Roman Economic History

Roman businessmen evidently faced a paradox. The requirements of ancient law made it impossible for them to convert into liquidity at any time the financial belongings at their disposal in the form of receivables; yet these were nevertheless considered to be intangible assets according to the classification of Gaius, the eminent law professor of the second half of the 2nd century. This ancient situation was so singular that it drew the attention of several French and German jurists throughout the second half of the 19th century , even inspiring several theses. What emerged is that nothing was set in stone. Well before the establishment of the Empire, in the late centuries of the Republic, innovations were introduced to refinance receivables . Later, imperial chanceries would perfect these legal institutions and go almost so far as to create financial instruments, while the tragic political crisis of the 3rd century spread.

Lead pollution in Arctic ice reflects mid-latitude emissions from ancient
lead-silver mining and smelting. The few reported measurements
have been extrapolated to infer the performance of ancient
economies, including comparisons of economic productivity and
growth during the Roman Republican and Imperial periods. These
studies were based on sparse sampling and inaccurate dating,
limiting understanding of trends and specific linkages. Here we
show, using a precisely dated record of estimated lead emissions
between 1100 B.C.E. and 800 C.E. derived from sub-annually resolved
measurements in Greenland ice and detailed atmospheric
transport modeling, that annual European lead emissions closely
varied with historical events including imperial expansion, wars,
and major plagues. Emissions rose coeval with Phoenician expansion,
accelerated during expanded Carthaginian and Roman
mining primarily in the Iberian Peninsula, and reached a maximum
under the Roman Empire. Emissions fluctuated synchronously with
wars and political instability particularly during the Roman Republic,
and plunged coincident with two major plagues in the 2nd
and 3rd centuries, remaining low for >500 years. Bullion in silver
coinage declined in parallel, reflecting the importance of leadsilver
mining in ancient economies. Our results indicate sustained
economic growth during the first two centuries of the Roman
Empire, terminated by the 2nd-century Antonine plague.

This paper examines the relationship between the design and use of mechanical technology, patronage and investment, and economic return, using three main case studies: water-lifting devices, the water-powered grain mill, and the diverse uses of water-power in mining. Water-power was used on a wide scale and in diversified forms at an early date (by the first century A.D.), and the use of mechanical technology to perform economically critical work had an important impact on economic performance and the potential for per capita growth, especially in the latter centuries B.C. and the first two centuries A.D. Conversely, in the third century A.D. the cessation of the employment of hydraulic mining techniques enabling large-scale extraction of gold and other metals may have had an adverse impact on the economy as a whole. Growth and progress do not necessarily follow a linear pattern of advance; technologies are lost as well as adopted.

This article examines the evidence for production activities in the cities of Roman North Africa and shows how the importance of urban craft production has been largely overlooked in many discussions of the ancient economy. It is usually difficult to determine the true scale of urban production activities without extensive excavation, since workshops were often quite small; they may, however, have been numerous and scattered throughout a city. Excavations of the scale required are rarely achievable with today's techniques; two sites excavated in the first half of the twentieth century, however, reveal a situation characterized by a number of workshops: 22 fulleries at Timgad and 18 establishments for salting fish in Sabratha. Urban surface survey is suggested here as the best method to investigate sites where it is feasible, in order to identify the extent of the deposits of waste production, with the help of geophysical surveys to locate ovens and furnaces, and excavation to investigage specific areas. This combination of techniques has been successfully tested at Leptiminus, Meninx and Thamusida, and has allowed us to identify the presence of production activities for ceramics, metal working, and the extraction of purple dye. The evidence emerging from recent archaeological investigations suggests that the contribution of craft manufacture to the economy of Roman cities was potentially significant, while the aggregate scale of production in the sites discussed indicates a much larger role for craft activities than has usually been considered. The model of the 'consumer city' does not seem suitable for many Roman cities, and attempts to describe the economy of Roman urbanism should pay more attention to the role of cities in networks of local, regional, and long-distance trade.

