A Companion to the Roman Republic by Rosenstein Nathan; Morstein-Marx Robert; Morstein-Marx Robert & Robert Morstein-Marx

Author:Rosenstein, Nathan; Morstein-Marx, Robert; Morstein-Marx, Robert & Robert Morstein-Marx
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated
Published: 2011-08-21T04:00:00+00:00

Supplying Rome’s Needs

How did the city of Rome acquire the food, water, and other supplies it needed? Not only did the city have a rapidly increasing population during the mid- and late republican periods, it was also the seat of the Roman elite, where their houses and households were located. Consumption in the city thus included the demand generated by the aristocracy as well as the subsistence requirements of the population as a whole. As usual, the evidence from the Imperial period is fuller than that for the Republic, so much about the extent of demand and arrangements for supply in the earlier period must remain hypothetical.

Assuming a total population of about a million at Rome, it has been estimated that a minimum of 237,000 tonnes of wheat, 100,000 tonnes of wine, and 18,000 tonnes of olive oil would have been needed in the city annually; if the weight of the containers for the wine and oil is added to that of the produce itself, the minimum figure grows to more than 400,000 tonnes. Given the demand for other goods and agricultural produce across Roman society, the total quantities actually brought to the city would have been larger still.62 In particular, there was a large (and increasing) market for luxuries in the city, generated by the senators, members of the equestrian order, and the upper echelons of the plebs. Indeed, extravagant dining was a cause of repeated concern to the Roman authorities, during the second century in particular, and numerous pieces of sumptuary legislation were enacted: the Lex Fannia of 161 instituted a maximum expenditure on festive occasions of 100 asses per dinner, and this figure was subsequently raised by Sulla to 300 asses (Gell. NA 2.24). The fact that sumptuary legislation had to be reiterated frequently, however, suggests not only that the practical impact was limited and that ostentation in dining continued to flourish, but that ideological considerations were paramount in the promulgation of these laws, which are best seen as a contribution to defining Roman identity.63 The influx of wealth from Rome’s overseas conquests and exposure to foreign luxury were conventionally blamed for this enthusiasm for extravagant living (Polyb. 31.25.2–7; Livy 39.6.7–9). Writing from the point of view of the first-century farmer, Varro draws attention to the wealth to be gained by producing luxury foodstuffs in the periphery of Rome: triumphs, banquets, and collegia dinners provided a regular and lucrative market (Rust. 3.2.15–17).

In the past, particular attention has been paid to the way in which Rome acts as an example of the ideal type of the “consumer city,” a concept derived ultimately from the work of Max Weber and other nineteenth-century social theorists but associated in more recent years primarily with the work of M. I. Finley.64 The city, by virtue of its political authority, is seen as consuming the resources of its hinterland in the form of rents and taxes rather than generating income by means of production and manufacture. Indeed, Finley sees the city of Rome as the “quintessential consumer-city,” conforming most closely to this model.

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