But these efforts fell short of alleviating the terrible conditions of life. According to the Monumentum Ancyranum, which contains Augustus’s Res Gestae, the number of the Plebeian class at Rome in the time of Augustus was 320,000, not counting women and children. When added to the senatorial and Equestrian classes, the total free population would have been nearly 700,000. In addition, the slaves of the city probably equalled the general population, bloating the tally to well over a million. And Rome was also the destination of many foreign travelers. Some estimates have placed the combined population at 1.5 million.
Little wonder that all carts and wheeled traffic was forbidden in the city during the day The only exception
Was the carpentum or small cart used by the vestal virgins or the ladies of the court. Foot traffic was more than the streets could bear, as Rome acquired a lasting reputation for dirtiness and squalor, borne out by its housing. Two kinds of structure characterized Roman living. The wealthy occupied the domus, a large suite or inner-city villa. Frequently they were found on the more fashionable parts of the Hills of Rome. In marked contrast were the insulae. These tall apartment buildings housed the middle and lower classes, packing them into dirty little rooms as unsanitary as they were susceptible to fire.
Ironically, the fire of 64 c. e., in which nearly two-thirds of the city was burned, brought some relief. To Nero’s credit, he ordered that in the future careful consideration be taken before any rebuilding could proceed. A proper code was instituted in construction: Stone was to be the preferred medium of building, with an eye toward fire resistance and a height limit. Streets were widened and the aqueducts leading into the city were refurbished and improved to provide enough water. Unfortunately, Nero’s obsession with his Domus Aurea, or Golden House, overshadowed such genuinely progressive steps.
The value of Nero’s brutally practical program was seen over the next few centuries, for there was no end to the ballooning population. If there had been over one million in the first century C. E., then the total number of inhabitants had no doubt surpassed two million by the second century. Inevitably the city grew beyond the old Servian Walls, especially into the Campus Martius, where Hadrianic apartment complexes have been excavated. In the late third century c. e. Emperor aurelian constructed a new wall, this time setting the boundaries of Rome beyond the Tiber.
World History
