Article contents
The Work Statuses of Slaves and Freedmen in the Great Ports of the Roman World (First Century BCE–Second Century CE)*
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 January 2017
Abstract
This article investigates the working identities of slaves and freedmen involved in the economies of Roman ports between the first century BCE and the second century CE. Textual evidence (from manuscripts to more diverse epigraphic productions) reveals the great diversity that predominated within these social categories. This heterogeneity was related to the level of technical difficulty involved in the tasks that were performed and thus to workers’ professional skills, as was the case in other urban economies. Nevertheless, factors specific to port economies, particularly with regard to long-distance trade, were also important. The opposition between unskilled workers and trusted agents represents only a part of this broad spectrum. The complexity that can be observed lies in the lack of correspondence—or even the dissonance—between the legal, social, and work statuses of individuals.
- Type
- Stratifications
- Information
- Annales. Histoire, Sciences Sociales - English Edition , Volume 68 , Issue 4 , December 2013 , pp. 659 - 684
- Copyright
- Copyright © Les Éditions de l’EHESS 2013
Footnotes
I would like to thank Jean Andreau, Vincent Azoulay, and André Tchernia for their valuable comments.
References
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2. For example, they were barred from the higher orders and the decurion orders of the empire’s cities.
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16. Nicolas Tran, Dominus tabernae. Le statut de travail des artisans et commerçants de l’Occident romain (Ier siècle av. J.-C.-IIIe siècle ap. J.-C.) (Rome: École française de Rome, 2013).
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22. Petronius, Satyricon 117.11; Aulus Gellius, Attic Nights 5.3.1-6.
23. Tabulae Pompeianae Sulpiciorum (hereafter TPSulp.) 46, corresponds to the rental contract for the warehouse space: “Under the consulate of C. Laecanius Bassus and Q. Terentius Culleo, on the third day before the ides of March [March 13, 40 CE], I, Nardus, slave of P. Annius Seleucus, wrote, in the presence and on the order of my master P. Annius Seleucus, because he declared himself illiterate, that he has rented to C. Sulpicius Faustus the twenty-sixth place downstairs in the Barbatus warehouse, situated on the property of Domitia Lepida, where thirteen thousand modii of Alexandria grain are to be found that my master will measure with his slaves, for a rent of one hundred sesterces per month. Written at Pozzuoli.”; TPSulp. 53, March 13, 40 CE: L. Marius Iucundus, freedman of Dida, acknowledges that he owes twenty thousand sesterces to Faustus; TPSulp. 79: Iucundus returns the security deposit of thirteen thousand modii of Alexandria grain to Faustus. It is likely that Seleucus, a porter with a Greek cognomen, was a freedman.
24. Giovanni Becatti, Scavi di Ostia, vol. 4, Mosaici e pavimenti marmorei (Rome: Istituto poligrafico dello Stato, 1961), 2:35-37, no. 58, plates 187-88.
25. On Arles and its lenuncularii, see: L’année épigraphique (hereafter AE), (2009): 822-23; Bollini, Maria, “Il mosaico riminese,” Analisi di Rimini antica. Storia e archeologia per un museo (Rimini: Commune di Rimini, 1980), 287–96 Google Scholar, plate 91.
26. On the coins and medallions of Nero, Trajan, and Commodus, see: Roman Imperial Coinage 1.178-81, 1.441 and 2.632; Francesco Gnecchi, I medaglioni romani (Milan: U. Hoepli, 1912), nos. 174-75.
27. Hilding Thylander, Inscriptions du port d’Ostie (Lund: C. W. K. Gleerup, 1951-52), no. A61, pp. 64-65; Zimmer, Gerhard, Römische Berufsdarstellungen (Berlin: G. Mann, 1982), nos. 24 and 56, pp. 113–14 and 208–09 Google Scholar.
28. See also M. Quintilius [---], who belonged to the corps of the lenuncularii traiectus Luculli and the calfats (stuppatores): AE (1987): 196.
