051301 |
Framing Portraits and Persons: the Small
Herculaneum Woman statue type and the construction of
identity |
|
Jennifer Trimble, Stanford University |
 |
Abstract - This paper explores the framing
of portraits of women in the second century CE through
three examples of the so-called Small Herculaneum Woman
statue type. Relevant juxtapositions include head and
body, image and text, sculpture and setting,
singularity and replication. Over the long histories of
these portraits, their viewing frames have also changed
drastically, reshaped by re-use, spoliage, damage or
abandonment, colonialist archaeologies, and museum
practices that now privilege a very modern,
contemplative viewing of “art”. |
|
|
051301 |
Corpore enormi: the rhetoric of physical
appearance in Suetonius and imperial portrait
statuary! |
|
Jennifer Trimble, Stanford University |
 |
Abstract - This paper explores rhetorical
constructions of what the Roman emperor looked like,
focusing on the apparently irreconcilable descriptions
in Suetonius’ Twelve Caesars and in imperial
portrait statues of the same men. |
|
|
051303 |
Reception theory and!Roman sculpture |
|
Jennifer Trimble, Stanford University |
 |
Abstract - This paper considers four
approaches to viewing and reception in relation to
recent studies of Roman sculpture: historical reception
as represented by Hans Robert Jauss, reception
aesthetics as formulated by Wolfgang Iser, social
historical studies of art, and approaches that focus on
the power of images and viewers’ responses to that
power. One goal is to show how different research
questions involve different methods, focus on different
evidence, and produce different results. Another goal
is to argue that, although the historical/contextual
study of Roman art has dominated the field since the
1970s and 80s, productive alternatives have also
emerged. |
|
|
|
041307 |
Explaining the maritime freight charges in
Diocletian’s Price Edict |
|
Walter Scheidel, Stanford University |
 |
Abstract - Geospatial modeling enables us to
relate the maritime freight charges imposed by the
tetrarchic price controls of 301 CE to simulated
sailing time. This exercise demonstrates that price
variation is to a large extent a function of variation
in sailing time and suggests that the published rates
are more realistic than previously assumed. |
|
|
041306 |
The shape of the Roman world |
|
Walter Scheidel, Stanford University |
 |
Abstract - Ancient societies were shaped by
logistical constraints that are almost unimaginable to
modern observers. “ORBIS: The Stanford Geospatial
Network Model of the Roman World”
(http://orbis.stanford.edu) for the first time allows
us to understand the true cost of distance in building
and maintaining a huge empire with premodern
technology. This paper explores various ways in which
this novel Digital Humanities tool changes and enriches
our understanding of ancient history. |
|
|
041301 |
Slavery and forced labor in early China and the
Roman world |
|
Walter Scheidel, Stanford University |
 |
Abstract - The use of coerced labor in the
form of chattel slavery in the private sector has long
been regarded as one of the defining characteristics of
some of the best-known economies of the ancient
Mediterranean. It may even have been critical in
producing the surplus that sustained the ruling class.
In early China, by contrast, forced labor (often by
convicts) appears to have been concentrated in the
public sector. This paper is a first attempt to study
these systems comparatively in order to investigate
whether these differences were genuine and significant,
and whether they can be related to observed outcomes in
terms of economic and socio-political development. |
|
|
041201 |
State revenue and expenditure in the Han and
Roman empires |
|
Walter Scheidel, Stanford University |
 |
Abstract - Comparative analysis of the
sources of income of the Han and Roman imperial states
and of the ways in which these polities allocated state
revenue reveals both similarities and differences.
While it seems likely that the governments of both
empires managed to capture a similar share of GDP, the
Han state may have more heavily relied on direct
taxation of agrarian output and people. By contrast,
the mature Roman empire derived a large share of its
income from domains and levies that concentrated on
mining and trade. Collection of taxes on production
probably fell far short of nominal rates. Han
officialdom consistently absorbed more public spending
than its Roman counterpart, whereas Roman rulers
allocated a larger share of state revenue to agents
drawn from the upper ruling class and to the military.
This discrepancy was a function of different paths of
state formation and may arguably have had long-term
consequences beyond the fall of both empires. |
|
|
091101 |
Who Are You? Africa and Africans |
|
Brent D. Shaw, Princeton University |
 |
Abstract - This is the third revised version
of a chapter being prepared for the Whiley-Blackwell
Companion to Ethnicity in the Ancient
Mediterranean. |
|
This paper replaces 081102 originally posted in
August 2011. |
|
|
081102 |
Who Are You? Africa and Africans |
|
Brent D. Shaw, Princeton University |
|
This paper has been revised. See 091101 entry. |
|
|
081101 |
Slavery in the Roman Provinces: North
Africa |
|
Brent D. Shaw, Princeton University |
 |
Abstract - This is the second corrected
draft of a piece being prepared for the Mainz Academy’s
CD- ROM encyclopaedic reference work Handwörterbuch
der antiken Sklaverei. |
|
This paper replaces 051102 originally posted in May
2011. |
|
|
061101 |
Who Are You? Africans and Africa |
|
Brent D. Shaw, Princeton University |
|
This paper has been revised. See 081102 entry. |
|
|
051102 |
Slavery in the Roman Provinces: North
Africa |
|
Brent D. Shaw, Princeton University |
|
This paper has been revised. See 081101 entry. |
|
|
011101 |
Roman Callimachus forthcoming in B. Acosta
Hughes and S. Stephens (eds.), The Brill Companion
