Roman Economy Research Articles

Levantine wines in Italy between the Early Empire and Late Antiquity

The aim of this paper is to investigate the patterns of importations of Levantine wines to Italy between the Early Empire and Late Antiquity. It concentrates on quantities of Levantine amphoras discovered in terrestrial contexts in Rome, Ostia, Campania and the North Adriatic part of Italy. This data is compared with published discoveries from other parts of Italy and the Roman Mediterranean, including finds from shipwrecks. Regression analyses is used in order to compare distribution patterns of Levantine amphoras in the Mediterranean (Rome, North Adriatic Italy, Spain, Gaul, Ephesus and Cyprus) during the Principate and Late Antiquity. The results of this study show that Levantine wines, and in particular Gazan varieties, became much more popular in the Later Roman and Early Byzantine periods than they had been during the first centuries of the Empire. Several explanations of this phenomenon are considered, including climate change and technological development in the Levant, as well as a structural transformation of the Roman economy.

Shattered Economies: The Role of Glass Fragments in Early Roman Wall Mosaics as a Factor in Understanding Aspects of the Roman Economy and Society

Shattered Economies: The Role of Glass Fragments in Early Roman Wall Mosaics as a Factor in Understanding Aspects of the Roman Economy and Society

Comment on Mints not Mines: a macroscale investigation of Roman silver coinage by J.R. Wood, M. Ponting, and K. Butcher

Wood et al. (2023), hereinafter WPB, unveils a number of historical issues relevant to Roman economy and metallurgy based on trace element and Pb isotope abundance data on a large set of important coins minted during the Roman Empire (Ponting and Butcher 2015). Here, we discuss several points which, in our view, misrepresent the work of other groups, ours included, and bias the overall interpretation of the WPB data set.

Exploring economic integration of peasant settlements in Roman Central Spain (1st c. − 3rd c. AD)

Preventive excavations in the metropolitan area of Madrid (Spain) resulted in the study of the archaeological record of a number of Roman non-elite rural sites, which uniquely allow for the analysis of ancient peasant economies in central Roman Spain. We engage with current debates on the economic roles and integration of peasant sites in the Roman imperial economy, and report on the application of a network science method to the economic networks established among these settlements. The Louvain modularity measure is used to explore two competing hypotheses on the level of integration or segregation of peasant communities within the Roman economy. The results suggest a pattern of weak integration that was maintained with little change between the 1st and the 3rd century CE.

Trends in the production of olive oil amphorae at ceramic workshops in Roman Baetica: a chrono-proportional representation method

During the first few centuries AD, Rome and the imperial frontiers were supplied with olive oil from the province of Hispania Baetica (southern Spain). Vast quantities of oil were exported in Dressel 20 amphorae. But how did the agricultural economy of Baetica relate to global demand and how did it change over time? The author focuses on relative changes in agricultural output, using a new method to model fluctuations in amphora production based on more than 1000 waster sherds collected from 23 amphora workshops in the Guadalquivir Valley. The chrono-proportional representation method indicates variation in production between individual workshops and wider production districts, contributing to assessments of the scale and organisation of the Roman economy.

Is it all about the economy? To what extent did the Roman economy shape the morphology of livestock?

The main domesticated animals (pig, cattle, sheep and chicken) underwent some of the most prominent size increase and morphological changes in past husbandry practices during the Roman period. The phenomenon is now well described for many parts of the Roman Empire. Variability in the timing and intensity of changes have been highlighted between different regions. The purposes of rearing taller and more robust animals have also been extensively discussed with a strong bias in favour of economic explanations. This paper aims to further investigate the drivers of cattle morphological evolution by combining both bioarchaeological evidence and written sources. A comparative approach between several areas of the Roman Empire will be conducted to take into account the environmental, economic, cultural, and religious factors behind these major changes in animal management. In particular, this paper will address the question not yet investigated of the impact of the ritual practices on the dynamics of morphological changes in livestock. By adopting a similar holistic approach to this phenomenon in different regions of the Roman Empire, this paper also aims to clarify the respective roles of regional and supra-regional drivers in the animal economy.

Roman History

Do you want to hear something worth knowing? If so, you're in luck, because Pliny the Elder has 20,000 such nuggets ready for your delectation. Even better, one of the elder statesmen of Roman history, Richard Saller, has provided a fresh study of them in his new book, Pliny's Roman Economy. Saller is famous for publications that have painted in broad brush strokes the landscape of Roman economic and social history as we now understand it. Here, instead, he offers a brief, focused study of a single author, albeit one whose Natural History is of extraordinarily ambitious scope. Published in ‘The Princeton Economic History of the Western World’ series, this is a book for both classicists and economic historians with a focused aim: to use Pliny to intervene in the long-standing debate over whether the Roman imperial economy enjoyed sustainable growth in the first two centuries ce (behind which lurks, as Saller notes, the more existential question as to whether the oppression of the Roman imperial project came with benefits). This question arises from a controversial methodological contention – that scholars’ efforts to develop sophisticated proxies to enable quantitative assessment of ancient economic growth (now largely associated with New Institutional Economics) have so far failed, and thus that we should return, at least in part, to more traditional use of literary sources: ‘at this point none [of those proxies] is reliable enough to justify neglecting our aristocratic authors’ (3). Pliny is particularly interesting here because eighteenth-century encyclopaedias have been seen (in part by the series editor, Joel Mokyr) as part of a culture of innovation that in turn fed the pronounced economic growth of that period.