29. Scapharii are known in Hispalis (Seville): Corpus inscriptionum latinarum (hereafter CIL) 2.1168, 1169, 1180, and 1183. On the corpora lenunculariorum of Ostia, see Tran, Nicolas, “Un Picton à Ostie: M. Sedatius Severianus et les corps de lénunculaires sous le principat d’Antonin le Pieux,” Revue des études anciennes 114, no. 2 (2012): 323–44 Google Scholar.
30. See, in particular, CIL 14.246, 250, and 251.
31. Associations could admit slaves with their master’s authorization: Digest 47.22.3.2 (Marcianus, 2, De iudiciis publicis).
32. Nicolas Tran, Les membres des associations romaines. Le rang social des collegiati en Italie et en Gaule sous le Haut-Empire (Rome: École française de Rome, 2006), 124-37.
33. Hence the interest shown by the authorities in maintaining riverbanks. The management of the Tiber was entrusted to former consuls. In the 160s, the eques Sex. Iulius Possessor was procurator Augg(ustorum) ad ripam Baetis (CIL 2.1180).
34. Rieth, Éric, ed., Les épaves de Saint-Georges, Lyon, Ier-XVIIIe siècles. Analyse architecturale et études complémentaires (Paris: CNRS Éditions, 2010)Google Scholar; Djaoui, David, Greck, Sandra, and Marlier, Sabrina, eds., Arles-Rhône 3: Le naufrage d’un chaland antique dans le Rhône. Enquête pluridisciplinaire (Arles: Actes Sud, 2011)Google Scholar; Giulia Boetto, “Tra il fiume e il mare. Le caudicariae di Fiumicino,” in “Maritime Technology in the Ancient Economy: Ship-Design and Navigation,” ed. William V. Harris and Kristine Iara, special issue, Journal of Roman Archaeology, sup. ser., 84 (2011): 103-12.
35. Procopius, History of the Gothic War 1.26; Joël Le Gall, Le Tibre, fleuve de Rome, dans l’Antiquité (Paris: PUF, 1953), 325.
36. Pompeii 1.14.7 (Casa del Larario del Sarno); Giovanni Pugliese Carratelli, ed., Pompei. Pitture e mosaici, vol. 2, Regio 1, parte 2 (Rome: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana fondata da Giovannii Treccani, 1990-91), 938-43, figs. 3 and 6.
37. The most complete commentary remains that of Joël Le Gall, Recherches sur le culte du Tibre (Paris: PUF, 1953), 3-22 and plates 1-5.
38. Philostratus, Vita Apollonii 7.16.
39. Cavalier, Odile, “La scène de halage de Cabrières-d’Aygues,” in César. Le Rhône pour mémoire. Vingt ans de fouilles dans le fleuve à Arles, ed. Long, Luc and Picard, Pascale (Arles: Actes Sud, 2009), 35 Google Scholar; André Blanc, “La scène de halage de Colonzelle (Drôme),” Revue archéologique de Narbonnaise 9 (1976): 247-50. The boatmen of the Durance had their headquarters in Arles; those of the Rhône were based in Lyon.
40. See also the relief from Rome in the Palazzo Massimo: Le Gall, Le Tibre, plate 31.
41. Martial, Epigrams 4.64.22.
42. See, for example, CIL 13.1972 and 2020 (from Lyon).
43. AE (1974): 123b.
44. CIL 14.4234. It is very likely that he performed all three functions simultaneously: the dedication differs from epitaphs on which the deceased presented the steps of their career. See also CIL 14.309 (epitaph of L. Calpurnius Chius, mensor frumentarius, idem codicarius).
45. CIL 13.1966-1967. Two boatmen based in Arles exercised a second activity as utricularii: CIL 12.731 and 4107. See also the Lyonnais boatmen cited by CIL 6.29722 (Cn. Sentius Regulianus, a boatman on the Saône and wine merchant); CIL 13.1954 (M. Inthatius Vitalis, also a boatman on the Saône and wine merchant) and 1972 (Toutius Incitatus, Saône boatman, grain merchant, and centonarius); AE (1982): 702 (boatman and centonarius). The centonarii were textile makers and merchants.
