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Were the buildings in an ancient Roman city numbered, named or something else? How would they tell each other where they lived? Were the numbers painted on the walls? Did they have apartment numbers? What would've happened when they wanted to know where to go? Where would they tell their servants to take them?

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As others have said in the answers they might have used addresses. For the record many places in the world today (e.g. Africa) don't use house numbers/addresses for post. – Rory Jan 3 '12 at 10:59

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up vote 5 down vote accepted

I visited Rome and also Pompeii last week. According to our tour guide and the evidence left by the protection provided to the ruins of Pompeii by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius, citizens of Pompeii in 79 AD did have street names and house numbers. Some even had signs in the entry way to their home warning “Cave Canem” or “Beware of Dog”.

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Pompeii are well covered by the google street view. It would be nice to have a link to the street address evidence and to the cave canem sign. – horsh yesterday
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Those ones look suspiciously modern. – horsh yesterday
I would appreciate authoritative info on this – Nicolas Raoul 17 hours ago
@horsh Indeed, this site pompeiiinpictures.com/pompeiiinpictures/R0/name_index.htm says "The original Roman house names and numbers are not known." – Anixx 9 hours ago
up vote 6 down vote

They probably didn't They would tell anybody where they lived in the same way that anyone in a rural location still does today, above the bakery / opposite the fish shop, in whatever district.

Anybody who wasn't in the army or didn't have a villa probably didn't know many people who could write.

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Thanks. But when the street address appeared then? – Anixx Dec 28 '11 at 4:24
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You only count in elections if you were important. You only need a very rough count of population by district. Even in 19C London the population of poor in slums was pretty much unknown – mgb Dec 28 '11 at 4:38
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That's not true re: literacy. Some well-educated slaves or freedmen could write even! As they would indeed be required to do as part of their master's assignments. If anywhere had a high literacy rate in Europe at this time, it was Rome (and later most of Italy as Roman citizenship and Romanisation was expanded). Alright, Greece may well have had a higher rate, but we're talking about Latin here. :-) – Noldorin Dec 28 '11 at 17:25
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@Anixx: Street addresses arrived with modern postal systems, basically 19th century. – Lennart Regebro Dec 29 '11 at 5:05
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Even in rural Ireland today the address largely relies on the local postman knowing which person of that surname on the "High St" the letter was meant for. – mgb Aug 22 '12 at 1:08
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up vote 6 down vote

  • House numbering was introduced in Europe in the modern era, mainly due to military-administrative reasons.

  • The Roman Empire had no official postal system. Letters and wares were sent by slaves, servants or day labourers with sufficiently exact instructions where to deliver.

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