learning allowed teachers and rhetoricians of all stripes to
fl ourish there throughout antiquity. Athletic trainers were
also sought aft er, but not in large numbers.
Upper-class women were expected not to work outside
the confi nes of the oikos and were kept out of public view as
much as possible. Women in other classes worked from eco-
nomic necessity. Certain fi elds, such as textile production,
washing, domestic service, and midwifery, were traditionally
female. Prostitution was common and legal, and the profes-
sion ranged from low-status pornai (prostitutes) to hetairai
(literally, “female companions”), who served well-to-do men
and oft en were valued for their wit, education, and musical
talent. Young men also worked as prostitutes, though Greek
sexual mores made male prostitution a short-term career
option. Fully mature men were not considered desirable by
other men.
Th ere were relatively few lawyers in the Greek world, de-
spite the large amount of legal activity in such cities as Athens.
Citizens represented themselves in court, but they did hire
speechwriters, who might have given advice about the law.
Civil servants were few. Despite being the seat of an empire,
Athens had no permanent bureaucracy, and most magistra-
cies were fi lled on a year-by-year basis by citizens selected by
lot. Th ere were likewise few managers. Industries and com-
mercial concerns, such as banks, were on a small scale. Nor
were there many jobs in sales. Greeks had few material pos-
sessions compared with modern Western societies, and what
they had was typically bought from producers.
ROME
BY KIRK H. BEETZ
Bakeries could be found in every Roman town and city as
well as in almost any village. In even a modest-sized town of
12,000 or so people, there would have been a few dozen bak-
eries because bread was the basic food of Romans from about
200 b.c.e. onward, replacing porridge. A small bakery would
have had at least two rooms, one for grinding grain and for
baking and the other for displaying baked goods for purchase.
A large bakery could have had several rooms, with as many as
fi ve grinding mills and with ovens that could hold more than
80 loaves of bread at a time. Bakers ground their own fl our
using mills shaped like hourglasses. A donkey was hitched
to a mill with a simple harness. Th e donkey would pace in a
circle, turning the hourglass stone, which ground grain on a
circular stone beneath it. Flour would spill out onto a wide,
circular base of stone from which the baker would gather it.
Bread and sugared pastries were prepared in the same
room as the fl our. Th e most popular shape of bread seems to
have been circular with eight divisions or slices. Th e baker
took care that his baked goods were in attractive, usually
geometric, shapes. Th e baker did not grow his own grain but
purchased it from peasants who hauled the grain to market
in sacks on oxen. His workday began before sunrise so that he
could be sure to have fresh bread ready for the breakfasts of
his customers. Some bakeries were busy enough for baking to
continue all night aft er the baker’s shop closed. When open
for business, the baker’s counter, which would have been even
with the street or sidewalk, was watched by a clerk, usually
the wife or child of the baker. Customers were not allowed
into the bakery but had to wait outside while their purchases
were fetched by the clerk or the clerk’s assistant. Th e clerk or
assistant kept track of purchases on a waxed tablet.
Butchers did a thriving business in Roman villages,
towns, and cities as well. Butchers prepared diff erent kinds
of meat, but Romans favored beef over all others. Th e Roman
government regulated weights and measures, and a butcher
with faulty scales could be fi ned. A hunk of meat was fi xed
on a hook that dangled from a rod. Th e rod had a weight
that could slide back along the rod until it balanced. Like the
baker, the butcher oft en had to work at night because farmers
were allowed to bring in animals for slaughter only at night.
A butcher shop was arranged like that of the baker, with the
butchering taking place in a back room behind the shop.
A butcher worked while standing up, with an assortment
of cleavers of copper or iron. He set meat on a masonry table,
where he hacked or sliced it. Th e butcher hung his roasts,
chops, ribs, and steaks from hooks attached to boards on
the walls. Some of these meats would have been taken to the
street-side shop and hung on hooks for display. Th e clerk was
usually the butcher’s wife, who had an assistant to go into the
back to fetch meats for customers. Customers were not al-
lowed inside.
Blacksmiths worked in almost every village as well as
in towns and cities. In a village the blacksmith worked with
several diff erent metals. He would not have been expected
to smelt metals or to mix alloys, such as bronze. Instead, he
worked from ingots either imported from abroad or made lo-
cally by a smelter. His principal products were nails, pieces for
bridles and harnesses, and tools. In a town or city blacksmiths
oft en specialized. For instance, cutlers specialized in making
knives. A cutler produced several diff erent shapes and sizes of
cleavers and knives for household use or for professional use
by butchers. Other smiths specialized in tools for carpenters
and construction workers, such as pliers and hammers. Still
others made medical instruments. In towns and cities black-
smiths would have had shops that looked much like those of
bakers and butchers, but the smith himself probably would
have dealt directly with customers. Against one of his walls
would have been shelves that displayed the diff erent products
he could make.
Barbers were among the cutler’s customers. Roman men
preferred carefully trimmed hair and shaved faces, and they
patronized barbers oft en. Barbers were either men or women,
and their shops were called tonstrinas. Th ey used i ron scissors
and razors, and they oft en are depicted in Roman writings as
dangerous people who carelessly cut the skin of their custom-
ers. Barbers were expected to be gossips, and a visit to a bar-
ber included listening to the barber recount all the rumors
he had heard. Women went to hairdressers, who were men or816 occupations: Rome