46. See Baker, Jan Theo, ed., The Mills-Bakeries of Ostia: Description and Interpretation (Amsterdam: J. C. Gieben, 1999)Google Scholar. For an explanation of their size and number in terms of the provisions they supplied to ships, see Ruyt, Claire De, “Boulangers et foulons d’Ostie à l’époque impériale: quelques réflexions sur l’implantation de leurs ateliers et sur leurs fonctions précises dans la ville portuaire,” in Les artisans dans la ville antique, ed. Béal, Jean-Claude and Goyon, Jean-Claude (Paris: De Boccard, 2002), 49–55.Google Scholar CIL 14.374, mentions a rich freedman simultaneously involved in public construction and breadmaking.
47. Professional associations were able to provide a network that lent itself to such arrangements.
48. TPSulp. 78; Giuseppe Camodeca, “Per un primo aggiornamento all’edizione dell’archivio dei Sulpicii (TPSulp),” Cahiers du Centre Gustave Glotz (hereafter CCG) 11 (2000): 173-91, here pp. 188-90; Camodeca, , “Il credito negli archivi campani. Il caso di Puteoli e di Herculaneum,” in Credito e moneta nel mondo romano, ed. Cascio, Elio Lo (Bari: Edipuglia, 2003), 69–98 Google Scholar, here pp. 88-90: “[In Greek] Under the consulate of Marcus Aquila Iulianus and Publius Nonius Asprenas, the third day before the ides of April, in Dicerarcheia [the Greek name for Pozzuoli]. I, Menelaus, son of Irenaeus, of Ceramos, wrote that I received from Primus, slave of P. Attius Severus, one thousand deniers, as part of a naulotike sealed by us, deniers that I will return according to the agreements taken in the naulotike reached with him. Moreover, I named Marcus Barbatius Celer as guarantor of the payment of the above-mentioned thousand deniers. [In Latin] I, Q. Aelius Romanus, wrote on the request and authority of Marcus Barbatius Celer, in his presence, because he was illiterate, that he guaranteed the above-mentioned one thousand deniers in regards to Primus, slave of Publius Attius Severus, in favor of Menelaus, son of Irenaeus, of Ceramos, as it is written above.”
49. Tchernia, André, Les Romains et le commerce (Naples: Centre Jean-Bérard, 2011), 340–45 Google Scholar, summarizes the discussions to which this document has given rise. A classic maritime loan insuring the debtor is improbable because the word naulotike never refers to this type of loan. Two different theories have thus been advanced by specialists. On the basis of parallels with the late medieval and early modern periods, the first consists in imagining a “fictive loan” agreed to by the shipper and reimbursable to the merchant if the merchandise does not arrive safe and sound. According to the second, the money corresponded to a uectura (the remuneration of the shipper) paid in advance and to be reimbursed in the event of shipwreck.
50. CIL 15.3642-45 and 4748-49.
51. See D. Caecilius Abascantus, lictor curiatus, diffusor olearius ex prouincia Baetica (CIL 6.1885 = AE [ 1994] : 193, epitaph of his spouse Caecilia Hellas), and D. Caecilius Onesimus, uiator apparitor Augustorum, diffusor olearius ex Baetica (AE [1980]: 198 and [1994]: 194, epigraph written by his heirs). The first name Decimus is not commonly associated with the gentilis Caecilius. It is also possible that D. Caecilius Singenus, the benefactor of Roman apparitors, should be linked with the same family group (CIL, 6.1947).
52. See, for example, the amphora of L. Antonius Epaphroditus: AE (1981): 626-30 (intervention of Primus), and 632-33 (intervention of Hera in Astigi); CIL 15.3706 (dated to 149 CE, intervention of Polycarpus in Astigi).
