proper respect. At all levels of society, provincial and metropolitan, it was the landed interest that was most closely connected with the tenure of political office. The
senatorial class of the early Empire was composed of landed magnates who came to politics with a census qualification that ensured they were men of substantial
private means, and they embarked on careers that did not in general (though exceptions could always be made) require a specifically military, financial, or other
expertise so much as all-round literary culture and general experience.
In the domain of local politics trade secured no foothold even at Aries or Lyon, where it was a prominent and profitable activity; only at Ostia, an exceptional case
because of its restricted territory and the overwhelming dominance of trade in the economy, did the trading interest make much impact on the conduct of its civic
and political life.
Apple Sellers: funerary relief from Arlon (second century A.D.). The produce of the farms and smallholdings would be brought, as in medieval and modern times, to
the market-towns for sale: here we see a fruit-stall with a customer (or the farmer himself?) standing at the right.