The History of Rome

How do we know so much about the Romans? How do we know so much about people who lived and died two thousand years ago? Is it simply due to the shear amounts of written material they produced?

Well... yes, and no. The Romans certainly had a high level of literacy and produced a relatively large amount of written material. However, the Romans did most of their writing on Papyrus, which doesn't hold up especially well, so almost no original Roman documents exist today (other than engravings in stone). What we do have are handwritten copies of Roman documents (usually copies of copies of copies of copies of Roman documents) and this is where we get most of our information about the period. Still, it's pretty safe to say that A LOT of information has been lost over the centuries.

The written materials we have are a varied lot-some are formal historical records, others are political commentary, legal documents, and personal letters- not to mention poetry, plays, and other forms of artistic expression. Essentially, Romans wrote for all of the reasons people write today, and the variety in their body of written works allows historians to glean quite a lot about many aspects of Roman life.

Of course, the study of archaeology picks up where the study of written documents leaves off. By studying the artifacts and structures left by the ancient Romans, researchers are better able to put all of the things they wrote about themselves (as well as all of the things their allies and enemies wrote about them) in perspective.

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