[aquila48]

Just got back from a visit there - it’s quite amazing how well people lived back then - they had indoor plumbing, central heating, beautiful homes with artwork and wonderful atria. And it wasn’t just one or two, but many. It just had the feel of an affluent place.

[central_va]

Pompeii had a population of 11,000. I only saw a dozen or so of those huge villa town homes. That is not many affluent homes for a population that size. Most people lived in second story two room flats, granted those flats had water.

[SunkenCiv]

Sounds great! It was a major place to live -- at its peak the Roman Empire had something a little north of 50 million people in it, and many more were trying to live in it. At the same time India was booming, as was Han China. Life was as good or better then than it is in a lot of places today.

• The Fall and Rise and Fall of Pompeii
• romanempire

[MinorityRepublican]

The Romans were ahead of the rest of the world by nearly 2,000 years.

People in New York City circa 1850 didn't live as well as Romans did around 1 A.D.

[onedoug]

And they were still primitive barbarians.

[Cronos]

Even more amazing is seeing the plumbing and planning of Mohenjo-daro and Harappa (dating back to 2600 BC)

I retain this deep fascination with the Sumerian-Elamite-Harappans. I'm pretty convinced by what I have read that these three started off as the same people and that they are probably linked to the Kartveli speakers and maybe to the Basque speakers

They achieved such a high state of civilisation when the Semites, the Aryans were hunter-gatherers or herdsmen.