Ancient Rome was a time in history of great highs and lows. Could you survive as a citizen of the ancient Roman empire?

Ancient Rome was a time in history of great highs and lows. Could you survive as a citizen of the ancient Roman empire?

the Romans were able to build great systems of roads and highways that were critical to their advanced, interconnected society. Life was able to flourish as both people and information could more easily travel amongst the empire... but then again, so could plagues and diseases. As they built around swamps, malaria became a bigger problem. Other things like tuberculosis and leprosy were also an issue with how easy it was to not only move about the land, but the sea as well. The Roman Empire was also hit with multiple pandemics. One of the first that really rocked the empire was the Antonine Plague, which was estimated to have a death toll in the millions and thought to have something to do with smallpox. Rome was able to somewhat recover, but they lacked the dominance they had before, especially since the Plague of Cyprian came relatively soon after. While its origins are unknown, the pandemic ravaged the population and pushed the empire beyond its breaking point. It changed the way it operated until a severe bout of bubonic plague hit, essentially dealing the final blow to the empire. However, if you were able to avoid the dangers and stay alive, there was quite a good bit of advancements during the reign of the Roman Empire. All of their architectural innovation allowed the Romans to become early adopters of sewers and plumbing systems that would actually carry human waste away from their homes, so they had some degree of sanitation. Not as good as when you do your business today, but hey, it’s better than nothing! They still didn’t have toilet paper, though. Wait… What am I suppose… I’m supposed to do what with this? They also had rather advanced medical practices and knowledge for the times, and a lot of this started on the battlefield. To help keep their soldiers as fighting-ready as possible, the Romans created dedicated field surgical teams. These battlefield medics used a variety of instruments, like hemostatic tourniquets and arterial surgical clamps to curb blood loss, all while making sure to try and disinfect their tools in hot water before use. With all of this, it’s been speculated that even though they had to face the hazards of combat, Roman soldiers tended to live longer than the average citizen because of how good Roman military medicine was. It doesn’t look like the same could be said for gladiators, though. Even though historians speculate that gladiator matches weren’t always the “to the death” bloodbaths that movies usually depict them as, they were still very dangerous and it’s thought that most gladiators only lived to around their mid-20s. So yeah, a lot of ups and downs. Do you think you could survive back in the Roman Empire? Let me know if the comment section below, Don’t forget to keep on thinking.