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7 results

  • 7 - The Roman Imperial and Late Antique Periods, c. 30 bc–c. ad 700

  • Graeme Barker, University of Cambridge, Tom Rasmussen, University of Manchester
  • Book:
    In the Footsteps of the Etruscans
    Published online:
    12 October 2023
    Print publication:
    12 October 2023, pp 214-245

  • Summary

    The project’s results indicate that a landscape once dominated by small, family-run, farms, each cultivating small plots of land, gradually transformed through the three phases of the Roman imperial period (Early, 30 BC-AD 120: 205 sites; Mid, AD 120-260: 174 sites; Late, AD 260-440: 146 sites) into one featuring large agricultural estates involved in extensive farming practices. In light of historical records it seems likely that affluent investors bought up much of the land of failing smallholders, expanding the capacity of their own agricultural enterprises and leasing out properties to poorer farmers. Local wealth, power, and influence became concentrated in the hands of a limited number of elite landowners. Yet despite this process, small low-status sites remained the most abundant class of rural habitation even in the Late Imperial period and many middle-ranking sites endured without a break in occupation even into Late Antique times (AD 440-700: 77 sites in total). The resilience of wide sections of the rural community, even in the face of external threats from Longobards and others, should not be underestimated, but significantly a considerable proportion of Tuscania’s hinterland of cultivated fields had reverted to scrub and woodland by the Late Antique period.

  • Roman-era alluvial waste in the Vistre de la Fontaine (Nîmes, southeast France): from a sacred spring to a contaminated river

  • Clément Flaux, Sabrina Save, Maxime Scrinzi, Nicolas Minvielle Larousse, Christophe Vaschalde, Audrey Renaud, Margaux Tillier, Abel Guihou, Pierre Deschamps, Alain Véron
  • Journal:
    Journal of Roman Archaeology / Volume 36 / Issue 1 / June 2023
    Published online by Cambridge University Press:
    05 June 2023, pp. 50-72
    Print publication:
    June 2023
    • Article
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  • The excavation of a palaeochannel at the Vistre de la Fontaine 2-2 archaeological site, 3 km downstream from the ancient city of Nîmes (southeastern France), provided an accumulation sequence covering the last 2,500 years. Trace metal analyses of these alluvial sediments disclosed lead (Pb) contamination during the Early Roman Empire, with concentrations close to 1,000 ppm, a factor of 100 above the local geochemical background. This excess of Pb shows a uniform isotopic signature that may reflect unchanged ore sources, perhaps from the Massif Central or from Great Britain. The Pb peak accompanied visible waste that was transported in the sediments of the Vistre de la Fontaine at the time of the development of the Nîmes urban water supply and drainage network during the Early Roman Empire. This research shows the bimillennial persistence of palaeo-contamination in a peri-urban alluvial plain and the relevance of fluvial sedimentary archives in documenting ancient waste.

  • 12 - War and Society

  • from Part II - The later Roman Empire
    • By Andrew Fear, Lecturer in Ancient History, University of Manchester
  • Edited by Philip Sabin, King's College London, Hans van Wees, University College London, Michael Whitby, University of Warwick
  • Book:
    The Cambridge History of Greek and Roman Warfare
    Published online:
    28 March 2008
    Print publication:
    06 December 2007, pp 424-458

  • Summary

    For inhabitants of the early Empire, the Roman army was a somewhat distant feature of society. In the realm of high politics the relationship between soldier and civilian had also changed greatly. The Roman state in the fourth century had become in most respects a para-military one. Work in the civil service was now described as militia. The militarization of society came with a general loss in esteem for the army. By its very nature and composition no army is likely to behave as if it were composed of angels and there is plenty of evidence of military brutality and abuse of civilians from the early Empire. On the other hand, there was also frequent pleading for exemption from conscription on the grounds that the prospective recruit did not meet the minimum standards for army life.

