Working Lives. The elite senatorial and equestrian orders, and later the imperial court, added up to a relatively small proportion of the whole population of Rome and the Roman Empire. Most of the population worked in the growing, building, moving, service, and military operations required to make the Roman world function on a daily basis. They worked at their jobs, receiving wages or barter as compensation. They formed unions, groups, and clubs. They went to religious services and to entertaining spectacles. The quality of life for them and for their families varied as much as it does in any modern country.

Slaves. Although barred from the elite orders, political office, and the military, slaves could otherwise hold nearly any occupation. Because many slaves came as prisoners of war, they often would take on jobs comparable to what they had...