Early Roman Research Articles

A Market Economy in the Early Roman Empire

The economy of the early Roman Empire has been an object of study for at least the last century. The discussion has been marked by continuing debate, known sometimes as the primitivist/modern debate and at other times as the Finley debate, following his famous Sather lectures, The Ancient Economy. This paper is a contribution to this debate, written by an economist rather than an ancient historian. My purpose is to define the concept of a ‘market economy’, and to see if it fits the evidence we have for the early Roman Empire.Finley declared that, ‘ancient society did not have an economic system which was an enormous conglomeration of interdependent markets’. He drew implicitly on research by Polanyi to oppose the views of Rostovtzeff within the field of ancient history and those of Fogel and Engerman in economic history, but he did not explicitly join their conceptual apparatuses. Morris has summarized the debate fuelled by Finley's dramatic lectures in his foreword to the twenty-fifth anniversary edition and argued that the controversy is still vigorous today. I hope to clarify the issues in this debate and even resolve the debate for the period of the early Roman Empire.

A Market Economy in the Early Roman Empire

The economy of the early Roman Empire has been an object of study for at least the last century. The discussion has been marked by continuing debate, known sometimes as the primitivist/modern debate and at other times as the Finley debate, following his famous Sather lectures, The Ancient Economy. This paper is a contribution to this debate, written by an economist rather than an ancient historian. My purpose is to define the concept of a ‘market economy’, and to see if it fits the evidence we have for the early Roman Empire.Finley declared that, ‘ancient society did not have an economic system which was an enormous conglomeration of interdependent markets’. He drew implicitly on research by Polanyi to oppose the views of Rostovtzeff within the field of ancient history and those of Fogel and Engerman in economic history, but he did not explicitly join their conceptual apparatuses. Morris has summarized the debate fuelled by Finley's dramatic lectures in his foreword to the twenty-fifth anniversary edition and argued that the controversy is still vigorous today. I hope to clarify the issues in this debate and even resolve the debate for the period of the early Roman Empire.

The Architectural Setting of the Cult of Saints in the Early Christian West c. 300-c.1200 (review)

168 Reviews now housed in the Wallraf-Richartz-Museum in Cologne. This clustering of families around the image of the Virgin and Child with St Anne is extremely unusual, and I, for one, would like to know more about this image and its context. The shape of this book is, in part, dictated by the fact it is the first systematic survey of this material to be published in any language since 1925. One strange element of the book is the absence of named scholars in the main chapters. Corley refers to general trends in scholarly thought but does not indicate in the text w h o these figures are. This makes it difficult sometimes to identify whether the arguments made in the book are new or if the author is drawing on the arguments of others. It is not until she discusses the literature in the Epilogue that this becomes clearer. While this does mean that the text is less cluttered by names, given the interest in arguing around issues of attribution it would have been more appropriate to identify whose scholarship she was using, and also where she was arguing her o w n case. This is a very scholarly and solid piece of writing, which will undoubtedly be of use to many students of Northern art. It makes more accessible to Englishspeaking scholars a wealth of material that will undoubtedly enrich our discussion offifteenth-centuryart in particular. Judith Collard Art History and Theory University ofOtago Crook, John, The Architectural Setting of the Cult of Saints in the Early Ch West c. 300-c. 1200 (Oxford Historical Monographs), Oxford, Clarendon Press, 2000, cloth; pp. xxv, 308; 111 b/w illustrations; R.R.P. £50.00; ISBN 01982070948. This very interesting work commences with an examination of the various medieval attitudes to the veneration of the relics of saints, noting the general scepticism expressed about 'improbable relics' (p. 9) and the genuine value accorded more historically probable relics. Crook's principal interest is the way in which Christian ecclesiastical architecture developed around the sites ofburial or display of relics. Graves of saints early became foci for religious devotion, and from the mid-second century the cult of Saint Polycarp of Smyrna connected the saint's grave with the church altar. By the late third century the custom of celebrating the Eucharist 'over the bones of the martyrs' (p. 13) was established. Reviews 169 Even ifthe bones of the saint were disinterred, the site of the grave attained the status ofa contact relic, retaining traces of the sanctity of its former inhabitant. From translation of the saint's body to fragmentation of the relics was but a short step, although the popes were still resisting this in the late sixth century. Political reasons may have lain behind this (the city of R o m e possessed many intact saints), but the most important side-effect of it was the growth in the market for contact relics. From these preliminary remarks, Crook progresses to chapters that explore the physical setting of relic cults in specified historical periods. He briefly considers early Roman churches and then dissects the evidence provided by Gregory of Tours for Merovingian Gaul, which involves an analysis of the term crypta, which can mean 'independent hypogea' as well as 'purpose-built Christian burial chambers integrated with churches' (p. 49), the important characteristic being the presence of a vault. Despite Gregory's lack of interest in architectural detail, he provides enough information to identify the basic design, a small chamber with limited access, usually by one door, and unsuitable for large numbers ofpilgrims. Crook notes that from the late sixth century in Gaul subterranean chambers passed out ofuse, with bodies being displayed in the main church. The altar once again became a focal point, and relics were placed both under and within it. Some information is given about Merovingian tomb structures (for example, that of Saint Wandregilsus at Fontanelle; that of Saint Otmar at Saint-Gall). The next chapter deals with the architectural developments of the Carolingian renaissance and again Crook locates those changes in the context of the relic cult in the city of Rome. The ring-crypt...

