These 1)skyscrapers are built of mud there in the Yemen. They're over 400 years old. The reason they're so tightly packed together is not because of the cost of 2)real estate, it's a protection against the fierce heat. The 3)Yemeni have been building high rises like this for over a thousand years.
But the Romans got there first. Nobody can be quite sure how high the department lots went up; but a letter found in one ancient Roman city gives directions to an apartment on the 8th floor. The Roman architect, Vetruvious wrote “in view of Rome's unlimited number of citizens, necessity has driven us to build high. By the use of stone, brick andconcrete, buildings are raised with several stories; producing very convenient apartments.”
Well there it was. As soon as you start building high, the city becomes a more dangerous place to live in. As the great Roman historian, Livy, recorded, “I sincerely regret that I have to report that an ox fell from the 4th story of an apartment block on the forum floorarium.” Look out below!
Who invented cooking? Well we don't know, but God bless him anyway. Although another thing that makes city life more 4)convivial is being able to eat good food without necessarily havingto cook it yourself. And in ancient times this was often vital for city 5)dwellers. In Rome, for example, none of those people 6)crammed together in high-rise apartment lots had chimneys and very few had pot fires to cook on. So they relied on being able to eat out or else another great invention of ancient times -- take away.
There were dozens of 7)snack bars like this in Roman cities serving anything from cheesecake and 8)custard to 9)sterile 10)sow's 11)wombs and stuffed door mice.
The Roman writer, Armeanus Masolines, has left us with a description of what these Roman snack bars were actually like. “Even concoction,” he tells us, “People led by the odor of cooking but want to stand on 12)tiptoe beside the pots 13)gnawing the ends of their fingers as they wait for the dishes to cool. Others hang over the 14)nauseous mass of half raw meat while it is cooking watching intently.”
返回列表
上一篇：
下一篇：