SLAVES, GOLD AND FISH SAUCE: THE ROMAN ECONOMY
Time allowed:2 hours
All questions carry equal weighting.
Candidates MUST answer question ONE and any TWO others.
Students will not be given credit for substantial repetition of material between questions on the examination paper.
Read carefully the instructions on the answer book and make sure that the particulars required are entered on each answer book.
1.
a) Identify the amphora, its date range, its likely contents, and where it is most commonly found. (Dressel 20, 1st 3rd c, Spain, olive oil, western Europe, Italy (Monte Testaccio, military camps)
b) Carreg Pumsaint stone from Dulaucothi in Wales.
c) Extract from one of the Murecine tablets:
"In the consulship of Gaius Laecanius Bassus and Quintus Terentius Cullio, on
the third day before the Ides of March, I, Lucius Marius Iucundus, freedman of
Dida, have written that I have received from and owe to Gaius Sulpicius Faustus
20,000 sesterces, which I received from him as a loan and which were paid out.
These 20,000 sesterces, noted above, Gaius Sulpicius Faustus stipulated that he
be duly paid in good coin; I, Lucius Marius Iucundus solemnly promised.
Transacted at Puteoli."
d)Codex Theodosianus 8.5.17 (fifth century AD)
Emperors Valentinian (I) and Valens Augustuses to Menander.
We shall allow nothing beyond a thousand pounds of weight to be placed on vehicles, and thus couriers shall be satisfied that We grant them the right to transport thirty pounds on their horses. Therefore, if it should be established that any load exceeds this measure, the excess must be confiscated to the treasury, at the expense of the person who committed this offence against the law. We also decree that it shall be sanctioned that the use of enormous vehicles shall entirely cease, so that if any workman should suppose that he might make a vehicle beyond the norm that We have prescribed, he shall not doubt that if he is free, he must undergo the punishment of exile; if a slave, perpetual punishment by labour in the mines. Given on the day before the ides of March at Milan in the year of the consulship of the sainted Jovian and Varronianus (March 14, AD 364).
e)Suetonius, Vespasian 18
‘To an engineer who promised to haul columns up to the Capitol at minimal expense, he offered no mean reward for his idea, but rejected the scheme, saying he should allow himself to feed the plebs.’
f) Extract from the preamble of Diocletian’s edict on maximum prices, AD 301
‘For who is so hard and so devoid of human feeling that he cannot, or rather has not perceived, that in the commerce carried on in the markets or involved in the daily life of cities immoderate prices are so widespread that the unbridled passion for gain is lessened neither by abundant supplies nor by fruitful years; so that without a doubt men who are busied in these affairs constantly plan to control the very winds and weather from the movements of the stars, and, evil that they are, they cannot endure the watering of the fertile fields by the rains from above which bring the hope of future harvests, since they reckon it their own loss if abundance comes through the moderation of the weather.’
2. “We are too often the victims of the great curse of archaeology, the indestructibility of pots.” Finley, M 1959 ‘Technology in the ancient world’,Economic History Review, 2nd series, XII, 120-5.
Do you agree with this statement?
3. In what ways did the Roman army impact on the economy?
4. Did technology contribute to economic growth in the Roman world?
5. How sophisticated was Roman banking?
6. Has the economic significance of Roman trade with India been exaggerated by modern scholars?
7. How can coin finds contribute to the study of the Roman economy?
8. How culturally embedded was the Roman economy?