Public Office in Early Rome: Ritual Procedure and Political Practice. Roberta Stewart

<i>Public Office in Early Rome: Ritual Procedure and Political Practice</i>. Roberta Stewart

Mercury in the Tinto-Odiel Estuarine System (Gulf of Cádiz, Spain): Sources and Dispersion

The Tinto and Odiel are small rivers draining one of the largest sulphide deposits in the world. As a result of these deposits and a large industrial complex, the adjacent marine area receives a high amount of metal input. Mercury distribution in the Tinto-Odiel estuary, the Huelva Ria and the Gulf of Cadiz was assessed in water and suspended particulatematter (SPM) and sediments. In the rivers and estuaries, dissolved (HgD)and particulate (HgP) mercury showed wide variations (13 to 200 pM and0.3 to 330 nmol g-1 respectively) depending on the presence or notof sulphidic waters, phosphogypsum deposits, detrital pyrite and oxyhydroxides.In the Ria, concentrations were lower than 10 pM and 4.5 nmol g-1 for HgD and HgP respectively. In surface waters of the Gulf of Cadiz, the average HgD concentration (pm standard deviation) was 2.9 pm 0.9 pM, which is similar to that of North Atlantic Central Waters. The surface sediments collected in the rivers, the Ria and the Gulf showed systematically enriched mercury compared to pre-industrial levels. Vertical mercury profiles in dated sediment cores were typical of anthropogenically influenced environments starting in the early Roman age. These distribution features suggest that most of the Hg discharged by the Huelva Ria is trapped in the sediments of the Gulf of Cadiz.

A Market Economy in the Early Roman Empire

I argue here that the economy of the early Roman Empire was primarily a market economy. The parts of this economy located far from each other were not tied together as tightly as markets often are today, but they still functioned as part of a comprehensive Mediterranean market. There are two reasons why this conclusion is important. First, it brings the description of the Roman economy as a whole into accord with the fragmentary evidence we have about individual market transactions. Second, this synthetic view provides a platform on which to investigate further questions about the origins and eventual demise of the Roman economy and about conditions for the formation and preservation of markets in general.

Response to R. Tybout “Roman wall-painting and social significance”

In his article in this issue, R. Tybout has some harsh words (38-39) for an article by S. Yerkes published in JRA 13. T.'s reaction seems to involve not so much a scholarly disagreement as a major misunderstanding of Yerkes' paper. I would like to offer a brief corrective to his comments.T. seems under the impression that the identification of Vitruvius' monstra is the main — or only — point of Yerkes' essay. This is probably because of the title. The paper is a radically reduced presentation of the argument of the author's master's thesis which was entitled “Neo-Attic motifs in Roman painting”. And the identification of some of the sources for the monstra — as motifs in much earlier Roman marble furnishings — is actually the main thrust of her argument. Her original title for the article also included a reference to “neo-Attic motifs” but that was omitted by the editor after it was submitted to JRA. T. is dismayed that Yerkes fails to cite the chapter on Vitruvius 7.5.3 ff. in W. Ehrhardt's monograph Stilgeschichtliche Untersuchungen (T. 1, n.l). Now, Yerkes is well aware of this work and cites it in her thesis, together with another paper Ehrhardt published on “Vitruv und die zeitgenössische Wandmalerei” in KJb 1991. So she could — and perhaps should — have included Ehrhardt's work in her notes, as T. suggests; perhaps including fuller references to other past scholarship too. But T. goes on to make the extraordinary claim (38 n.30) that Ehrhardt's chapter renders Yerkes' observations “largely superfluous”. I cannot follow T. here, for Ehrhardt's essay actually has a quite different aim and focus; and the differences are worth underlining.