to Callimachus |
|
Alessandro Barchiesi, Stanford University |
 |
Abstract: A rehearsal of the influence and
appropriation of Callimachus in Roman letters, intended
as introductory reading for students and
non-specialists. Includes short case-studies and
exemplification, with an emphasis on the agendas,
poetics, and rhetoric of Roman poets. |
|
|
111001 |
Identity Theft: Masquerades and Impersonations
in the Contemporary Books of Cassius Dio |
|
Maud W. Gleason, Stanford University |
 |
Abstract - The contemporary books of Cassius
Dio’s Roman History are known (to the extent
that they are read) for their anecdotal quality and
lack of interpretive sophistication. This paper aims to
recuperate another layer of meaning for Dio’s anecdotes
by examining episodes in his contemporary books that
feature masquerades and impersonation. It suggests that
these themes owe their prominence to political
conditions in Dio’s lifetime, particularly the revival,
after a hundred-year lapse, of usurpation and
damnatio memoriae, practices that rendered
personal identity problematic. The central claim is
that narratives in Dio’s last books use masquerades and
impersonation to explore paradoxes of personal identity
and signification, issues made salient by abrupt
changes of social position at the highest levels of
imperial society. |
|
This paper replaces (110901) originally published
in November 2009. It has now been published in
Classical Antiquity 30 (2011), pp. 33-86. |
|
|
091007 |
Approaching the Roman economy |
|
Walter Scheidel, Stanford University |
 |
Abstract - This paper introduces current
approaches to the study of the Roman economy. It
discusses ways of measuring Roman economic performance,
the uses of historical comparison, and competing models
of economic behavior, and stresses the importance of
ecological factors. It concludes with an appendix
summarizing evidence for climatic conditions in the
Roman period. |
|
|
091005 |
Roman real wages in context |
|
Walter Scheidel, Stanford University |
 |
Abstract - This paper presents and discusses
evidence of real incomes in the Roman period. It shows
that real wages rose in response to demographic
contractions. There is no evidence that would support
the assumption that Roman economic growth raised real
wages for workers. However, absence of evidence is not
evidence of absence: relevant data are scarce and
highly unevenly distributed in time and space. |
|
|
091003 |
Slavery in the Roman economy |
|
Walter Scheidel, Stanford University |
 |
Abstract - This paper discusses the location
of slavery in the Roman economy. It deals with the size
and distribution of the slave population and the
economics of slave labor and offers a chronological
sketch of the development of Roman slavery. |
|
|
091002 |
Coin quality, coin quantity, and coin value in
early China and the Roman world |
|
Walter Scheidel, Stanford University |
 |
Abstract - In ancient China, early bronze
‘tool money’ came to be replaced by round bronze coins
that were supplemented by uncoined gold and silver
bullion, whereas in the Greco-Roman world,
precious-metal coins dominated from the beginnings of
coinage. Chinese currency is often interpreted in
‘nominalist’ terms, and although a ‘metallist’
perspective used be common among students of
Greco-Roman coinage, putatively fiduciary elements of
the Roman currency system are now receiving growing
attention. I argue that both the intrinsic properties
of coins and the volume of the money supply were the
principal determinants of coin value and that fiduciary
aspects must not be overrated. These principles apply
regardless of whether precious-metal or base-metal
currencies were dominant. |
|
This paper replaces (090902) originally published
in January 2010. |
|
|
091001 |
Physical wellbeing in the Roman world |
|
Walter Scheidel, Stanford University |
 |
Abstract - This paper presents and discusses
evidence of physical wellbeing in the Roman period. It
covers life expectancy, mortality patterns, and
skeletal evidence such as body height, cranial lesions,
and dental defects. These data reveal both
commonalities and significant regional variation within
the Roman Empire. |
|
This paper replaces (011002) originally published
in January 2010. |
|
|
081001 |
Review of T. V. Evans and D. D. Obbink (eds.),
The Language of the Papyri |
|
Joshua Katz, Princeton University |
 |
Abstract - This is a review, commissioned by
and written for Bryn Mawr Classical Review, of
an excellent collection of papers on the language —
really, languages — found in Greek and Latin papyri and
related sources from the third century B.C. to the
seventh/eighth century A.D. Many of the contributions
deserve a wider readership than I expect they will
receive. |
|
|
|
061001 |
Sweating Truth in Ancient Carthage |
|
Adrienne Mayor, Stanford University |
 |
Abstract: Richard Miles’s Carthage Must
Be Destroyed (2010) justifies a new look at Gustave
Flaubert’s controversial novel Salammbô (1862).
An abridged version of this essay appeared as
“Pacesetter,” London Review of Books 32 (June
2010): 30-31. |
|
|
021003 |
Age and health in Roman Egypt |
|
Walter Scheidel, Stanford University |
 |
Abstract - Prepared for a forthcoming
handbook of Roman Egypt, this paper surveys ancient and
comparative evidence and modern interpretations of life
expectancy, mortality patterns, and disease in ancient
Egypt. |
|
|
011002 |
Physical wellbeing in the Roman world |
|
Walter Scheidel, Stanford University |
|
Revised September 2010. See entry 091001. |
|
|
011001 |
Roman wellbeing and the economic consequences of
the ‘Antonine Plague’ |
|
Walter Scheidel, Stanford University (with a
contribution by John Sutherland) |
 |
Abstract - This paper responds to recent
scholarship by Willem Jongman and Geoffrey Kron that
has tried to make a case for elevated levels of
prosperity and physical wellbeing in the first two
centuries of the Roman imperial monarchy. The relevance
of various putative indicators is critiqued.
