Daily life in ancient Rome Book

Plentiful, overbrimming account that I read to understand Roman and 14C Florentine life, and re-read parts when visiting Pompei and Herculaneum--the latter actually has corner food stalls which like the taverns, "tabernae," spread into the street, as did the barber, cutting hair in the middle of the via.
Originally written in French, my translation has occasional odd words, like "footpads" for thieves, "raptores"(48). These were among the many criminals to be feared at night, and famously, a wealthy landowner Sextus Roscius was murdered in Sulla's time, and Cicero defended the son against the accusation of being "sicarii"/assassin.
Rome was so famous for crime at night that Juvenal says going out to dine without having made your will is to leave yourself open to accusations of carelessness.
And Roman education was so bad that rather than improving students morals, the teachers undermined them [often with pederasty, my speculation]. "Instead of happy memories, school children carried away with them ...years wasted in senseless, stumbling repetitions punctuated by savage punishments"(107). May I footnote this by my Milanese grandson's experience in a modern Italian classical HS: His English, spending every summer in the US, was superior to his professoressa's, so she flunked him. You do NOT surpass an Italian teacher. (And in grammar school, he "stayed back" because he had crumbs in his backpack, his Mom too busy to whisk them out. The principal reprimanded the teacher, but could do nothing because of the strength of Italian unions--I add as a lifetime union professor.)

Interesting on Roman money, and the hours of the day, which varied in winter and summer, and they varied in length, 44 minutes per daylight hour around the Winter Solstice (when I write this), since the twelve "hours" divided about 9 hours of sunlight; while the night-time hours, also twelve, divided 15 hours, so each night hour was 1 hr 15 minutes. While at the Summer Solstice, the twelve "oris" divided 15 hours, so bout 1 hr 15 minutes each.
Hours became standardized, of equal length, in the Middle Ages, when each hour was ruled by a "planet" just as the days of the week are: "Monday"/ Lunedi for the influence of the Moon, Tuesday /Mardi for the Norse God of War, etc. Our weekdays depend on the geocentric order of Five planets plus the Sun and Moon. (So 24 hours are divided by 7 dominances.) For instance, the Moon rules the first hour of Monday, 6 AM, and also 1 PM and 8 PM. The next day's first hour is dominated by Mars, which is 3 "planets" (24 hours-21= 3) further in the geocentric order: Moon, Mercury, Venus, Sun, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn. [See Walter Clyde Curry, Chaucer and the Medieval Sciences.]
If there were 8 "planets"or as the Beatles say, Eight Days a Week, 24 ÷ 8= 3, so the day would never change! Or we might also risk a planet called "Ur Anus," for which the polite pronunciation is no better: "Urine-us."

I must admit, I cannot conceive a day or night in which the hours vary. No wonder Romans feared night-time crime. In winter, the Ladri had longer hours to steal--and of course, poor lighting to do it in. But Carcopino points out that the main threat of Roman night was losing your way home, arriving at dawn.