Book contents
- Roman Frugality
- Cambridge Classical Studies
- Roman Frugality
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Note on Translations
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- Chapter 1 ‘Frugality’, Economy and Society in Archaic Rome (Late Seventh to Early Fourth Century BCE)
- Chapter 2 From Licinius Stolo to Tiberius Gracchus: Roman Frugality and the Limitation of Landholding
- Chapter 3 Frugality as a Political Language in the Second Century BCE: The Strategies of Cato the Elder and Scipio Aemilianus
- Chapter 4 Smallholding, Frugality and Market Economy in the Gracchan age
- Chapter 5 Frugalitas, or: The Invention of a Roman Virtue
- Chapter 6 Frugality, Building, and Heirlooms in an Age of Social Mobility
- Chapter 7 From Poverty to Prosperity: The Recalibration of Frugality
- Index Locorum
- General Index
- References
Chapter 1 - ‘Frugality’, Economy and Society in Archaic Rome (Late Seventh to Early Fourth Century BCE)
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 26 June 2020
Book contents
- Roman Frugality
- Cambridge Classical Studies
- Roman Frugality
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Note on Translations
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- Chapter 1 ‘Frugality’, Economy and Society in Archaic Rome (Late Seventh to Early Fourth Century BCE)
- Chapter 2 From Licinius Stolo to Tiberius Gracchus: Roman Frugality and the Limitation of Landholding
- Chapter 3 Frugality as a Political Language in the Second Century BCE: The Strategies of Cato the Elder and Scipio Aemilianus
- Chapter 4 Smallholding, Frugality and Market Economy in the Gracchan age
- Chapter 5 Frugalitas, or: The Invention of a Roman Virtue
- Chapter 6 Frugality, Building, and Heirlooms in an Age of Social Mobility
- Chapter 7 From Poverty to Prosperity: The Recalibration of Frugality
- Index Locorum
- General Index
- References
Summary
The chapter opens with a discussion of the methodological challenges involved in the study of a society for which we have very few contemporary literary sources, before exploring the dynamic intersections of wealth and power in archaic Rome with special attention to changes over time, primarily on the basis of archaeological evidence. The discussion considers the noticeable shift in the display of wealth from funerary settings to housing, stimulated by the introduction of the census; limits on the degree of ostentation on the part of rich and powerful members of the archaic Roman community; and protection against the dissipation of patrimony. In the final part, the focus shifts to the lower end of the social spectrum with a reconstruction of the lifestyle of a typical Roman farmer in the archaic period, with particular reference to calorific needs and allotment size.
Keywords
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Roman FrugalityModes of Moderation from the Archaic Age to the Early Empire and Beyond, pp. 127 - 158Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2020
References
Ampolo, C. (1980) ‘Le condizioni materiali della produzione. Agricoltura e paesaggio agrario’, DArch n.s. 2.1: 15–46.Google Scholar
Ampolo, C. (1988) ‘La città riformata e l’organizzazione centuriata. Lo spazio, il tempo, il sacro nella nuova realtà urbana’, in Storia di Roma 1. Roma in Italia, eds. Momigliano, A. and Schiavone, A.. Turin: 203–39.Google Scholar
Andreau, J. (1998) ‘Cens, évaluation et monnaie dans l’Antiquité romaine’, in La monnaie souveraine, eds. Aglietta, M. and Orléan, A.. Paris: 213–50.Google Scholar
Armstrong, J. (2016) War and Society in Early Rome: From Warlords to Generals. Cambridge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Aubert, J.-J. (2004) ‘The Republican economy and Roman law: regulation, promotion, or reflection?’, in The Cambridge Companion to the Roman Republic, ed. Flower, H. I.. Cambridge: 160–78.Google Scholar