Demographic data as well as anthropometric evidence
consistently point to high levels of morbidity and
mortality and substantial developmental stress. This
evidence is incompatible with an optimistic
interpretation of living conditions in that period. The
second part of the paper revisits previous arguments
concerning the impact of the so-called ‘Antonine
Plague’ of the late second century CE. Papyrological
data from Roman Egypt indicate a shift in the ratio of
land to labor that is logically consistent with a
significant demographic contraction. At the same time,
comparative evidence from other periods suggests that
the scale of this contraction must not be
overrated. |
|
This paper replaces (090903) originally published
in September 2009. |
|
|
110901 |
Identity Theft: Masquerades and Impersonations
in the Contemporary Books of Cassius Dio |
|
Maud W. Gleason, Stanford University |
|
Revised November 2010. See entry 111001. |
|
|
100901 |
Magna mihi copia est memorandi: Modes of
Historiography in the Speeches of Caesar and Cato
(Sallust, "Bellum Catilinae" 51-4) |
|
Andrew Feldherr, Princeton University |
 |
Abstract: This paper analyzes the
historiographic dimension of the paired speeches of
Caesar and Cato at the climax of Sallust’s Bellum
Catilinae. Where Caesar stresses the continuities
between past and present and so the capacity of
history, rationally analyzed, to offer general precepts
for political behavior, Cato by contrast stresses the
radical difference of the past. Each perspective allows
a different reading of Sallust’s own narrative. Yet
rather than privileging one point of view over the
other, Sallust uses the tension between them to focus
attention on the question of what history is for in an
age of civil discord. |
|
|
|
090904 |
Real wages in early economies: Evidence for
living standards from 1800 BCE to 1300 CE |
|
Walter Scheidel, Stanford University |
 |
Abstract - Price and wage data from Roman
Egypt in the first three centuries CE indicate levels
of real income for unskilled workers that are
comparable to those implied by price and wage data in
Diocletian’s price edict of 301 CE and to those
documented in different parts of Europe and Asia in the
eighteenth or early nineteenth centuries. In all these
cases, consumption was largely limited to goods that
were essential for survival and living standards must
have been very modest. A survey of daily wages
expressed in terms of wheat in different Afroeurasian
societies from 1800 BCE to 1300 CE yields similar
results: with a few exceptions, real incomes of
unskilled laborers tended to be very low. |
|
This paper replaces (030801) originally published
in March 2008. |
|
|
090903 |
Roman wellbeing and the economic consequences of
the ‘Antonine Plague’ |
|
Walter Scheidel, Stanford University |
|
This paper paper has been removed at the request of
the author. |
|
|
090902 |
Coin quality, coin quantity, and coin value in
early China and the Roman world |
|
Walter Scheidel, Stanford University |
|
Revised September 2010. See entry 091002. |
|
|
040902 |
A comparative perspective on the determinants of
the scale and productivity of maritime trade in the
Roman Mediterranean |
|
Walter Scheidel, Stanford University |
 |
Abstract - The scale and productivity of
maritime trade is a function of environmental
conditions, political processes and economic
development that determine demand, and more
specifically of trading costs. Trading costs are the
sum of transportation costs (comprised of the cost of
carriage and the cost of risk, most notably predation),
transaction costs and financing costs. Comparative
evidence from the medieval and early modern periods
shows that the cost of predation (caused by war,
privateering, piracy, and tolls) and commercial
organization (which profoundly affects transaction and
financing costs as well as the cost of carriage) have
long been the most important determinants of overall
trading costs. This suggests that conditions in the
Roman period were unusually favorable for maritime
trade. Technological innovation, by contrast, was
primarily an endogenous function of broader political
and economic developments and should not be viewed as a
major factor in the expansion of commerce in this
period. |
|
|
040901 |
Demography, disease, and death in the ancient
city of Rome |
|
Walter Scheidel, Stanford University |
 |
Abstract - This paper surveys textual and
physical evidence of disease and mortality in the city
of Rome in the late republican and imperial periods. It
emphasizes the significance of seasonal mortality data
and the weaknesses of age at death records and
paleodemographic analysis, considers the complex role
of environmental features and public infrastructure,
and highlights the very considerable promise of
scientific study of skeletal evidence of stress and
disease. |
|
This paper replaces version 1.0 (020903) originally
published in February 2009. |
|
|
030901 |
Itinera Tiberi |
|
Edward Champlin, Princeton University |
 |
Abstract: Intended as a guide for quick
reference, this paper tabulates all of the known
movements of the princeps Tiberius from birth to
death. |
|
|
020903 |
Demography, disease, and death in the ancient
city of Rome |
|
Walter Scheidel, Stanford University |
|
Revised April 2009. See entry 040901. |
|
|
010904 |
Horatian Lyric and the Vergilian Golden Age |
|
A. T. Zanker, Princeton University |
|
Abstract - Recent scholarship has focused on
the way in which Horace avoids speaking of a returning
golden age in his later poetry, even though Vergil had
done precisely this in the sixth book of his epic. I
argue that Horace realized that the concept was a
problematic one; the golden ages constructed by the
earlier tradition had been marked by characteristics
that could never be achieved in reality. Horace
therefore avoids the problematic terminology, instead
defining the Augustan new age on his own terms. |
|
This paper is now forthcoming in American
Journal of Philology December 2010. |
|
010903 |
Monogamy and polygyny |
|
Walter Scheidel, Stanford University |
 |
Abstract -This paper discusses Greco-Roman
practices of monogamy and polygyny for a forthcoming
handbook on the ancient family. |
|
|
010902 |
Economy and quality of life in the Roman
world |
|
Walter Scheidel, Stanford University |
 |
Abstract -This paper surveys recent trends
in the study of economic development and human
well-being in the Roman world. |
|
|
010901 |
The size of the economy and the distribution of
income in the Roman Empire |
|
Walter Scheidel, Stanford University; and Stephen
Friesen, University of Texas |
 |
Abstract - Different ways of estimating the
Gross Domestic Product of the Roman Empire in the
