Former generations studied "Roman antiquities," meaning everything connected with the ways and customs of the Romans, a field more recently restricted to "Private antiquities" and known for short as "Roman life." In the present work the aim has been to outline a larger picture of the world -- social, cultural, and political -- in which the typical Roman of one age after another lived. A vast fabric it was, still challenging modern interest and amazement, a tapestry of many colors and intricate pattern, interwoven with much that was borrowed in religion, in art, in letters, in every branch of knowledge. Yet for us of a later day it is still to be viewed as the Roman's world.

Columbia University April, 1936 . . .