53. Bernard Liou and Jean-Marie Gassend, “L’épave Saint-Gervais 3 à Fos-sur-Mer (milieu du Ier siècle ap. J.-C.). Inscriptions peintes sur amphores de Bétique. Vestiges de la coque,” Archaeonautica 10 (1990): 157-264, here pp. 177-82. The title of the article, which refers to the first century CE, contains an error: the documentation is in fact from the second century.
54. Lucian, The Ship or the Wishes 13: trans. K. Kilburn, The Loeb Classical Library (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1959), 445.
55. Ibid., 18: “May Hermes Lord of Profit give his consent to all! May the ship and all in her be mine—cargo, merchants, women, sailors, and every sweetest treasure in the world!” Lucian VI, 451.
56. Petronius, Satyricon 76: “Concupiui negotiari. Ne multis uos morer, quinque naues aedificaui, oneraui uinum—et tunc erat contra aurum—misi Romam. Putares me hoc iussisse: omnes naues naufragarunt.” “I conceived a passion for business. I will not keep you a moment—I built five ships, got a cargo of wine—which was worth its weight in gold at the time—and sent them to Rome. You may think it was a put-up job; every one was wrecked.” Trans. Michael Heseltine, The Loeb Classical Library (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1913; repr. 1979), 177. As Jean-Jacques Aubert points out, the text of Petronius does not give the impression that Trimalchio was aboard one of the ships: “Les Institores et le commerce maritime dans l’Empire romain,” Topoi 9, no. 1 (1999): 145-64, here p. 146.
57. Tchernia, Les Romains et le commerce, 47, mentions exemptions from public duties for individuals who fitted out at least five ships of ten thousand modii and sailed them on behalf of the Roman grain supply (Digest 50.5.3; Cervidius Scaevola, 3, Regulae), as well as L. Ferranius Celer, whose name appeared on the anchors of several sunken wrecks off the coasts of Italy and Hispania. See also Gianfrotta, Piero Alfredo and Hesnard, Antoinette, “Les bouchons d’amphores en pouzzolane,” in Amphores romaines et histoire économique. Dix ans de recherche (Rome: École française de Rome, 1989), 393–441 Google Scholar, here p. 435, no. A15.
58. Digest 14.1.1pr. According to Aubert, “Les Institores et le commerce maritime,” 147-155, the actio institoria predated the actio exercitoria. The latter is said to have been an extension of the former and took into account the specificities of maritime commerce.
59. Andreau, Jean, “Les esclaves ‘hommes d’affaires’ et la gestion des ateliers et des commerces,” in Mentalités et choix économiques des Romains, ed. Andreau, Jean, France, Jérôme, and Pittia, Sylvie (Bordeaux: Ausonius, 2004), 111–26 Google Scholar, here p. 120: “The principle and general rules of agency are very homogeneous but there is tremendous variety in the duties for which slaves act as agents.”
60. Digest 45.1.122.1 (Cervidius Scaevola, 28, Digesta): “Callimachus took a transmarine loan from Stichus, the slave of Seius, at Berytus in the province of Syria, for a voyage to Brentesium. The loan was for the full two hundred days of the voyage with security by way of pignus and hypotheca over the cargo bought at Berytus for transport to Brentesium and that which he would buy at Brentesium for transport by sea to Berytus. It was agreed by the parties that when Callimachus reached Brentesium, he should, before the thirteenth of September next, himself take ship for Syria with other cargo purchased and put on board or, if by the said date he did not buy the cargo or set sail from that civitas, he would repay the whole amount at once, as if the voyage had ended, and pay all costs of those persons who recovered the money and took it to the city of Rome. Stichus, the slave of Lucius Titius, stipulated for the aforementioned payments and acts and Callimachus promised them. Pursuant to the agreement the cargo was placed on board, along with Eros, the fellow slave of Stichus, and the ship sailed for Syria before the thirteenth of September. If Callimachus, having duly loaded the cargo, remained behind, when he was already bound to pay the money over at Brentesium to be taken to Rome, and the ship sank, can he rely on the agreement of Eros, who was sent with him and who had no further permission or authority as regards the money, after the date of the agreement, than to receive it and take it to Rome? Nevertheless, is Callimachus liable to the owner of Stichus in an action on stipulation? Scaevola replied that on the facts stated he was liable. Again if, with the consent of Eros, Callimachus set sail after the prescribed date, could the act of Eros lose his owner the action already acquired? Scaevola replied that it could not. If, however, the slave had discretion to allow repayment of the money at whatever time or place, there would be a defense.”
