Pleasure and Entertainment in Ancient Rome

Michael Streich

The opportunities for pleasure and entertainment in Imperial Rome were varied and many. Theater, sumptuous banquets, the Circus, and the gladiatorial combats provided both wealthy Romans and the poor with diversions from everyday life. Pleasure differentiated the private from the public life, particularly for the great men and long established Patrician families of Rome. Most diversions were available to the poor, comprising nine-tenths of Roman population. This included the public baths as well as the brothels.

 

The Role of the City

 

Historian Paul Veyne writes that, “Men were fully themselves only in the city.” Rome was, of course, the prime example. The imperial capital featured the Circus Maximus, the Colosseum – perhaps the greatest ancient amphitheatre, numerous public baths constructed at public expense or given by emperors like Diocletian, religious festivals, and the ludi – official games honoring significant historical events or emperors.

 

For the wealthy and powerful, the banquet was an unending source of pleasure, featuring exotic foods made spicy with innumerable sauces as well as diluted wine flavored with spices. Professional musicians provided entertainment as guests reclined on couches, the proper mode of enjoying a Roman banquet.

 

According to Veyne, “The banquet was as important to the Romans as the Salon to the 18^th-Century French aristocracy…” Here philosophers shared their views, guests were drawn into intellectual conversation, and idle conversation was discouraged. “Friends” or “clients” that formed the intricate system of patronage paid respect to the giver of the feast.

 

Religious Festivals, Games, and Love

 

Religious festivals implied a feast. Many Roman households celebrated the first of the month with a sacrifice to the household gods. The term sacrifice implies “meal” in ancient terminology but more often than not it was the slaves and servants that benefited from the burnt offering.

 

Official “games,” much like the tradition of games in Greece, also afforded diversions from everyday life. The ludi celebrated important events as well as the lives of emperors (a festival of games honoring Augustus lasted eleven days). In terms of board games and variations of everyday games of chance, dice was preeminent. Ancient historian Lionel Casson refers to Julius Caesar’s classic statement, “the die is cast,” as an example of the proliferation of such games. Casson records that Augustus was much addicted to dice, frequently losing on purpose.

 

The pleasures of illicit love, or more precisely lust, were relegated to the many brothels in Roman cities. In Pompeii and Ephesus, directions to local brothels can still be seen, etched into the walkways.

 

The Baths and Athletic Competitions

 

Roman baths were open to all, even foreigners. Far from just offering bathing facilities, the Baths, meticulously decorated, offered many other amenities. These included a gymnasium as well as fields for athletic competitions and games. Romans came to be seen and to see. Further, the Baths were always heated, even on the coldest days.

 

Athletic competitions were influenced by the Greeks and Etruscans. The most important were the chariot races in the Circus and the gladiatorial combats in the Roman amphitheaters. Both were public spectacles with huge followings. Poor Romans, intent on securing free seats, waited on line the night before major contests.

 

Despite the common view of Roman blood-lust and sadism, spectators reveled in the “exhibition of courage,” according to Veyne. Veyne and Casson compare this to the Greeks that saw fights to the death as spectacles of great courage.

 

Pleasure and Spectacle Transcends the Ages

 

Although blood-lust is no longer a part of competition, the diversion of athletic competitions, the Olympic Games, and everything from high school to college sports still captivates and offers a diversion to rich and poor from the everyday life.

 

Similarly, festivals – national holidays, and banquets offer an escape from the norms of drudgery. Just as Romans anticipated pleasure and entertainment, so does the post-modern citizen.

 

Sources:

 

Lionel Casson, Everyday Life in Ancient Rome (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1998)

Michael Grant, A Social History of Greece and Rome (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1992)

Paul Veyne, “The Roman Empire,” A History of Private Life: I From Pagan Rome to Byzantium Paul Veyne, Editor (Cambridge: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1987)

[Copyright of this article/essay is owned by Michael Streich; any reprints in any form require written permission]