Balbo, M. (2010) ‘La lex Licinia de modo agrorum: riconsiderazione di un modello storiografico’, RFIC 138.3–4: 265–311.Google Scholar
Bartoloni, G. (1987) ‘Esibizione di ricchezza a Roma nel VI e V secolo a.C.: doni votivi e corredi funerari’, Scienze dell’Antichità 1: 143–59.Google Scholar
Bartoloni, G. (2010) ‘Il cambiamento delle pratiche funerarie nell’età dei Tarquini’, in La grande Roma dei Tarquini: atti del 17° convegno internazionale di studi sulla storia e l’archeologia dell’Etruria, ed. Della Fina, G. M.. Rome: 141–67.Google Scholar
Bartoloni, G., Cataldi Dini, M. and Zevi, F. (1982) ‘Aspetti dell’ideologia funeraria nella necropoli di Castel di Decima’, in La mort, les morts dans les sociétés anciennes, eds. Gnoli, G. and Vernant, J.-P.. Cambridge: 257–73.Google Scholar
Bartoloni, G., Nizzo, V. and Taloni, M. (2009) ‘Dall’esibizione al rigore: analisi dei sepolcreti laziali tra VII e VI sec. a.C.’, in Tra Etruria, Lazio e Magna Grecia: indagini sulle necropoli, eds. Bonaudo, R., Cerchiai, L. and Pellegrino, C.. Paestum: 65–86.Google Scholar
Beck, H. (2009) ‘From Poplicola to Augustus: senatorial houses in Roman political culture’, Phoenix 63.3–4: 361–84.Google Scholar
Berry, C. (1994) The Idea of Luxury: A Conceptual and Historical Investigation. Cambridge.Google Scholar
Bettini, M. (2018) ‘Comparison’, in The World through Roman Eyes: Anthropological Approaches to Ancient Culture, eds. Bettini, M. and Short, W. M.. Cambridge: 24–46.Google Scholar
Bohannan, P. and Dalton, G. (1962) ‘Introduction’, in Markets in Africa, eds. Bohannan, P. and Dalton, G.. Chicago: 1–26.Google Scholar
Capogrossi Colognesi, L. (1988) ‘La città e la sua terra’, in Storia di Roma 1. Roma in Italia, eds. Momigliano, A. and Schiavone, A.. Turin: 263–89.Google Scholar
Capogrossi Colognesi, L. (2006) ‘Curie, centurie ed heredia’, in Studi in onore di Francesco Grelle, eds. Silvestrini, M., Vigorita, T. Spagnuolo and Volpe, G.. Bari: 41–9.Google Scholar
Carafa, P. (1995) ‘Interpretazione e cronologia’, in Palatium e Sacra via, eds. Carandini, A. and Carafa, P., Bollettino di Archeologia 32–33: 253–5.Google Scholar
Carafa, P. (2000) ‘Una nuova analisi archeologica per il settore settentrionale del Suburbio di Roma’, BCAR 101: 185–96.Google Scholar
Carandini, A. (2006) ‘La villa dell’Auditorium interpretata’, in La fattoria e la villa dell’Auditorium, eds. Carandini, A., D’Alessio, M. T. and Di Giuseppe, H.. Rome: 559–610.Google Scholar
Cifani, G. (2008) Architettura romana arcaica. Edilizia e società tra monarchia e repubblica. Rome.Google Scholar
Cifani, G. (2009) ‘Indicazioni sulla proprietà agraria nella Roma arcaica in base all’evidenza archeologica’, in Suburbium II. Il suburbio di Roma dalla fine dell’età monarchica alla nascita del sistema delle ville (V-II secolo a.C.), eds. Jolivet, V. et al. Rome: 311–24.Google Scholar
Cifani, G. (2016) ‘L’economia di Roma nella prima età repubblicana (V-IV secolo a.C.): alcune osservazioni’, in L’Italia centrale e la creazione di una koiné culturale? I percorsi della ‘romanizzazione’, eds. Aberson, M. et al. Bern: 151–82.Google Scholar
Colonna, G. (1977) ‘Un aspetto oscuro del Lazio antico. Le tombe del VI-V secolo a.C.’, PP 32: 131–65.Google Scholar
Colonna, G. (1988) ‘I Latini e gli altri popoli del Lazio’, in Italia omnium terrarum alumna, dir. Carratelli, G. Pugliese. Milan: 409–528.Google Scholar
Cornell, T. J. (1995) The Beginnings of Rome: Italy and Rome from the Bronze Age to the Punic Wars (c. 1000–264 B.C.). London and New York.Google Scholar
De Beaufort, L. (1738) Dissertation sur l’incertitude des premiers cinque siècles de l’histoire romaine. Utrecht.Google Scholar