61. Sirks, Adrian J. B., “Sailing in the Off-Season with Reduced Financial Risk,” in Speculum Iuris: Roman Law as a Reflection of Social and Economic Life in Antiquity, ed. Aubert, Jean-Jacques and Sirks, Adrian J. B. (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2002), 134–50 Google Scholar, here pp. 142-49.
62. On maritime loans, see in particular Biscardi, Arnaldo, Actio pecuniae traiecticiae. Contributo alla dottrina delle clausole penali (Turin: G. Giappichelli, 1974)Google Scholar; Whittaker, Charles R., “Le commerce romain avec l’Inde et la prise de décision économique,” Topoi 10, no. 1 (2000): 267–88 CrossRefGoogle Scholar, here p. 283; Jean Andreau, La banque et les affaires dans le monde romain, IVe siècle av. J.-C.-IIIe siècle ap. J.-C. (Paris: Éd. du Seuil, 2001), 108-12 (with earlier bibliography). Dominic Rathbone, “The Financing of Maritime Commerce in the Roman Empire, I-II AD,” in Lo Cascio, Credito e moneta, 197-229, here pp. 207 and 213, underscores that the ship itself is in no way insured.
63. “And if they do well, their ship has a lucky voyage, and they tell you a long story of how they never wrecked it willingly or unwillingly; but if their gains do not balance their debts, they jump into their long boats and dash their ships on to the rocks, and make no bones as sailors of robbing others of their substance, pretending in the most blasphemous manner that it is an act of God.” Philostratus, The Life of Apollonius of Tyana, 2 vols., trans. F. C. Conybeare, The Loeb Classical Library (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1912; repr. 1989), 1:423. Several late texts refer to these kinds of fraud. For example, Saint Augustine, bishop of Hippo, refused the bequest of a shipowner (nauicularius) because, as the owner of a ship put into the service of the grain supply of Rome, the Church would have had to accept that the slave sailors be tortured as part of any investigation ensuing from a shipwreck (Saint Augustine, Sermons 356.4).
64. Cuvigny, Hélène and Bülow-Jacobsen, Adam, “Inscriptions rupestres vues et revues dans le désert de Bérénice,” Bulletin de l’Institut français d’archéologie orientale 99 (1999): 133–93 Google Scholar, here pp. 137-39, nos. 2-3 (whence AE [1999]: 1720-21, dated to July of the year 6 CE). This should be compared with Pliny the Elder, Natural History 6.84. See also the example of Laudanes, slave of Calpurnius Moschas: Cuvigny and Bülow-Jacobsen, “Inscriptions rupestres,” p. 137, no. 1 (whence AE [1999]: 1719). On the Paneion of Wadi Menih, see Romanis, Federico De, Cassia, cinnamomo, ossidiana. Uomini e merci tra Oceano indiano e Mediterraneo (Rome: L’Erma di Bretschneider, 1996), 203–17 Google Scholar. On relations between Pozzuoli and the Far East, see Tchernia, Les Romains et le commerce, 62-73.