S. E. Alcock (ed.), The Early Roman Empire in the East (Oxbow Monograph 95). Oxford: Oxbow Books, 1997. Pp. viii + 212, illus. ISBN 1-9001-8852-X. £24.00. - M. C. Hoff and S. I. Rotroff (eds), The Romanization of Athens. Proceedings of an International Conference Held at Lincoln, Nebraska (April 1996) (Oxbow Monographs 94). Oxford: Oxbow Books, 1997. Pp. viii +

S. E. Alcock (ed.), The Early Roman Empire in the East (Oxbow Monograph 95). Oxford: Oxbow Books, 1997. Pp. viii + 212, illus. ISBN 1-9001-8852-X. £24.00. - M. C. Hoff and S. I. Rotroff (eds), The Romanization of Athens. Proceedings of an International Conference Held at Lincoln, Nebraska (April 1996) (Oxbow Monographs 94). Oxford: Oxbow Books, 1997. Pp. viii + 208, illus. ISBN 1-900188-51-1. £24.00. - Volume 90

Displaying the sacred past: Ancient Christian inscriptions in early modern Rome

This article looks at the history of collecting early Christian inscriptions from Rome and its relationship to the study and presentation of classical epigraphy. The epigraphic collection gathered by Marco Antonio Boldetti at the church of S. Maria, in Trastevere exemplifies the increasing visibility of Christian inscriptions both in academic writing and in the actual walls of churches around the city. Yet, the motivations for collecting and the mechanisms for displaying the early Christian inscriptions were fundamentally conditioned by their perceived value not only as historical documents, but also religious objects.

The English Plainchant Revival (review)

Of the many forms of church music that the author could have singled out for the kind of scholarly assessment that is found in this present volume, the author chose one of the simplest as well as one of the most ancient and widely-used forms in the history of church music, namely, plainchant. In Roman Catholic church music history, this music is also known as Gregorian Chant, thereby identifying it with the name of Pope Saint Gregory the Great (d. 604), a name that has been traditionally associated with the Latin liturgy of the early Roman Catholic Church.

De morbis acutis et chroniis (review)

Sometime in the early Roman Empire a medical work was produced on acute and chronic diseases--chronic ones supposedly being untreatable. Although some ancients recognized a bifurcation of diseases, by the time this anonymous author wrote, both types received therapeutic intervention by physicians. In Chronic Diseases (I. praef. 3), Caelius Aurelianus (ca. 5th c.) said that Themison (late 1st c. bce) first set forth treatments for chronic diseases. This anonymous work and those by Caelius Aurelianus, Aretaeus of Cappadocia (second half of 2d c.), and, possibly, Archigenes (fl. under Trajan, 98-117) are the only ones known to have organized medical information under these distinctions. Indeed, the title "On acute and chronic diseases" was not in the Greek manuscript texts.

Book Review: History of Judaism III: The Cambridge History of Judaism, the Cambridge History of Judaism the Early Roman Period

Book Review: History of Judaism III: The Cambridge History of Judaism, the Cambridge History of Judaism the Early Roman Period

The Early Roman Empire in the East. By S. E. Alcock.

<i>The Early Roman Empire in the East</i>. By S. E. Alcock.

Decorative Drafted-margin Masonry in Jerusalem and Hebron and its Relations

The massive retaining walls of the Haram al-Sharif in Jerusalem, with their highly distinctive drafted-margin ashlars, represent the most impressive remnant of Herod's Temple complex. Similar decorative drafted-margin masonry survives in the monumental Herodian enclosures at Hebron and Mamre. This study traces the development of the decorative drafted-margin style of masonry from pre-Classical Ionia, through the East Greek world, to its apogee in the early Roman Empire. It is shown that the application of this decorative treatment to the walls of Herod's sacred enclosures was in keeping with the fashion of the period, but certain of its features appear to indicate that Herod's builders employed it as a deliberate archaising device to recall the splendour of the ancient Israelite Temple