De Davide, C. (2006) ‘Periodo 4. La villa ad atrio (225–80 a.C.)’, in La fattoria e la villa dell’Auditorium, eds. Carandini, A., D’Alessio, M. T. and Di Giuseppe, H.. Rome: 224–38.Google Scholar
Delfino, A. (2014) Forum Iulium: L’area del Foro di Cesare alla luce delle campagne di scavo 2005–2008. Oxford.Google Scholar
Drummond, A. (1989) ‘Rome in the fifth century I: the social and economic framework’, in The Cambridge Ancient History. Second Edition. Volume VII, part 2. The rise of Rome to 220 B.C. Cambridge: 113–71.Google Scholar
Dubois-Pelerin, E. (2008) Le luxe privé à Rome et en Italie au Ier siècle ap. J.C. Naples.Google Scholar
Dureau de la Malle, A. J. C. A. (1840) Économie politique des Romains. Tome second. Paris.Google Scholar
FAO (2004) Energy and Protein Requirements: Report of a Joint FAO/WHO/UNU Expert Consultation. Geneva.Google Scholar
Foxhall, L. and Forbes, H. A. (1982) ‘Σιτομετρεία: the role of grain as a staple food in classical antiquity’, Chiron 12: 41–90.Google Scholar
Franceschi, F. (2003) ‘La normativa suntuaria nella storia economica’, in Disciplinare il lusso: La legislazione suntuaria in Italia e in Europa tra Medioevo ed età moderna, eds. Muzzarelli, M. G. and Campanini, A.. Rome: 163–78.Google Scholar
Fulminante, F. (2014) The Urbanisation of Rome and Latium Vetus: From the Bronze Age to the Archaic Era. Cambridge.Google Scholar
Gabba, E. (1981) ‘Ricchezza e classe dirigente romana fra III e I sec. a.C.’, RSI 93: 54–58 [reprinted in Gabba 1988: 27–44].Google Scholar
Gabba, E. (1988) Del buon uso della ricchezza: Saggi di storia economica e sociale del mondo antico. Milan.Google Scholar
Gargola, D. (1995) Lands, Laws & Gods: Magistrates & Ceremony in the Regulation of Public Lands in Republican Rome. Chapel Hill.Google Scholar
Garnsey, P. (1988) Famine and Food Supply in the Graeco-Roman World: Responses to Risk and Crisis. Cambridge.Google Scholar
Garnsey, P. (1989) ‘Food consumption in antiquity: towards a quantitative account’, in Food, Health and Culture in Classical Antiquity, ed. Garnsey, P.. Cambridge: 36–49.Google Scholar
Garnsey, P. (1998) Cities, Peasants and Food in Classical Antiquity, Essays in Social and Economic History. Cambridge.Google Scholar
Halstead, P. (1989) ‘The economy has a normal surplus: economic stability and social change among early farming communities of Thessaly, Greece’, in Bad Year Economics. Cultural Responses to Risk and Uncertainty, eds. Halstead, P. and O’Shea, J.. Cambridge: 68–80.Google Scholar
Hollander, D. B. (2019) Farmers and Agriculture in the Roman Economy. London and New York.Google Scholar
Holtzman, J. (2009) Uncertain Tastes: Memory, Ambivalence and the Politics of Eating in Samburu, Northern Kenya. Berkeley and Los Angeles.Google Scholar
Hopkins, K. (1980) ‘Taxes and trade in the Roman Empire (200 B.C. – A.D. 200)’, JRS 70: 101–25.Google Scholar
Hopkins, K. (1996) ‘Rome, taxes, rents and trade’, Kodai 6/7: 41–75 [reprinted in Scheidel and von Reden 2002: 190–230].Google Scholar
Horden, P. and Purcell, N. (2000) The Corrupting Sea: A Study of Mediterranean History. Oxford.Google Scholar
Humm, M. (2001) ‘Servius Tullius et la censure. Élaboration d’un modèle institutionnel’, in L’invention des grands hommes de la Rome antique, eds. Coudry, M. and Späth, T.. Paris: 221–43.Google Scholar
Jongman, W. (2007) ‘The early Roman empire: consumption’, in The Cambridge Economic History of the Greco-Roman World, eds. Scheidel, W., Morris, I. and Saller, R.. Cambridge: 592–618.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kluckhohn, C. (1949) Mirror for Man: The Relation of Anthropology to Modern Life. Tucson, AZ.Google Scholar
Kron, J. (2005) ‘Anthropometry, physical anthropology, and the reconstruction of ancient health, nutrition, and living standards’, Historia 54: 68–83.Google Scholar
