatief is en elke pagina een glimlach op je gezicht tovert. 4 sterren, want de auteur presenteert soms wetenswaardigheden als waarheden (vermoedelijk om de lezer te amuseren) terwijl sommige feiten met een korreltje zout genomen moeten worden.

[Kara · Rating 5 out of 5]

A delightful history of Imperial Rome, told in the style of a tour guide, with tons of advice for a first time visitor to the city at the center of the ancient world. I loved all the primary quotes Matyzak uses throughout, showing just how many thoughts (often snarky and snide) ancient Romans had on day-to-day life.

[Luigi Kohli · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it! Easy to read and with enough details to stay interested and learn a thing or two without getting lost in what could easily have been an indulgent tome. He pitches the tone and curiosities perfectly for the novice, interjecting humour at just the right moments.

Would recommend this book to any who have ever wondered what it must have been like to visit Rome in the heyday of the empire.

[Annette · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've been fascinated with Ancient Rome for decades. I love this concept - a tour book for Rome in 200 AD! I spent so much of my time reading the book tracing these stories onto my own mental map of the Rome I love.

[Margaret Roderick · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was a delight. Highly recommend if you are interested in the topic. It was educational and entertaining.

Wish the map had been at the front of the book and not the back (its helpful to locate what the author describes, but not essential).

[Saana · Rating 3 out of 5]

Matyszak on tehnyt monta mainiota teosta antiikista. Valitettavasti tämä teos ei yllä täysin muiden tasolle. Parasta antia ovat lopun liitteen enemmän tai vähemmän hyödylliset, mutta sitäkin hauskemmat latinankieliset lauseet.