[00:01] For half a millennium, Rome was the biggest, 
richest, and most spectacular city on Earth.
[00:09] It was also the most dangerous. Every bath 
and alleyway had its thieves and thugs,
[00:15] and even after Augustus put a stop to the 
street-fighting gangs of the late Republic,
[00:21] violent crime remained a problem. Ancient 
authors mention murderers, guilds of criminals,
[00:28] and even a mysterious group of assassins who 
killed their victims with poisoned needles.
[00:35] Firemen patrolled Rome’s streets at 
night, and soldiers of the urban cohorts
[00:40] were stationed in public places during the day. 
Neither did much to suppress the crime rate.
[00:47] The urban cohorts, in fact, routinely contributed 
to the problem by extorting protection money.
[00:54] The Praetorian Guard – who were sometimes 
called in as riot police – were even worse,
[00:59] and became notorious for casually 
beating and abusing innocent citizens.
[01:05] Crime was not focused in any 
one part of ancient Rome.
[01:10] Although some neighborhoods, as we’ll see, 
were richer than others, there was nothing like
[01:14] the rigid separation of high- and low-income areas 
found in many modern cities. Throughout Rome,
[01:21] the mansions of the elite stood side-by-side with 
low-rent apartment buildings and modest shops.
[01:28] Let’s take a closer look. This is 
a map of Rome around the year 300.
[01:35] The outer dark line represents the Aurelian 
walls, which marked the edge of the imperial city.
[01:42] The inner line traces the old Republican walls, 
long disused and built over by this point.
[01:50] Much of the city center was off-limits to housing: 
the Roman Forum and imperial Fora, the Capitoline
[01:56] Hill with its temples, the Palatine Hill with 
its palaces, the Colosseum in the valley below.
[02:04] Few Romans, likewise, lived in the Campus 
Martius – the low-lying area in the bend of
[02:09] the Tiber – since this district was 
also filled with public buildings.
[02:14] The huge imperial bath complexes took 
up neighborhood-size swaths of land.
[02:21] So did the vast imperially-owned 
gardens along the edges of the city.
[02:26] In short, everyone in Rome besides the emperors 
and the wealthiest aristocrats had to live in
[02:31] the spaces between all those red circles.
The houses of the elite, as mentioned,
[02:38] were scattered throughout the city. But there were 
clusters of mansions in a few areas, usually on
[02:43] the summits of hills, which were likelier to 
catch a breeze during the sweltering summer.
[02:49] One such cluster was on the 
crest of the Quirinal Hill,
[02:52] where aristocratic residences lined an ancient 
thoroughfare called Alta Semita – high street.
[02:59] There were other groups of mansions along 
the parks of the Esquiline and Caelian
[03:04] Hills. And during the first and second centuries, 
in an early version of gentrification, elite
[03:11] houses displaced the historically working-class 
neighborhoods atop the Aventine Hill.
[03:17] So, where were the less salubrious parts of 
the city? Rome’s iconic “rough neighborhood”
[03:24] was the Suburra, in the swampy valley 
between the Esquiline and Viminal Hills.
[03:30] Roman authors dwell on the neighborhood’s filthy 
streets, cheap taverns, and cheaper brothels.
[03:37] But as in most parts of the city, 
there were pockets of affluence;
[03:41] for years, Caesar himself had a house there.
The emporium, Rome’s warehouse district,
[03:47] was another unsavory side of town, inhabited 
mostly by dock workers and itinerant merchants.
[03:55] It didn’t help that the whole neighborhood 
smelled like rancid olive oil,
[03:59] since it stood beside a gigantic 
mound of broken oil amphorae.
[04:04] Trastevere, across the river, was 
a crowded working-class district,
[04:09] home to many recent immigrants from the provinces. 
It wasn’t an especially rough neighborhood,
[04:14] but it wasn’t respectable either. Everybody who 
was anybody lived on the other side of the Tiber.
[04:22] The Vatican, outside the Aurelian 
walls, was a patchwork of clay pits,
[04:27] working-class cemeteries, and scraggly 
vineyards that made the worst wine in Rome.
[04:33] It wasn’t dangerous, but it 
wasn’t a place linger either.
[04:37] This video belongs to the “time traveler’s 
guide to ancient Rome” series, which provides
[04:43] advice to those hypothetically possessing means, 
motive, and opportunity to visit the ancient city.
[04:49] So let’s talk practicalities. If you were 
to somehow time travel to ancient Rome,
[04:55] which parts of the city would 
you be best advised to avoid?
[05:00] Obviously you’d be much more likely to be mugged 
in the Suburra than on High Street. But it’s not
[05:06] so much neighborhoods you’d have to watch out for, 
as it is trouble spots within those neighborhoods.
[05:13] Time travelers who find themselves in ancient 
Rome’s seedier areas should avoid bars, barbers,
[05:20] and brothels. Bars first. Roman bars – tabernae or 
cauponae – were places to get a quick bite or long
[05:28] drink. They served simple hot foot and cheap wine, 
and were popular neighborhood watering holes.
[05:36] They often doubled, however, as brothels, and were 
centers of illegal gambling and other chicanery.
[05:42] In a neighborhood like the Suburra, entering 
one would likely attract unwanted attention.
[05:49] Second, barbers. What, you ask, was wrong with 
barbers? Just one thing: they talked too much.
[05:59] Most Roman barbers worked outside, often 
on a street corner, where they tended to
[06:04] keep a steady stream of chatter going with 
their clients, with neighborhood idlers,
[06:09] and anybody else within earshot. Hanging out 
near a barber would thus be a surefire way
[06:15] to let every criminal in the neighborhood know 
where to find to the confused-looking foreigner.
[06:21] Finally, brothels. If you happened, purely 
by accident, to stumble into a Roman brothel,
[06:28] you would do best to stumble right back 
out. Quite aside from the other hazards
[06:34] of patronizing such places, you would 
stand an excellent chance of being robbed.
[06:40] If you planned to spend a substantial part of your 
visit in dangerous situations, you might want to
[06:46] hire a bodyguard. A good bodyguard – preferably 
a retired gladiator – would deter all but the
[06:52] most determined thieves. Unfortunately, 
some bodyguards were thieves themselves,
[06:59] so you’d have to choose your 
associate very carefully.
[07:02] Regardless of whether you decided to hire 
a bodyguard, you could avoid most problems
[07:07] simply by not drawing attention to yourself 
and – above all – not venturing out at night.
[07:15] Ancient Rome was a no-man’s land after dark.
You’ll find other useful tips about surviving a
[07:24] hypothetical trip to ancient Rome and much more in 
my forthcoming book Naked Statues, Fat Gladiators,
[07:30] and War Elephants. You’ll find time travel gear 
on the toldinstone Patreon page. Stay tuned
[07:37] for the next installment of a Time Traveler’s 
Guide to Ancient Rome, and thanks for watching.