30% of the population were slaves, and their lives could vary all the way from a trusted slave-businessman who would travel and conduct the owner’s business affairs, to a household slave that either may be raped at will or fed and housed pretty well depending on the owner, to men strapped to oars where death rates were high, to mine workers where death rates were even higher. The wealthy owned plantations, too, where slave life was less than optimal. There was a food dole in Rome for the urban poor which expanded over time so while the general concern for the poor was low there was an understanding that mass starvation was not in the interest of the upper-class. People lived in urban apartment blocks eventually; fires and plagues were common. Street violence was endemic. Ripping down whole neighborhoods to build extravagant complexes and gardens to suit an emperor could occur. Politics could involve effectively buying the vote of the urban poor citizen who had rights to elect lower assembly representatives; they could be brought in from the suburbs/exurbs for the vote, and throwing games to entertain them and figure out when to encourage them to do your bidding or keep them in line was a strategy of the political climbers. They could be divided into sort of political clubs.