65. Sammelbuch Griechischer Urkunden aus Aegypten 18.13167, studied in particular by Casson, Lionel, “New Light on Maritime Loans: P. Vindob. G 40822,” Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik 84 (1990): 195–206 Google Scholar. For a recent study that cites the existing bibliography, see Morelli, Federico, “Dal Mar Rosso al Alessandria. Il verso (ma anche il recto) del ‘papiro di Muziris’ (SB XVIII 13167),” Tyche 26 (2011): 199–233 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
66. Digest 5.1.19.3 (Ulpian, 60, Ad edictum): “There is a problem in Labeo about a provincial who, in order to sell his merchandise, has a slave keeping a shop in Rome. A contract made with the slave should be regarded as one made with his master, so his master will have to defend himself there.”
67. Aubert, Jean-Jacques, Business Managers in Ancient Rome: A Social and Economic Study of Institores, 200 B.C.–A.D. 250 (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1994), 10–13 Google Scholar.
68. Digest 14.1.1.14: “And if, as often happens, the appointment is on the terms that neither should do anything without the other, a person who contracts with just one of them will have to bear the loss.” Andreau, “Les esclaves ‘hommes d’affaires,’” 123.
69. Ibid., 121, regarding Digest 14.1.1.12-13.
70. Digest 14.5.8pr. (Paul, 1, Decreta): “A slave appointed by Titianus Primus to lend money on security was accustomed in addition to take up debts owed to barley merchants and to pay them on behalf of the purchasers. The slave fled, and a person to whom he had agreed to pay the price of certain barley sued the master on the basis of the manager’s conduct. The master denied that he was liable on such a suit, because what the slave had done was not what he was appointed to do. When it was shown that this slave had been involved in various other businesses, such as renting warehouses, and had made payments to many people, the prefect of the corn supply gave an opinion unfavorable to the master.” For a commentary see Dubouloz, Julien, “Propriété et exploitation des entrepôts à Rome et en Italie (Ier-IIIe siècles),” Mélanges de l’École française de Rome. Antiquité 120, no. 2 (2008): 277–94,Google Scholar especially pp. 292-93.
71. Digest 14.3.13pr. (Ulpian, 28, Ad edictum): “A person had appointed a slave to run an oil business in Arles and also authorized him to borrow money. The slave borrowed some money, and the lender, thinking that the loan was for the business, brought an action for the manager’s conduct but was unable to prove that it was indeed a business loan. This exhausted his claim so that he was unable to bring another action on the basis that the man had been appointed to take loans, but Julian nevertheless said that he should have an actio utilis.” For a discussion of this fragment, see Tran, Nicolas, “Un esclave préposé au commerce de l’huile dans le port d’Arles. À propos de Dig., 14, 3, 13 pr. (Ulpien, 28 ad ed.),” in Les Affaires de Monsieur Andreau. Économie et société du monde romain, ed. Apicella, Catherine, Haack, Marie-Laurence, and Lerouxel, François (Bordeaux: Boccard, 2014), 205–12.Google Scholar
72. On C. Novius Eunus, see TPSulp. 45, 51 and 52; Catherine Virlouvet, “Les denrées alimentaires dans les archives des Sulpicii de Pouzzoles,” CCG 11 (2000): 131-49; Andrew W. Lintott, “Freedmen and Slaves in the Light of Legal Documents from First-Century A.D. Campania,” The Classical Quarterly 52, no. 2 (2002): 555-65, here p. 557; Tchernia, Les Romains et le commerce, 336-40.
73. Christol, Michel, “Remarques sur les naviculaires d’Arles,” Latomus 30 (1971): 643–63 Google Scholar (discussing CIL 12.704 and 982) emphasizes the financing of Arles shipowners by patrons living in the area of Nîmes or Aix-en-Provence. The second scenario was that of the negotiator olearius L. Hilarianius Cinnamus of Lyon, whose close associates probably lived in Arles: Michel Christol, Une histoire provinciale. La Gaule narbonnaise de la fin du IIe siècle av. J.-C. au IIIe siècle ap. J.-C. (Paris: Publications de la Sorbonne, 2010), 615-21; François Bérard, “Les corporations du transport fluvial à Lyon à l’époque romaine,” in Collegia. Le phénomène associatif dans l’Occident romain, ed. Monique Dondin-Payre and Nicolas Tran (Bordeaux: Ausonius, 2012), 135-54, here pp. 142-45 (on CIL 13.1996 and 12.851).
