Who Said Ancient People Had it Tough? Luxury Homes and Underfloor Heating Were a Part of Life in the Roman Province of Britannia

Archaeologists have uncovered a fantastic Roman mosaic and evidence of good living over 1,500 years ago in Leicester city centre in a home with underfloor heating.

The team from the University of Leicester is currently excavating a large site on the corner of Highcross Street and Vaughan Way, next to Leicester's John Lewis car park. The project, which has been running since November 2016, is uncovering exciting new evidence for Leicester's Roman past, including evidence for a Roman street, and a Roman house once floored with mosaic pavements.

The excavation is funded by Ingleby, who will be developing the site into apartments, and the team from University of Leicester Archaeological Services (ULAS) is working closely with the architects to minimise the impact of the new building on the underlying archaeology. Modern rubble and Victorian garden soil are being removed from the footprint of the proposed building to expose the medieval and Roman archaeology. This allows archaeologists to identify where the footings for the new building will have an adverse effect on important archaeological remains, which can then either be designed around, or excavated before they are destroyed, leaving most of the archaeology preserved intact beneath the new building.


http://www.ancient-origins.net/news-history-archaeology/who-said-ancient-people-had-it-tough-luxury-homes-and-underfloor-heating-021208

I love hearing about stuff like this, but what then always ruins it for me is the thought that it was probably built by slaves ...

Romans most definitely did have lots of slaves
Although depending on the period there were different types of slaves with varying 'rights'
in fact by the time of Nero there were slaves that had significantly better lives than the average citizen. Slaves in Rome where not just for hard labor, most of the political advisors where slaves. Teachers and Accountants where also primarily slaves.

The plantation owners much later claimed their slaves had better lives than most working class Britons as one of their arguments for keeping the institution. But slavery is slavery in the end.

The luxury of the Roman nobility, and the local nobility that supported them, would have put to shame the 'luxury' of the tribal lords who followed. But I doubt the subjugated locals got to share much of the luxury

But the romans had documented examples though

One of the earliest (and one I remember)
is Tiro slave then freedman of Cicero (who is a very interesting statesman, one of the first to have zero military background and almost entirely rose to power through oratory)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcus_Tullius_Tiro

Marcus Tullius Tiro (died c. 4 BC) was first a slave, then a freedman of Cicero. He is frequently mentioned in Cicero's letters. After Cicero's death he published his former master's collected works. He also wrote a considerable number of books himself, and possibly invented an early form of shorthand.

Steven Saylor's Roma Sub Rosa series (14 books) is really good read by the way interesting mix of Detective fiction worked into real life History.

and I just found out Robert Harris has a third book in his series about Cicero that I will need to buy

veya_victaous wrote:
Romans most definitely did have lots of slaves
Although depending on the period there were different types of slaves with  varying 'rights'
in fact by the time of Nero there were slaves that had significantly better lives than the average citizen. Slaves in Rome where not just for hard labor, most of the political advisors where slaves. Teachers and Accountants where also primarily slaves.

At the height of the Roman Empire it was actually a mark of the status of the nobility and the merchants, as to how well their slaves, servants and serfs were looked after --  housing, food, clothes, even some wages and a limited form of profit-sharing...

So that showing off their own success in having well-turned-out slaves and servants, contributed in turn to many of those slaves living better lifestyles than average citizens..

Even if those vassals and serfs still didn't have freedom, or the vote, couldn't own property, or missed out on some basic 'human rights'.