230 CONCLUSION
power. In the Greek East it was a matter of winning or confi rming the loyalty
and cooperation of an existing urban elite, though the under- urbanized
hinterland received some new foundations. In many parts of the West,
however, an urban elite had to be fashioned out of the remnants of defeated
tribal aristocracies.
The extraction of the resources of the provinces remained the responsibility
of the cities under the supervision of the provincial governors. Imperial
governments showed their interest in the proper performance of this task
not by multiplying offi cials, but by exercising closer supervision over those
already there. Governors suffered a reduction in both formal powers and
discretionary authority. The income and expenditures of cities were subjected
to certain restrictions (no new taxes, no new public building without
permission), while the compulsory and voluntary contributions and services
of the local elite – the main mechanism by which both local and central
government demands were met – were subjected to tighter regulation.
However, it would be wrong to exaggerate the extent of central government
concern and pressure. Interference by emperors or their delegates was
sporadic and ad hoc, usually elicited by interested individuals or groups in
the localities themselves. There was no rash of general enactments, nor any
systematic reorganization of local government. However ineffi cient and
corrupt, it served the limited purpose of the state.
Roman and provincial society, economy and culture did undergo
transformation despite the constraints imposed by the limited expectations
of the government, the sheer size of the empire, the range and diversity of
cultures within it and the relatively primitive level of development of
economic life. The task is to make a realistic assessment of the pace and
extent of change and to explain how it was effected.
II
The economy was underdeveloped, as measured by the poverty of the mass
of the people, the predominance of agricultural labour, the backward state
of technology, the importance of land as a source of wealth and power,
and the dominance of the value system of the landed aristocracy. The
establishment of peace and stable government made possible economic
prosperity and growth on a modest scale. The impact on the economies
of the ‘developing’ provinces of the West of immigration, urbanization,
military occupation and the fi scal demands of the government is undeniable.
But we do not accept the bolder estimates of the extent and effects of
monetization and the growth of trade and commerce; we believe that
expanded agricultural production was achieved in the western provinces
through intensifi cation (higher labour input per unit area) and crop-
specialization rather than technological innovation; and we hold that despite
provincial ‘competition’, Italian agriculture (including viticulture) enjoyed