Questo articolo esamina l'evidenza per le attività industriali nelle città del nord Africa romano e dimostra come l'importanza della produzione artigianale urbana sia stata largamente sottovalutata in molte discussioni di economia antica. Di solito è difficile stabilire la giusta scala delle attività produttive urbane senza effettuare degli scavi estensivi, visto che i laboratori erano molto spesso piuttosto piccoli; ciò non toglie che essi potrebbero essere stati comunque numerosi e distribuiti all'interno della città. Scavi della estensione necessaria non sono irrealizzabili con le tecniche odierne; due siti scavati nella prima metà del ventesimo secolo hanno infatti portato alla luce un quadro caratterizzato da numerosi laboratori: 22 fulloniche a Timgad e 18 stabilimenti per la salatura del pesce a Sabratha. La ricognizione di superficie viene qui indicata come il metodo migliore per effettuare ricerche nei siti che lo consentono, al fine di identificare l'ampiezza dei depositi di rifiuti di fabbricazione, con l'aiuto di indagini geofisiche per trovare forni e fornaci, e scavi di alcune aree specifiche. Questo tipo di tecniche è stato sperimentato con successo a Leptiminus, Meninx e Thamusida, e ha permesso di identificare la presenza di attività di produzione ceramica, lavoro dei metalli e dell'industria per l'estrazione della porpora per la tintura. L'evidenza che emerge dalle recenti indagini archeologiche suggerisce che il contributo dell'industria cittadina all'economia delle città antiche fosse potenzialmente significativo, mentre la scala di produzione nei siti discussi indica un carattere artigianale della vita di queste città molto più consistente di quanto non sia stato di solito ritenuto. Il modello della 'città di consumo' non sembra adattarsi completamente a molte delle città romane, e i tentativi di descrizione dell'economia dell'urbanismo romano dovrebbero prestare più attenzione al ruolo delle città nelle reti di commercio locale, regionale e su lunga distanza.

The introduction outlines the current debate over the size and nature of the agricultural economy and its importance within the Roman economy as a whole, addressing the use of models and summarising some of the possible approaches from available datasets, such as the study of patterns of large-scale investment from sites with batteries of multiple oil and wine presses which indicate elite investment in market-oriented agricultural production. It situates each of the chapters in the volume within this wider framework of study, and discusses regional variation and chronological trends, issues of land and labour, whether or not the Roman state had any conscious economic policy towards agriculture, and the articulation of agrarian production with other sectors of the economy.

This volume presents an introduction and nine papers by Roman historians and archaeologists, discussing methods of analysing the organisation and performance of the agrarian sector of the economy of the Mediterranean world under Roman imperial rule in the period c. 100 BC to AD 350. The papers exemplify a range of possible approaches to studying and, within limits, quantifying aspects of agricultural production in the Roman world, and casting light on the structure and performance of that sector of the economy, on the basis of widely different sources of evidence – historical, papyrological and archaeological. The volume aims to move substantially beyond the simple assumption that agriculture was the dominant sector of the ancient economy, and to explore what was special and distinctive about the Roman economy in terms, for example, of state involvement and institutional infrastructure, or the phenomenon of market-oriented surplus production based around the villa system. What is especially new and distinctive about this book is its focus on marshalling a large quantity of evidence, both archaeological and documentary, to address large questions of the structure and performance of the agricultural economy of the Roman world. In particular, it offers a means of analysing investment in agricultural facilities, and tracks variation in patterns across time and across regions within the empire.

This paper examines changes and developments in the nature and volume of maritime trade between 200 BC and AD 1000. A database of 1462 Mediterranean shipwrecks shows a rise in numbers of known wrecks from the sixth century BC to a peak in the first century AD, with a sharp drop in the second century, and a further decline in numbers from the fourth to seventh centuries. Significant differences between the wreck dataset and evidence from traded goods on land suggest that one or more factors are distorting the wreck dataset, among which are possibly the increase in the use of barrels as a container during the Roman period, and the relative lack of investigation of the North African coast. While the rise in wreck numbers in the Hellenistic and early Roman periods can be taken as a reflection of an increase in the volume and intensity of maritime trade, the reverse is not straightforwardly true for the Roman and late Roman periods.
Evidence from ship construction and harbour technology however supports the idea that Hellenistic and Roman periods saw the highpoint of Mediterranean maritime trade before the sixteenth century AD. Large ships of several hundred tons, with up to three masts and three decks, are known from these period; but not beforehand, and not afterwards until well into the Middle Ages. One enabling technology for such large ships was the chain pump for the bilge, attested from the late second century BC until the seventh century AD, and then not again until the fifteenth century. These largest ships disappear after the collapse of the western Roman empire, reflecting greater insecurity, more fragmented markets, and a breakdown of institutional incentives for investment in large shipping. The smaller lateen-rigged craft of the early middle ages needed neither a bilge pump nor the large area of sail provided by the square rig.
Harbour technology shows a parallel development. Hellenistic harbour works with enclosing moles enabled the protection of much larger areas of water than had, for example, the Phoenician and Punic cothons or excavated harbour basins; Roman hydraulic concrete further increased the potential for building large artifical harbours with large areas of wharfage and warehousing. Hellenistic and Roman mechanical technology was vital to the smooth functioning of these larger ports—cranes for the rapid loading and unloading of heavy cargoes, and dredging vessels to combat silting and maintain the necessary depth of water.
The driving force behind these changes was an economic expansion made possible by the increasing unification of the Mediterranean in the Hellenistic period and then especially under the authority of Rome, accompanied by institutional developments in laws of contract, maritime loans, sea laws, a single monetary system, and state incentives for investment in shipping. With the breakdown of the Roman empire, many of these institutions also disappeared. The period of the Late Republic and High Empire thus saw the emergence of large merchant shipping, on a scale not seen again until the twelfth or thirteenth centuries, that was made possible by a number of factors: technological, political, and institutional.