I. The Stories of Early Rome

In many ways Roman religion emerges from the standard modern accounts of it as a dry and highly ritualized religion with few if any concessions either to religious self-expression or imagination about the role of gods in the life of men. Historians have tended to associate this character with the success of the Romans in practical aspects of life – warfare, engineering, town-planning – and to suggest that they organized their religious lives with the same kind of brutal efficiency, striking crude bargains with the narrow-minded gods and goddesses that they had themselves created. It will be clear later on that there are some reasons for taking this view, but there are also reasons to think it only a part of the truth, and profoundly misleading if it is mistaken for the whole truth.

Archaeology and roman society: Integrating textual and archaeological data

Although the collection of new data and the development of an enduring interest in theoretical concerns characterize much current work in Roman archaeology, the field continues to experience, tension between traditional classical archaeological approaches and practices borrowed from other branches of archaeology. This tension is most clearly visible with the integration of textual and archaeological data. How the dynamic between these provenances plays out in Roman archaeology can be seen in theoretical and methodological applications, the use of field survey, and the adoption of an Annaliste perspective by some Roman archaeologists. Text and archaeology are crucial contributors to the the study of early Rome and its origins, investigations in the capital for all periods, the study of Pompeii, and attempts to illuminate the chief characteristics of the Roman economy. Many advances in Roman archaeology have occurred largely as a result of a conscious attempt on the part of Roman archaeologists to properly contextualize textual data in light of the archaeological data, thereby providing a better balance between the two sets of information and liberating archeeology from being the “handmaid of history.”

Three Gems in the Society's Collection

The purpose of this note is to mark the transfer to the Society's museum of three Roman gemstones which came into my possession as gifts at different times and which I decided I would like to share with the Fellowship in general. The Society, indeed, has long owned a number of medieval and later seals and sealings, a few of which were recently displayed in the entrance lobby, and it has long seemed to me that the inclusion of Roman intaglios would make its holdings more representative for future students. Historians of medieval sigillography in the past were rather ignorant of Roman gems and, indeed, of Classical iconography in general and more curiously were hardly aware that the seal use of the Middle Ages almost exactly parallels earlier Roman practice. However, since the recent publication of a general book on sealing, the basic continuity of the tradition should be obvious to all.

Livy's Written Rome

Reviewed by: Livy’s Written Rome William Seavey Mary Jaeger. Livy’s Written Rome. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1997. xii 1 205 pp. Cloth, $39.50. How Livy went about writing his immense history has been a topic of keen interest, and recent work such as Jaeger’s directs our thinking in new and interesting ways. Livian historiography has traditionally focused on Quellenforschung and more recently on the rhetorical influences that often remain unrecognized by modern readers. A still newer kind of historiography, branching from rhetorical studies, considers the influence of space on a writer’s text, and it is attracted to both topographical and material issues. Indicative of such works in the last decade are Paul Zanker, The Power of Images in the Age of Augustus (Ann Arbor 1988); Eleanor Winsor Leach, The Rhetoric of Space (Princeton 1988); C. Nicolet, Space, Geography, and Politics in the Early Roman Empire (Ann Arbor 1991); and Ann Vasaly, Representations: Images of the World in Ciceronian Oratory (Berkeley and Los Angeles 1993). Jaeger follows many historiographers in beginning with Livy’s preface, and then considering disparate episodes throughout Ab Urbe Condita before returning to the preface to reevaluate Livy’s method. By this approach, narrative is not just a chronological reflection of political and religious events; rather, spatial reminders (monumenta) may influence the organization of written narrative. Jaeger narrows her study to focus on “reminders that for various reasons fail to point unambiguously back to a particular person or event” (10). It is when Livy has restored in his text a [End Page 318] lost monumentum that his method is most readily observed: “when monuments fail and the text restores them, reminders of stories give way to stories about reminders” (11). This method of historiography, as Jaeger wields it, gives us a fresh look at an old text. It does not work equally well in all environments—witness the problems Sparta would offer such an approach, as both Jaeger (2) and, long ago, Thucydides realized. Yet more difficult would be monumental—in all senses of the word—societies such as those of ancient Egypt and Central America. Jaeger’s discussion of method and historiography (the Introduction and chapter 1) is excellent. Her survey of Livian historiographical research is thorough and attested by a wealth of judicious footnotes which review the relevant scholarship. The discussion of monumenta is particularly illuminating. Jaeger explains how the “monumentum stands between the res gestae and their literary celebration, so that two layers, the monumental and the literary, come between event and reader” (16). That all share certain qualities make them suitable for historical evaluation: “In sum, we can assume of all monumenta some common characteristics: an absent person or thing commemorated; a present audience reminded; a memory or an exhortation that is socially relevant; and a meaning determined jointly by the reminder, its physical context, and the circumstances of each viewer” (18). Jaeger’s belief that Daedalus’ labyrinth in the Aeneid (Veneris monumentum nefandae, 6.24–27) is the only exception to her standard that monumenta are “exposed to the public view” (17) is a bit strained, even without considering that Vergil’s ecphrasis describing the doors of Apollo’s temple is not really Roman at all. Moreover, Columella recorded that Hyginus collected precisely that sort of evidence: Hyginus veterum auctorum placita secretis dispersa monimentis industrie collegit (De Re Rustica 9.2.1). And what of all the Roman religious elements that are also secret (i.e., not exposed to public view)? It would be difficult to believe that there were no hidden monumenta among all the Roman sacra. Nevertheless, Jaeger’s approach to monumenta reinforces the importance of visualizing narrative as written by classical historians, which results in an illuminating and novel way of examining Livy’s historical text. After discussing the notion of monumenta in chapter 1 Jaeger proceeds to consider four separate episodes from Ab Urbe Condita, noting how Livy “maps the plot of a story onto the Roman landscape, then commemorates the particular enactment of the plot in a monument” (12). Chapter 2 considers the abduction of the Sabine women in AUC book 1, demonstrating a rhythmic flow of action between the...

