In ancient Rome it is easy to see how high child mortality and a low life expectancy is related to that of their living conditions. The city people, usually poor, lived in conditions that would aid the spread of diseases among the community. The variety of diseases was also great, with no real detection, prevention or cure, as well as overcrowded living areas in which disease likes to roam.

The first issue to look into is the type of housing the Roman people had to live in. The rural areas of Rome were very different to that of the city. The poorer class of people who lived in the rural districts of Rome would have lived a healthier life compared to city folk. Hygiene in rural areas was much better than that of the city, mainly because of fewer people. There is little evidence of poorer rural dwellings mainly because the building materials used were

Floods were also a hazard in ancient Rome because many of the poorer people lived in the lower parts of the city and along the Tiber River , which regularly flooded. The poorer peoples buildings in Rome were often built of poor materials, meaning at times of flood and fire they were a high risk of being either burnt down or as Juvenal states in Satire 3, a landlord may tell you to “sleep well, even though a total cave-in is imminent” , meaning that building collapses were frequent. Augustus was also the first to introduce law and order to the building field . Nero afterwards issued the lex neronis de modo aedificiorum, which was further enlarged by Vespasian, Trajan and Hadrian . Juvernal concludes on the state of the buildings when he says that

In the case of insulae, where many owners rented out these premises, it is unlikely that there was any connection from the dwelling to the street sewer. In Pompeii, almost every house had a latrine situated either in or near the kitchen, usually in a darkroom with no air vents and no door . This meant that food preparation in the kitchen was in direct contact with human waste, which would have not helped in the prevention of disease. The reason for this location is thought to be so that it would be easier to dispose of food scraps if the latrine was nearby rather than carry scraps throughout the house.

Some topics in this essay:
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