second century CE produce convergent results that point
to total output and consumption equivalent to 50
million tons of wheat or close to 20 billion sesterces
per year. It is estimated that elites (around 1.5 per
cent of the imperial population) controlled
approximately one-fifth of total income while middling
households (perhaps 10 percent of the population)
consumed another fifth. These findings shed new light
on the scale of economic inequality and the
distribution of demand in the Roman world. |
|
This paper replaces version 1.0 (110801) originally
published in November 2008. |
|
This paper has now been published in Journal of
Roman Studies, Vol 99 (2009) pp. 61-91. |
|
|
110801 |
The size of the economy and the distribution of
income in the Roman Empire |
|
Walter Scheidel, Stanford University and Stephen
Friesen, University of Texas |
|
Revised January 2009. See entry 010901. |
|
|
070801 |
Making Space for Bicultural Identity: Herodes
Atticus Commemorates Regilla |
|
Maud W. Gleason, Stanford University |
 |
Abstract: Herodes and Regilla built a number
of installations during their marriage, some of which
represented their union in spatial terms. After Regilla
died, Herodes reconfigured two of these structures,
altering their meanings with inscriptions to represent
the marriage retrospectively. This paper considers the
implications of these commemorative installations for
Herodes’ sense of cultural identity. |
|
This paper has now been published in Local
Knowledge and Microidentities in the Imperial Greek
World (Cambridge University Press, 2010). |
|
|
060809 |
Human capital and the growth of the Roman
economy |
|
Richard Saller, Stanford University |
 |
Abstract - Over the past 50 years economists
have increasingly emphasized investment in human
capital as a fundamental cause of sustained economic
growth, because investments in education, training and
health make the labor force more productive. This paper
examines Roman education and training, and argues that
Roman investment in human capital was higher in the
early empire that at any time in Europe before 1500 CE,
but noticeably lower than in the fastest growing
economies of the early modern era (e.g., the
Netherlands). |
|
|
060808 |
In search of Roman economic growth |
|
Walter Scheidel, Stanford University |
 |
Abstract -This paper seeks to relate proxy
indices of economic performance to competing hypotheses
of sustainable and unsustainable intensive economic
growth in the Roman world. It considers the economic
relevance of certain types of archaeological data, the
potential of income-centered indices of economic
performance, and the complex relationship between
economic growth and incomes documented in the more
recent past, and concludes with a conjectural argument
in support of a Malthusian model of unsustainable
economic growth triggered by integration. |
|
This paper has now been published in Journal of
Roman Archaeology, Vol 22 (2009) pp. 46-70. |
|
|
060807 |
Monogamy and polygyny in Greece, Rome, and world
history |
|
Walter Scheidel, Stanford University |
 |
Abstract - In what sense were the ancient
Greeks and Romans monogamous, and why does it matter?
This paper summarizes the physical and anthropological
record of polygyny, briefly sketches the historical
expansion of formal monogamy, considers complementary
theories of mate choice, and situates Greco-Roman
practice on a spectrum from traditional polygamy to
more recent forms of normative monogyny. |
|
This paper has now been published in History of
the Family, Vol 14 (2009) pp. 280-291. |
|
|
040801 |
Rome's Mediterranean World System and Its
Transformation |
|
Brent D. Shaw, Princeton University |
 |
Abstract - An analysis of the recent
large-scale interpretation of the great transition from
the ancient world of the Roman Empire to the worlds of
its successor states, economies, and societies offered
by Chris Wickham in his ‘Framing the Early Middle
Ages.’ |
|
This paper replaces version 1 (010801) originally
posted in January 2008. |
|
A revised version of the paper with the title
"After Rome" has now been published in The New Left
Review vol. 52 (May-June 008), pp. 89-114. |
|
|
030801 |
Real wages in early economies: Evidence for
living standards from 2000 BCE to 1300 CE |
|
Walter Scheidel, Stanford University |
|
Abstract - Price and wage data from Roman
Egypt in the first three centuries CE indicate levels
of real income for unskilled workers that are
comparable to those implied by price and wage data in
Diocletian’s price edict of 301 CE and to those
documented in different parts of Europe and Asia in the
eighteenth or early nineteenth centuries. In all these
cases, consumption was largely limited to goods that
were essential for survival and living standards were
very low. A survey of daily wages expressed in terms of
wheat in different Afroeurasian societies from 2000 BCE
to 1300 CE yields similar results: with only few
exceptions, real incomes of unskilled laborers tended
to be very low. |
|
This paper has been revised. Please see entry
090904 posted in September 2009. |
|
020803 |
The monetary systems of the Han and Roman
empires |
|
Walter Scheidel, Stanford University |
 |
Abstract - The Chinese tradition of
supplementing large quantities of bronze cash with
unminted gold and silver represents a rare exception to
the western model of precious-metal coinage. This paper
provides a detailed discussion of monetary development
in ancient China followed by a brief survey of
conditions in the Roman empire. The divergent
development of the monetary systems of the Han and
Roman empires is analyzed with reference to key
variables such as the metal supply, military
incentives, and cultural preferences. This paper also
explores the “metallistic” and “chartalistic” elements
of the Han and Roman currency systems and estimates the
degree of monetization of both economies. |
|
This paper replaces version 1.0 (110505) originally
posted in November 2005. |
|
This paper has now been published in "Rome and
China: Comparative Perspectives on Ancient World
Empires" W. Scheidel (ed.), Oxford University Press:
New York, 2009, pp. 137-207. |
|
|
020802 |
Real Wages in Roman Egypt: A contribution to
recent work on pre-modern living standards |
|
Walter Scheidel, Stanford University |
|
This paper has been removed. |
|
|
010801 |
Rome's Mediterranean World System and Its
Transformation |
|
Brent D. Shaw, Princeton University |
|
This paper has been revised. See 040801 entry. |
|
|
110703 |
Counting Romans |
|
Saskia Hin, Stanford University |
 |
Abstract: This article focuses on the debate
about the size of the population of Roman Italy. I
