What Was Night Really Like in Ancient Rome ?

What did ancient Romans do at night? Night life in ancient Rome: Roman oil lamps, Roman taverns, crime in Rome, the vigiles, the Great Fire of Rome and Nero. An ancient Rome history documentary. Someone is screaming "Fire!" in the stairwell below you, and you're on the fifth floor. Welcome to night in ancient Rome, in a city of a million people with no streetlights, no police and no fire alarms. You'll see why Rome's carts were only allowed in at night, what Romans ate and gambled in their taverns, why nobody sensible walked home alone, the law that let you kill a thief only after dark, the emperor who went out in disguise to rob strangers, and the night watchmen who stood between Rome and fire. Timestamps 0:00 — Fire on the Fifth Floor 1:20 — One Little Clay Lamp 4:02 — The City That Never Slept 7:54 — Why Nobody Walked Home Alone 12:57 — The Men Who Watched for Fire 18:22 — Behind Closed Doors 23:12 — Why a Roman Would Fear Your City Stay to the end. There's one thing about your city at night that would terrify a Roman more than any thief. Missed the first part? Watch what a normal Roman day actually looked like, from the water line before sunrise to the laundry secret nobody tells you about. #AncientRome #RomanHistory #DailyLifeInAncientRome SOURCES Pliny the Elder working by lamplight: Pliny the Younger, Letters 3.5 The haunted house of Athens: Pliny the Younger, Letters 7.27 Daytime cart ban in Rome: Lex Julia Municipalis (Tabula Heracleensis) Night noise, street bullies, falling pots, fire in the insula: Juvenal, Satires 3 Tavern food restrictions: Suetonius, Tiberius 34 and Nero 16; Cassius Dio 60.6 Augustus at dice: Suetonius, Augustus 71 Pompeii tavern graffiti: CIL IV 3948 Street lighting in Antioch: Ammianus Marcellinus 14.1.9 Things thrown from buildings: Digest 9.3 Killing a thief at night: Twelve Tables, Table VIII Nero's night raids: Suetonius, Nero 26; Tacitus, Annals 13.25 Crassus and burning buildings: Plutarch, Crassus 2 The vigiles and the prefect of the watch: Cassius Dio 55.26; Digest 1.15 Collapsing rental property: Cicero, Letters to Atticus 14.9 The Great Fire of AD 64 and the rebuilding: Tacitus, Annals 15.38–43 "From the egg to the apples": Horace, Satires 1.3 Trimalchio's dinner: Petronius, Satyricon The Bona Dea scandal: Plutarch, Caesar 9–10 Night funerals and torches: Servius, on the Aeneid 11.143 "First sleep": A. Roger Ekirch, At Day's Close (2005) Disclaimer The content on this channel is created for educational and informational purposes. Some topics are simplified or told in a storytelling format to make them more engaging. Much of what we know about ancient Rome comes from ancient writers, inscriptions and archaeology, which can be incomplete or open to interpretation, and historians don't always agree. Viewers are encouraged to explore primary sources and academic research for deeper study.