The Marble Stoa at Hierapolis was a representative marble portico, which was funded by a local elite family in the middle of the 1st century AD. The aim of this paper is to assess the socio-economic dimensions of this building project by a tentative reconstruction of its logistics, schedule and labour force. Pre-industrial construction techniques and the management of building materials and human resources are put into perspective by the comparison with data derived from 19th century building manuals. The
construction effort is estimated in man-hours and man-days. Based on this estimate, a model for the organization of the building site, the most probable duration of the building project and the seasonal demands for unskilled and skilled workers are elaborated. This estimate is finally translated into hypothetical building costs by drawing upon the evidence for wages and prices under the early Empire. The results of this analysis do not only add to our understanding of wider socio-economic processes, but also to a more differentiated assessment of local euergetism in Roman Asia Minor.

This interdisciplinary volume presents eighteen papers by Roman historians and archaeologists, discussing trade in the Roman empire in the period c. 100 BC to AD 350, and in particular the role of the Roman state, in shaping the institutional framework for trade within and outside the empire, in taxing that trade, and in intervening in the markets to ensure the supply of particular commodities, especially for the city of Rome and for the army.

An introductory chapter by the editors sets the scene within the context of scholarly debate over the scale, nature and importance of Roman trade since the mid twentieth centuries. The chapters in this volume address facets of the subject on the basis of widely different sources of evidence—historical, papyrological and archaeological—and are grouped in three sections. Many of the major institutional factors are discussed in the first section: taxation by Alan Bowman (chapter 2); the legal structures by Boudewijn Sirks (chapter 3); market regulation and transaction costs by Elio Lo Cascio (chapter 4); Republican financial institutions by Philip Kay (chapter 5). A picture begins to emerge of heavy state involvement in establishing institutional frameworks conducive to trade, including provision of transport infrastructure, and, notably, interventions in the market to distort flows of particular goods, whether staples such as grain or olive oil, or luxuries such as marble, to particular concentrations of demands, principally Rome and the army garrisons. But this seems to have been done by the engagement of private contractors, in a way which stimulated private trade on the back of it: Colin Adams’ chapter on Nile transport (chapter 6) points out the incentives or subsidies carrying a private cargo as a supplement to a state cargo, and thus how the imbrication of state and private transport subsidised private trade.

The second and third sections concentrate on internal and external (long-distance) trade, respectively. Among the underlying questions of economic performance, we include: how widely available were different kinds of goods, and what determined differences in availability? How successfully did transport infrastructure provision enable goods to be moved, or did high transport costs deter long-distance land movement? The (predominantly archaeological) evidence reviewed in Part II gives the impression that access to resources via long-distance trade corrected some imbalances in natural reserves, for example in timber (chapter 7), and that traded goods (glass, chapter 9; pottery, chapters 10–12; and metals) were widely and effectively distributed. In normal circumstances, the transport systems, institutional framework, market concentrations of demand, worked pretty well for a preindustrial society. But there is anecdotal evidence of famines which could not be alleviated in time, given the slow transport and communication speeds of a preindustrial world. Although much of the evidence for the scale and reach of Roman trade comes from pottery, since that is one of the most archaeologically durable and traceable commodities, a particularly important feature of this volume is that several papers show what can be done with other goods: timber (William Harris, chapter 7), glass (Daniele Foy, chapter 9), stone (Ben Russell, chapter 8), and even the service industry in cleaning textiles (Ivan Radman, chapter 13). A chapter by Emanuele Papi (ch. 14)  examines a particular province, Mauretania Tingitana, and demonstrates how recent archaeological work and a synthesis of what is known about amphorae production sites radically alter the perception of that province as largely isolated from Mediterranean trading networks.

