Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-m6dg7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-03T01:06:40.445Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

22 - The Early Roman Empire: Consumption

from Part VI - The Early Roman Empire

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 March 2008

Willem Jongman
Affiliation:
University of Groningen
Walter Scheidel
Affiliation:
Stanford University, California
Ian Morris
Affiliation:
Stanford University, California
Richard P. Saller
Affiliation:
Stanford University, California
Get access

Summary

confusing images

Mons Claudianus is a desolate quarry site in the mountains of the eastern Egyptian desert. Dry, hot, and inhospitable, it looks like a settlement on Mars. It rains perhaps once a decade, but not in between. No one would ever choose to live there, if it were not for the grey stone (granodiorite) that was used in the grandest of Rome’s imperial building projects. From the middle of the first century ad to the middle of the second century groups of workmen cut (mostly large) columns from the mountain face, and shaped them close to their final size – to reduce the travel weight as much as was practical. Then, these columns were moved to the Nile on huge carts, pulled by large numbers of animals, and perhaps also by even larger numbers of humans. From there they were largely or exclusively shipped to Rome. Those who worked on Mons Claudianus and the neighboring site of Mons Porphyrites were treated well, and like oil rig workers enjoyed a comparatively high standard of living, including a bath-house. The last quarrying probably occurred in the reign of the emperor Severus Alexander (ad 222–35), after which the site appears to have been abandoned. When Diocletian wanted to celebrate his restoration of Roman power, it was precisely four reused or stockpiled columns of granodiorite from Mons Claudianus that he included in his baths in Rome and in his palace in Split.

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2007

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Adams, C. and Laurence, R., eds. (2001) Travel and Geography in the Roman Empire. London.
Baehrel, R. (1961) Une croissance: la Basse-Provence rurale (fin du XVIe siècle –1789). Paris.
Bisel, S. C. and Bisel, J. F. (2002) “Health and nutrition at Herculaneum. An examination of human skeletal remains,” in Jashemski, W. F. and Meyer, F. G., eds., The Natural History of Pompeii.Cambridge.Google Scholar
Brenner, R. (1976) “Agrarian class structure and economic development in pre-industrial Europe,” P & P 70.Google Scholar
Clark, C. and Haswell, M. (1967) The Economics of Subsistence Agriculture, 3rd edn. London.
DeLaine, J. (1997) The Baths of Caracalla. A Study in the Design, Construction and Economics of Large-Scale Building Projects in Imperial Rome. Portsmouth, RI.
Dodge, H. (1991) “Ancient marble studies: recent research,” JRA 4.Google Scholar
Domar, E. D. (1970) “The causes of slavery or serfdom: a hypothesis,” Journal of Economic History 30.Google Scholar
Duncan-Jones, R. P. (1982) The Economy of the Roman Empire. Quantitative Studies, 2nd edn. Cambridge.
Finley, M. I. (1980) Ancient Slavery and Modern Ideology. London.
Fogel, R. W. (1985) “Nutrition and the decline in mortality since 1700: some preliminary findings,” in Engerman, S. L. and Gallmann, R. E., eds., Long-Term Factors in American Economic Growth.Chicago.Google Scholar
Foxhall, L. and Forbes, H. A. (1982) “Sitometreia. The role of grain as a staple food in classical antiquity,” Chiron 12.Google Scholar
Garnsey, P. (1988) Famine and Food Supply in the Graeco-Roman World: Responses to Risk and Crisis. Cambridge.
Goldsmith, R. W. (1987) Premodern Financial Systems. A Historical Comparative Study. Cambridge.
Hopkins, K. (1978b) “Economic growth and towns in classical antiquity,” in Abrams, P. and Wrigley, E. A., eds., Towns in Societies: Essays in Economic History and Historical Sociology.Cambridge.Google Scholar
Jongman, W. (2000a) “Hunger and power. Theories, models, and methods in Roman economic history,” in Bongenaar, A. C. V. M., ed., Interdependency of Institutions and Private Entrepreneurs.Leiden.Google Scholar
Jongman, W. (1988a) The Economy and Society of Pompeii. Amsterdam.
Jongman, W. (2000b) “Wool and the textile industry of Roman Italy: a working hypothesis,” in Lo Cascio, , ed. (2000c).Bari.
Jongman, W. (2001a) “Roma II: Bevölkerung und Wirtschaft der Stadt Rom, A. Bevölkerung,” in Cancik, and Schneider, , eds. (2001), vol. III.
Jongman, W. (2002) “Beneficial symbols. Alimenta and the infantilization of the Roman citizen,”in Jongman, W. and Kleijwegt, M., eds., After the Past. Essays in Ancient History in Honour of H. W. Pleket.Leiden.Google Scholar
Jongman, W. and Dekker, R. (1989) “Public intervention in the food supply in pre-industrial Europe,” in Halstead, and O’Shea, , eds. (1989).
Jouffroy, H. (1986) La construction publique en Italie et dans l’Afrique romaine. Strasbourg.
King, A. (1999) “Diet in the Roman world: a regional inter-site comparison of the mammal bones,” JRA 12.Google Scholar
Kron, G. (2005) “Anthropometry, physical anthropology and the reconstruction of ancient health, nutrition, and living standards,” Historia 54.Google Scholar
MacKinnon, M. (2004) Production and Consumption of Animals in Roman Italy: Integrating the Zooarchaeological and Textual Evidence. Portsmouth, RI: JRA Supp. vol. 54.
Maxfield, V. A. and Peacock, D. (2001) Survey and Excavations. Mons Claudianus II Excavations part I. Cairo.
Mouritsen, H. (1998) “The album of Canusium and the town councils of Roman Italy,” Chiron 28.Google Scholar
Pavis, d’Escurac H. (1976) La préfecture de l’annone. Service administratif impérial d’Auguste à Constantin. Rome.
Peacock, D. P. S. (1980) “The Roman millstone trade: a petrological sketch,” World Archaeology 12.Google Scholar
Percival, J. (1976) The Roman Villa. An Historical Introduction. London.
Purcell, N. (1985) “Wine and wealth in ancient Italy,” JRS 75.Google Scholar
Rickman, G. (1980) The Corn Supply of Ancient Rome Oxford.
Robbins, L. (1937) An Essay on the Nature and Significance of Economic Science. 2nd edn. London.
Rostovtzeff, M. I. (1941) The Social and Economic History of the Hellenistic World. 3 vols. Oxford.
Scobie, A. (1986) “Slums, sanitation, and mortality in the Roman world,” Klio 68.Google Scholar
Shirley, E. A. M. (2000) The Construction of the Roman Legionary Fortress at Inchtuthil. Oxford.
Van der Veen, M. (1989) “Native communities in the frontier zone: uniformity or diversity?,” in Maxfield, V. A. and Dobson, M. J., eds., Roman Frontier Studies 1989.Exeter Google Scholar
Virlouvet, C. (1985) Famines et émeutes à Rome des origines de la République à la mort de Néron. Rome.
Wallace-Hadrill, A. (1994) Houses and Society in Pompeii and Herculaneum. Princeton.
Wrigley, E. A. (1988) Continuity, Chance, and Change. The Character of the Industrial Revolution in England. Cambridge.

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×