need to know

This evening I've been trawling the internet for information on Ancient Rome. It occurred to me that I really don't know enough about the society, and it's the sort of information I need to ensure the experience I want when we go travelling.

I don't just want to see the Colosseum, I want to know what it was like to be in the stands at the end of the first century AD.

I want to know what it was like to live in a fine house with an atrium and peristylum and piped water, and to own a hundred slaves, but I also want to know what it was like to be poor in Rome, or a slave whose children automatically became slaves to my master - children who I might consider killing in early childhood rather than condemning them to a life without freedom.

I want to walk in the Forum, near the ruins of the House of the Vestal Virgins, and consider what it was like for a six year old girl to be handed over for the next 30 years of her life, to be trained for a decade, serve for a decade, and train others for the final decade. And what it would be like to leave the House after that time.

I want to see through modern Rome to the seven hills around the Tiber, and trace the city's establishment and expansion through the centuries, to see why it is the way it is now.

I need to know.