The third and final section deals with trade beyond the boundaries of the empire, especially with India and the far East, a topic on which a mass of new data has become available in the last decade, largely as a result of archaeological excavations. David Graf provides a magisterial survey of the evidence for the development, extent and nature of trade via the so-called ‘Silk Roads’ (chapter 15) The Silk Road trade at the Chinese end originated epiphenomenally on the practice of state tribute and diplomatic embassies, as tribute in kind and diplomatic gifts were resold by their enterprising recipients. As trade developed along the routes westward and gained its own momentum, its value was harnessed by the Chinese and Roman states in the form of heavy customs dues.
Roberta Tomber and Dario Nappo argue, on the basis of ceramic and numismatic evidence respectively, that contrary to a widespread view trade between the Roman world and India had not declined by the mid second century, but remained buoyant at least until the Antonine period. Barbara Davidde’s paper illustrates the role that Arabian ports played in this trade with India and also with the products of Arabia. Qana’ was receiving Campanian, Laodicaean and Egyptian wine, and even wine from Spain and the Black Sea. Some of this was clearly traded in return for frankincense from the interior of Yemen; but some will have been bought for onward shipment to the ports of northern India, and Indian goods would have gone the other way.

Overall, the papers suggest a mixed picture of the development of patterns of trade across the empire, especially in the third and fourth centuries, and no definitive or widely applicable conclusion about ‘economic collapse’. Rome’s external trade with realms to the east emerges as being of particular significance to the fisc. But in the eastern part of the empire at least, the state appears, in collaboration with the elite holders of wealth, to have adapted the mechanisms of taxation, both direct and indirect, to support its need for revenue. On the other hand, the price of that collaboration which was in effect a fiscal partnership, in slightly different forms in east and west, in the longer term fundamentally changed the political character of the empire.

The discovery of twelve denarii found individually between 1985 and 1991 at New Fordey Farm, Barway, Soham in Cambridgeshire complements finds of aurei and denarrii at the same location reported in 1958, 1979, 1981 and 1984. The presence of associated pottery sherds, and progressively decreasing wear from oldest to youngest coin, identify this as a disturbed hoard of at least 451 coins (the total found to date) with a closing date of AD 180 in the reign of Commodus (AD 180–92). This paper describes the most recent finds and places them in the context of the earlier reports and what is known of Roman activity in the immediate vicinity, before considering possible reasons for their deposition.

Il presente lavoro, incentrato sulla storia del lavoro e dei lavoratori nel mondo romano, si propone di ricostruire, attraverso l'epigrafia monumentale, l'identità e il profilo socio-economico di alcuni individui vissuti a Mutina o nel suo ager in età tardorepubblicana e altoimperiale. Si tratta di alcuni uomini e una donna le cui iscrizioni, di natura prevalentemente funeraria, ricordano diverse figure professionali: un aurifex, un copo,  un medicus, un negotians lanarius, un praeceptor, un tonsor, diversi vestiarii, un vicesimarius, un possibile unctor e una vilica. Nel testo si formulano inoltre alcune ipotesi in merito alle funzioni esercitate in ambito domestico dai cosiddetti "delicia" o "pueri delicati"; vengono infine analizzati i tre gentilizi di derivazione professionale finora attestati nel Modenese: Aerarius, Aurarius e Purpurarius. Quest'ultimo nome, in particolare, fino a oggi sembrerebbe attestato esclusivamente nella colonia di Mutina e nel suo ager.

The Eastern Commercial Revenue Model is a reconstruction of Roman finances in the first three centuries CE.  It represents a major departure from established academic narratives that sought to marginalise eastern trade. This document outlines source evidence for the construction of a different commercial model for the Imperial economy, by evidencing that trade conducted through the Indian Ocean generated approximately a third of Roman Revenues during the early imperial period.  It was constructed by using ancient evidence and making quantitative deductions from source testimony and archaeological remains. It has incorporated evidence for port facilities, naval technology, sailing schedules, trade networks, commodity exchanges, diplomatic relations, cultural contacts, and the use and consumption of foreign goods in ancient societies. The impact of this model as a framework for recent studies is then briefly reviewed.

"This article analyses a group of individuals in the territory of Roman Liburnia, who chose a Liburnian cippus as their tombstone. Their ethnicity and civic status have been analyzed, which led to the conclusion that these monuments were erected equally by immigrants and those who might have been either of immigrant or native origin, as opposed to the few erected by confirmed members of autochthonous population. Cippi belonging to the slaves were equally scarce. Liburnian cippi were erected also by freedmen, but not by soldiers. The analysis has shown that Liburnian cippi had been one of the most expensive Liburnian epigraphical monuments, which indicates that they were a specific status symbol of the wealthy population of Liburnia, regardless of their ethnicity, social class or civic status.

