When we think about Roman/Latin writings, we think about reports of civil wars (Marcus Annaeus Lucanus) or military campaigns(Gaius Iulius Caesar), texts about history(Vergil) and great people(Nepos) or writings about philosofical and ethical topics (Seneca). But are there writings about common people and their everyday lifes?
It's been now quite a few years since I've read The Golden Ass by Apuleius, Epigrams by Martial and Satyricon by Petron. Since all three of those were really interesting reads, I'd like to read something similar to it.
I also remember reading this Dutcch book: Post uit Athene: brieven van, aan en over hoeren, klaplopers, vissers en boeren, a collection of various letters written by common people in ancient Greece. Letters like that would also highly interest me.
Ovid wrote a rather humorous guide for picking up women in Rome called the Ars Amatoria which is fairly quotidian but still clearly pitched at an upper class audience. The best examples of writings about the common folk are probably those found in the graffiti of the ancient world. We know a surprising amount about common life in Rome thanks to these missives though, to my knowledge, no compendium of them exists.
There is a website called Pompeiana which has a section on graffiti. My Classics capstone professor also recommended it so it is trustworthy for me.
I can also back up the Ovid guide. That writing also got him in trouble with Augustus and resulted in exile and the tristia.
Along the same line as Ovid, the elegiac poets might be of interest. They wrote about a variety of topics, like Tibullus and Sulpicia's writing.
The troubles of Roman everyday life, (may I say most peoples' everyday lives?) may be found in elegy. Unfortunately, I'm also not sure that anyone wrote directly about the plebian class.