Ancient Rome did not have slums as separate neighborhoods where poor people lived. The rich and poor people lived much closer together than they do in modern cities.
A rich family typically lived in a grand building with an atrium, which was basically a garden in the center of the house. Typically, all the windows looked out on the atrium, and none onto the street. This insulated the house from the noise and less pleasant sights of the city. A single wealthy family might have occupied the entire center of the block.
Around the wealthy family’s house, attached to it and sharing a wall with it, were a variety of buildings where less wealthy people worked and lived. The wealthy family usually owned all these buildings and got income from them. They included all sorts of shops and businesses, on the ground floors, with housing for poor people above. The businesses usually included one or more fast food sellers, bakers, tailors, cobblers, and so on. It was very common for one or more of the businesses to be a brothel, where the women worked and lived – often slaves of the wealthy.
While the rich family’s home had a secure outer wall, and this wall was shared by poor people, the other walls of the outer buildings were not so carefully built. There were laws limiting how high the buildings could go, because tall buildings that were poorly built tended to collapse.
There were a lot of problems with heating and cooking because there were no chimneys (they were invented in the 12th century) and braziers where fires were built could be easily overturned, causing fires. Also, indoor fires had to be vented through window, and on cold nights people often died from carbon monoxide poisoning – they did not know what it was, just that it happened in the circumstances.
Most of the streets tended to be very narrow, though rich people liked having their main doors open onto wider and more pleasant streets. On these streets, the shops tended to carry finer merchandise.
Another thing to note is that the household servants of the rich people lived in the same building with them, but often were not given their own rooms, but were expected to find places, such as in the kitchen, if the house had one, to sleep.
A rich family typically lived in a grand building with an atrium, which was basically a garden in the center of the house. Typically, all the windows looked out on the atrium, and none onto the street. This insulated the house from the noise and less pleasant sights of the city. A single wealthy family might have occupied the entire center of the block.
Around the wealthy family’s house, attached to it and sharing a wall with it, were a variety of buildings where less wealthy people worked and lived. The wealthy family usually owned all these buildings and got income from them. They included all sorts of shops and businesses, on the ground floors, with housing for poor people above. The businesses usually included one or more fast food sellers, bakers, tailors, cobblers, and so on. It was very common for one or more of the businesses to be a brothel, where the women worked and lived – often slaves of the wealthy.
While the rich family’s home had a secure outer wall, and this wall was shared by poor people, the other walls of the outer buildings were not so carefully built. There were laws limiting how high the buildings could go, because tall buildings that were poorly built tended to collapse.
There were a lot of problems with heating and cooking because there were no chimneys (they were invented in the 12th century) and braziers where fires were built could be easily overturned, causing fires. Also, indoor fires had to be vented through window, and on cold nights people often died from carbon monoxide poisoning – they did not know what it was, just that it happened in the circumstances.
Most of the streets tended to be very narrow, though rich people liked having their main doors open onto wider and more pleasant streets. On these streets, the shops tended to carry finer merchandise.
Another thing to note is that the household servants of the rich people lived in the same building with them, but often were not given their own rooms, but were expected to find places, such as in the kitchen, if the house had one, to sleep.