point at logical inconsistencies related to the
dominant view that the Republican census tallies are
meant to report all adult males. I argue instead that
the figures stemming from the Republican census may
represent adult men sui iuris and suggest that
those of the Augustan censuses include all citizens
sui iuris regardless of age and sex. This
implies a population size under Augustus which falls
between those suggested by ‘high counters’ and ‘low
counters’. Since the share of free citizens enumerated
as sui iuris was further affected by various
historical phenomena a range of intermediate scenarios
or ‘middle counts’ is perceivable. However, such
factors as affect the multiplier all pull in the same
downward direction. Therefore, it is likely that the
number of people inhabiting Roman Italy in Augustan
times was closer to that suggested by the ‘low count’
than to that implied by the ‘high count’. |
|
|
110702 |
From the ‘Great Convergence’ to the ‘First Great
Divergence’: Roman and Qin-Han state formation and its
aftermath |
|
Walter Scheidel, Stanford University |
 |
Abstract - This paper provides a synoptic
outline of convergent trends in state formation in
western and eastern Eurasia from the early first
millennium BCE to the mid-first millennium CE and
considers the problem of subsequent divergence. |
|
This paper replaces version 2.0 (100705) originally
posted in October 2007; and version 1 (120601)
originally posted in December 2006. |
|
This paper has now been published in "Rome and
China: Comparative Perspectives on Ancient World
Empires" W. Scheidel (ed.), Oxford University Press:
New York, 2009, pp. 11-23. |
|
|
100706 |
The ‘First Great Divergence’: Trajectories of
post-ancient state formation in eastern and western
Eurasia |
|
Walter Scheidel, Stanford University |
 |
Abstract - This paper identifies divergent
trends in state formation after the disintegration of
the Roman and Han empires and considers their causes
and long-term consequences. |
|
|
100705 |
From the ‘Great Convergence’ to the ‘First Great
Divergence’: Roman and Qin-Han state formation and its
aftermath |
|
Walter Scheidel, Stanford University |
|
|
This paper (version 2.0) replaces version 1
(120601) originally posted in December 2006. It has
since been revised. See 110702 entry. |
|
|
100704 |
Family matters: Economy, culture and biology:
fertility and its constraints in Roman Italy |
|
Saskia Hin, Stanford University |
 |
Abstract: This article approaches the
phenomenon of fertility in Roman Italy from a range of
perspectives. Building on anthropological and economic
theory, sociology and human evolutionary ecology
various processes that affect fertility patterns by
influencing human behaviour are set out. The insights
provided by these disciplines offer valuable tools for
our understanding of fertility in the ancient world,
and enable assessment of the likelihood of historical
demographic scenarios proffered. On their basis, I
argue that there is little force in the argument that
attributes a perceived demographic decline during the
Late Roman Republic to a drop in fertility levels
amongst the mass of the Roman population. |
|
|
|
100703 |
Communal Agriculture in the Ptolemaic and Roman
Fayyum |
|
Andrew Monson, Stanford University |
 |
Abstract - The article presents the model
that rising demand for land drives the process of
privatization. It likens ancient developments in
Ptolemaic and Roman Egypt to similar trends towards
privatization in nineteenth-century Egypt. Given the
difficulty imposed by the ancient evidence for tracing
changes over time, it concentrates on observable
regional variations that conform to the model.
Differences in population density seem to correlate
with differences in agrarian institutions. There are
especially good data for tenure on public land in Roman
Egypt, so this period is treated in more detail. In the
more sparsely populated Fayyum, communal peasant
institutions remained important for the cultivation of
public land just as they were in the Ptolemaic period.
In the Nile Valley, by contrast, private landowners
encroached on public land by having it registered into
their names and treating it more like private
property. |
|
This paper has now been published in "Communal
Agriculture in the Ptolemaic and Roman Fayyum" S.L.
Lippert and M. Schentuleit (eds.), Graeco-Roman Fayum:
Texts and Archaeology. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2008,
pp. 173-86. |
|
|
090705 |
Cult and Belief in Punic and Roman
Africa |
|
Brent D. Shaw, Princeton University |
 |
Abstract: This is a second attempt at a
synthesis of the main problems for the forthcoming
Cambridge History of Ancient Religions. The problems
are complex and still threaten to overwhelm. This
version remains a cri de coeur: any helpful comments
and criticisms are encouraged. |
|
This paper replaces version 1 (010701) originally
posted in January 2007. |
|
|
080701 |
Rule and Revenue in Egypt and Rome: Political
Stability and Fiscal Institutions |
|
Andrew Monson, Stanford University |
 |
Abstract - This paper investigates what
determines fiscal institutions and the burden of
taxation using a case study from ancient history. It
evaluates Levi’s model of taxation in the Roman
Republic, according to which rulers’ high discount
rates in periods of political instability encourage
them to adopt a more predatory fiscal regime. The
evidence for fiscal reform in the transition from the
Republic to the Principate seems to support her
hypothesis but remains a matter of debate among
historians. Egypt’s transition from a Hellenistic
kingdom to a Roman province under the Principate
provides an analogous case for which there are better
data. The Egyptian evidence shows a correlation between
rulers’ discount rates and fiscal regimes that is
consistent with Levi’s hypothesis. |
|
This paper has now been published in "Rule and
Revenue in Egypt and Rome: Political Stability and
Fiscal Institutions." Special Issue: New Political
Economy in History. Historical Social Research 32/4
(2007), pp. 252-74. |
|
|
070706 |
Roman population size: the logic of the
debate |
|
Walter Scheidel, Stanford University |
 |
Abstract - This paper provides a critical
assessment of the current state of the debate about the
number of Roman citizens and the size of the population
of Roman Italy. Rather than trying to make a case for a
particular reading of the evidence, it aims to
highlight the strengths and weaknesses of rival
approaches and examine the validity of existing
arguments and critiques. After a brief survey of the
evidence and the principal positions of modern
scholarship, it focuses on a number of salient issues