74. Digest 40.9.10 (Gaius, 1, Res cottidianae siue aureae): “It is deemed that a man manumits to the detriment of creditors if he is insolvent at the time of manumission or would become insolvent after the grants of freedom; for men often hope that their assets are greater than they actually are. This frequently happens to persons who carry on business through slaves and freedmen beyond the sea or in regions where they are not living themselves; they are often ignorant of losses incurred over a long period and bestow the favor of freedom on their slaves, manumitting without fraudulent intent.”
75. For an analysis of the economic behavior of Romans in terms of a strategic choice between risk and security, see Veyne, Paul, “Mythe et réalité de l’autarcie à Rome,” in La société romaine (Paris: Éd. du Seuil, 1991), 131–62 Google Scholar. According to Jean Andreau, however, the range of strategies was much more varied. See Andreau, , “Sur les choix économiques des notables romains,” in Andreau, , France, , and Pittia, , Mentalités et choix économiques, 71–85 Google Scholar, here pp. 72-77.
76. Gaius, Institutes 3.42.
77. Ibid., 3.56. On the status of Junian Latins, defined at the start of the Augustan period, see Quiroga, Pedro López Barja de, “Junian Latins: Status and Number,” Athenaeum 86, no. 1 (1998): 133–63 Google Scholar.
78. Gaius, Institutes 1.32c; Tchernia, Les Romains et le commerce, 51-52.
79. Sirks, Adrian J. B., “The Lex Iunia and the Effects of Informal Manumission and Iteration,” Revue internationale des droits de l’Antiquité 30 (1983): 211–92 Google Scholar, here p. 254.
80. Petronius, Satyricon 76.9-10: “Postquam coepi plus habere quam tota patria mea habet, manum de tabula: sustuli me de negotiatione et coepi libertos fenerare. Et sane nolente me negotium meum agere exhortauit mathematicus, qui uenerat forte in coloniam nostram, Graeculio, Serapa nomine, consiliator deorum.” “When I came to have more than the whole revenues of my own country, I threw up the game: I retired from active work and began to finance freedmen. I was quite unwilling to go on with my work when I was encouraged by an astrologer who happened to come to our town, a little Greek called Serapa, who knew the secrets of the Gods.”
81. Tchernia, Les Romains et le commerce, 49.
82. D’Arms, John H., Commerce and Social Standing in Ancient Rome (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1981), 101 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
83. Veyne, “Vie de Trimalcion,” 237.
84. Verboven, Koenraad, “City and Reciprocity: The Role of Cultural Beliefs in the Roman Economy,” Annales HSS (English Version) 67, no. 4 (2012): 599–627 Google Scholar.
85. Digest 17.2.52.7 (Ulpian, 31, Ad edictum), describes a societas that constructed funerary monuments: one of the partners contributed money (pecunia), the second his labor and know-how (opera et peritia). On this type of company, see Gaius, Institutes 3.149. TPSulp. 66 deals with a partnership between a dye manufacturer and Faustus, who supplied three thousand sesterces: Camodeca, “Per un primo aggiornamento,” 185-88; Koenraad Verboven, “L’organisation des affaires financières des C. Sulpicii de Pouzzoles (Tabulae Pompeianae Sulpiciorum),” CCG 11 (2000): 161-71, here pp. 166-67. In the first century BCE, at least, Pozzuoli exported dye by sea: Tchernia, André, “Les fouilles sous-marines de Planier (Bouches-du-Rhône),” Comptes rendus des séances de l’Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres 113, no. 2 (1969): 292–309 Google Scholar; Tchernia, “Premiers résultats des fouilles de juin 1968 sur l’Épave de Planier 3,” Les études classiques 3 (1968-1970): 51-82. According to Cicero, The Stoic Paradoxes 6.46, Crassus created businesses with slaves, freedmen and clients.
