What Did People in Ancient Rome Actually Do at Night?

It is midnight in AD 108. You are lying on a straw mattress on the third floor of a rented block in Rome, and the floor trembles every time a wheel rolls past. What did Romans do at night? If you have ever lain awake listening to a street that won't sleep, you will recognise this one. We rebuild one Roman night hour by hour, from a tenant's window to the rich man's quiet room. Along the way you find out who filled the streets after dark and who slept through it anyway. You'll hear Juvenal's Satire 3, where a character called Umbricius blames sleepless nights on “the endless traffic in narrow twisting streets.” You'll also see the bronze Tabula Heracleensis, found in the bed of the Cavone river near Heraclea in 1732. Its Rome clause bans heavy wagons, plostra, from Rome's streets “after sunrise” until the tenth hour. Scholars date the law anywhere from 89 BC to 45 BC. Linking it to Juvenal's noise is a modern reading, not a proven fact. Then comes the night itself. Dung wagons wait for sunrise, drovers swear at stranded cattle, and cracked and leaky pots come plunging out of windows. Before dawn, Martial's epigram to his friend Sparsus adds corn grinders at night and brass-workers hammering around the clock. Finally, the twist. In the same city on the same night, some Romans slept beautifully. One is carried through the crowd in a litter. Another, Pliny the Younger, sleeps in a villa room near Laurentum, sealed off by an empty passage between two walls. Chapters 0:00 Midnight on a Third Floor in AD 108 1:29 Juvenal on Noise That Kills Sleep 2:24 The Bronze Law That Moved the Wagons 4:43 Dung Wagons and Cursing Drovers 5:39 Falling Pots, Drunks and Thieves 6:42 Bakers and Hammers in Martial's Rome 7:43 How Rich Romans Slept Through It 8:50 Martial's Line and the Night's Objects 9:36 Next: A Fire at Midnight #AncientRome #RomanHistory #DailyLife Sources: Juvenal (trans. A. S. Kline), Poetry in Translation; setting: Rome, early 2nd century AD (no exact year in sources; the : https://www.poetryintranslation.com/P... Wikipedia summary of scholarship, Naples National Archaeological Museum (current home); found near Heraclea, Lucania, 17: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heracle... Tabula Heracleensis, Rome traffic clause, Rome and its built-up suburbs, c. 89-45 BC (debated): https://sehepunkte.de/2012/07/21065.html Tabula Heracleensis, Rome traffic clause, Rome and within one mile of the city, c. 89-45 BC (debated): https://e-revistas.uc3m.es/index.php/... Historia Augusta, Life of Hadrian (trans. David Magie, 1921), ToposText; Rome, 1921 (translation); Hadrian's reign, 2nd : https://topostext.org/work/232 Music (0m00s–4m45s): "Ancient Resonance Sacred Drone by Mantice" by bassimat (freesound.org, CC0) https://freesound.org/people/bassimat... Music (4m42s–9m58s): "Stellar Vowel Sacred Drone by Mantice" by bassimat (freesound.org, CC0) https://freesound.org/people/bassimat...