From the historian's notes

Rome, 64

Italy · Europe · July 64 · summer

What it was high

the capital of the empire, perhaps a million people, crowded into tenement blockstraditionally in 753 BCE

That year

• The Great Fire breaks out on the night of 18–19 July in the shops along the Circus Maximus and burns for six days, then flares again; of the city's fourteen districts, three are destroyed and seven badly damaged from 18 July 64 highthe city's worst fire
• Nero is at Antium when it starts; he returns, opens the Campus Martius and his own gardens to the homeless, and brings in grain July 64 highthe emperor's response
• Afterwards he blames the Christians of the city and has many of them killed later in 64 highthe first persecution

Who held it high

the Roman empirethe emperor Nero, ten years into his reignthis year Nero reduces the weight of the gold and silver coinage

Its name high

RomaWritten in Latin

The date, there high

the 817th year from the founding of the cityyears named after the consuls; the founding of the citySundials and water clocks; the day is divided into twelve hours of light, longer in summer.

Money medium

the Roman denarius and sestertiusfour sesterces to the denarius; the as for small changea loaf of bread costs a few asses

Weather medium

July: hot and dry, around 30 °C, warm nights

Things

Objectsthe new, lighter denarius; oil lamps; wax writing tablets; amphorae of oil and wineFoodbread from the bakeries; garum fish sauce; olives and figs; street food from the popinaeClothwool tunics; the toga for formal occasions; linenGetting abouton foot: carts are banned from the streets by day; litters for the rich; boats on the TiberIn the airsmoke; bakeries; a crowded city in summer

What she'd hear

Latin, and a great deal of Greek: Rome is a bilingual city, with every language of the empire on its streets.

Where she could stand

• the Circus Maximus — the great racetrack, its outer arcades full of shops
• the Subura — a crowded quarter of tall tenement blocks and narrow streets
• the Forum — temples, law courts and the speakers' platform
• the Tiber wharves — the river port below the Aventine, grain and goods from across the empire

Researched for this card · confidence high