86. Broekaert, Wim, “Joining Forces: Commercial Partnerships or Societates in the Early Roman Empire,” Historia 61, no. 2 (2012): 221–53 Google Scholar.
87. CIL 15.3788-90.
88. D’Arms, Commerce and Social Standing, 97-120.
89. Digest 34.2.4 (Paul, 54, Ad edictum): “When a certain man had sent his freedman to Asia to purchase purple and had left his wife purple wool in his will, Servius has given it as his opinion that any purple purchased by the freedman in the [testator’s] lifetime belongs to her.”
90. Aubert, Business Managers in Ancient Rome, 42.
91. Cicero, In Verrem 5.154.
92. Gianfrotta and Hesnard, “Les bouchons d’amphores en pouzzolane,” 398-400.
93. CIL 12.4406, from Narbonne: a homage by the seviri Augustales to their colleague, the shipowner P. Olitius Apollonius; AE (1987): 192, from Ostia: a dedication of [---] T. f. Ser(gia) [---]sus to the engineer of the corps of Adriatic shipowners.
94. Gianfrotta and Henard, “Les bouchons d’amphores en pouzzolane,” 437, no. 24; Tchernia, Les Romains et le commerce, 43.
95. TPSulp. 48: “I Gaius Iulius Prudens have written that I have requested Gaius Sulpicius Cinnamus and given him mandate that all the money he or Eros or ...us or Titianus or Martialis, his slaves, or Gaius Sulpicius Faustus, or any other person on the order, request or mandate of one of them, may have given or lent, once or more frequently, to Suavis, my freedman, or Hyginus, my slave, or any other person on the order of one of them or promised and guaranteed on one of their behalf or ordered to be on their credit or put under any other name of obligation, as large as the sum of money will be which has been given or lent or put under obligation in any other way, such as it has been agreed above, let it have been done that so much money is given and that fraught intent in this matter and promise, now or in the future, is absent from me and my heir and all those to whom the matter, which is treated here, is of concern. If fraught intent is not in that way absent, neither now or in the future, that so much money is given, let that be rightly given and done, Gaius Sulpicius Cinnamus has stipulated, I Gaius Iulius Prudens have promised.” Translated and discussed in Jean Andreau, “Roman Law in Relation to Banking and Business: A Few Cases,” in Ancient Economies, Modern Methodologies: Archaeology, Comparative History, Models And Institutions, ed. Peter Fibiger Bang, Mamoru Ikeguchi, and Harmut Ziche (Bari: Edipuglia, 2006), 201-13, here pp. 202-204.
96. TPSulp. 25, 36, and 37.
97. Digest 40.9.10 (Gaius, 1, Res cottidianae siue aureae).
98. Digest 14.3.19.1 (Papinian, 3, Responsa): “If a master frees a slave whom he has appointed to manage a bank and then continues the business through him as a freedman, the change of status does not alter the incidence of risk.”
99. Mouritsen, The Freedman in the Roman World, 141-59. The ingratitude of freedmen was condemned but their patrons had few ways of protecting themselves against it. For example, in the case of freedmen who decided to break off all relations with their patron, there was no system comparable to that for preventing slaves from running away.
100. Kavanagh, Bernard J., “Lollia Saturnina,” Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik 136 (2001): 229–32 Google Scholar.
101. TPSulp. 54.
102. TPSulp. 73.
103. TPSulp. 109.
104. TPSulp. 48.
105. TPSulp. 72 and 74.
106. TPSulp. 25.
107. Verboven, , “L’organisation des affaires financières,” 161–71 Google Scholar; Lintott, “Freedmen and Slaves,” 557, also imagines forms of ad hoc partnership.
108. TPSulp. 87.
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This is a translation of: Les statuts de travail des esclaves et des affranchis dans les grands ports du monde romain(Ier siècle av. J.-C.-IIe siècle apr. J.-C.)