:La villa dopo la villa 2: Trasformazione di un sistema insediativo ed economico nell’Italia centrale tra tarda Antichità e Medioevo

:<i>La villa dopo la villa 2: Trasformazione di un sistema insediativo ed economico nell’Italia centrale tra tarda Antichità e Medioevo</i>

The premium for skilled labor in the Roman world

Romans rewarded skill in material terms, and wage data reflects this. This study develops a method for understanding the return on skilling in the Roman period, starting from internal pay scales observed in Egyptian documents. These data reveal a modal premium of 100 and mean of 74. Roman-period returns on training compare favorably with evidence from outside Egypt, especially detailed pay scales in Diocletian's Price Edict, thus suggesting a broader Empire-wide premium. This Roman skill premium is then compared with a selection of data from other premodern periods, which show that the relative price of skill in ancient Rome was not historically atypical, despite the particularly high levels of enslavement and urbanization characteristic of the Roman economy. The return on investments in training during the Empire can be seen to reflect both numeracy practices and developing market conditions for skill.

:The Making of a Roman Imperial Estate: Archaeology in the Vicus at Vagnari, Puglia

:<i>The Making of a Roman Imperial Estate: Archaeology in the Vicus at Vagnari, Puglia</i>

Jerome Mairat / Andrew Wilson / Chris Howgego (Eds.), Coin Hoards and Hoarding in the Roman World. (Oxford Studies on the Roman Economy.) Oxford, Oxford University Press 2021

Article Jerome Mairat / Andrew Wilson / Chris Howgego (Eds.), Coin Hoards and Hoarding in the Roman World. (Oxford Studies on the Roman Economy.) Oxford, Oxford University Press 2021 was published on February 1, 2023 in the journal Historische Zeitschrift (volume 316, issue 1).

From Empire-wide integration to regional localization: A synthetic and quantitative study of heterogeneous amphora data in Roman Germania reveals centuries-long change in regional patterns of production and consumption.

We present novel insights into trade in amphorae-borne products over a 550-year period in Germania along the frontier of the Roman Empire, derived through probabilistic aoristic methods to study temporal changes in archaeological materials. Our data analysis reveals highly detailed differential patterns of consumption and production within the German market. We show how connections to far-flung regions such as the Eastern Mediterranean or the Iberian Peninsula wax and wane through time, and how the local German producers start to compete with these imported products. These chronological patterns provide important insight into a regional market within the larger Roman economy and provide an important case study in changing economic connections over a long period, demonstrating in a transparent and reproducible way a geographical and chronological pulsation in market activity that was otherwise unknown and undemonstrated.

PROFILE ROMAN ECONOMIC AND MONETARY HISTORY

Fundamentally, Roman economic history is the study of how and why inhabitants of the Roman world produced, distributed and exchanged goods and services. By understanding the economic actions, events, institutions and products of the Roman world, Roman economic historians come to understand better the Romans themselves: their motivations, values, relationships and identities, among other things. With such a broad remit, today's Roman economic and monetary historians not only scour traditional sources for evidence of Roman commerce, prices, labour, capital and contracts, but they now deploy an ever-broadening range of methodologies, theories and approaches – some of which originate well outside the disciplines of both history and economics. Some Roman economic historians, for example, create, investigate and run simulations, using massive digital archives of data gleaned from ancient evidence. Others compare micro-nutrients in ancient wheat varieties with their modern counterparts to gain a better understanding of diet, nutrition and economic prosperity in Roman cities. Increasingly, specialists in some aspect of the Roman economy find themselves members of internationally funded interdisciplinary teams seeking to understand what Arctic ice cores or North-American tree rings say about money production in the Roman principate. Roman economic historians’ scholarly sprawl has never been more challenging to describe, but I believe it is possible to group recent developments in the field into three overlapping areas: digitisation, particularisation and consilience.

