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Notes on Roman Commerce

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 September 2012

Tenney Frank
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Extract

The immense mound of many million broken jars known as Monte Testaccio—still to be seen at the old emporium of Rome—provides in the trade-marks some material not elsewhere available for the study of Roman commerce; and Dressel's publication of many hundred of these marks (CIL xv, 2) deserves the highest praise for the patience expended in their transcription, despite the fact that later scholars have had to correct many of the conclusions that Dressel ventured to draw from them.

Since not a single one of these jars has been discovered unbroken, we must gain our knowledge of the customary items from the fragments of several jars. These items, not always found in the same order, are usually the following :

(1) The potter's trade-mark (usually the initials of the potter's name) was stamped on the handle before the jar was baked. See CIL xv, 2, nos. 2558 ff., for these.

(2) At the foreign customs or shipping office the full jar was marked in bold brush strokes with the weight of the empty jar, the name of the shipper (owner), and the weight of the full jar, thus :

(The shipper usually owned his cargo, hence the genitive form of his name.)

(3) By the side of an inscription of this kind there occurs another in smaller lettering containing a number of items that concern the customs house as well as the shipper—e.g. no. 4366 :

The interpretation is probably as follows (cf. Am. Jour. Phil. 1936, 87 ff.):

‘Received ; Hispalis ; value 20 sest. ; weight 215 lbs. ; from estate of Capito ; export duty : 2 asses; name of clerk; consular date (A.D. 179).’

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Roman Studies , Volume 27 , Issue 1: Papers Presented to Sir Henry Stuart Jones , 1937 , pp. 72 - 79
Copyright
Copyright ©Tenney Frank 1937. Exclusive Licence to Publish: The Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies

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References

1 It is hardly likely that such jars frequently contained grain. Wheat could be carried in light bags or in bulk, whereas jars would add about 30 per cent, to the tonnage. Furthermore, the recorded weights of the contents would suit wine or oil rather than grain (see Dressel in Bull. Com., 1879, 149 ff.; also P-W, s.v. ‘Saccus’ and ‘Saccarius’).

2 Dressel, , in CIL xv, 2, p. 562Google Scholar.

3 Hirschfeld, , in CIL xii, p. 700Google Scholar; Héron de Villefosse, ‘Deux armateurs Narbonnais’ in Mém. Soc. Antiq. de France 1914, 153 ff. and Bull. arch. du com. des trav. hist. 1918, 264 ff. Grenier's statement in Manuel d' arch. vi, 601–642 is more careful.

4 See Huebner's summary in Eph. Epig. ix, pp. 158–178.

5 It was Septimius Severus who carried out extensive confiscations of land in Spain (SHA Sept.Sen. 12). Most of the imperial procurators of Spain that are known belong to the reign of Septimius or after (see Hirschfeld, Kleine Schriften, 570). Of the jars of Monte Testaccio that mention imperial estates, very few date before the time of Septimius. No. 3773 belongs to the year 154, no. 4272 to the year after, no. 4377 to the reign of Commodus. But after the reign of Severus we have forty-six, namely 4097–4141 and 4405–4406.

6 The inscriptions published by Dressel frequently have a number followed by the letter s, e.g. xxs, xxvs, xxxs. These numbers seem to indicate the value of the contents (20, 25, 30 sesterces). A 2½ per cent. import tax on such jars would therefore amount to 2, 2½, or 3 asses; and an inscription recently found at Ostia mentions a 2½ per cent. tax on Spanish goods (CIL xiv, 4708).

7 Soc. Econ. Hist. Rom. Emp., 199–201 and 533, n. 22; cf. Italian ed., 186, n. 22.

8 Cf. CIL xv, 2, nos. 3855–3874; and xiv, Suppl., p. 616, note on 994.

9 ‘Der Rheinhandel in römischer Zeit,’ BJ, Heft 130 (1925), 1–38Google Scholar.

10 Suet. Div: Claud. 18–19; Gaius i, 32; Ulpian 3, 6.

11 The sherds of Monte Testaccio have several names of women among the shippers; probably these women had inherited the ships.

12 See P-W, s.v. ‘Latini Juniani.’

13 Gaius iii, 72; in iii, 56, Gaius seems to imply that the Junian law was more liberal—‘(Junius) liberos esse voluit atque si essent cives Romani qui … in Latinas colonias deducti.’

14 See Henzen's comment on CIL vi, 220 (ILS 2163) and Mommsen, Staatsrecht iii, 441, notes 1–2 and 786, n. 3.

15 Mommsen, , Staatsrecht iii, 441Google Scholar.