such as urbanization, military service, labor markets,
political stability, living standards, and carrying
capacity, and considers the significance of field
surveys and comparative demographic evidence. |
|
This paper replaces version 1 (050705) originally
posted in May 2007. |
|
This paper has now been published in "People, Land,
and Politics: Demographic Developments and the
Transformation of Roman Italy, 300 BC - AD 14" L. de
Ligt and S. J. Northwood (eds.), Brill: Leiden, 2008,
pp. 17-70. |
|
|
070705 |
Narratives of Roman Syria: a historiography of
Syria as a province of Rome |
|
Lidewijde de Jong, Stanford University |
 |
Abstract: In this paper I examine the
scholarship of Roman Syria and the history of research
on this province. The scholarly narrative of Roman
Syria revolves around strong Greek influence and little
impact of Roman rule, which has resulted in studying
Syria as a unique and distinct entity, separated from
Rome. In light of new archaeological finds and a
re-evaluation of older evidence, I argue that these
assumptions of deep hellenization and shallow Roman
impact need to be abandoned. Using models coming out of
research in other provinces of the Roman empire and
anthropological studies of colonialism and material
culture, I propose a set of different narratives about
Roman Syria. This paper is the first chapter of my
dissertation: Becoming a Roman province: An analysis
of funerary practices in Roman Syria in the context of
empire. |
|
|
070704 |
Tiberiana 4: Tiberius the Wise |
|
Edward Champlin, Princeton University |
 |
Abstract: This is one of five parerga
preparatory to a book to be entitled Tiberius on
Capri, which will explore the interrelationship
between culture and empire, between Tiberius’
intellectual passions (including astrology, gastronomy,
medicine, mythology, and literature) and his role as
princeps. These five papers do not so much
develop an argument as explore significant themes which
will be examined and deployed in the book in different
contexts. This paper examines the extraordinary but
scattered evidence for a contemporary perception of
Tiberius as the wise and pious old monarch of
folklore. |
|
This paper has now been published in
Historia vol. 57 (2008), pp. 408-425. |
|
|
060701 |
Epigraphy and demography: birth, marriage,
family, and death |
|
Walter Scheidel, Stanford University |
 |
Abstract - In recent years, the adoption of
key concepts and models of modern population studies
has greatly advanced our understanding of the
demography of the Greco-Roman world. Epigraphic
evidence has made a vital contribution to this
development: statistical analysis of tens of thousands
of tombstone inscriptions has generated new insights
into mortality regimes, marriage practices, and family
structures in various parts of the ancient
Mediterranean. In conjunction with papyrological
material, these data permit us to identify regional
differences and facilitate long-term comparisons with
more recent historical populations. After a brief
survey of the principal sources of demographic
information about the classical world, this paper
focuses on the use of inscriptions in the study of
population size, mortality, fertility, nuptiality, sex
ratios, family formation, and household
organization. |
|
|
050705 |
Roman population size: the logic of the
debate |
|
Walter Scheidel, Stanford University |
|
Revised July 2007. See entry 070706. |
|
|
050704 |
The Roman slave supply |
|
Walter Scheidel, Stanford University |
 |
Abstract - This survey of the scale and
sources of the Roman slave supply will be published in
Keith Bradley and Paul Cartledge (eds.), The
Cambridge world history of slavery, 1: The ancient
Mediterranean world. |
|
|
020701 |
A model of real income growth in Roman
Italy |
|
Walter Scheidel, Stanford University |
 |
Abstract - This paper presents a new model
of the main exogenous and endogenous determinants of
real income growth in Italy in the last two centuries
BC. I argue that war-related demographic attrition,
emigration and the urban graveyard effect converged in
constraining the growth of the freeborn population
despite increased access to material resources that
would otherwise have been conducive to demographic
growth and concomitant depression of real incomes; that
massive redistribution of financial resources from
Roman elites and provincial subjects to large elements
of the Italian commoner population in the terminal
phase of the Republican period raised average household
wealth and improved average well-being; and that
despite serious uncertainties about the demographic and
occupational distribution of such benefits, the
evidence is consistent with the notion of rising real
incomes in sub-elite strata of the Italian population.
I conclude my presentation with a dynamic model of
growth and decline in real income in Roman Italy
followed by a brief look at comparable historical
scenarios in early modern Europe. I hope to make it
probable that due to a historically specific
configuration of circumstances created by the
mechanisms of Roman Republican politics and
imperialism, the Italian heartland of the emerging
empire witnessed temporary but ultimately unsustainable
improvements in income and consumption levels well
beyond elite circles. |
|
This revised paper replaces Version 1.0 posted in
February 2006. |
|
This paper has been published in Historia 56 (2007)
332-346. |
|
|
010702 |
Shock and Awe: The Performance Dimension of
Galen’s Anatomy Demonstrations |
|
Maud W. Gleason, Stanford University |
 |
Abstract: Galen’s anatomical demonstrations
on living animals constitute a justly famous chapter in
the history of scientific method. This essay, however,
examines them as a social phenomenon. Galen’s
demonstrations were competitive. Their visual,
cognitive and emotional impact (often expressed by
compounds of ѳαῦμα and ἔκπληξις) reduced onlookers
to gaping amazement. This impact enhanced the logical
force of Galen’s arguments, compelling competitors to
acknowlege his intellectual and technical preeminence.
Thus, on the interpersonal level, Galen’s
demonstrations functioned coercively. On the
philosophical level, Galen was using a rhetoric
traditional to Greek science, a way of arguing that
involved a unitary view of nature and an emphasis on
homology between animals and man. But he was also using
a rhetoric of power and status differentiation
articulated via the body. As played out in the flesh,
public vivisection resonated with other cultural
practices of the Roman empire: wonder-working
competitions, judicial trials, and ampitheater
entertainment. |
This paper has now been published as "Galen's
Anatomical Performances" in C. Gill, T. Whitmarsh, J.
