Juvenal says Rome's traffic was so bad at night that insomnia was killing people
juvenal's third satire has a friend of his explaining why he's leaving rome for good, and one of his biggest complaints is noise at night.
he says most sick people in rome die from lack of sleep, and asks what rented room lets you sleep at all. you'd need to be rich, he says, to sleep in this city.
the culprit is wheeled traffic. carts turning in the narrow winding streets, and drovers yelling at their stalled teams, would wake even "a seal or the emperor claudius". part of the reason is a julius caesar-era law that mostly banned heavy wagons from the city in daytime, so deliveries piled up after dark.
the rich get carried through the crowds in a litter, reading or even napping as they go, while everyone else gets shoved and elbowed.
it's a satire, so he's exaggerating, but it's a pretty vivid picture. does anyone know how strictly the daytime wagon ban was actually enforced?