The Single Life in the Roman and Later Roman World
Romans were supposed to marry and have children. In this respect, the Augustan marriage laws only... more Romans were supposed to marry and have children. In this respect, the Augustan marriage laws only confirmed and strengthened social expectations. Nevertheless, deciding between marriage and single life assumes some level of free choice and the right to enter into a stable relationship. Yet, in a slave society such as Imperial Italy, independence and the right to marry was not equally available to everyone. This paper will argue that the organization of the Roman economy, with its reliance on slave and freedman labour and the social control exerted by masters and patrons, seriously complicated the establishment of harmonious family life for their social inferiors. I will discuss 3 variables, viz. the effects of occupations on family life; the value of a slave in the household; and finally the value of a freedman’s inheritance. The conclusion must be that apart from all limitations inherent to the status of slave and freedman, the difficulty of establishing satisfactory stable relationships was an additional stumbling block on the way to emotional well-being.
Capital, Investment, and Innovation in the Roman World
Research on the Roman economy and the possibility of Roman economic growth has focused on demogra... more Research on the Roman economy and the possibility of Roman economic growth has focused on demographic structures, on market integration, on credit facilities, on technology and modes of organization, and on institutions and mentalities. A factor that has received less attention is investment in capital goods. Economists have found, however, that among all the different variables that might play a role in economic performance, investment in production equipment (tools, machinery) stimulates economic growth particularly strongly. This chapter focuses on three case studies: (1) agricultural tools, equipment, and workspaces; (2) capital goods used in riverine and maritime transport, i.e. ships and the tools and workspaces needed for shipbuilding; and (3) workspaces and tools employed in urban production and service provision. It asks who invested in these capital goods, who owned them, who produced them, and how production was organized. Most importantly, it investigates how capital goo...
This paper focuses on the composition and interaction of Pompeian elite and sub-elite networks an... more This paper focuses on the composition and interaction of Pompeian elite and sub-elite networks and the way in which these relationships shaped and transformed local politics. SNA can contribute to the ongoing debate on the composition and alleged stability or turnover within the Pompeian aristocracy. This dispute has a long tradition and the picture of the Pompeian society emerging oscillates between a democratic community with high levels of social and political mobility and a more traditional Roman city with well-established families dominating the political scene and newcomers rising and disappearing in the margin. I shall analyze and compare the different networks members of elites and sub-elites were circulating in and how they attempted to use, share, extend and manipulate networks to achieve their goals. The key to power thus lies in moving oneself in the most interesting position in the network, either through mobilizing inherited connections, power and wealth or carving out a new location by means of personal assets. The following sections will show how Pompeian elites, established families and newcomers alike, tried to find the most valuable position in the local network and consequently captured the inherent benefits of connectivity.
The volume provides a prosopography of Roman businessmen involved in business in the western part... more The volume provides a prosopography of Roman businessmen involved in business in the western part of the Mediterranean and present in epigraphy, mainly in the shape of tituli picti, amphorae stoppers, and anchors, but also in monumental epigraphy. This limits the chronological range of this analysis to the final two centuries of the Roman Republic and the first three of the Imperial Age. The book is not designed to be read from front to cover, but as a starting point or point of reference for anyone working on the nature of Roman business. It provides data on commercial partnerships, professional specialisation, family firms, the structure of agency as well as the close relationship between production and distribution. It also reveals facts of anecdotic value such as the extreme misfortune of a shipper whose name is found inscribed on the anchors of three different wrecks. The volume is organised by the various types of merchants, such as negotiatores, negotiantes, mercatores, nauta...
In the Roman world, the bulk of both agrarian and non-agrarian production and distribution took p... more In the Roman world, the bulk of both agrarian and non-agrarian production and distribution took place at the local urban and the regional level, to satisfy local and regional demand. In a large territorial empire with, by pre-industrial standards, unusually high levels of urbanisation (particularly in its core areas) this implied productive local and regional agricultural economies and burgeoning, highly diversified urban manufacturing, service and commercial sectors, even in smaller cities. The demand that could not be met locally or regionally, moreover, was catered for through an intricate web of interregional commerce. This paper starts from a simple question: how did those myriad individuals intending to produce and distribute goods and services in and around Roman cities and in and between regions and provinces gain access to credit (investment capital) and necessary capital goods?