Wilkins, eds. Galen and the World of Knowledge
(Cambridge University Press, 2010). |
|
|
010701 |
Cult and Belief in Punic and Roman
Africa |
|
Brent D. Shaw, Princeton University |
|
Revised September 2007. See entry 090705. |
|
|
120601 |
Imperial state formation in Rome and China: From
the Great Convergence to the First Great
Divergence |
|
Walter Scheidel, Stanford University |
|
Revised October 2007. See 100706 entry. |
|
|
110604 |
New ways of studying incomes in the Roman
economy |
|
Walter Scheidel, Stanford University |
 |
Abstract - This paper very briefly considers
three ways of expanding the study of Roman income
levels beyond the limits of empirical data on costs and
wages, by considering the determinants of real incomes,
the use of proxy data for real incomes, and the
potential of cross-cultural comparison. |
|
|
110603 |
What is the De Fisco Barcinonensi
About? |
|
Damian Fernandez, Princeton University |
|
Abstract: The letter De fisco
Barcinonensi is one of the few documents that we
have on Visigothic taxation. In this paper, the
evidence to determine the precise nature of the
document is reviewed. It is suggested that the letter
deals with the adaeratio (exchange rate between
tributes in kind and tributes in coin), which can be
explained both by a strict reading of the document and
the political context in which this letter was issued.
Consequently, the role of bishops in the process of tax
collection is circumscribed to their function as
representatives of the local communities and their
elites. |
|
This paper has been published in L'Antiquité
Tardive, vol. 14 (2006), pp. 217.24. |
|
|
|
090603 |
Tiberiana 3: Odysseus at Rome - a
Problem |
|
Edward Champlin, Princeton University |
 |
Abstract: This is one of five parerga
preparatory to a book to be entitled Tiberius on
Capri, which will explore the interrelationship
between culture and empire, between Tiberius’
intellectual passions (including astrology, gastronomy,
medicine, mythology, and literature) and his role as
princeps. These five papers do not so much
develop an argument as explore significant themes which
will be examined and deployed in the book in different
contexts. “Odysseus at Rome” is an appendix to the
previous paper on Tiberius’ obsession with the Greek
hero. It draws attention to some startling evidence for
Odysseus’ unpopularity in the Roman world. |
|
|
090602 |
Tiberiana 2: Tales of Brave Ulysses |
|
Edward Champlin, Princeton University |
 |
Abstract: This is one of five parerga
preparatory to a book to be entitled Tiberius on
Capri, which will explore the interrelationship
between culture and empire, between Tiberius’
intellectual passions (including astrology, gastronomy,
medicine, mythology, and literature) and his role as
princeps. These five papers do not so much
develop an argument as explore significant themes which
will be examined and deployed in the book in different
contexts. Tiberius was intensely interested in the
deeds and character of the hero Odysseus, to the extent
that sometimes he seems almost to have been channeling
him. “Tales of Brave Ulysses” considers the evidence
for this obsession and suggests something of the fresh
insight into the emperor’s character which it
evokes. |
|
|
090601 |
Tiberiana 1: Tiberian Neologisms |
|
Edward Champlin, Princeton University |
 |
Abstract: This is one of five parerga
preparatory to a book to be entitled Tiberius on
Capri, which will explore the interrelationship
between culture and empire, between Tiberius’
intellectual passions (including astrology, gastronomy,
medicine, mythology, and literature) and his role as
princeps. These five papers do not so much develop an
argument as explore significant themes which will be
examined and deployed in the book in different
contexts. “Tiberian Neologisms” examines several words
that seem to have been invented or given new meanings
during his reign, often by Tiberius himself. |
|
|
070601 |
A Prehistory of Hatred |
|
Brent D. Shaw, Princeton University |
|
Abstract - A critical reconsideration of a
recent foray into the vexatious problem of the origins
of race and racism. |
|
This is now published in "Journal of World History"
vol. 16 (2005), pp. 227-32. |
|
|
060601 |
Growing up fatherless in antiquity: the
demographic background |
|
Walter Scheidel, Stanford University |
 |
Abstract - In ancient societies, many
individuals lost their fathers while they were still
minors or unmarried. Building on Richard Saller’s
seminal work, this paper examines the demographic
dimension of this phenomenon. This paper is designed to
provide demographic context for a forthcoming
collection of essays on growing up fatherless in
antiquity. |
|
This paper has now been published in "Growing Up
Fatherless in Antiquity" S Hübner and D. Ratzan (eds.),
Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, 2009, pp.
31-40. |
|
|
050603 |
Sex and empire: a Darwinian perspective |
|
Walter Scheidel, Stanford University |
 |
Abstract - This paper draws on evolutionary
psychology to elucidate ultimate causation in imperial
state formation and predatory exploitation in antiquity
and beyond. Differential access to the means of
reproduction is shown to have been a key feature of
early imperial systems. (NB: This revised paper
replaces Version 1.0 posted in November 2005.) |
|
This paper has now been published in "The Dynamics
of Ancient Empires: State Power From Assyria to
Byzantium" I. Morris and W. Scheidel (eds.), Oxford
University Press: New York, 2009, pp. 255-324. |
|
|
040604 |
Population and demography |
|
Walter Scheidel, Stanford University |
 |
Abstract - This paper provides a general
overview of Greco-Roman population history. |
|
|
020603 |
Bad Boys: Circumcellions and Fictive
Violence |
|
Brent D. Shaw, Princeton University |
 |
Abstract - The circumcellions were roving
bands of violent men and women found in late Roman
Africa. The problem is that far more of them have been
produced by literary fictions, ancient and modern, than
once existed. The fictions have their own intriguing
history, but they are otherwise useless for those who
are interested in the banality of what actually
happened. |
|
This paper has been published in H. A. Drake et al.
