As a historian I have to say we cannot know anything about any time period, not even our own. That is the extreme post-modern view. However, we can use the sources we have, and Antiquity is much better documented than my specialisation, Denmark Iron Age to 1250-ish, which is why we historians always- ALWAYS!!! apply a generous dose of source criticism in order to make a good estimate of what happened.
Everyday life seems to me quite well represented in Rome I agree.
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