U radu se analizira grupa ljudi s područja antičke Liburnije koja je za nadgrobni spomenik odabrala liburnski cipus. Analizirani su njihova etnička pripadnost i građansko-pravni status, pri čemu se zaključilo da su te spomenike podjednako često postavljali doseljenici i oni koji su mogli biti bilo starosjedilačkog bilo doseljeničkog porijekla, za razliku od malobrojnih sigurno identificiranih pripadnika starosjedilačkog stanovništva. Podjednako su malobrojni cipusi koji su pripadali robovima. Liburnske cipuse postavljali su i oslobođenici, no ne i vojnici. Analiza je pokazala da su liburnski cipusi među najskupljim epigrafskim spomenicima Liburnije, što sve vodi ka zaključku da su oni bili svojevrstan statusni simbol imućnih žitelja Liburnije, neovisno o njihovoj etničkoj pripadnosti, društvenom sloju ili građansko-pravnom statusu."

This paper focuses on the potential contribution of wine and olive oil production to the agrarian economy of Adriatic central Italy between the 2nd century BC and the 2nd century AD. The study area assessed in this paper includes the Marche and northern Abruzzo. The application of a global approach incorporates the analysis of the available evidence in the countryside related to the manufacturing of wine and olive oil, and the cross-fertilization between archaeological, textual and ceramic documentation. It discusses its associated methodological problems and seeks to determine the production scale of these food products. It also raises the question whether the integration of our sources could allow for a deeper understanding of how these productions fitted within intra and extra regional economic networks.

A flood in 2009 in the Kayıkbaşı (Üçburgu)-Gökçebey/Tefen district where is nearly on the southern border of Tios, allowed the remains of a construction to come to light that calls to mind a customs warehouse along with the Filyos (Billaios) River where it meets with the Devrek (Ladon) River. As a result of the surface surveys and the archaeological excavations that were conducted in the area between 2010-2015, a great deal of potteries, amphora handles, coins and lead weigths came to light. Six Roman lead weights has been found in this area since 2010 and eight are known from the auction and epigraphic catalogues (without the findspot) which have the same features in terms of shape but different in size. These Roman weights of Tios bear the depictions of the busts of “Zeus and Dionysos”, “Zeus and Hermes”, “kerykeion and axe”, “bell and scales” or “weights and steelyard?” on their each side which are clearly the symbols of the trade. In addition to the names of “boule and demos of Tios”, it is also possible to read the titles and the names of the officials on some of the readable weights. All these lead weights presents us a clue about the function of the construction and the river, land and maritime trade of Tios.

Many histories of economic growth over the longue durée usually start around AD 1000, tracing a gradual growth in the early middle ages with the weakening of feudalism and the development of urbanism, markets and economic institutions. Long-run models and graphs of world economic performance tend to retroject the period before this as a more or less steady state, contributing to a view in which economic progress in preindustrial societies is minimal or gradual, but without engaging with the possibility of either sustained growth or serious economic collapse.
Building on recent work in archaeology and ancient history, however, we can extend the perspective back beyond the AD 1000 watershed, and open up some very different views. Increasingly, historians and archaeologists are attempting to grapple with these questions by using proxy data that may be thought to bear some relation to certain sectors of the economy, or to overall performance. Most of the proxies used have turned out to be problematic in one or another aspect, but this does not invalidate the exercise; probing the reasons for data bias leads to a better understanding of what the evidence actually does show.
In this paper I examine criteria for proxy construction and presentation, to reduce the misleading effects of graphing often imprecise data. I examine a number of commonly used proxies (shipwrecks, stature, lead and copper pollution, animal bone consumption), looking at their strengths and weaknessess. I also present some early attempts at constructing new proxies, some of which might hold greater promise but which currently either suffer from small sample sizes (fish-salting capacity, water-mills) or regionally uneven collection policies (building inscriptions), neither of which is an insuperable problem. The different pictures presented by archaeological, literary and documentary data for the same phenomena are compared, and the importance of regional disaggregation stressed. Finally, the paper tackles attempts to compare the trends suggested by several proxies.

A purse from the Republican Bathhouse at Regio VIII 5.36 in Pompeii, with 90 coins in it, is a revealing sample of the circulating medium of Pompeii in early 1st c. BC, when the flourishing market economies of central Italy had to make do with ad hoc solutions to the need for small change, which the supply of Roman coin did not meet. It contains Greek, Punic Ebusan and Roman coins, but the majority are coins of the Pompeian pseudo-mint. The Ebusan coins were probably imported as a block in the second half of the 2nd c., and then imitated by the pseudo-mint, which also imitated Massalia, a main partner in the wine trade. Of particular interest is the number of imitations of Rome, including anonymous quadrantes of the style of the moneyers’ coins of the late second c., at least some of which are probably from Minturnae.