Lerouxel, F. (2015) ‘Bronze pesé, dette et travail contraint (nexum) dans la Rome archaïque (VIe s.–IVe s. a. C.)’, in La main-d’oeuvre agricole en Méditerranée archaïque, ed. Zurbach, J.. Bordeaux: 109–52.Google Scholar
McClintock, A. (2016) ‘Giustizia senza dèi’, in Giuristi nati: Antropologia e diritto romano, ed. McClintock, A.. Bologna: 73–95.Google Scholar
Mengotti, F. (1787) Del commercio de’ Romani dalla prima guerra punica a Costantino. Padua.Google Scholar
Momigliano, A. (1989) ‘The origins of Rome’, in The Cambridge Ancient History. Second Edition. Volume VII, part 2. The rise of Rome to 220 B.C. Cambridge: 52–112.Google Scholar
Morley, N. (2018): ‘Frugality and Roman economic thinking in Varro’s Rerum rusticarum’, I Quaderni del ramo d’oro on-line 10: 41–54, www.qro.unisi.it/frontend/sites/default/files/Morley%20QRO%2010.pdf (last accessed 6 February 2020).Google Scholar
Motta, L. (2002) ‘Planting the seed of Rome’, Vegetation History and Archaeobotany 11: 71–7.Google Scholar
Naglak, M., and Terrenato, N. (2019) ‘A house society in Iron Age Latium? Kinship and state formation in the context of new discoveries at Gabii’, in La società gentilizia nell’Italia antica: Tra realtà e mito storiografico, eds. Di Fazio, M. and Paltinieri, S.. Bari: 99–118.Google Scholar
Nicolet, C. (1980) The World of the Citizen in Republican Rome, trans. Falla, P. S.. London.Google Scholar
Pearson, H. W. (1957) ‘The economy has no surplus: critique of a theory of development’, in Trade and Market in the Early Empires, eds. Polanyi, K., Arensberg, C. M. and Pearson, H. W.. Glencoe, IL: 320–41.Google Scholar
Pucci, G. (1989) ‘I consumi alimentari’, in Storia di Roma 4. Caratteri e morfologie, ed. Schiavone, A.. Turin: 369–88.Google Scholar
Rathbone, D. (2008) ‘Poor peasants and silent herds’, in People, Land, and Politics: Demographic Developments and the Transformation of Roman Italy. 300 BC–AD 14, eds. de Ligt, L. and Northwood, S.. Leiden and Boston: 305–22.Google Scholar
Rathbone, D. (2009) ‘Earnings and costs: living standards and the Roman economy (first to third centuries AD)’, in Quantifying the Roman Economy, eds. Bowman, A. and Wilson, A.. Oxford: 299–326.Google Scholar
Reynolds, P. (1981) ‘Deadstock and livestock’, in Farming Practice in British Prehistory, ed. Mercer, R.. Edinburgh: 97–122.Google Scholar
Rich, J. W. (2008) ‘Lex Licinia, Lex Sempronia: B.G. Niebuhr and the Roman limitation of landholding in the Roman republic’, in People, Land, and Politics: Demographic Developments and the Transformation of Roman Italy. 300 BC–AD 14, eds. de Ligt, L. and Northwood, S.. Leiden and Boston: 519–72.Google Scholar
Richardson, J. H. (2012) The Fabii and the Gauls: Studies in Historical Thought and Historiography in Republican Rome. Stuttgart.Google Scholar
Ricci, G. (2006) ‘Periodo 3. La Villa dell’Acheloo (300–225)’, in La fattoria e la villa dell’Auditorium, eds. Carandini, A., D’Alessio, M. T. and Di Giuseppe, H.. Rome: 191–201.Google Scholar
Riccobono, S. (1968) (ed.) Fontes Iuris Romani Anteiustiniani. Pars prima: Leges. Florence.Google Scholar
Ross Holloway, R. (1994) The Archaeology of Early Rome and Latium. London and New York.Google Scholar
Schiavone, A. (1989) ‘La struttura nascosta. Una grammatica dell’economia romana’, in Storia di Roma 4. Caratteri e morfologie, ed. Schiavone, A.. Turin: 7–69.Google Scholar
Smith, C. J. (1996) Early Rome and Latium: Economy and Society, c. 1000–500 B.C. Oxford.Google Scholar
Smith, C. J. (1998) ‘Traders and artisans in archaic central Italy’, in Trade, Traders and the Ancient City, eds. Parkins, H. and Smith, C. J.. London and New York: 31–51.Google Scholar
Smith, C. J. (2005) ‘The beginnings of urbanization in Rome’, in Mediterranean Urbanization. 800–600 BC, eds. Osborne, R. and Cunliffe, B.. Oxford: 91–111.Google Scholar
