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26 - Roman Egypt

from Part VII - Regional Development in the Roman Empire

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 March 2008

Dominic Rathbone
Affiliation:
King’s College London
Walter Scheidel
Affiliation:
Stanford University, California
Ian Morris
Affiliation:
Stanford University, California
Richard P. Saller
Affiliation:
Stanford University, California
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Summary

introduction

This chapter aims to assess the extent, nature, and causes of economic change in Egypt in the first three centuries of Roman rule (30 bcad 284). I will argue for significant aggregate and per capita growth in the first two centuries, attributable to the institutional, commercial, and behavioral impact of integration into the Roman world; then, following the Antonine plague, some aggregate decline in production but renewed, if more differentiated, per capita growth attributable to internal socioeconomic changes. The issues of continuity and peculiarity are fundamental. First, in any period we face the myth of the unchanging nature of Egyptian agriculture and agrarian culture, which hinders recognition of times of significant change. Second, Egypt has long been seen as an untypical province of the Roman empire: politically separate, geophysically distinct, culturally unique. So too, supposedly, it was kept outside the general economic structure of the empire, and is untypical for Roman economic history. Few historians now overtly subscribe to this view, but a sub-theme of this chapter is that Egypt is instead our best documented case of the normal regional variation within the empirewide framework.

These problems envelop the papyrological evidence. The 20,000 or so Roman-period texts on papyrus published to date offer a quantity and range of documentary evidence unique in the Roman empire, and permit some quantification of social and economic phenomena. However, the relative wealth is poor and unevenly distributed. Over three centuries we have an average of twenty-one census returns per 14-yearly census, and one price of wine, the best attested commodity, for every two years.

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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2007

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  • Roman Egypt
  • Edited by Walter Scheidel, Stanford University, California, Ian Morris, Stanford University, California, Richard P. Saller, Stanford University, California
  • Book: The Cambridge Economic History of the Greco-Roman World
  • Online publication: 28 March 2008
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CHOL9780521780537.027
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  • Roman Egypt
  • Edited by Walter Scheidel, Stanford University, California, Ian Morris, Stanford University, California, Richard P. Saller, Stanford University, California
  • Book: The Cambridge Economic History of the Greco-Roman World
  • Online publication: 28 March 2008
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CHOL9780521780537.027
Available formats
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Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Roman Egypt
  • Edited by Walter Scheidel, Stanford University, California, Ian Morris, Stanford University, California, Richard P. Saller, Stanford University, California
  • Book: The Cambridge Economic History of the Greco-Roman World
  • Online publication: 28 March 2008
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CHOL9780521780537.027
Available formats
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