L'epigramma III, 59 di Marziale offre lo spunto per riflettere sul ruolo delle categorie sociali subalterne nelle città romane, con particolare riferimento a Bononia e a Mutina, dove un ciabattino e un lavandaio, dice il poeta, offrirono spettacoli di gladiatori alle rispettive comunità. Marziale potrebbe avere citato due categorie professionali particolarmente umili (il sutor e il fullo) per evidenziare lo scandalo, tuttavia, è anche possibile che queste due citazioni nascondano precisi riferimenti all'economia e alla storia sociale delle due città emiliane.

Le monnayage de bronze dit “des préfets de la flotte” tient une part importante dans l’oeuvre de Michel Amandry, qui
a pris la suite de Max von Bahrfeldt sur ce sujet. En effet, ce ne sont pas moins de cinq catalogues raisonnés, avec leurs
révisions, qui ont été publiés par Michel entre 1986 et 2008. À ces articles, nous pouvons joindre plusieurs travaux de
réflexion ainsi que bien évidemment les sections correspondantes du Roman Provincial Coinage, dont Michel est l’un
des éminents contributeurs.
La reprise des frappes de bronze par des autorités romaines, interrompues depuis Sylla, n’avait certes pas attendu
Marc-Antoine : plusieurs séries sont émises sous l’autorité de Jules César et des fils de Pompée, Octave lui-même
produisant un monnayage abondant probablement de dupondii et d’asses à partir de 401. Mais les séries orientales de
Marc-Antoine, produites vraisemblablement entre 38 et 37 principalement en Grèce, échappent à l’ordinaire.
Outre la présence auprès
de Marc Antoine d’Octavie, deuxième femme romaine après Fulvia à être montrée de son vivant sur un monnayage
romain, le très large éventail des dénominations allant du sesterce au quadrans, l’introduction des unités monétaires
divisionnaires romaines en Orient, la résurrection du tressis et du dupondius, la symbolique utilisée pour rendre le
nouveau système intelligible, le bilinguisme et l’émission de très gros bronzes pour les sesterces, tous ces éléments
représentent autant d’innovations monétaires majeures.

L'articolo è dedicato allo studio del raro gentilizio Purpurarius, noto dalla metà degli anni '80 del secolo scorso e attestato finora solo a Mutina. Il presente contributo rappresenta anche l'occasione per confermare, a partire dalle indicazioni di Albino Garzetti, l'origine modenese della stele di Ti. Purpurarius Saturninus, che fu segnalata per la prima volta a Ossimo Inferiore ed è oggi conservata nel Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Cividate Camuno.

One of the very first consequences of vacationing, if not the first, is in fact a great banality: the person on vacation is both absent from his home, and he is present elsewhere. In the Roman world, the consequences of this situation were considerable when the citizen concerned was wealthy; they had both legal and financial effects. At the same time, a wealthy individual left the usual headquarters and centralizer of his economic activities, and went to reside in one of the other productive sites making up his heritage.
This change of location reversed current relations: the master was now present in a place where he was in principle absent, and, conversely, he was in an area that he usually supervised from a distance. Far from creating only difficulties, this turnaround offered rather advantages: where there had been a preposition until then, there was now the possibility for the teacher to carry out checks in person.
The effects of such controls were aimed primarily at the immediate interests of the owner, but, where appropriate, and in the longer term, those of the depositary of the preposition. These reports were of a strictly private nature, but they eventually attracted the attention of the imperial administration, as they could also have effects as regards

Most scholars agree that the Roman Empire experienced economic growth. However, the extent of that growth and whether or not it was per capita economic growth has been the focus of much scholarly debate. This study considers these issues for the benefit of the Hebrew reader and investigates whether or not Roman economic growth was subject to the constraints imposed by the demographic theory of Thomas Malthus, known as the 'Malthusian trap'.
The paper begins with a preliminary explanation of the Malthusian theory, followed by an introduction to the scholarly discourse on the ancient economy and its historiographic framework, including a short review of available economic indicators ( e.g. shipwrecks as evidence for trade, air pollution recorded in ice cores as evidence for metalwork, etc.), the paper questions the relevance of the Malthusian theory for explaining patterns of economic growth in the Roman Empire, especially the underlying hypothesis that improvements in production result in population growth. Although technological and institutional improvements promoted by Roman state authorities enabled the increase of production far beyond minimal subsistence levels, decisions regarding birth rates, hence population size, were influenced by culturally-based parameters more than consumption possibilities.
Given that the existing evidential basis for the Roman past does not allow to prove or refute a Malthusian scenario for the Roman world, the paper argues against the validity of a Malthusian scenario for the Roman economy. Based on differences in settlement patterns between the eastern and western parts of the empire, the paper stresses the institutional importance of urbanization processes and their impact on labor markets in the Roman world. Found on these, it reasons that other explanations better suite existing evidence for the history of economic growth in the Roman Empire than the Malthusian doctrine.