eds., Violence in Late Antiquity: Perceptions and
Practices, Aldershot, Ashgate, 2006, pp. 179-96. |
|
|
020602 |
Real income growth in Roman Italy |
|
Walter Scheidel, Stanford University |
|
Revised February 2007. See 020701 entry. |
|
|
020601 |
Republics between hegemony and empire: How
ancient city-states built empires and the USA doesn’t
(anymore) |
|
Walter Scheidel, Stanford University |
 |
Abstract - This paper discusses the concepts
‘empire’ and ‘hegemony’, provides a new model of the
institutional structure of ancient ‘citizen-city-state
empires’, and argues that the contemporary USA cannot
be defined as an ‘empire’. |
|
|
010602 |
Sabinus the Muleteer |
|
Brent D. Shaw, Princeton University |
 |
Abstract - A brief piece about possible
sources and historical background of a bit of
‘Vergilian’ poetry. If you like mules and Vergil, then
this one is for you. |
|
This is now published in Classical Quarterly
vol. 57 (2007), pp. 132-38. |
|
|
120518 |
Map Resources for Roman North Africa |
|
Brent D. Shaw, Princeton University |
 |
Abstract - This is the early draft of a
collation of the map resources that are available for
the study of Roman North Africa. It is hoped that, even
in this early stage of presentation, it will be of some
use to those who are seeking cartographic resources for
research on the region. |
|
|
120515 |
Seasonal Mortality in Imperial Rome and the
Mediterranean: Three Problem Cases |
|
Brent D. Shaw, Princeton University |
|
No longer available as a working paper. This is now
published as Chapter 4 [in] Glenn R. Storey ed.,
Urbanism in the Preindustrial World: Cross-Cultural
Approaches (Tuscaloosa, The University of Alabama
Press, 2006), pp. 86-109. |
|
|
120513 |
Religion in Roman Historiography and
Epic |
|
Denis Feeney, Princeton University |
 |
Abstract: A version of this paper is due to
appear as a chapter in the forthcoming Blackwell
Companion to Roman Religion (edited by Jörg
Rüpke). The paper gives an overview of the religious
dimensions to Roman epic and historiography, and argues
for taking seriously the literary questions of
representation, genre, and convention which are often
elided by historians who wish to disinter hard evidence
for ‘real’ religious attitudes and practice from these
texts. |
|
This paper has now been published in J. Rüpke
(ed.), A Companion to Roman Religion (Oxford,
2007), pp. 129-142. |
|
|
110516 |
Spartacus Before Marx |
|
Brent D. Shaw, Princeton University |
 |
Abstract - The story of the pre-Marxian
ideology of Spartacus is not without its own peculiar
interests. It is a strange narrative prompted both by
the birth of a modern analytical, and political,
interest in slavery, and in parallel debates over the
meaning of liberty and servitude. |
|
|
110509 |
Marriage, families, and survival in the Roman
imperial army: demographic aspects |
|
Walter Scheidel, Stanford University |
 |
Abstract - This paper provides a survey of
marriage and family formation in the army of the
Principate, and assesses the main determinants of the
life expectancy of professional Roman soldiers. |
|
This paper has now been published in "The Blackwell
Companion to the Roman Army" P Erdkamp (ed.),
Blackwell: Oxford and Malden, 2007, pp. 417-434. |
|
|
110508 |
Real slave prices and the relative cost of slave
labor in the Greco-Roman world |
|
Walter Scheidel, Stanford University |
|
No longer available as as working paper. The final
publication is in Ancient Society 35 (2005)
1-17. |
|
|
110507 |
Stratification, deprivation, and quality of life
in the Roman world |
|
Walter Scheidel, Stanford University |
|
No longer available as a working paper. The final
publication is in M. Atkins and R. Osborne, eds.,
Poverty in the Roman World (Cambridge University
Press, 2006), 40-59. |
|
|
110506 |
Sex and empire: a Darwinian perspective |
|
Walter Scheidel, Stanford University |
|
Revised May 2006. See 050603 entry. |
|
|
110505 |
The monetary systems of the Han and Roman
empires |
|
Walter Scheidel, Stanford University |
|
Revised February 2008. See 020803 entry. |
|
|
110504 |
The comparative economics of slavery in the
Greco-Roman world |
|
Walter Scheidel, Stanford University |
 |
Abstract - A comparative perspective
improves our understanding of the critical determinants
of the large-scale use of slave labor in different
sectors of historical economies, including classical
Greece and the Italian heartland of the Roman empire.
This paper argues that the success of chattel slavery
was a function of the specific configuration of several
critical variables: the character of certain kinds of
economic activity, the incentive system, the normative
value system of a society, and the nature of
commitments required of the free population. High real
wages and low slave prices precipitated the expansion
of slavery in classical Greece and Republican Rome,
while later periods of Roman history may have witnessed
either a high-equilibrium level of slavery or its
gradual erosion in the context of lower wages and
higher prices. |
|
This paper has now been published in "Slave
Systems, Ancient and Modern" E. Dal Lago and C. Katsari
(eds.), Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, 2009,
pp. 105-126. |
|
|
110503 |
Roman funerary commemoration and the age at
first marriage |
|
Walter Scheidel, Stanford University |
 |
Abstract - This paper offers a critical
assessment of the debate about the customary age at
first marriage of men and women in Roman Italy and the
western provinces of the early Roman empire. While
literary sources point to early female and male
marriage (around ages 12-15 and 18-20, respectively) in
elite circles, the epigraphic record is mostly
consistent with Saller’s thesis that non-elite men did
not normally marry until their late twenties. Shaw’s
thesis that non-elite women married in their late teens
is plausible but remains difficult to test. Comparative
data from late medieval Tuscany raise doubts about the
applicability of these findings beyond urban
environments. |
|
This paper has been published in Classical
Philology 102 (2007) 389-402 |
|
|
110502 |
The demography of Roman state formation in
Italy |
|
Walter Scheidel, Stanford University |
 |
Abstract - This paper seeks to provide a
basic demographic framework for the study of
integrative processes in Italy during the Republican
period. Following a brief summary of the state of the
debate about population size, the paper focuses on
distributional issues such as military and political
participation rates and geographical mobility, and
concludes with a simple model of the dynamics of
Italian integration. |
|
The final publication is in: M. Jehne and R.
Pfeilschifter (eds.), Herrschaft ohne Integration? Rom
und Italien in republikanischer Zeit (Frankfurt: Verlag
Antike, 2006), 207-226. |
|
|