Roman Economy
Revision session
Exam
2 hours
‘Gobbet’ section: answer two questions
(worth 1/3 of the paper
Essay section: answer two questions (worth
2/3 of the paper)
Indian imitation of denarius of
Augustus
Albenga shipwreck
Press in Sbeïtla, Tunisia
Limestone relief from Montauban-sousBuzenol, France
Indian textile from Berenike rubbish
dump
Appian, Civil War 2.140 (Brutus criticising
Sulla and Caesar): ‘By the law of war –
nay, by the practice of robbery – they took
from Italians who had committed no
offence, who had done no wrong, their land
and houses, tombs and temples, which we
were not accustomed to take away even
from foreign enemies, but merely to
impose on them a tenth of their produce by
way of tax.’
• Suetonius, Vespasian 18
• ‘To an engineer who promised to haul
columns up to the Capitol at minimal
expense, he offered no mean reward for
his idea, but rejected the scheme, saying
he should allow himself to feed the plebs.’
• Cicero, Letters to Atticus 8.7.3 ‘I have
written to Philotimus (his wife’s freedman)
concerning the money for the journey;
either from the Mint (for none of my
debtors will pay up) or from your Opii
(Atticus’ bankers).’
• Pliny on presses: NH 18.74 (314)
• In the old days they used to pull down the press-beams with ropes
and leather thongs … Within the last century (intra C annos) the
type of press known as the ‘Greek’ has been invented, with an
upright beam fitted with grooves that run spirally. To this ‘tree’ some
attach a block of stone, others a box full of stone … the latter
arrangement being the most highly approved. Within the last twentytwo years (intra XXII hos annos) a scheme has been invented,
involving the use of short press-beams and a smaller press room …
• Extract from the preamble of Diocletian’s edict on
maximum prices, AD 301
• ‘For who is so hard and so devoid of human feeling that he cannot,
or rather has not perceived, that in the commerce carried on in the
markets or involved in the daily life of cities immoderate prices are
so widespread that the unbridled passion for gain is lessened
neither by abundant supplies nor by fruitful years; so that without a
doubt men who are busied in these affairs constantly plan to control
the very winds and weather from the movements of the stars, and,
evil that they are, they cannot endure the watering of the fertile fields
by the rains from above which bring the hope of future harvests,
since they reckon it their own loss if abundance comes through the
moderation of the weather.’
• Cicero II In Verrem 2.5.17: ‘As they were
hurrying him (Apollonius) off, the poor
wretch kept crying out that he was
innocent, that he had done no wrong, that
all his money (pecunia) was in nomina and
he had no ready cash.’
• Digest 35.2.63: ‘The prices of things are
determined not by their value and utility to
individuals, but by their value determined
commonly.’
• Codex Theodosianus 8.5.17 (fifth century AD)
• Emperors Valentinian (I) and Valens Augustuses to Menander.
• We shall allow nothing beyond a thousand pounds of weight to be
placed on vehicles, and thus couriers shall be satisfied that We
grant them the right to transport thirty pounds on their horses.
Therefore, if it should be established that any load exceeds this
measure, the excess must be confiscated to the treasury, at the
expense of the person who committed this offence against the law.
We also decree that it shall be sanctioned that the use of enormous
vehicles shall entirely cease, so that if any workman should suppose
that he might make a vehicle beyond the norm that We have
prescribed, he shall not doubt that if he is free, he must undergo the
punishment of exile; if a slave, perpetual punishment by labour in
the mines. Given on the day before the ides of March at Milan in the
year of the consulship of the sainted Jovian and Varronianus (March
14, AD 364).
Essays
• “We are too often the victims of the great
curse of archaeology, the indestructibility
of pots.” Finley, M 1959 ‘Technology in
the ancient world’, Economic History
Review, 2nd series, XII, 120-5.
• Do you agree with this statement?
• How can coin finds contribute to the study
of the Roman economy?
• How culturally embedded was the Roman
economy?
• Did technology contribute to economic
growth in the Roman world?
• ‘If all we knew about the modern economy
came from the files of the Times Literary
Supplement or the New York Review of
Books, we would be hard-pressed to
understand the economic institutions that
enabled the authors represented in these
publications to pursue their literary
interests’ (Peter Temin). What point about
the evidence for the ancient economy is
being made here?
J D Bernal, Science in History, vol 1,
Harmondsworth 1969, quoted by K D
White, p. 6: ‘There is nothing, it is true, that
the medieval craftsman could do that could
not have been done by the Greeks or
Romans, but they lacked the compelling
incentive, the need to do more work with
fewer men’.
• In what ways was Roman trade with the
East important to the economy of the
Roman world?
• Did the Roman empire have a market
economy?
• Were the activities of banks and bankers
important in the Roman economy?
• Did technology contribute to economic
growth in the Roman world?