Il saggio è dedicato ad alcune figure professionali del mondo romano legate alla lavorazione e alla vendita dell'oro e di manufatti realizzati con questo metallo prezioso. Nel testo si analizzano in particolare le testimonianze epigrafiche di Roma e quelle di Mutina nel cui territorio, secondo un'antica tradizione popolare, sarebbe stato possibile estrarre masse aurifere.

Ancient economic history research the past decade has very much been focused on establishing economic growth. Looking for proxies to measure and translate into GDP changes. I will argue that this is not the most interesting question to ask. GDP itself is merely a proxy to measure quantity of production, distribution and consumption. A much more interesting approach is to look at development. How did the institutions and organisations that determined economic performance in the Roman world come to into being ? How did they change ? How did social structure change ? I will propose using the concepts of Amartya Sen’s development economics and the methodology of entitlement mapping to study how Roman guilds and religious clubs (collegia) developed in response to changing economic conditions and in turn themselves became part of these condition, affecting economic performance at large.

To understand the roman economy in the 2nd century B.C. is something that is not possible without being aware of the process how the Mediterranean World fused into a political whole, first under the influence and later under the rule of the Roman State. Constructing the economic history of this period is not possible without considering the globalisation that occurred in the Mediterranean political realm as well as the major changes in the social and economic spheres taking place in the Italian Peninsula. This context makes possible to lay down, first a relationship between the conquering process and the changes that came about in the field of the land property and its cultivation. A second relationship may still be established between the deep changes that occurred in the distribution of urban and rural populations on the one side, and, on the other side, the consumption structure, the origin of supplies and, in general, the changes in the economic tissue. Further consideration is given to the economic significance of the proceeds coming from the war along with the revenues that roman ruling officials and economic agents obtained while administering the imperial domain. The appetite for luxury goods that resulted from this process led in particular to the building of wealthy houses where fine mosaic pavements tended to be a common feature.

Recogemos en este volumen una serie de trabajos dedicados, unos a mostrar algunos aspectos vinculados a la investigación actual, relacionados con el estudio del instrumentum domesticum y la
economía romana. Otros son la primera muestra del desarrollo de los nuevos enfoques surgidos del proyecto ERC Advanced Grant Production and Distribution of Food during the Roman Empire:Economic and Political Dynamics (EPNet) (ERC-2013-ADG 340828).

Hasta ahora, la aplicación de métodos formales, nacidos fuera del ámbito de la investigación histórica, está poco desarrollada dentro de nuestra especialidad. La “ominosa cuestión” de los estudios de Historia Antigua es la falta de datos. Los modelos interpretativos de la economía antigua han partido siempre de análisis deductivos, que dependen siempre del grado de conocimientos del investigador y de sus apriorismos. A lo largo de estos años hemos conseguido reunir una gran cantidad de datos, muchos de los cuales pueden ser presentados como datos seriales gracias a la información obtenida en el Monte Testaccio. Es ésta una circunstancia, la abundancia de datos y el poder ordenar
cronológicamente muchos de ellos, es lo que permite los nuevos enfoques propuestos.

En última instancia se trata de confrontar los modelos y explicaciones hasta ahora ofrecidas dentro del ámbito histórico, con modelos formales nacidos dentro del ámbito de las ciencias matemáticas y en el ámbito de las ciencias de redes.

Además, estamos haciendo migrar nuestra base de datos CEIPAC, ya puesta en Internet en 1995, a un sistema ontológico de bases de datos, en el que, gracias a un sistema de metadatos, podamos interrelacionar diversas bases de datos que amplien nuestros conocimientos y la capacidad de relacionar multiples aspectos de la investigación.
Dado que los trabajos presentados proceden de ámbitos científicos en los que los sistemas de citación son diversos, se han respetado los sistemas propuestos por cada uno de los autores.

The innumerable trade people, mercatores, negotiatores or other magnarii, who were busy in the whole Roman world contributed to spreading multiple ways of life, not only that secreted by the only city of Rome, but also those of its conquests.  Through their labor, these economic actors spread specific features of the provinces throughout the empire; through their individual success, they also strengthened the social model of Rome there. The entrepreneur of the Roman world got involved in spite of himself in a double historical process, on the one hand by participating in the discovery by Rome of other customs and in their integration, and on the other hand by facilitating the conquest by Rome thanks to to the integration of its socio-economic uses in the provinces.

