Page 168 - Western Civilization A Brief History, Volume I To 1715 9th - Jackson J. Spielvogel

The Daily Life of an Upper-Class Roman
There was an enormous gulf between rich and poor in Roman society. The upper classes lived lives of great leisure and luxury in their villas and on their vast estates. Pliny the Younger (ca. 62–ca. 113) was an upper-class Roman who rose to the position of governor of Bithynia in Asia Minor. In this excerpt from one of his letters, Pliny describes a typical day vacationing at one of his Italian villas. Although Pliny owned four villas in Italy, he did not belong to the ranks of the really rich in Roman society.
Pliny, Letter to Fuscus Salinator
You want to know how I plan the summer days I spend in Tuscany. I wake when I like, usually about sunrise, often earlier but rarely later. My shutters stay closed, for in the stillness and darkness I feel myself surprisingly detached from any distractions and left to myself in freedom. . . . If I have anything on hand I work it out in my head, choosing and correcting the wording, and the amount I achieve depends on the ease or difficulty with which my thoughts can be marshaled and kept in my head. Then I call my secretary, the shutters are opened, and I dictate what I have put into shape; he goes out, is recalled, and again dismissed. Three or four hours after I first wake (but I don’t keep to fixed times) I betake myself according to the weather either to the terrace or the covered arcade, work out the rest of my subject, and dictate it. I go for a drive, and spend the time in the same way as when walking or lying down; my powers of concentration do
not flag and are in fact refreshed by the change. After a short sleep and another walk I read a Greek or Latin speech aloud and with emphasis, not so much for the sake of my voice as my digestion, though of course both are strengthened by this. Then I have another walk, am oiled, take exercise, and have a bath. If I am dining alone with my wife or with a few friends, a book is read aloud during the meal and afterward we listen to a comedy or some music; then I walk again with the members of my household, some of whom are educated. Thus, the evening is prolonged with varied conversations, and even when the days are at their longest, comes to a satisfying end.
Part of the day is given up to friends who visit me from neighboring towns and sometimes come to my aid with a welcome interruption when I am tired. Occasionally I go hunting, but not without my notebooks so that I shall have something to bring home even if I catch nothing. I also give some time to my tenants (they think it should be more) and the boorishness of their complaints gives fresh zest to our literary interests and the more civilized pursuits of town.
Q What does Pliny’s letter tell you about the lifestyle of upper-class Romans? Could this lifestyle be related to the decline of the Roman Empire? Why or why not?
Source: From The Letters of the Younger Pliny, translated with an introduction by Betty Radice (Penguin Classics 1963, Reprinted 1969). Copyright a Betty Radice, 1963, 1969. Reproduced by permission of Penguin Books Ltd.
Another prominent Augustan poet was Horace (HOR-uss) (65–8 B.C.E.), a friend of Virgil’s. Horace was a sophisticated writer whose overriding concern was to point out to his contemporaries the “follies and vices of his age.” In the Satires, a medley of poems on a vari- ety of subjects, Horace is revealed as a detached ob- server of human weaknesses. He directed his attacks against movements, not living people, and took on such subjects as sexual immorality, greed, and job dis- satisfaction (“How does it happen, Maecenas, that no man alone is content with his lot?”). Horace mostly laughs at the weaknesses of humankind and calls for
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forbearance: “Supposing my friend has got liquored and wetted my couch, ... is he for such a lapse to be deemed less dear as a friend, or because when hungry he snatched up before me a chicken from my side of the dish?”7
Ovid (OH-vid) (43 B.C.E.–18 C.E.) was the last of the great poets of the golden age. He belonged to a youth- ful, privileged social group in Rome that liked to ridi- cule old Roman values. In keeping with the spirit of this group, Ovid wrote a frivolous series of love poems known as the Amores. Intended to entertain and shock, they achieved their goal. Another of Ovid’s works was
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