Aldrete’s book on Roman Empire life is re-released

Just released in a new, revised paperback edition is the book Daily Life in the Roman City: Rome, Pompeii, and Ostia by Greg Aldrete, UW-Green Bay professor of history and Humanistic Studies.

The new release is by the University of Oklahoma Press. The original, hardcover edition published by Greenwood Press (2004) has become widely used as a textbook in Roman civilization courses.

Aldrete teaches courses on the social, urban and economic history of ancient Greece and Rome. He has won widespread recognition as an author, as recipient of National Endowment for the Humanities fellowships, and as a two-time recipient of UW-Green Bay Founders Association Awards for Excellence, in scholarship and teaching.

Daily Life in the Roman City peers into the inner workings of daily life in ancient Rome, the industrial port town of Ostia, and Pompeii, the doomed playground of the rich. Was the fate of Roman gladiators really determined by a thumbs down gesture? What did ordinary citizens eat? How did Romans use chickens to determine the will of the gods? The book addresses these and other questions in a style described by one reviewer as “condensing a huge amount of information into an accessible, readable form.”

Aldrete joined the UW-Green Bay faculty in 1995.