24 Hours in Ancient Rome

A Day in the Life of the People Who Lived There

By: Philip Matyszak

Narrated by: Michael Page

Walk a day in a Roman's sandals.

What was it like to live in one of the ancient world's most powerful and bustling cities - one that was eight times more densely populated than modern day New York?

In this entertaining and enlightening guide, best-selling historian Philip Matyszak introduces us to the people who lived and worked there. In each hour of the day we meet a new character - from emperor to slave girl, gladiator to astrologer, medicine woman to water-clock maker - and discover the fascinating details of their daily lives.

©2017 Philip Matyszak (P)2020 Tantor

Wonderfully educational and dramatic

A fun dramatization of daily life in Rome. I suspect the stories are wholly fictional dramatizations inspired by real people and the very real setting of Rome and Roman culture. The focus of the drama seems to be during the reign of Hadrian, but the narrator interjects to explain the history with a scope that stretches back to the apocryphal stories of King Numa of Rome.

So overall I would say the subject breadth is quite good, the focus on everyday people refreshing, and the dramas intriguing if not moving.

Finally I would like to praise Michael Page for his wonderful reading. He nicely moves between personifying the words and thoughts of dramatized characters; and deftly interjecting with facts and other narration. Given the poor quality of readings by other authors in attempting similar tasks, I can only suspect this is challenging, and a testament to the talent of the reader for succeeding here.

I enjoyed this book

The writing and the narration was great. I feel like I got a good look into Rome

Michael Page is a great narrator

Found it really interesting and learned some new things. I like how each hour was tied to the previous hour. Enjoyed the audio so much I got the book.
Would listen to this again

Engaging look into everyday life of regular people

Looking into the mundane was so much more interesting than the historical big events that are always touted.

Time travel

Loved this book on Ancient Rome with perspectives on all walks of life. I enjoyed the snippets from the ancient writers, which the author put in context of the times in a somewhat fictional story. The details of Roman timekeeping and alarm clocks were interesting and appropriate to this book of hours. The author portrayed unique view points such as the Senator as a client and the life of an unclaimed child. Overall this book was one of the best in this 24-hours series.