Smith, C. J. (2006) The Roman Clan: The Gens from Ancient Ideology to Modern Anthropology. Cambridge.Google Scholar
Smith, C. J. (2011) ‘Citizenship and community: inventing the Roman republic’, in State Formation in Italy and Greece: Questioning the Neoevolutionist Paradigm, eds. Terrenato, N. and Haggis, D. C.. Oxford: 217–30.Google Scholar
Smith, C. J. (2013) ‘Methodology and historiography in the study of early Rome’, in Mediterranean Archaeology: a GID-EMAN training course. Rome 8–10 October 2012, eds. Godart, L., La Rocca, E. and Sommella, P.. Rome: 23–38.Google Scholar
Smith, C. J. (2019) ‘Revisiting the Roman clan’, in La società gentilizia nell’Italia antica: Tra realtà e mito storiografico, eds. Di Fazio, M. and Paltinieri, S.. Bari: 25–45.Google Scholar
Terrenato, N. (2012) ‘The enigma of “Catonian” villas: the De agri cultura in the context of second-century BC Italian architecture’, in Roman Republican Villas: Architecture, Context and Ideology, eds. Becker, J. A. and Terrenato, N.. Ann Arbor, MI: 69–93.Google Scholar
Toher, M. (1986) ‘The tenth table and the conflict of the orders’, in Social Struggles in Archaic Rome: New Perspectives on the Conflict of the Orders, ed. Raaflaub, K. A.. Berkeley: 301–26.Google Scholar
Torelli, M. (1988) ‘Dalle aristocrazie gentilizie alla nascita della plebe’, in Storia di Roma 1. Roma in Italia, eds. Momigliano, A. and Schiavone, A.. Turin: 241–61.Google Scholar
Torelli, M. (2011) La forza della tradizione. Etruria e Roma: continuità e discontinuità agli albori della Storia. Milan.Google Scholar
Viglietti, C. (2011) Il limite del bisogno. Antropologia economica di Roma arcaica. Bologna.Google Scholar
Viglietti, C. (2014) ‘I bina iugera riconsiderati’, in La leggenda di Roma. Volume quarto, ed. Carandini, A.. Milan: 453–71.Google Scholar
Viglietti, C. (2017a) ‘Les crises frumentaires dans la Rome alto-républicaine et la question des consommations alimentaires: entre croissance et limitation’, Topoi (Lyon) 21: 151–72.Google Scholar
Viglietti, C. (2017b) ‘L’“economia” di Publio Valerio Publicola: Condizione materiale e atteggiamenti etici, tra storia, letteratura e archeologia’, MEFRA 129.1: 235–53.Google Scholar
Viglietti, C. (2018a) ‘Ordini di cose e persone a Roma tra VIII e V secolo a.C.’, in Il valore delle cose e il valore delle persone, ed. Vallerani, M. V.. Rome: 129–52.Google Scholar
Viglietti, C. (2018b) ‘Economy’, in The World through Roman Eyes: Anthropological Approaches to Ancient Culture, eds. Bettini, M. and Short, W. M.. Cambridge: 216–48.Google Scholar
Viglietti, C. (2020) ‘Investment and uses of wealth in archaic Rome and Latium (late 8th to early 4th century BC)’, in Capital, Investment and Innovation in the Roman World, eds. Erdkamp, P., Verboven, K. and Zuiderhoek, A.. Oxford: 67–97.Google Scholar
Virlouvet, C. (1985) Famines et émeutes à Rome des origines de la République à la mort de Néron. Rome.Google Scholar
Volpe, R. (2012) ‘Republican villas in the Suburbium of Rome’, in Roman Republican Villas: Architecture, Context, and Ideology, eds. Becker, J. A. and Terrenato, N.. Ann Arbor, MI: 94–110.Google Scholar
Xenos, N. (1987) ‘Liberalism and the postulate of scarcity’, Political Theory 15.2: 225–43.Google Scholar
Zanda, E. (2011) Fighting Hydra-like Luxury: Sumptuary Regulation in the Roman Republic. Bristol.Google Scholar
Zehnacker, H. (1990) ‘Rome: une société archaïque au contact de le monnaie (VIe–IVe siècle)’, in Crise et transformation des sociétés archaïques de l’Italie antique au Ve siècle av. J.C. Actes de la table ronde organisée par l’École Française de Rome. Rome 19–21 novembre 1987. Rome: 307–26.Google Scholar
Zevi, F. (1976) ‘Palestrina (Praeneste)’, in Civiltà del Lazio primitive. Rome: 213–18.Google Scholar
- 2
- Cited by