Harvesting the Sea

Abstract

This book provides a systematic treatment of the exploitation of marine resources (e.g., large-scale fishing, fish salting, salt production, aquaculture, purple dye manufacturing), in the Roman world and their role within the ancient economy. Bringing together literary, epigraphic, and legal sources, and archaeological data, the book shows that these marine resources were an important feature of the Roman economy and, in scope and market-oriented production, paralleled phenomena taking place in the Roman agricultural economy on land. The book offers an overview of fishing gear and techniques used in antiquity, and examines the importance of technological innovations and organization of labour. By looking at the legal sources alongside the archaeological and historical data, the book highlights cases when the Roman legal framework was used in defence of sea-related economic interests against competitors for the same natural resource. In addition to discussing the development in culinary taste for seafood and the social and symbolic value certain kinds of fresh fish could have, the book also discusses evidence for prices of fresh fish, transport, and distribution. The general conclusions reached by the book are that marine resources could have a notable role in the local and regional economies and that their exploitation was supported by a sophisticated organization, in terms of production, labour, and distribution of the products.