Pottery manufacture in early Roman Galilee: a micromorphological study

The characteristics of, and the sources of the soil materials for, pottery groups manufactured in three ancient settlements of early Roman (late first century BC–first century AD) Galilee were studied by micromorphological techniques. The site-specific manufacturing proveniences of the three respective pottery groups have been previously demonstrated by chemical analysis. One of the sites, Kefar Hananya, is located near the geographical boundary between the Upper and Lower Galilee while the other two, Shikhin and Yodefat, are in the Lower Galilee. Each of the settlements made pottery from different soil types. In one case (Yodefat) temper was added to the main soil material. The Kefar Hananya pottery was made from noncalcareous Red Mediterranean soils (Terra-Rossa soil type) derived from hard limestone. Although most of the soils in the Galilee derive from Upper Cretaceous geological formations, the Kefar Hananya pottery was prepared from soils, found near that settlement, that were derived from Lower Cretaceous material rich in the kaolinite clay mineral. Micromorphological analysis of 41 randomly selected samples of the most common early Roman storage jar type thought to have been produced at Shikhin showed that all of the vessels were made from one of three soil types, Colluvial–Alluvial soils, Brown Grumusols, or Pale Rendzina. Study of the lithology and soils in the area of Shikhin showed that all three soil types derive from soil material eroded from the hilly area, on which the ancient settlement of Shikhin was built, into the adjacent valleys below the site. Samples of the Shikhin pottery group collected on the surface, in contrast with excavated samples, exhibit postdepositional carbonate infilling by dissolution and reprecipitation of the carbonates due to repeated exposure to water. No added temper was used for the preparation of either the Kefar Hananya or the Shikhin pottery groups. The Yodefat pottery, made from Rendzinic material rich in calcareous material, is of particular interest. This soil material contains about 70–80% calcareous material homogeneously mixed with the clayey plasma. In order to diminish the effect of the large amount of calcareous material and improve the properties of this raw material for pottery manufacture, leached clayey soil material of Terra-Rossa soil type was added as temper. The micromorphological comparison of the pottery groups and soil materials shows that two main factors influenced the raw-material procurement strategies of the potters of these settlements: the proximity of the soil material to the potters' settlement, and the suitability of the soil material for pottery manufacture.

Anderson, Graham. 1994. Sage, Saint and Sophist. Holy Men and their Associates in the Early Roman Empire. Routledge: London and New York. 289 pp.

"Anderson, Graham. 1994. Sage, Saint and Sophist. Holy Men and their Associates in the Early Roman Empire. Routledge: London and New York. 289 pp.." , 5(1), pp. 122–123