[Teaser] How They Did It: Vacations in Ancient Rome

🎵 Summertime // Hot short days / Long sweaty nights / The changing of the equinox // Its summertime / And the livins easy 🎵

Here's some of the script for our upcoming video on Vacations in Ancient Rome, enjoy!

Life can certainly wear us down and vacations are always a great way to rest and recover. Often we think of this as a modern activity but people in the past worked just as hard as us and were also looking for their own opportunities to unwind wherever they could. So today let’s pack our bags and see what it was like to go on vacation in Ancient Rome.

Time for a break

People in the ancient world worked just as hard as us if not even more so. After all, much of the labor force was engaged in physical tasks without the tools, technology, and social support systems we enjoy today. As a pre-industrial and largely rural society, most people were farmers or farm hands. Such individuals were shackled to the land and its seasonal rhythms. On a good day there was much to be done just to maintain a level of subsistence let alone start turning a profit or having to deal with poor harvests, bad weather, disease, and all manner of other issues. Slaves did increasingly help supply farm labor, especially with the rise of Latifundia estates, but by in large, rural Roman farmers still did much of the work.

Urban areas meanwhile made up only about 20% of the population and these were generally dominated by the poor, lower classes. Such individuals typically had no long-term employment and instead acted as day-laborers who sought out any job. General construction projects were common but with no concept of hourly rates or a minimum wage, these would pay only a pittance. The slightly more well off may have been craftsmen, shopkeepers or various skilled tradespeople who could command better pay and working conditions. Only the truly wealthy had the luxury of passive income sources and high return investments with which to derive a decent work-life balance. In fact the Senatorial class was so well off that they were legally barred from engaging in business, though of course they found workarounds to such regulations.

Speaking of regulations it should be important to note that there were very few laws and practices in place to protect the interest of labor. It's no surprise then that many of our ancestors were run ragged. In this world, one of their greatest sources of reprieve would be either the 8 day weekly cycle marked by a final market day or the various religious festivals which were sprinkled across the calendar year and often came with requirements to close down business activities. When coupled with entertainment and publicly funded feasts these were incredibly popular. For context on the scope of these annual breaks, a handful of surviving apprenticeship contracts seem to allow between 18-36 days off of work per year, provided that they were festival days.

Another period of the year which resulted in people looking for an escape would be the summer. Without air conditioning, cities could be incredibly hot, humid, and crowded. Not only was this uncomfortable but it could also be deadly. For instance Rome was known to have a dangerous miasma in the late summer which researchers have confirmed through an examination of gravesites which does indeed reflect an alarming spike during this period. The cause is not clear but was likely due in part to an abundance of mosquito-borne malaria and other diseases.

Vacations for the Poor

Given all this, it's no surprise that people would pack their bags and leave their homes throughout the year. But the nature of one’s vacation depended very heavily on your socio-economic status. As we described, the urban and rural poor lived day to day and could hardly afford to take time off or save enough to do anything extravagant. The slightly more well off had more flexibility but nowhere near as much as the rich whose vacations we shall explore shortly. For now let’s see how the plebs blew off their steam.

For those of lesser means, a staycation was often a good option. To this end inns and rest houses were quite common in cities. Here one could get room and board while enjoying games, gambling, and music in the common spaces. In a time where the average daily wage was between 1-2 denarii, a stay could cost - according to one inscription - up to nearly half of one denarius (for food, fodder, and a girl for the night). Typically the elite scorned such places for their rambunctiousness and lack of extensive facilities. For example, even Cicero, who owned at least seven of such establishments, claims that it would be impossible to stay more than 24 hours in one.

Looking further afield, one might choose to take a day trip or brief excursion. This might be a fishing trip, a lakeshore swim, a visit to a friend’s farmhouse, or all manner of other diversions. Some of the most popular places to visit though were the spas and baths of Italy. These were generally hot, volcanic springs whose waters were believed to cure all manner of ailments including arthritis, gout, stomach pains, intestinal disorders, rheumatism and even for moral failings such as drunkenness or lechery. The smell of sulfur rarely deterred those searching for relief and apparently people were even encouraged to drink the water. Many of these establishments were a short, easy journey from Rome and came with lodgings to encourage people to stay. Patrons with enough money might take advantage of special facilities like steam baths which were not only relaxing but seen as even more medicinally potent than the spas themselves, supposedly promoting fertility in women and curing insanity in men.

But it wasn’t just adult workers who went on vacation. Other lower-class folks taking a break would have included students and soldiers. Academic vacations for instance were quite popular. In these a teacher would commonly take their students out of town during the summer, spending time at villas along the way. These trips not only allowed for an escape from the heat, but also served to teach pupils about the region and forge useful contacts with the local elites. The resources of a villa were more than adequate to put up a group of students for a short period, and these field trips were fondly remembered years later by many of our sources.

Military vacations, or taking a leave of absence, was also a regular occurrence. Records indicate that in fact, up to 25% of a legion could, at any given time, be away on leave. Officers, of course, received the most leeway with this, being able to take months off, often either to visit home, nearby acquaintances, or to tour the local region. Germanicus was famous, when stationed in Syria, for taking leave to go down to Egypt to see the sights. Theses servicemen had a strict time by which they had to return, but this could be waived in the case of an extenuating circumstance that hindered them, such as flooding. The only downside? A soldier had to pay a fee to his Centurion to be allowed on vacation and often such trips had a way of draining their savings rather quickly.

Some lucky folks did live in places which were seen as natural vacation spots. They hardly needed to travel and took full advantage of this. Pliny the Younger, in his letter to Caninius, relates the following:

“There is in Africa a town called Hippo, situated not far from the seacoast: it stands upon a navigable lake communicating with an estuary in the form of a river, which alternately flows into the lake, or into the ocean, according to the ebb and flow of the tide. People of all ages amuse themselves here with fishing, sailing, or swimming.”

In fact it was this town whose youths would befriend a local dolphin and cause such a sensation that tourists flocked from across the Empire to see. We cover this fascinating story in another video if you are interested.