An Economic History of Rome

Front Cover
Cosimo, Inc., Feb 1, 2006 - History - 519 pages
Passenger fares seem to us to have been very low. Passengers however appear to have been responsible for their own sustenance, the quarters were probably far from luxurious and of course loss of life by shipwreck unlike loss of freight entailed no financial loss to the carrier. -from "Chapter XVI: Commerce" In this classic work-an expansion of an earlier 1920 edition-a respected classical scholar sketches the economic life of the Roman culture through the republican period and into the fourth century of the empire. Though later books unfairly supplanted it, this volume remains an excellent introduction to the capital, commerce, labor, and industry of the immediate forerunner of modern civilization. In clear, readable language, Frank explores: .agriculture in early Latium .the rise of the peasantry .Roman coinage .finance and politics .the "plebs urbana" .the beginnings of serfdom .and much more. American historian TENNEY FRANK (1876-1939) was professor of Latin at Bryn Mawr College and Johns Hopkins University, and also wrote Roman Imperialism (1914) and A History of Rome (1923).
 

Contents

CHAPTER PAGE I Agriculture in Early Latium
1
The Early Trade of Latium and Etruria
16
The Rise of the Peasantry
40
New Lands for Old
55
Roman Coinage
69
The Establishment of the Plantation
90
Industry and Commerce
108
The Gracchan Revolution
127
Industry
219
Industry continued
245
Capital
275
Commerce_
298
The Laborer_
324
The First Decades of the Empire
347
Egypt as Imperial Province_
379
Italy during the Early Empire
409

The New Provincial Policy
141
Financial Interests in Politics
164
Public Finances_
186
The Plebs Urbana
202
The Provinces in Hadrians Day
442
Beginnings of Serfdom
476
Index
513
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Page 11 - With these facts in view the historian can understand whence came the armies that overran the limits of Latium and overwhelmed all obstruction when once they were set in motion...
Page 9 - ... industry or from commerce directed by Latins, if we may trust the evidence of archaeology now available. It was the produce of a rich soil cultivated with unusual intensity which paid for it, and kept alive a thick population such as would probably compare with the swarming tenancies of the Po Valley today. There are numerous relics from that remarkable agricultural period still to be found in Latium, traces of drains, tunnels, and dams that are all too little known. The modern Italian farmer...
Page 11 - SodoT near the citadel rock of Veii through which the Fosso di Formello has ever since flowed seems to have been undertaken to save a few acres of the circling river bed for cultivation. Similarly the emissarium of the Alban lake, 1,300 yards long and 7 to 10 feet high, was cut through solid rock to save a few hundred acres of arable soil on the sloping edge within the crater. Even with the tools of modern engineers, that task would not now be considered a paying investment. Finally let the student...
Page 10 - ... structures which were threatened but not yet destroyed. 277 b, 1. 48: Frank, Econ. Hist, of Rome (1920), 7, n. 7 thinks that the tunnel at Veii known as the 'Ponte Sodo...
Page 36 - Neither the Romans nor their allies are to sail beyond the Fair Promontory, unless driven by stress of weather or the fear of enemies. If any one of them be driven ashore he shall not buy or take...
Page 6 - ... with time. Needless to say, however, the ash alone did not lend itself to cultivation at once, since grain needs an abundance of nitrogenous matter, and a solider soil than the ash at first provided. Before men could inhabit the plain we must posit a long enough period of wild growth, the invasion of jungle plants and forests which could create a sufficiently thick humus for agricultural purposes. Such forests did invade the plain. Not only do all the authors preserve the traditions of forests...

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