There were days when Roman economic history was limited to culling small bits and pieces from lit... more There were days when Roman economic history was limited to culling small bits and pieces from literary accounts and concluding that the ancient economies fundamentally differed from what contemporary theory assumed any economy should try to achieve: growth, profit-making, increasing efficiency and rational decision-making. Times have changed, and for the better. Material remains, monumental inscriptions, papyri and instrumentum domesticum have all shown to make important if very diverse contributions to economic history. The final category in particular, that of inscribed and stamped objects of various nature, holds promising potential to be engaged in the debate on structure and performance of ancient economies. Nevertheless, despite this recognition some categories of epigraphy requiring specialist knowledge tend to remain the playing field of a small number of experts. The painted inscriptions (tituli picti) on amphorae for instance pose a major challenge for historians, because of the often very fragmentary nature of the texts, the difficulties in deciphering them and the many ambiguities that remain in interpreting the data. As a consequence their potential often fails to be recognized. Here I intend to explore the various contributions the so-called tituli picti alpha, beta, gamma and delta, especially in combination with amphora stamps, monumental epigraphy and literary sources, can make to economic history.
Despite the prominence of the textile industry in pre-industrial economies, surprisingly little e... more Despite the prominence of the textile industry in pre-industrial economies, surprisingly little effort has been made to integrate this sector into the larger debate on structure and performance of the Roman economy, maybe because the prevalent models of ancient economies still find it difficult to incorporate textiles in a framework in which there was little place for large-scale urban production and exchange, or because of the difficult nature of ancient sources. An interesting attempt however to give the textile industry its due place in Roman economic history is the model developed in several articles by Drinkwater, who relies heavily on comparative evidence and comes to some remarkable conclusions on the (in)efficiency of Roman woollen industry and its place in the wider economy. This paper will assess the validity of this model and its consequences for the organization of Roman textile production and trade. I will argue that the model needs some major adjustments, mainly because the adduced comparative evidence cannot be applied to the framework within which the Roman economy was situated. The medieval textile industry operated in an essentially different social and political structure from its Roman counterpart.
La cooperation, l’interaction et competition. L’economie du nomadisme pastoral dans l’Afrique imp... more La cooperation, l’interaction et competition. L’economie du nomadisme pastoral dans l’Afrique imperiale. ; L’interaction entre le pouvoir romain et les communautes nomades en Afrique a provoque des contraintes et des limitations de l’economie traditionnelle, mais dans le meme temps a cree de nouvelles opportunites. La presence de Rome n’eut donc pas seulement un impact negatif, mais a egalement permis une meilleure integration des tribus nomades dans l’economie imperiale.
Summary This paper provides a social network analysis of the business communities in Pompeii and ... more Summary This paper provides a social network analysis of the business communities in Pompeii and Puteoli, viewed through the lens of the archives of Caecilius Iucundus and the Sulpicii. This approach reveals how entrepreneurs tried to create trust and select reliable witnesses in two very different trading worlds. I argue first that the presence of an ‚international‘ business community in Puteoli necessitated the careful selection of witnesses among colleagues in trade, who were acquainted with someone’s reputation and trustworthiness. In Pompeii on the other hand, the local level of exchange allowed bankers and businessmen to operate in a face-to-face community, where experience in trade was not considered to be a vital criterion to be selected as a witness.
From Archaic Greece until the Late Roman Empire (c. 800 BCE to c. 500 CE), food was more than a p... more From Archaic Greece until the Late Roman Empire (c. 800 BCE to c. 500 CE), food was more than a physical necessity; it was a critical factor in politics, economics and culture. On the one hand, the Mediterranean landscape and climate encouraged particular crops – notably cereals, vines and olives – but, with the risks of crop failure ever-present, control of food resources was vital to economic and political power. On the other hand, diet and dining reflected complex social hierarchies and relationships. What was eaten, with whom and when was a fundamental part of the expression of one’s role and place in society. In addition, symbolism and ritual suffused foodstuffs, their preparation and consumption. A Cultural History of Food in Antiquity presents an overview of the period with essays on food production, food systems, food security, safety and crises, food and politics, eating out, professional cooking, kitchens and service work, family and domesticity, body and soul, representat...
The Single Life in the Roman and Later Roman World
Romans were supposed to marry and have children. In this respect, the Augustan marriage laws only... more Romans were supposed to marry and have children. In this respect, the Augustan marriage laws only confirmed and strengthened social expectations. Nevertheless, deciding between marriage and single life assumes some level of free choice and the right to enter into a stable relationship. Yet, in a slave society such as Imperial Italy, independence and the right to marry was not equally available to everyone. This paper will argue that the organization of the Roman economy, with its reliance on slave and freedman labour and the social control exerted by masters and patrons, seriously complicated the establishment of harmonious family life for their social inferiors. I will discuss 3 variables, viz. the effects of occupations on family life; the value of a slave in the household; and finally the value of a freedman’s inheritance. The conclusion must be that apart from all limitations inherent to the status of slave and freedman, the difficulty of establishing satisfactory stable relationships was an additional stumbling block on the way to emotional well-being.
