Rome’s Imperial Economy

Twelve Essays

W. V. HARRIS

UNIVERSITY PRESS

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Contents

Preface List of Maps Abbreviations

Introduction

Ix

Xi

Xii

1

PART I. STRUCTURES

1.  On the Applicability of the Concept of Class in Roman History

2.  Poverty and Destitution in the Roman Empire

15

27

PART II. SLAVERY

3.  Towards a Study of the Roman Slave Trade

4.  Demography, Geography, and the Sources of Roman Slaves

57

88

PART III. PRODUCTION

5.  Roman Terracotta Lamps: The Organization of an Industry

6.  Production, Distribution, and Instrumentum Domesticum

113

147

PART IV. TRADE

7.  Trade [70-192 ad]

8.  Trade and the River Po: A Problem in the Economic History of the Roman Empire

9.  Roman Governments and Commerce, 300 bg-ad 300

155

188

PART V. MONEY

10. A Revisionist View of Roman Money

PART VI. OVERVIEWS

11.  The Roman Economy in the Late Republic, 133-31 bc

12.  Between Archaic and Modern: Some Current Problems In the Economic History of the High Roman Empire

References

Index

223

257

288

314

361

Preface

Eleven of these twelve studies have been published before, as follows (Chapter

2 is new):i

1 T. Yuge and M. Doi (eds.), Forms of Control and Subordination in Antiquity (Tokyo and Leiden, 1988), 598-610.

3  D’Arms and Kopff 1980 = Memoirs of the American Academy in Rome 36 (1980), 117-40.

4  Journal of Roman Studies 89 (1999), 62-75.

5  Journal of Roman Studies 70 (1980), 126-45.

6  W. V. Harris (ed.), The Inscribed Economy: Production and Distribution in the Roman Empire in the Light of Instrumentum Domesticum (supplementary vol. 6 of the Journal of Roman Archaeology, Ann Arbor, 1993), 186-9.

7  Cambridge Ancient History vol. 11, 2nd edn (Cambridge, 2000), 710-39.

8  J.-F. Bergier (ed.), Montagnes, fleuves, forets dans l’histoire (St Katharinen, 1989), 123-34.

9  C. Zaccagnini (ed.), Mercanti e politica nel mondo antico (Bari and Rome, 2003), 275-309.

10  Journal of Roman Studies 96 (2006), 1-24.

11  Cambridge Economic History of the Greek and Roman World (Cambridge, 2007), 511-40.

12  W. V. Harris (ed.), The Inscribed Economy: Production and Distribution in the Roman Empire in the light ofInstrumentum Domesticum (supplementary vol. 6 of the Journal of Roman Archaeology, Ann Arbor, 1993), 11-29.

I thank all concerned for permission to reprint these items. Nathan Pilkington and Anne Hunnell Chen, young scholars at Columbia, have patiently engaged in extensive editorial toil, for which I am very grateful indeed. My debts, often deep, to the many scholars who have helped me in this area are acknowledged case by case. I owe the time needed to put this collection together to the generosity of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

List of Maps

58

189

258

3.1  The Roman Empire of 69 ad and trade

8.1  Northern Italy under the Roman Empire

11.1 The Roman Empire in the late Republic

Abbreviations

The abbreviated titles of literary sources are not included in the following list; in case of difficulty see LSJ, The Oxford Latin Dictionary, or The Oxford Classical Dictionary. For papyrological publications (including BGU, C. P.Lat., CPR, SB) see J. F. Oates et al., Checklist of Editions of Greek, Latin, Demotic, and Coptic Papyri, Ostraca and Tablets, 5th edn (Oakville, CT, 2001).

Acta RCRF AE AJA ANRW

BAR-IS

Barrington Atlas

BASP

BCH

Broughton, MRR

CAH

Ch. L.A.

CIL

CIS

CJ

CMG

CPh

CQ

CRAI

CSEL

C. Th.

De Ruggiero, Diz. Ep.

Dial. Arch.

Dig.

Durrbach, Choix EAA

Acta Rei Cretariae Romanae Fautorum

L’Annee Epigraphique

American Journal of Archaeology

Aufstieg und Niedergang der Romischen Welt, ed.

H. Temporini and W. Haase British Archaeological Reports, International Series The Barrington Atlas of the Greek and Roman Worlds, ed. R. Talbert

Bulletin of the American Society of Papyrologists

Bulletin de Correspondance Hellenique

T. R. S. Broughton, The Magistrates of the Roman Republic

Cambridge Ancient History

Chartae Latinae Antiquiores

Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum

Corpus Inscriptionum Semiticarum

Codex Iustinianus

Corpus Medicorum Graecorum

Classical Philology

Classical Quarterly

Comptes-Rendus de l’Academie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres

Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum Codex Theodosianus

E.  De Ruggiero (ed.), Dizionario epigrafico di antichitd romane

Dialoghi di Archeologia Digesta

F.  Durrbach, Choix d’inscriptions de Delos Enciclopedia dell'Arte Antica