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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. Press in Sbeïtla, Tunisia.
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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)
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 twenty-two 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).
“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?
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?
Were the activities of banks and bankers important in the Roman economy?
Did technology contribute to economic growth in the Roman world?
