Life: A Few Details From Ancient Rome by Plutarch

Walking the streets of Roman cities it wasn’t unusual to see a man climbing the rooftop and entering the house from above...

Aldobrandini Wedding (Nozze Aldobrandini) fresco, 1st century BC

Some of the most interesting sources for Roman history belong to Plutarch (c. 46AD – c. 119AD), a Greek philosopher, historian, biographer, essayist, and priest known primarily for his Parallel Lives, a series of biographies depicting the lives of illustrious Greeks and Romans.

Plutarch (c. 46AD – c. 119AD)

But, one of his interesting works is also Moralia, a collection of essays and speeches, sometimes loosely translated as Customs and Mores. Moralia gives an incredible insight into Roman and Greek everyday life. In The Roman Questions (Quaestiones Romanae) Plutarch observes and discusses some of the intriguing details of life in Ancient Rome. Sometimes quite incredible, every question is like a scene from the life of Romans. So, here are some of them.