To walk through Rome today is to find the past made present at nearly every corner. For John Stambaugh, this continuity of fabric, form, and function affords an extraordinary view of the ancient city, the experience of its inhabitants, and the Roman way of life. Exploring ancient Rome as both a physical and social environment, he has written the first extended survey of its development in English - and a vivid "guidebook into the living past of one of the most emphatically urban cities the world has ever known."