Aspects Of The Economic Organization Of The Roman Household During The Late Republic And Early Principate

The contributors to this volume provide an accessible and jargon-free insight into the notion of the Roman city; what shaped it, and how it both structured and reflected Roman society. Roman Urbanism challenges the established economic model for the Roman city and instead offers original and diverse approaches for examining Roman urbanization, bringing the Roman city into the nineties. Roman Urbanism is a lively and informative volume, particularly valuable in an age dominated by urban development.

This book is the first to address, from a variety of perspectives, the economy of the Roman city of Pompeii. It uses archaeological and textual evidence to discuss topics as diverse as agriculture in the fertile plains at the foot of mount Vesuvius, diet and health, manufacturing, urban investment, consumption, trade and money.

In this, the first comprehensive survey of the economies of classical antiquity, twenty-eight chapters summarise the current state of scholarship in their specialised fields and sketch new directions for research. They reflect a new interest in economic growth in antiquity and develop new methods for measuring economic development, often combining textual and archaeological data that have previously been treated separately.

This second edition examines all aspects of Roman history, and contains a new introduction, three new chapters and updated bibliographies.

This work will be comprised in six volumes. According to the plan which I have provisionally laid down, the second volume will cover the period from 104 to 70 B.C., ending with the first consulship of Pompeius and Crassus; the third, the period from 70 to 44 B.C., closing with the death of Caesar; the fourth volume will probably be occupied by the Third Civil War and the rule of Augustus, while the fifth and sixth will cover the reigns of the Emperors to the accession of Vespasian. The original sources, on which the greater part of the contents of the present volume is based, have been collected during the last few years by Miss Clay and myself, and have already been published in an abbreviated form. Some idea of the debt which I owe to modern authors may be gathered from the references in the footnotes. As I have often, for the sake of brevity, cited the works of these authors by shortened and incomplete titles, I have thought it advisable to add to the volume a list of the full titles of the works referred to. But the list makes no pretence to be a full bibliography of the period of history with which this volume deals. The map of the Wäd Mellag and its surrounding territory, which I have inserted to illustrate the probable site of the battle of the Muthul, is taken from the map of the "Medjerda supérieure" which appears in M. Salomon Reinach's Atlas de la Province Romaine d'Afrique. I am very much indebted to my friend and former pupil, Mr. E.J. Harding, of Hertford College, for the ungrudging labour which he has bestowed on the proofs of the whole of this volume. Many improvements in the form of the work are due to his perspicacity and judgment.

This book presents a challenge to the long held view that the predominantly agricultural economies of ancient Greece and Rome were underdeveloped. It shows that the exploitation of natural resources, manufacturing and the building trade all made significant contributions to classical economies. It will be an indispensable resource for those interested in the period.

During the first, stable period of the Principate (roughly from 27 BC to AD 235), when the empire reached its maximum extent, Roman society and culture were radically transformed. But how was the vast territory of the empire controlled? Did the demands of central government stimulate economic growth, or endanger survival? What forces of cohesion operated to balance the social and economic inequalities and high mortality rates? Why did Roman governments freeze the official religion while allowing the diffusion of alien, especially oriental, cults? Are we to see in their attitude to Christianity a policy of toleration—or simply confusion and a failure of nerve? These are some of the many questions posed in this book, which offers the first overall account of the society, economy and culture of the Roman empire. Addressed to non-specialist readers no less than to scholars, it breaks with the traditional historian's preoccupation with narrative and politics. As an integrated study of the life and outlook of the ordinary inhabitants of the Roman world, it deepens our understanding of the underlying factors in this important formative period of world history.