Roman Seas: A Maritime Archaeology of Eastern Mediterranean Economies

Roman Seas: A Maritime Archaeology of Eastern Mediterranean Economies

Marble trade in the Roman Mediterranean: a quantitative and diachronic study

AbstractMarble provenance studies in archaeology have become increasingly popular in recent decades. This has resulted in a large quantity of analytical data becoming available for archaeological marbles. This article presents the results of a quantitative study of the distribution of white marble in the Mediterranean based on an analysis of the available provenance data for the Roman period. The study shows increased distribution of white marble between the late 1st c. BCE and the end of the 2nd c. CE. A decline in distribution from the 3rd c. CE was less abrupt than traditionally believed and shows object-, material-, and region-specific trajectories. The marble distribution data is finally evaluated within a wider socio-economic frame, considering factors such as the marble trade system and broader Roman economy, changes in cultural practices related to statue erection, importance of reuse and recycling, growing ruralization, and reduced interest of the elite in urban capital investment in the later Roman periods.

The genomic history and global expansion of domestic donkeys.

Donkeys transformed human history as essential beasts of burden for long-distance movement, especially across semi-arid and upland environments. They remain insufficiently studied despite globally expanding and providing key support to low- to middle-income communities. To elucidate their domestication history, we constructed a comprehensive genome panel of 207 modern and 31 ancient donkeys, as well as 15 wild equids. We found a strong phylogeographic structure in modern donkeys that supports a single domestication in Africa ~5000 BCE, followed by further expansions in this continent and Eurasia and ultimately returning to Africa. We uncover a previously unknown genetic lineage in the Levant ~200 BCE, which contributed increasing ancestry toward Asia. Donkey management involved inbreeding and the production of giant bloodlines at a time when mules were essential to the Roman economy and military.

Supplying the Roman army? Animal production and consumption in the countryside of north-eastern Iberia (Can Rubió, la Garrotxa)

In this paper we investigate the presence of the Roman army in the countryside of northeastern Iberia through the case study of Can Rubió, an archaeological site dated to the 1st c. BC-1st c. AD11This paper is part of the Special Issue ‘Animals in Roman Economy: production, supply, and trade within and beyond the empire’s frontiers’ edited by PIGIERE F., BEGLANE F., DESCHLER-ERB S., VALENZUELA-LAMAS S..The contextualisation of the archaeozoological information obtained from the study of 1,495 faunal remains, together with the structures and other finds from the site (pottery, metal and bone objects), allows us to hypothesise that Can Rubió was a military-logistics centre. Its main function would have been horse and cattle breeding to supply animals for riding, cargo and/or transport for the Roman army stationed in the hinterland of the Graeco-Roman city of Emporion. It would also have produced some goods for its own consumption, including wool, leather, milk and meat. The possible acquisition of portions of caprine and pork meat has also been documented. Thus, this paper provides information of great interest on a subject to which very little attention has been paid to date: the presence of the Roman army in a period in which the occupation and pacification of the area had already been completed.

Innovation and Intensification: The Use of Cattle in the Roman Rhine Region

ABSTRACT This paper examines the role of cattle in the Roman economy acrossthe region of the river Rhine (the Netherlands, western and south-western Germany, eastern France, and northern and eastern Switzerland). This large region marked the northern frontier of the Roman Empire. Taxonomic data (over 606,000 animal remains – cattle, sheep/goat and pig) are considered, and biometrical data (nearly 15,000 cattle bone measurements) are analysed through the log-ratio – or LSI-technique, in order to look at broad changes in cattle husbandry over time (from the Late Iron Age to the Late Roman period) and across different regions. The results show the central role of cattle in the Roman economy in this frontier region, in the context of increased agricultural production and urban demand for meat and raw products, as well as the efforts put on improving and intensifying cattle husbandry.

Frederico De Romanis, The Indo-Roman Pepper Trade and the Muziris Papyrus. (Oxford Studies on the Roman Economy.) Oxford, Oxford University Press 2020

Article Frederico De Romanis, The Indo-Roman Pepper Trade and the Muziris Papyrus. (Oxford Studies on the Roman Economy.) Oxford, Oxford University Press 2020 was published on April 1, 2022 in the journal Historische Zeitschrift (volume 314, issue 2).

Taskscapes, Landscapes, and the Politics of Agricultural Production in Roman Mosaics

In recent years archaeologists have put forward explanations of the design and impact of mythological and allegorical scenes in mosaics as part of elite Roman visual culture. While scenes of labor have served as evidence to accompany archaeological data on rural life, depictions of labor have received comparatively less attention as part of Roman ideological structures. Through an analysis of mosaics of the imperial period, this article demonstrates the value of adapting Timothy Ingold’s concept of ‘taskscape’ for explaining shared similarities in the communication strategies underlying depictions of agricultural work in Roman art and showcases an approach to the Roman economy rooted in this body of anthropological theory. Elites were able to reinforce normative values about the agricultural world by controlling not just what was seen, but what was not seen. Their mosaics present certain generic and hidden views of work that allowed fellow elites to use their own imaginations to continually ‘fill in the gaps’ and reinforce their control over agricultural production, a strategy that endured across the Roman world for generations.