Living in ancient Rome was superbly and vividly recorded by Rome's historians, philosophers, and poets who were acutely aware of the seething and voluptuous nature of a city that ruled the known world.

Through the words of Tacitus, Seneca, Martial, and a host of others including ordinary Romans, Guy de la Bedoyere takes the reader into a world of violent politics, civil disorder, unspeakably brutal entertainments, extravagance, decadence, eroticism, exotica, and staggering inequality, participated in daily by the Roman people from the hyper-rich elite to the lowliest slaves.

Populus places those who experienced Rome in person at the forefront of their story, from the rabble-rousing senator Clodius Pulcher to Pliny the Elder and Hortensia who defended the rights of women in court to the ex-slave and celebrity baker Eurysaces.