  • 22 - The Early Roman Empire: Consumption

  • from Part VI - The Early Roman Empire
  • Edited by Walter Scheidel, Stanford University, California, Ian Morris, Stanford University, California, Richard P. Saller, Stanford University, California
  • Book:
    The Cambridge Economic History of the Greco-Roman World
    Published online:
    28 March 2008
    Print publication:
    29 November 2007, pp 592-618

  • Summary

    Roman society of the early empire presents a confusing and ambiguous image that we cannot easily situate in unidirectional accounts of European economic history. Clearly, public monuments in marble or other precious stone, military security, the urban food supply, roads, aqueducts and gladiatorial games testify to public consumption on a grand scale. On the other hand, the signs of poverty, misery, and destitution are no less obvious. Many inhabitants of the Roman empire only eked out a meager living, their skeletons grim testimonies to malnutrition and disease. Growth occurred because the wealth of the elite may have been a sign of effective exploitation of the poor. Roman National Income was indeed larger than that of any preindustrial European state. One of the requirements for an economy is to provide enough subsistence for its population to survive. The economic and social achievements of pre-industrial societies can be measured if standard of living of the masses exceeds bare subsistence levels.

  • 20 - The Early Roman Empire: Production

  • from Part VI - The Early Roman Empire
  • Edited by Walter Scheidel, Stanford University, California, Ian Morris, Stanford University, California, Richard P. Saller, Stanford University, California
  • Book:
    The Cambridge Economic History of the Greco-Roman World
    Published online:
    28 March 2008
    Print publication:
    29 November 2007, pp 541-569

  • Summary

    Commerce and manufacturing certainly occupied a significant place in the early Roman economy. Large landowners and small farmers depended for their livelihoods on the production of surpluses for the market. In Roman agriculture, most common method for cultivating wheat was the two-field system. The Roman empire also witnessed construction of modest sized-estates which regularly included a pars urbana, an often lavishly adorned farmhouse, and a pars rustica, included farming facilities such as those for pressing grapes. Sometimes, many landowners used the institution of farm tenancy to organize the management and labor on their estates. To answer the question of what extent wealth generated from agriculture contributed to an expansion of production in the non-agricultural sectors of the Roman economy, the economic role of cities in the Roman empire and their relationship with the countryside, has to be evaluated. Archaeological evidence indicates that mining was conducted on a widespread basis in many regions of the Roman empire.

  • 23 - The Early Roman Empire: The State and the Economy

  • from Part VI - The Early Roman Empire
  • Edited by Walter Scheidel, Stanford University, California, Ian Morris, Stanford University, California, Richard P. Saller, Stanford University, California
  • Book:
    The Cambridge Economic History of the Greco-Roman World
    Published online:
    28 March 2008
    Print publication:
    29 November 2007, pp 619-648

  • Summary

    This chapter explores whether the higher level of economic activity during the first two centuries of the Principate in comparison with the preceding and following periods, and the possible modest growth then, were, at least in part, the result of the existence of a single political entity embracing the Mediterranean, or were achieved despite it. In the first two centuries of the Principate, taxation enhanced market exchanges and promoted growth. The emperor set the rules of the game at the level of the central and provincial administration, but his actions extended in various ways to the level of the individual urban communities. The creation of a single monetary area may have contributed most to the reduction in transaction costs: a centrally produced coinage circulated almost everywhere. In order to account for massive output of the Roman mint it is necessary to assume structural imbalance between tax and public expenditure.

  • 21 - The Early Roman Empire: Distribution

  • from Part VI - The Early Roman Empire
  • Edited by Walter Scheidel, Stanford University, California, Ian Morris, Stanford University, California, Richard P. Saller, Stanford University, California
  • Book:
    The Cambridge Economic History of the Greco-Roman World
    Published online:
    28 March 2008
    Print publication:
    29 November 2007, pp 570-591

  • Summary

    The mobilization and distribution of resources, human and material, was the key to Roman power. The surplus production of an individual peasant household was small; the aggregate demand of the ancient peasantry was considerable. The key question is how far distribution under the empire differed in volume and nature. Archaeology has provided striking and conclusive evidence for a dramatic increase in the volume of goods being distributed within the Roman empire. Goods were distributed through the Roman empire by a variety of means, determined to a great extent by the identity of the ultimate consumer and by the nature of the goods and by the identity of the original producer. The institutional structures that supported distribution were adequate money supply supporting all levels of transactions, and the development of gold coinage and various forms of paper transactions. For the most part, the dynamics of distribution in the early Roman empire followed patterns which had become established under the Republic.