Capital, Investment, and Innovation in the Roman World
Research on the Roman economy and the possibility of Roman economic growth has focused on demogra... more Research on the Roman economy and the possibility of Roman economic growth has focused on demographic structures, on market integration, on credit facilities, on technology and modes of organization, and on institutions and mentalities. A factor that has received less attention is investment in capital goods. Economists have found, however, that among all the different variables that might play a role in economic performance, investment in production equipment (tools, machinery) stimulates economic growth particularly strongly. This chapter focuses on three case studies: (1) agricultural tools, equipment, and workspaces; (2) capital goods used in riverine and maritime transport, i.e. ships and the tools and workspaces needed for shipbuilding; and (3) workspaces and tools employed in urban production and service provision. It asks who invested in these capital goods, who owned them, who produced them, and how production was organized. Most importantly, it investigates how capital goo...
This paper focuses on the composition and interaction of Pompeian elite and sub-elite networks an... more This paper focuses on the composition and interaction of Pompeian elite and sub-elite networks and the way in which these relationships shaped and transformed local politics. SNA can contribute to the ongoing debate on the composition and alleged stability or turnover within the Pompeian aristocracy. This dispute has a long tradition and the picture of the Pompeian society emerging oscillates between a democratic community with high levels of social and political mobility and a more traditional Roman city with well-established families dominating the political scene and newcomers rising and disappearing in the margin. I shall analyze and compare the different networks members of elites and sub-elites were circulating in and how they attempted to use, share, extend and manipulate networks to achieve their goals. The key to power thus lies in moving oneself in the most interesting position in the network, either through mobilizing inherited connections, power and wealth or carving out a new location by means of personal assets. The following sections will show how Pompeian elites, established families and newcomers alike, tried to find the most valuable position in the local network and consequently captured the inherent benefits of connectivity.
The volume provides a prosopography of Roman businessmen involved in business in the western part... more The volume provides a prosopography of Roman businessmen involved in business in the western part of the Mediterranean and present in epigraphy, mainly in the shape of tituli picti, amphorae stoppers, and anchors, but also in monumental epigraphy. This limits the chronological range of this analysis to the final two centuries of the Roman Republic and the first three of the Imperial Age. The book is not designed to be read from front to cover, but as a starting point or point of reference for anyone working on the nature of Roman business. It provides data on commercial partnerships, professional specialisation, family firms, the structure of agency as well as the close relationship between production and distribution. It also reveals facts of anecdotic value such as the extreme misfortune of a shipper whose name is found inscribed on the anchors of three different wrecks. The volume is organised by the various types of merchants, such as negotiatores, negotiantes, mercatores, nauta...
In the Roman world, the bulk of both agrarian and non-agrarian production and distribution took p... more In the Roman world, the bulk of both agrarian and non-agrarian production and distribution took place at the local urban and the regional level, to satisfy local and regional demand. In a large territorial empire with, by pre-industrial standards, unusually high levels of urbanisation (particularly in its core areas) this implied productive local and regional agricultural economies and burgeoning, highly diversified urban manufacturing, service and commercial sectors, even in smaller cities. The demand that could not be met locally or regionally, moreover, was catered for through an intricate web of interregional commerce. This paper starts from a simple question: how did those myriad individuals intending to produce and distribute goods and services in and around Roman cities and in and between regions and provinces gain access to credit (investment capital) and necessary capital goods?
There were days when Roman economic history was limited to culling small bits and pieces from lit... more There were days when Roman economic history was limited to culling small bits and pieces from literary accounts and concluding that the ancient economies fundamentally differed from what contemporary theory assumed any economy should try to achieve: growth, profit-making, increasing efficiency and rational decision-making. Times have changed, and for the better. Material remains, monumental inscriptions, papyri and instrumentum domesticum have all shown to make important if very diverse contributions to economic history. The final category in particular, that of inscribed and stamped objects of various nature, holds promising potential to be engaged in the debate on structure and performance of ancient economies. Nevertheless, despite this recognition some categories of epigraphy requiring specialist knowledge tend to remain the playing field of a small number of experts. The painted inscriptions (tituli picti) on amphorae for instance pose a major challenge for historians, because of the often very fragmentary nature of the texts, the difficulties in deciphering them and the many ambiguities that remain in interpreting the data. As a consequence their potential often fails to be recognized. Here I intend to explore the various contributions the so-called tituli picti alpha, beta, gamma and delta, especially in combination with amphora stamps, monumental epigraphy and literary sources, can make to economic history.
