Roman Empire

===City and country===
The city was viewed as fostering civilization by being "properly designed, ordered, and adorned".{{Sfnp|Potter|2009|p=192}} Augustus undertook a vast building programme in Rome, supported public displays of art that expressed imperial ideology, and [[14 regions of Augustan Rome|reorganized the city]] into neighbourhoods ''([[vicus|vici]])'' administered at the local level with police and firefighting services.<ref name="rehak">{{Cite book |last=Rehak |first=Paul |title=Imperium and Cosmos: Augustus and the Northern Campus Martius |date=2006 |publisher=University of Wisconsin Press |pages=4–8}}</ref> A focus of Augustan monumental architecture was the [[Campus Martius]], an open area outside the city centre: the Altar of Augustan Peace ({{Lang|la|[[Ara Pacis Augustae]]}}) was located there, as was [[Obelisk of Montecitorio|an obelisk]] imported from Egypt that formed the pointer (''[[gnomon]]'') of a [[Solarium Augusti|horologium]]. With its public gardens, the Campus was among the most attractive places in Rome to visit.<ref name=rehak/>

City planning and urban lifestyles was influenced by the Greeks early on,{{Sfnp|Stambaugh|1988|pp=23ff, 244}} and in the Eastern Empire, Roman rule shaped the development of cities that already had a strong Hellenistic character. Cities such as [[Ancient Athens|Athens]], [[Aphrodisias]], [[Ephesus]] and [[Gerasa]] tailored city planning and architecture to imperial ideals, while expressing their individual identity and regional preeminence.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Raja |first=Rubina |title=Urban Development and Regional Identity in the Eastern Roman Provinces 50 BC–AD 250 |date=2012 |publisher=Museum Tusculanum Press |pages=215–218 |author-link=Rubina Raja}}; {{Cite book |last=Sperber |first=Daniel |title=The City in Roman Palestine |date=1998 |publisher=Oxford University Press}}</ref> In areas inhabited by Celtic-speaking peoples, Rome encouraged the development of urban centres with stone temples, forums, monumental fountains, and amphitheatres, often on or near the sites of preexisting walled settlements known as ''[[oppidum|oppida]]''.{{Sfnp|Stambaugh|1988|pp=252, 253}}<ref name="brenda">{{Cite book |last=Longfellow |first=Brenda |title=Roman Imperialism and Civic Patronage: Form, Meaning and Ideology in Monumental Fountain Complexes |date=2011 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0521194938 |pages=1–2}}</ref>{{Efn|Julius Caesar first applied the Latin word ''oppidum'' to this type of settlement, and even called [[Avaricum]] ([[Bourges]], France), a center of the [[Bituriges Cubi|Bituriges]], an ''urbs'', "city". Archaeology indicates that ''oppida'' were centers of religion, trade (including import/export), and industrial production, walled for the purposes of defence, but they may not have been inhabited by concentrated populations year-round.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Harding |first=D.W. |title=The Archaeology of Celtic Art |date=2007 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1134264643 |pages=211–212}}; {{Cite book |last=Collis |first=John |chapter='Celtic' Oppida |date=2000 |title=A Comparative Study of Thirty City-state Cultures |publisher=Danske Videnskabernes Selskab |pages=229–238}}; {{Cite book |title=Celtic Chiefdom, Celtic State: The Evolution of Complex Social Systems |date=1999 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |page=61 |orig-date=1995}}</ref>}} Urbanization in Roman Africa expanded on Greek and Punic coastal cities.{{Sfnp|Stambaugh|1988|p=253}}

[[File:Baños Romanos, Bath, Inglaterra, 2014-08-12, DD 39-41 HDR.JPG|thumb|left|[[Roman Baths (Bath)|Aquae Sulis]] in [[Bath, Somerset|Bath]], England: architectural features above the level of the pillar bases are a later reconstruction.]]
The network of cities ({{lang|la|[[Colonia (Roman)|coloniae]]}}, ''[[municipium|municipia]]'', ''[[civitas|civitates]]'' or in Greek terms ''[[polis|poleis]]'') was a primary cohesive force during the Pax Romana.{{Sfnp|Millar|2012|p=76}} Romans of the 1st and 2nd centuries were encouraged to "inculcate the habits of peacetime".<ref>{{Harvp|Potter|2009|p=192}}; {{Harvp|Virgil|p=6.852}}</ref> As the classicist [[Clifford Ando]] noted:

