People In The Roman World, A Course By Nick Griffiths

When the Roman Emperor Hadrian visited Britain in AD 122, he was the ruler of an empire of perhaps 100 million people, stretching from northern Britain to the Sahara and from Spain to the Arabian desert. The Roman Empire is often portrayed as a great military machine, yet the entire military establishment represented less than ½ percent of the population - and much of their energy was spent in construction and maintaining the Roman peace, the famous Pax Romana . Discoveries such as the Vindolanda writing tablets tell us about the activities of the army - but what of the vast majority of the Empire's population, the civilians of dozens of different nationalities across forty-five provinces? Actually, large amounts of information about these people do exist, in the form of papyri and other documents. These provide glimpses of the lives of 'ordinary' people: boatmen, farmers, doctors, actors, sportsmen and builders, to mention but a few. People in the Roman World aims to use the full range of sources to build a picture of everyday life around the Roman Empire. Each session will deal with a separate topic: for example Food and Drink (Lecture 3) will cover not only what people actually ate and drank (with menus and recipes) but also the agricultural system that produced the food and the distances that foodstuffs travelled from producer to consumer. Each session will be illustrated with colour slides. No prior knowledge of the subject is needed. Weekly lectures: Lecture 1 - 1 October - Organisation & Sources Lecture 2 - 8 October - Family Life, Education & Houses Lecture 3 - 15 October - Food, Drink & Agriculture Lecture 4 - 22 October - The Army Lecture 5 - 29 October - Work, Trade & Industries Lecture 6 - 5 November - Administration, Towns & Law Lecture 7 - 12 November - Entertainment & Bathing Lecture 8 - 19 November - Religion, Health, Death & Burial