Republic to Empire: 50 BC – AD 50
Movement and Consumption
of Goods
Dr Nick Ray
Movement and Consumption of Goods
•
Discourses on luxury
•
Transmission of culture & distribution of goods
-
Marble/Stone
Pottery
- Amphorae, Red gloss pottery (terra sigillata)
Foodstuffs (e.g. garum)
Glass, slaves
Sumptuary Laws
Law
Lex Oppia
Lex Fannia
Lex Didia
Lex Aemilia
Lex Julia
?
Date
Subject of Law
215 BCE
Restriction of display of wealth by women
(Repealed in 185 BCE)
(wartime measure).
161 BCE
To restrict ostentatious display at dinner
parties: limited number of guests, type of
food permitted, and overall expenditure. No
more than 100 lbs of silverware to be used
at table.
143 BCE
Extension of sumptuary law from Rome to
rest of Italy
78 BCE
Limit on kind and quality of food, not the
expense
During principate of
Alteration of the expenditure for festivals
Augustus (27 BCE – 14 (300 HS) and weddings (1000 HS). Other
CE)
days: 200 HS
During the principate of Loosened the restrictions on festival dining
Augustus (27 BCE – 14 expenditure (from 300 to 2000 HS)
CE) or of Tiberius (14 CE
– 37 CE)
“…all his colleagues had pointed out that the sumptuary laws were
disregarded, that prohibited prices for household articles were every
day on the increase, and that moderate measures could not stop the
evil.
Tiberius… addressed a letter to the Senate to the following purport:—
…For what am I first to begin with restraining and cutting down to the
old standard? The vast dimensions of country houses? The number of
slaves of every nationality? The masses of silver and gold? The
marvels in bronze and painting? The apparel worn indiscriminately by
both sexes, or that peculiar luxury of women which, for the sake of
jewels, diverts our wealth to strange or hostile nations?”
Tacitus’ (Annales 3.52-5)
Egyptomania
Pompeii: the House of
the Orchard
Boscotrecase, Villa of
‘Agrippa Postumus’
Tomb of Cestius, Rome (15 BC)
“Our ladies quite glory in having these suspended from their
fingers, or two or three of them dangling from their ears. For
the purpose of ministering to these luxurious tastes, there are
various names and wearisome refinements which have been
devised by profuseness and prodigality; for after inventing these
ear-rings, they have given them the name of "crotalia", or
castanets, as though quite delighted even with the rattling of
the pearls as they knock against each other; and now, at the
present day, the poorer classes are even affecting them”
Pliny NH 9.56
Three waves in cultural transmission (Wallace-Hadrill 2008)
1) Importation of the exotic, especially from the east (e.g.
Hellenising elements incorporated into decoration.
Characteristic of early 1stC BC with expansion of Rome under
the Republic). Increased desire for the exotic.
1) Appropriation of this production by Italian centres,
transforming the product in the process. Characteristic of late
Republic and the Augustan period.
1) Italian products are then exported out, empire-wide.
Provincial products are created based upon Italian models, but
with local characteristics. This final phase is representative of
the Empire.
Brick to Marble
Since the city was not adorned as the dignity of the empire
demanded, and was exposed to flood and fire, he so
beautified it that he could justly boast that he had found it
built of brick and left it in marble.
(Suetonius Augustus 28.3.3)
Marble &
Fashions
House of Sallust, Pompeii
Marble table legs, Pompeii
Villa of P. Fannius
Synistor,
Boscoreale
Statue of
Hercules,
House of the
Stags
(Herculaneum)
Polychrome Marbles
Pottery
after Panella & Tchernia (2002 [1994])
Transport amphorae from House
of the Vestals (VI.1), Pompeii
(De Sena and Ikaheimo 2003)
Distribution of Dressel 1 Italian wine amphorae
Dressel 1 wine amphorae of Lucius Sestius
(made at Cosa, Italy)
Roman red gloss pottery (aka
Arretine, Samian, terra sigillata)
Kenrick (2000) distribution of Arretine pottery
Period A: 40-20/15 BC: both black and red wares, non-standard
shapes
Kenrick (2000) distribution of Arretine pottery
Period B: 20 BC-AD15: highest level of activity, standard shapes
Kenrick (2000) distribution of Arretine pottery
Period C: AD15-50: Po Valley takes over from Arrezo, standard shapes
Distribution of Italian terra
sigillata, AD 15 – 50
Distribution of
La Graufesenque stamps
Tableware from House of the
Vestals (VI.1), Pompeii
(De Sena and Ikaheimo 2003)
After Poblome (2004)
Garum
Local garum praised by Pliny (NH 31.93-94):
“...produced from the guts of fish and anything else which
would have been discarded, steeped in salt – in other
words, it is the fermentation of decaying matter.”
“...around twelve pints costs 1000 sesterces. Almost no
fluid except for perfume begins to fetch a greater price,
bringing fame to the countries of origin... Clazomenae too
is praised for its garum, as are Pompeii and Leptis...”
“Finest fish sauce by Umbricius Abascantus”
(CIL 4.5671)
Garum
“Best finest mackerel sauce from the workshop of
Aulus Umbricius Abascantus”
(CIL 4.5689)
“Scaurus’ finest mackerel sauce by Scaurus’ Eutyche”
(CIL 4.2576)
tituli picti on a garum
amphora, Pompeian Form
VI, found in southern
France
House of A. Umbricius
Scaurus (VII.16.12-15)
GLASS
Ribbed bowl of marbled glass (1-50 AD)
Two-handled glass cup
signed by Ennion
1st half of the 1st c. CE
Blown in a three-part
mould
unguentaria
Example of a glass
mould
Inscribed:
ΕΝΝΙΩ/Ν ΕΠΟΙ/ΗϹΕΝ
ΜΝΗΘΗ/Ο ΑΓΟΡ/ΑΖΩΝ
Slaves
(The ‘consumption’ of humans)
Villa at
Settefinestre
(Italy),
40-30 BC
“now I turn to the means by which
land is tilled. Some divide these into
two parts: men, and those aids to
men without which they cannot
cultivate; others into three: the class
of instruments which is articulate,
the inarticulate, and the mute; the
articulate comprising the slaves, the
inarticulate comprising the cattle,
and the mute comprising the
vehicles.”
(Varro De Re Rustica 1.17.1)
Conclusions
• Moral concerns about
consumption and luxuries
• Augustan pacification of the
Mediterranean resulted in an
increase in traded goods
• Social competition and
emulation created new
fashions
• These fashions flourished and
evolved under the increase in
trade
‘Stamped’ mould-blown glass
ΝΕΙΚΑΙΣ ΕΠΟΗΣΕΝ: ‘Neikais made (it)’.
On the other side it reads:
‘May the buyer be remembered’
? Mid 1st c AD