Very early in their history, the Romans decided to set up public archives. According to Plutarch, their primitive basis was financial: the first documents considered as archives were placed in 509 BC in the public treasury located in the temple of Saturn. Livy dates back to 444 BC, under the consulate of Lucius Valerius and Marcius Horatius, the custom of preserving and protecting the decrees of the senate by archiving them in the temple of Ceres. From that date, the cares to improve the public archives services were constant. Public archives were administered first by censors, then by quaestores urbani. In 16 AD Tiberius replaced these agents by curatores tabularum publicarum; in 56, Nero replaced them by praefecti, former praetores. Besides the archives collected and centralized in Rome, and concerning the whole Empire or only the Urbs, there were also provincial, municipal, military and religious archives. The texts report that before the creation of public archiving services, there was some confusion associated with public archives with those of powerful figures. This reflex for important Roman individuals to constitute and preserve archives seems to be the origin of a custom. To justify it, Cicero evoked the respect of the mos maiorum, a custom and not an argument of positive law. However, in accounting matters, adjustments seem to have been made over time according to the texts of Roman law. To better understand the content of these accounting records, it may be useful to compare them with similar documents from later periods.

The long stability of the Roman Empire encouraged the development of important trade flows. They gradually extended far beyond the geographic limits of the space that Rome controlled. Numerous information, literary and sometimes even archaeological, attest to their existence: one can quote the maritime exchanges with India or terrestrial with the distant Seres - the Chinese.
However, little is known about the day-to-day organization of ancient commerce and its details. As human nature is mostly sensitive to exploits and successes, Latin sources have remained largely silent about economic, commercial or financial failures. It is much easier to read texts where people are enriched by their industry in business than ruined. It would be naïve, however, to believe that economic rout did not exist in this world. Words are there to contradict it. There is indeed a Latin word which refers to the notion of bankruptcy a failure: it is decoctio. The Latinist scholar quickly recognizes the culinary origin of this word with its root coquere, to cook. Decoctio is the noun of the verb decoquere, to reduce by cooking. The Ancients were wary of this phenomenon at the point to have established a judicial resolution in economic matters.
The Roman jurists clearly identified risky activities and wrote about them. When the risk materialized and led someone to impecuniosity, this person fell under the scope of legal procedures as precise as they were implacable.

Questa ricerca, presentata in occasione del convegno "Ruri. Abitare nel territorio. La Regio VIII dall'età romana all'alto medioevo" (Bologna. 22-23 marzo 2017), coinvolge alcune interessanti iscrizioni emiliane di età romana che ricordano l'esercizio di funzioni e mestieri in ambito rurale. Le fonti esaminate consentono ad esempio di riflettere su questioni come il possesso, la custodia e l'amministrazione degli spazi rurali, ma anche su attività come l'allevamento e la lavorazione dei prodotti secondari.
Il dato più significativo che emerge dall'indagine, tuttavia, è forse l'orgoglio con cui gli antichi vilici, i dispensatores e altri professionisti vollero trasmettere attraverso l'epigrafia monumentale il ricordo della propria occupazione.

Il contributo descrive un metodo per calcolare i valori economici dei monumenti epigrafici. Il metodo si basa sugli elementi principali della lavorazione del monumento, come per es. il materiale, la decorazione, le dimensioni, ecc. Il metodo è ancora "in costruzione" e perciò imperfetto, o - se vogliamo - sperimentale. Nonostante ciò, alcuni risultati che ci ha dato mostrano il suo potenziale. L'analisi ha mostrato che, benchè questo metodo non possa servire a determinare i valori (cioè, i prezzi) assoluti dei monumenti, esso può servire a comparare tra loro i valori dei monumenti esaminati e, indirettamente, lo stato economico di coloro che erigevano questi monumenti, almeno a quanto riguarda lo stato economico della classe militare.

This interdisciplinary volume presents nineteen chapters by Roman historians and archaeologists, discussing trade in the Roman Empire in the period c.100 BC to AD 350, and in particular the role of the Roman state, in shaping the institutional framework for trade within and outside the Empire, in taxing that trade, and in intervening in the markets to ensure the supply of particular commodities, especially for the city of Rome and for the army. The chapters in this volume address facets of the subject on the basis of widely different sources of evidence—historical, papyrological, and archaeological—and are grouped in three sections: institutional factors (taxation, legal structures, market regulation, financial institutions); evidence for long-distance trade within the Empire, in wood, stone, glass, and pottery; and trade beyond the frontiers, with the East (as far as China), India, Arabia, and the Red Sea, and the Sahara. Rome’s external trade with realms to the east emerges as bei...