## Metadata * Author: [[Philip Matyszak]] * ASIN: B0758BFFFX * ISBN: 1782438564 * Reference: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0758BFFFX ## Highlights the short term, they see to the evacuation of nearby buildings and organize a bucket-chain from nearby residences. All households have to keep a certain amount of water on hand for just this purpose, — location: [193](kindle://book?action=open&asin=B0758BFFFX&location=193) ^ref-24629 --- Fire Sale Before the vigiles were organized by Emperor Augustus in the early first century, the only fire brigades in Rome were privately owned. One such was owned by the property magnate Licinius Crassus. In the event of a house fire, this public-spirited individual would turn up at the blazing property, firemen at the ready, and prepare to put the fire out – once the building had been sold to him. The longer the previous owner dithered or tried to bargain, the more the property burned its way to worthlessness. — location: [212](kindle://book?action=open&asin=B0758BFFFX&location=212) ^ref-63998 --- Instead, the poor take their grain to bakers like Misthrathius, who convert it into bread for a small fee. — location: [393](kindle://book?action=open&asin=B0758BFFFX&location=393) ^ref-45473 --- In Rome, a woman might expect to become pregnant over a dozen times in her life, and even that is not enough to keep the population stable. This is partly because many women – such as the only daughter of Julius Caesar – die in the course of their first childbirth. As a result, the population of Rome keeps dropping. Only immigration from outside prevents the city from eventually becoming a ghost town – with young mothers and infants making up the majority of the ghosts. — location: [659](kindle://book?action=open&asin=B0758BFFFX&location=659) ^ref-52394 --- Not for nothing do the Romans have the wry joke: ‘I hate you because you have done so much for me.’ — location: [1087](kindle://book?action=open&asin=B0758BFFFX&location=1087) ^ref-59317 --- the narrow, backless chair with its hard seat is designed to encourage the occupant to complete the state’s business as fast as possible. — location: [1280](kindle://book?action=open&asin=B0758BFFFX&location=1280) ^ref-25175 --- (The run-off from the baths flushes the latrines in a different part of the same building.) — location: [1856](kindle://book?action=open&asin=B0758BFFFX&location=1856) ^ref-26577 --- 1 The Baths of Trajan — location: [1952](kindle://book?action=open&asin=B0758BFFFX&location=1952) ^ref-20064 --- Politicians have paid particular attention to the toga candida because this is worn by anyone standing for public office (which is why those so standing are called ‘candidates’). — location: [2179](kindle://book?action=open&asin=B0758BFFFX&location=2179) ^ref-12812 --- These days, a ‘Ptolemaic Universe’ is used to describe a theory that accounts for all the known data while still being completely wrong. — location: [2800](kindle://book?action=open&asin=B0758BFFFX&location=2800) ^ref-16789 --- parasite – that is, a ‘para sitos’, which is from Greek and means ‘fellow diner’. — location: [2987](kindle://book?action=open&asin=B0758BFFFX&location=2987) ^ref-41721 --- No one invites a boring parasite to dinner; Selius has to earn his meal by being witty, delivering elegant jokes and quoting obscure poetry. He must outshine the others around the table with his style and ingenuity, and yet this must all seem uncontrived and spontaneous. — location: [2989](kindle://book?action=open&asin=B0758BFFFX&location=2989) ^ref-25982 --- A man’s only to be trusted if you have dined with him. LUCIAN Parasitos 22 — location: [3003](kindle://book?action=open&asin=B0758BFFFX&location=3003) ^ref-33296 --- a rich man, even if he has all the gold of Croesus, is still poor if he dines alone? — location: [3046](kindle://book?action=open&asin=B0758BFFFX&location=3046) ^ref-46136 ---