taxation, confi scation, and enslavement. Th ey developed
highly effi cient systems of taxation but also of redistribution
to gather in wealth from their subjects and direct it to Rome
and its increasingly far-fl ung armies.
Th e study of the Roman economy presents several ob-
stacles. First of all, it is diffi cult to defi ne the nature of the
economy, which, at least in the late republic and early em-
pire, seems to have been predominantly market based but
still retained some elements of reciprocity (exchange through
gift s and mutual obligations) and redistribution (a central-
ized economic system in which goods are collected by the
government and redistributed at its discretion). A second
problem is that there are very few prices or other statistics for
an economic historian to study. Indeed, the surviving liter-
ary sources rarely discuss economic issues at all. Th ird, when
Roman writers discuss economic life, they tend to present a
highly distorted view of it. Cicero, like most Roman elites,
regarded nearly every occupation aside from farming as de-
meaning and dishonorable. By defi nition, merchants were
cheats, and laborers were little better than slaves as far as
upper-class Romans were concerned. Cooks, fi shermen, ar-
tisans, and performers were all beneath contempt, their eco-
nomic activity rarely described.
Th ose who would understand the Roman economy must
look elsewhere for evidence, and there are several profi table
sources of information. Numismatics (the study of coinage)
provides one such source. Th e volume, quality, and denomi-
nations of the coins produced as well as their distribution on
sites and in coin hoards can reveal important aspects of the
circulation and use of money. Th ousands of inscriptions sur-
vive, and they, along with the many scraps of papyrus recov-
ered from Egypt and writing tablets, such as those unearthed
at Pompeii and Vindolanda, oft en record transactions, de-
scriptions of careers, or parts of accounts. Th e excavation of
houses, other buildings, and even shipwrecks also show ar-
chaeologists what was traded. Together these materials pres-
ent a rich, if fragmentary view of the Roman economy.
THE REGAL PERIOD AND THE EARLY REPUBLIC
Th e evidence for the Roman economy in its fi rst few cen-
turies (753–300 b.c.e.) is rather poor. Th e tradition that the
site of the city was occupied by shepherds suggests that ini-
tially Rome had a pastoral economy. Th e fact that the Latin
word for money, pecunia, derives from the word for livestock,
pecus, tends to support this conclusion, as does the fact that
some early fi nes were imposed in terms of cattle and sheep.
Nevertheless, Rome had good farmland and sat at the cross-
roads of two important trade routes: the Tiber River, which
connected the interior of the Italian peninsula with the coast,
and the river ford at Rome, which connected Latium (the
territory occupied by the Romans and other Latin speakers)
with Etruria (modern Tuscany), home of the wealthy and
powerful Etruscans. No doubt agriculture and trade became
important sectors of the Roman economy at a very early stage
in its development.
Many Romans came to believe that Servius Tullius, the
sixth king of Rome, created the city’s fundamental economic
institutions, including the census, direct taxation, coinage,
the distribution of conquered land to citizens, and pay for
soldiers. Servius, who allegedly reigned during the mid-sixth
century b.c.e., certainly did not institute coinage (which the
Romans would not begin minting until the late fourth cen-
tury b.c.e.) or army pay (which other ancient sources associ-
ate with Rome’s long confl ict with the Etruscan city of Veii in
the late fi ft h century b.c.e.), but some of the city’s economic
institutions may predate the start of the republic in 509 b.c.e.
Th e census, regardless of its precise origins, would soon be-
come Rome’s central economic institution. At fi rst the census
seems to have been simply a survey of the wealth of Roman
citizens conducted in order to assign men their appropriate
military and political rights and responsibilities. Eventually,
however, the censors, two magistrates placed in charge of
performing the census beginning in 443 b.c.e, would wield a
considerable amount of control over both the state’s revenues
and expenditures.TAXATION AND OTHER FORMS OF REVENUE
Th e Roman state took in revenue from a variety of sources
and in a multitude of forms. Th e earliest tax was the tribu-
tum, which was assessed, when necessary, on Roman citizens,
who would have to pay some percentage of their assessed
wealth. As the empire expanded, however, other forms of rev-
enue became much more important, particularly indemnity
payments from defeated enemies and provincial tax receipts.
For example, at the end of the First Punic War in 241 b.c.e.,
Carthage agreed to pay Rome 320 talents of silver a year for
10 years. Since the talent, a Greek unit of weight, was approx-
imately 57 pounds, this payment constituted a tremendous
sum of money. Th e treaty ending the Second Punic War in
201 b.c.e. committed Carthage to pay 200 talents of silver
each year for 50 years. As their power spread to the eastern
Mediterranean, the Romans continued to exact these large
indemnities from defeated nations. Th e Treaty of Apamea,
which in 188 b.c.e. ended Rome’s war with Antiochus III,
ruler of the Seleucid kingdom in Asia, specifi ed, among many
other terms, that Antiochus pay Rome 1,000 talents per year
for 12 years.
Provinces also paid taxes, though their nature and form
are oft en unclear. Some communities paid in coin or bullion;
some paid in commodities, like grain or olive oil. Th ere were
real estate taxes, poll taxes, and taxes that required farmers
to turn over a portion of their harvests. Oft en the Romans
simply kept preexisting tax systems in place following the in-
corporation of new territory into the empire. Portoria (c u s-
toms duties) were exacted at the frontiers of the empire as
well as on the borders between provinces. Other taxes that
were levied at various times include a 5 percent tax on the
value of manumitted (freed) slaves, a 1 percent tax on sales at
auction, a 4 percent tax on the sale of slaves, and a 5 percent
tax on some parts of inheritances. Th e emperor Vespasianeconomy: Rome 367