"Diverting . . .  Populus draws on such archives of the quotidian to make ancient Rome seem both wonderfully weird and convincingly real. . . . Populus abounds in such peeks beneath the surface of 'official' Rome. . . .If Populus works best as a smorgasbord, it is an appealing one indeed. With his wide array of sources, his eye for compelling details and his engaging prose style, de la Bédoyère keeps the reader eager for more—and wondering what strange facet of Roman life will be served up next."

Wall Street Journal

"Providing considerable detail in an easygoing style, this brings to pulsing life the average Roman’s daily existence. Roman history buffs will be thrilled."

Publishers Weekly

"De la Bédoyère paints a vibrant picture, giving readers a lively and immersive look at life in this legendary ancient city."

Booklist

"Roman life in all its familiarity and absurdity is the subject of de la Bédoyère’s rollicking new book, Populus. Drawing on letters, inscriptions, plays, poems, architecture, coinage and the preserved contents of Herculaneum’s sewers, de la Bédoyère sets out to reconstruct how people of all stations lived. What they ate, smelt, saw and believed; how they supported, entertained, protected and thought about themselves. . . . The anecdote-heavy approach in Populus isn’t just lively, it’s consequential. The norms that governed Roman life were – like ours – never set down as written rules. They were flexible, open to reinterpretation, the result of constant negotiation between past ideals and present realities. Thanks to de la Bédoyère, they emerge here as they would have been felt: the cumulative product of thousands of decisions made by individual Romans every day."

Telegraph (on the UK edition)

"De la Bédoyère, a former expert on the Channel 4 archaeology series Time Team, has delivered a comprehensive and very well referenced appraisal of city life, although it has been constructed rather higgledy-piggledy and without an overarching theme, much like the city itself. Where the archaeological record in Rome is patchy, he extrapolates on how life must have been from discoveries at sites such as Pompeii and Ostia as well as the vast written evidence, including letters and inscriptions."
 

The Times (on the UK edition)