{{Blockquote|Most of the cultural [[wikt:appurtenance|appurtenances]] popularly associated with imperial culture—[[Religion in ancient Rome|public cult]] and its [[ludi|games]] and [[epulones|civic banquets]], competitions for artists, speakers, and athletes, as well as the funding of the great majority of public buildings and public display of art—were financed by private individuals, whose expenditures in this regard helped to justify their economic power and legal and provincial privileges.{{Sfnp|Potter|2009|pp=185–186}}}}

[[File:Ostia-Toilets.JPG|thumb|Public toilets (''latrinae'') from [[Ostia Antica]]]]
In the city of Rome, most people lived in multistory apartment buildings (''[[Insula (building)|insulae]]'') that were often squalid firetraps. Public facilities—such as baths (''[[thermae]]''), toilets with running water (''latrinae''), basins or elaborate fountains (''[[nymphaeum|nymphea]]'') delivering fresh water,<ref name=brenda/> and large-scale entertainments such as [[chariot races]] and [[gladiator|gladiator combat]]—were aimed primarily at the common people.{{Sfnp|Jones|2003}} Similar facilities were constructed in cities throughout the Empire, and some of the best-preserved Roman structures are in Spain, southern France, and northern Africa.{{Citation needed|date=February 2024}}

The public baths served hygienic, social and cultural functions.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Evans |first=Harry B. |title=Water Distribution in Ancient Rome |date=1994 |publisher=University of Michigan Press |pages=9–10}}</ref> Bathing was the focus of daily socializing.{{Sfnp|Peachin|2011|p=366}} Roman baths were distinguished by a series of rooms that offered communal bathing in three temperatures, with amenities that might include an [[palaestra|exercise room]], [[sudatorium|sauna]], [[Exfoliation (cosmetology)|exfoliation]] spa, [[sphaeristerium|ball court]], or outdoor swimming pool. Baths had [[hypocaust]] heating: the floors were suspended over hot-air channels.<ref name="fagan">{{Cite journal |last=Fagan |first=Garrett G. |date=2001 |title=The Genesis of the Roman Public Bath: Recent Approaches and Future Directions |url=http://www.arch.mcgill.ca/prof/sijpkes/aaresearch-2012/in-extremis-file/Roman-Baths-origin.pdf |url-status=dead |journal=American Journal of Archaeology |volume=105 |issue=3 |doi=10.2307/507363 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210224182626/http://www.arch.mcgill.ca/prof/sijpkes/aaresearch-2012/in-extremis-file/Roman-Baths-origin.pdf |archive-date=24 February 2021 |access-date=12 January 2017 |pages=403–426 |jstor=507363|s2cid=31943417 }}</ref> Public baths were part of urban culture [[List of Roman public baths|throughout the provinces]], but in the late 4th century, individual tubs began to replace communal bathing. Christians were advised to go to the baths only for hygiene.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Ward |first=Roy Bowen |date=1992 |title=Women in Roman Baths |journal=Harvard Theological Review |volume=85 |issue=2 |doi=10.1017/S0017816000028820 |pages=125–147 |s2cid=161983440}}</ref>

[[File:Ricostruzione del giardino della casa dei vetii di pompei (mostra al giardino di boboli, 2007) 01.JPG|thumb|left|Reconstructed peristyle garden based on the [[House of the Vettii]]]]
Rich families from Rome usually had two or more houses: a townhouse (''[[domus]]'') and at least one luxury home (''[[Roman villa|villa]]'') outside the city. The ''domus'' was a privately owned single-family house, and might be furnished with a private bath (''balneum''),<ref name=fagan/> but it was not a place to retreat from public life.{{Sfnp|Clarke|1991|pp=1–2}} Although some neighbourhoods show a higher concentration of such houses, they were not segregated enclaves. The ''domus'' was meant to be visible and accessible. The atrium served as a reception hall in which the ''[[paterfamilias]]'' (head of household) met with [[Patronage in ancient Rome|clients]] every morning.<ref name=rehak/> It was a centre of family religious rites, containing a [[lararium|shrine]] and [[Roman funerals and burial#Funerary art|images of family ancestors]].{{Sfnp|Clarke|1991|pp=11–12}} The houses were located on busy public roads, and ground-level spaces were often rented out as shops (''[[taberna]]e'').{{Sfnp|Clarke|1991|p=2}} In addition to a kitchen garden—windowboxes might substitute in the ''insulae''—townhouses typically enclosed a [[peristyle]] garden.<ref>{{Harvp|Stambaugh|1988|pp=144, 147}}; {{Harvp|Clarke|1991|pp=12, 17, 22ff}}</ref>