Despite the prominence of the textile industry in pre-industrial economies, surprisingly little e... more Despite the prominence of the textile industry in pre-industrial economies, surprisingly little effort has been made to integrate this sector into the larger debate on structure and performance of the Roman economy, maybe because the prevalent models of ancient economies still find it difficult to incorporate textiles in a framework in which there was little place for large-scale urban production and exchange, or because of the difficult nature of ancient sources. An interesting attempt however to give the textile industry its due place in Roman economic history is the model developed in several articles by Drinkwater, who relies heavily on comparative evidence and comes to some remarkable conclusions on the (in)efficiency of Roman woollen industry and its place in the wider economy. This paper will assess the validity of this model and its consequences for the organization of Roman textile production and trade. I will argue that the model needs some major adjustments, mainly because the adduced comparative evidence cannot be applied to the framework within which the Roman economy was situated. The medieval textile industry operated in an essentially different social and political structure from its Roman counterpart.
La cooperation, l’interaction et competition. L’economie du nomadisme pastoral dans l’Afrique imp... more La cooperation, l’interaction et competition. L’economie du nomadisme pastoral dans l’Afrique imperiale. ; L’interaction entre le pouvoir romain et les communautes nomades en Afrique a provoque des contraintes et des limitations de l’economie traditionnelle, mais dans le meme temps a cree de nouvelles opportunites. La presence de Rome n’eut donc pas seulement un impact negatif, mais a egalement permis une meilleure integration des tribus nomades dans l’economie imperiale.
Summary This paper provides a social network analysis of the business communities in Pompeii and ... more Summary This paper provides a social network analysis of the business communities in Pompeii and Puteoli, viewed through the lens of the archives of Caecilius Iucundus and the Sulpicii. This approach reveals how entrepreneurs tried to create trust and select reliable witnesses in two very different trading worlds. I argue first that the presence of an ‚international‘ business community in Puteoli necessitated the careful selection of witnesses among colleagues in trade, who were acquainted with someone’s reputation and trustworthiness. In Pompeii on the other hand, the local level of exchange allowed bankers and businessmen to operate in a face-to-face community, where experience in trade was not considered to be a vital criterion to be selected as a witness.
From Archaic Greece until the Late Roman Empire (c. 800 BCE to c. 500 CE), food was more than a p... more From Archaic Greece until the Late Roman Empire (c. 800 BCE to c. 500 CE), food was more than a physical necessity; it was a critical factor in politics, economics and culture. On the one hand, the Mediterranean landscape and climate encouraged particular crops – notably cereals, vines and olives – but, with the risks of crop failure ever-present, control of food resources was vital to economic and political power. On the other hand, diet and dining reflected complex social hierarchies and relationships. What was eaten, with whom and when was a fundamental part of the expression of one’s role and place in society. In addition, symbolism and ritual suffused foodstuffs, their preparation and consumption. A Cultural History of Food in Antiquity presents an overview of the period with essays on food production, food systems, food security, safety and crises, food and politics, eating out, professional cooking, kitchens and service work, family and domesticity, body and soul, representat...
During the last decade, the field of ancient history and classics has witnessed a slow but steady... more During the last decade, the field of ancient history and classics has witnessed a slow but steady increase of publications applying to Greco-Roman history the concepts of social network analysis (SNA), a methodology originally developed in sociology but gradually picked up by other disciplines as well (including the Humanities and History). While initially mainly introducing the concept of networks and connectivity in a metaphorical sense, recent research increasingly turned to the more quantitative aspects of network analysis. It is therefore quite remarkable that few attempts have been made to apply the tools of formal network analysis to a research topic ideally suited for this particular approach, viz. Greco-Roman politics. Literary sources, inscriptions and papyri offer a wealth of information on municipal and imperial elites, careers, selection procedures, and most importantly, the ties of family, marriage, friendship, patronage, and bribery that connected them. As the case studies in this special, guest-edited issue of The Journal of Historical Network Research shows, SNA promises to offer new perspectives on a research field mainly dominated by more traditional prosopographical studies and at the same time provide a powerful tool for analyzing and visualizing social and political connections in ancient societies.
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Papers by Wim Broekaert