Social, Political, and Economic Structures of Imperial Rome 93In time, however, the economies of scale that had
doomed the small farmers of the republic reasserted
themselves. Not every veteran understood agriculture;
those who did could not always compete with their
larger neighbors. Eventually, these men or their descen-
dants sold their farms and returned to the city, or they
became tenants (coloni) of the great estates. In the early
empire, coloniremained technically free, leasing their
land and returning a portion of the yield to the estate
owner. This was thought to be less efficient than slav-
ery, but it became increasingly common as slaves grew
scarcer. Once again the average size of properties be-
gan to grow and peasant income resumed its decline.
By the end of the first century A.D. half of the land in
the province of Africa was owned by six men.
Changes in the distribution of wealth were there-
fore both temporary and relative. If veterans benefited
from the distribution of land and from cash payments
derived from booty, the wealthy gained even more
from imperial gifts. Townspeople, too, received pay-
ments from the emperors as a kind of bribe for good
behavior and sometimes found work on the construc-
tion projects funded by Augustus from the spoils of
Egypt. Another burst of prosperity seems to have fol-
lowed the great fire of A.D. 67, which destroyed much
of Rome; Nero financed a massive reconstruction that
gave work to thousands. Temporary benefits of this
kind may have improved the lives of ordinary people,
especially in Italy, but the amounts involved were too
small to expand significantly their role as consumers or
to change the basic distribution of wealth.
The economic polarization that had characterized
Roman society since the second century B.C. continued
to influence the development of trade (see table 5.2).
Though Julius Caesar had attempted to limit the num-
ber of Romans eligible for the grain dole, it remained
available to all Roman citizens under Augustus. This,
together with the policy of urbanization in the
provinces, ensured the continuation of a massive trade
in bulk agricultural commodities (see map 5.2). Spain,
Africa, Sicily, and, above all, Egypt exported vast quan-
tities of grain to the growing cities of the empire. Italy
produced wine and oil, but it had many competitors
and probably lost in relative economic importance as
the first century B.C. progressed.
Meanwhile, the lack of an adequate consumer base
limited manufacturing. Something like a mass market
existed for metal tools and weapons, and several Italian
towns produced red-glazed pottery for export to every
corner of the empire. Some potteries may have em-
ployed more than fifty workers, most of them slaves.
Woolen cloth, once processed in the home, was more
commonly manufactured for sale. The size of this trade
is difficult to estimate, and it, too, probably employed
mostly slaves. Generally speaking, the availability of
slave labor, though declining, continued to hold down
the wages of free workers and to restrict the develop-
ment of technology. Perhaps the greatest innovation of
the period was the development of glassblowing at
Sidon.
Most commodities were more limited in their dis-
tribution. Egypt retained its monopoly on papyrus, and
the cities of what had once been Phoenicia produced
glass and the expensive dyes and textiles for which theyThese figures regarding wages and prices are estimates
for central Italy c. 150 B.C. Prices of wheat in particular
fluctuated wildly during the civil wars, but the numbers
listed below are a fair estimate of those in the early years
of Augustus. Prices were lower in the Po valley and in
other areas remote from Rome. There were sixteen cop-
per asses or four sesterces in a silver denarius. The differ-
ence in wages between a slave hired for the day and a
free laborer demonstrates why so many of the latter were
unemployed.
Service or product Average cost
Unskilled slave laborer 2 sesterces per diem
Free laborer 3 sesterces per diem
Soldier 120 denarius per annum
Wheat (enough for 20 lbs.
of bread) 3 sesterces per modius
Barley 2 sesterces per modius
Wine (average grade Italian) 3–4 assesper liter
Wine (best imported) 1–4 denarius per liter
Olive oil 6–8 assesper liter
Beef 4–5 assesper lb.
Pork 2–3 assesper lb.
Clothing (Cato’s toga, tunic,
and shoes) 100 denarius
A farm slave 500 denarius
An ox for plowing 60–80 denarius
A sheep 6–8 denarius
A cavalry horse 500 denarius
Source: Data from Tenney Frank, ed., An Economic Survey of Ancient
Rome,vol. 1 (New York, N.Y.: Pageant Books, 1959), p. 200.TABLE 5.2Roman Wages and Prices in the Late Republic