The villa by contrast was an escape from the city, and in literature represents a lifestyle that balances intellectual and artistic interests (''[[otium]]'') with an appreciation of nature and agriculture.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Gazda |first=Elaine K. |chapter=Introduction |date=1991 |title=Roman Art in the Private Sphere: Architecture and Décor of the Domus, Villa, and Insula |publisher=University of Michigan Press |isbn=047210196X |page=9}}</ref> Ideally a villa commanded a view or vista, carefully framed by the architectural design.{{Sfnp|Clarke|1991|p=19}} It might be located on a working estate, or in a "resort town" on the seacoast.{{Citation needed|date=February 2024}}

Augustus' programme of urban renewal, and the growth of Rome's population to as many as one million, was accompanied by nostalgia for rural life. Poetry idealized the lives of farmers and shepherds. Interior decorating often featured painted gardens, fountains, landscapes, vegetative ornament,{{Sfnp|Clarke|1991|p=19}} and animals, rendered accurately enough to be identified by species.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Jashemski |first1=Wilhelmina Feemster |title=The Natural History of Pompeii |last2=Meyer |first2=Frederick G. |date=2002 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-80054-9}}</ref> On a more practical level, the central government took an active interest in supporting [[Agriculture in ancient Rome|agriculture]].{{Sfnp|Morris|Scheidel|2009|p=191}} Producing food was the priority of land use.{{Sfnp|Boardman|2000|p=679}} Larger farms (''[[latifundium|latifundia]]'') achieved an [[economy of scale]] that sustained urban life.{{Sfnp|Morris|Scheidel|2009|p=191}} Small farmers benefited from the development of local markets in towns and trade centres. Agricultural techniques such as [[crop rotation]] and [[selective breeding]] were disseminated throughout the Empire, and new crops were introduced from one province to another.{{Sfnp|Morris|Scheidel|2009|pp=195–196}}

[[File:Sale bread MAN Napoli Inv9071 n01.jpg|thumb|upright|Bread stall, from a Pompeiian wall painting]]
Maintaining an affordable food supply to the city of Rome had become a major political issue in the late Republic, when the state began to provide a grain dole ([[Cura Annonae]]) to citizens who registered for it{{Sfnp|Morris|Scheidel|2009|p=191}} (about 200,000–250,000 adult males in Rome).{{Sfnp|Morris|Scheidel|2009|p=191|loc=reckoning that the surplus of wheat from the province of Egypt alone could meet and exceed the needs of the city of Rome and the provincial armies}} The dole cost at least 15% of state revenues,{{Sfnp|Morris|Scheidel|2009|p=191}} but improved living conditions among the lower classes,<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Wiseman |first=T. P. |author-link=T. P. Wiseman |date=2012 |title=The Census in the First Century B.C |journal=Journal of Roman Studies |volume=59 |issue=1/2 |doi=10.2307/299848 |pages=59–75 |jstor=299848 |s2cid=163672978}}</ref> and subsidized the rich by allowing workers to spend more of their earnings on the wine and olive oil produced on estates.{{Sfnp|Morris|Scheidel|2009|p=191}} The grain dole also had symbolic value: it affirmed the emperor's position as universal benefactor, and the right of citizens to share in "the fruits of conquest".{{Sfnp|Morris|Scheidel|2009|p=191}} The ''annona'', public facilities, and spectacular entertainments mitigated the otherwise dreary living conditions of lower-class Romans, and kept social unrest in check. The satirist [[Juvenal]], however, saw "[[bread and circuses]]" (''panem et circenses'') as emblematic of the loss of republican political liberty:<ref>{{Cite book |last=Keane |first=Catherine |title=Figuring Genre in Roman Satire |date=2006 |publisher=Oxford University Press |page=36}}; {{Cite book |last=Köhne |first=Eckhart |chapter=Bread and Circuses: The Politics of Entertainment |date=2000 |title=Gladiators and Caesars: The Power of Spectacle in Ancient Rome |publisher=University of California Press |page=8}}</ref>

{{Blockquote|The public has long since cast off its cares: the people that once bestowed commands, consulships, legions and all else, now meddles no more and longs eagerly for just two things: bread and circuses.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Juvenal |title=Satire |pages=10.77–81}}</ref>}}