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This book re-assesses the military, social and economic history of Roman Italy from the angle of population history.
This volume presents the proceedings of the seventh workshop of the international thematic network Impact of Empire, which concentrates on the history of the Roman Empire. It focuses on the impact that crises had on the development and functioning of the Roman Empire from the Republic to Late Imperial times.
Periodic markets are institutions of crucial importance in all pre-industrial economies. Yet the subject has been given little atten-tion by Roman historians. The aim of this book is to remedy this state of affairs through an empire-wide study of annual, bi-annual, monthly and 'weekly' markets. The method used involves the interpretation of the ancient evidence in terms of economic and anthropo-logical theory and against the background of comparative data. Dr de Ligt starts by demonstrat-ing the continued importance of local and regional fairs throughout the im-perial period. Special attention is devoted to the role of both annual fairs and high-frequency periodic markets in the rural economy. In the second half of the book the scope of the discussion is extended to social and political aspects. Finally, the book addresses such topics as urban resistance towards neighbouring rural markets and the widespread practice of waiving customs duties for the duration of largescale religious festivals.
This Companion provides an authoritative and up-to-date overview of Roman Republican history as it is currently practiced. Highlights recent developments, including archaeological discoveries, fresh approaches to textual sources, and the opening up of new areas of historical study Retains the drama of the Republic’s rise and fall Emphasizes not just the evidence of texts and physical remains, but also the models and assumptions that scholars bring to these artefacts Looks at the role played by the physical geography and environment of Italy Offers a compact but detailed narrative of military and political developments from the birth of the Roman Republic through to the death of Julius Caesar Discusses current controversies in the field
A radical interdisciplinary reappraisal of the agrarian background to the political events which shaped the destiny of Rome (from Republic to Empire). The book actively builds upon the textual and archaeological evidence to trace the fate of the Italian rural free population during a crucial period of its history.
The focus of Regional Urban Systems in the Roman World is on urban hierarchies and interactions in large geographical areas rather than on individual cities. Based on a painstaking examination of archaeological and epigraphic evidence relating to more than 1,000 cities, the volume offers comprehensive reconstructions of the urban systems of Roman Gaul, North Africa, Sicily, Greece and Asia Minor. In addition it examines the transformation of the settlement systems of the Iberian Peninsula and the central and northern Balkan following the imposition of Roman rule. Throughout the volume regional urban configurations are examined from a rich variety of perspectives, ranging from climate and landscape, administration and politics, economic interactions and social relationships all the way to region-specific ways of shaping the townscapes of individual cities.
Until recently migration did not occupy a prominent place on the agenda of students of Roman history. Various types of movement in the Roman world were studied, but not under the heading of migration and mobility. Migration and Mobility in the Early Roman Empire starts from the assumption that state-organised, forced and voluntary mobility and migration were intertwined and should be studied together. The papers assembled in the book tap into the remarkably large reservoir of archaeological and textual sources concerning various types of movement during the Roman Principate. The most important themes covered are rural-urban migration, labour mobility, relationships between forced and voluntary mobility, state-organised movements of military units, and familial and female mobility. Contributors are: Colin Adams, Seth G. Bernard, Christer Bruun, Paul Erdkamp, Lien Foubert, Peter Garnsey, Saskia Hin, Claire Holleran, Tatiana Ivleva, Luuk de Ligt, Elio Lo Cascio, Tracy L. Prowse, Saskia T. Roselaar, Laurens E. Tacoma, Rolf A. Tybout, Greg Woolf, and Andrea Zerbini.
Recent research has called into question the orthodox view that the last two centuries of the Roman Republic witnessed a decline of the free rural population. Yet the implications of the alternative reconstructions of Italy's demographic history that have been proposed have never been explored systematically. This volume offers a series of in-depth discussions not only of the republican manpower and census figures but also of the abundant archaeological data. It also explores the growth of cities, especially Rome, and the changing distribution of the population over the Italian landscape. On the rural side it addresses the interplay between demographic, economic, and legal developments and the background to the Gracchan land reforms. Finally it examines the political implications of demographic growth and large-scale migration to the provinces. The volume as a whole demonstrates that demography is the key to many aspects of Italy's economic, social, military, and political history.
What was funny about ancient jokes, and why? Why did the Roman state legislate to curb the behaviour of its obscenely rich and powerful elite, if it never really expected such laws to be obeyed? Why did it oppress the poor, and lavish public child support on them? These are important questions, but ancient Greeks and Romans could never have thought of them. They never questioned the right of the rich to be rich. They could not improve their understanding of Homeric gift-giving with the experience of ritualized friendship among the Trobriand islanders. Such questions and such answers can only come from those who live after the ancient past. This volume honours the well-known Dutch epigraphist and ancient historian H.W. Pleket. Ten substantial essays reflect his wide range, from early Greece to the Roman Empire, and his taste for comparative economic and social history.
Ancient Rome is the only society in the history of the western world whose legal profession evolved autonomously, distinct and separate from institutions of political and religious power. Roman legal thought has left behind an enduring legacy and exerted enormous influence on the shaping of modern legal frameworks and systems, but its own genesis and context pose their own explanatory problems. The economic analysis of Roman law has enormous untapped potential in this regard: by exploring the intersecting perspectives of legal history, economic history, and the economic analysis of law, the two volumes of Roman Law and Economics are able to offer a uniquely interdisciplinary examination of t...