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Manpower Needs for the Public Works Programs of the Julio-Claudian Emperors

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 March 2009

M. K. Thornton  and
R. L. Thornton
M. K. Thornton
Affiliation:
Assistant Professor of Classics at Miami University, Oxford, Ohio 45056.
R. L. Thornton
Affiliation:
Professor of Business Administration at Miami University, Oxford, Ohio 45056.
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Abstract

The paper quantifies the relative manpower costs of the public building programs of the Julio-Claudian emperors of Rome from 29 b.c. to a.d. 68. We used both literary and archaeological sources for obtaining our data. Upon charting the data we discovered that the manpower needs show two peaks, one between 12 b.c. and 3 b.c., the other from a.d. 38–51.

Type
Articles
Information
The Journal of Economic History , Volume 43 , Issue 2 , June 1983 , pp. 373 - 378
Copyright
Copyright © The Economic History Association 1983

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References

1 Frank, Tenney, Economic Survey of Ancient Rome, 5 (Baltimore, 1940), pp. 10–11, 19, 39, 42, and 44.Google Scholar Compare with Thornton, Mary K., “Augustan Tradition and Neronian Economics,” Aufstieg und Niedergang der Rōmischen Welt (Berlin, 1975) vol. 2, pp. 149–71.Google Scholar

2 See , Suetonius, Vespasian 18.Google Scholar For more discussion on this, see Brunt, Peter A., “Free Labour and Public Works at Rome,” Journal of Roman Studies, 70 (1980), 81–100.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

3 Platner, Samuel B. and Ashby, Thomas, A Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome (London, 1929);Google Scholar to this we added Bowne, Frank C., Public Works of the Julio-Claudians and the Flavians (Princeton, 1941)Google Scholar and Nash, Ernest, Pictorial Dictionary of Ancient Rome, 2 vols. (New York, 1961–1962).Google Scholar These were supplemented by Ruggiero, Ettore de, II Foro Romano (Rome, 1913);Google ScholarJordan, Henri, Topographic des Stadt Rom in Aitertum (Berlin, 1871–1885), vol. 1, parts 1 and 2; vol. 2;Google ScholarLanciani, Rodolfo, The Ruins and Excavations of Ancient Rome, 2 vols. (London and Edinburgh, 1892); and any new archaeological evidence available. Some constructions, such as the aqueducts, required greater details.Google Scholar The most essential work for aqueduct study is an original source, Frontinus, de aquis, supplemented by Ashby, Thomas, The Aqueducts of Ancient Rome (Oxford, 1935)Google Scholar, and Deman, Esther Van, The Building of the Roman Aqueducts (Washington, D.C., 1934). For more details on a specific building, we used other sources.Google Scholar

4 We tried to fix monetary costs on construction as contained in Duncan-Jones, Richard, The Economy of the Roman Empire (Cambridge, 1974), pp. 90–114, 157–223, to provide relatives between different types of buildings. The effort was not successful.Google Scholar

5 Princeton Encyclopedia of Classical Sites (Princeton, 1976), p. 616.Google Scholar

6 Compare with Dessau, Hermann, Inscriptiones Latinae Selectae, 6086, 28 where the same index of building size is used.Google Scholar

7 Platner, and Ashby, Topographical Dictionary, p. 594. Further details are listed on p. 324.Google Scholar

8 Blake, Marion E., Ancient Roman Construction in Italy From Prehistoric Periods to Augustus (Washington, D.C., 1947), pp. 178–79.Google Scholar

9 Nash, , Pictorial Dictionary, vol. 2, p. 291.Google Scholar

10 The authors will furnish a list of all 178 building projects and their work units to anyone requesting it.Google Scholar

11 Meiggs, Russell, Roman Ostia (Oxford, 1973), p. 54.Google Scholar