ROME
BY KIRK H. BEETZ
Not much is known about employment and labor during the
era of Rome’s fi rst kings (ca. 753–ca. 510 b.c.e.). By the reign
of Tullus Hostilius (r. 673–642 b.c.e.) Rome seems to have
developed an aristocracy, the patricians, and commoners,
the plebeians. A key moment in the history of labor in Rome
occurred during the reign of Tarquinius Priscus (r. 616–578
b.c.e.), who drained a swamp beside the Tiber River and built
Rome’s Forum on it. A rectangular open space, the Forum
had a marketplace on one side, where farmers and craft speo-
ple could sell their products. A basilica, or place of public
assembly, was built at one end of the Forum. In the basilica
laborers could fi nd work.
During the Roman Republic (509–27 b.c.e.), Rome devel-
oped a large class of unemployed people, who gathered along
one side of the Forum under a shelter the city provided for
them. Th ere they collected free food from the government
and sometimes found work as unskilled labor. Th roughout
its existence the Roman Empire had a large number of unem-
ployed people, probably because of slavery. Slavery aff ected
all aspects of Roman society. Slaves served in households as
nannies, cooks, and other servants. On farms they held ev-
ery working position, and slaves were oft en in charge of large
farming estates, doing all hiring and fi ring and directing all
tasks for their owners. Th e eff ect of slaves on Roman society
was primarily destructive. Among the patricians, they made
for lazy owners who were unprepared for leadership or hard-
ship. Th ey took jobs that would otherwise have gone to free
citizens who needed the employment. Further, slavery took
away the incentive for Romans to be innovative. For example,
when the steam turbine, called an aeolipyle, was invented in
the fi rst century of the Common Era, it languished because it
was seen as a mere labor-saving device, and it was easier just
to have slaves do the labor instead. Given how the steam tur-
bine revolutionized European culture in the 1800s c.e., the
aeolipyle could have given the Roman Empire an enormous
technological lead over its rivals in the ancient world.
Slaves had no civil rights in Rome. Th eir owners could
kill them, torture them, and abuse them without penalties.
Slaves could earn money, but that money belonged to their
owners. However, it was customary to allow slaves to save
their own money and to allow them to use that money as their
own, even to purchase their own businesses. Until the end of
the 300s c.e. Rome’s wars brought large numbers of slaves
into the empire, so replacing a slave was usually easy. Th us,
freeing slaves was common. According to custom, however,
the former owner of a slave was still responsible for the freed
slave’s welfare and was expected to be accountable for the
freed slave’s debts.
In every form of employment slaves competed with free
people. Sometimes they were more respected than wage earn-
ers, who were usually treated with contempt. Roman cities and
towns were divided into areas of rich and poor, with trades-
people and craft s workers having their own sections. Th ose
who owned their own businesses lived in well-kept areas. Wage
earners lived in squalid areas of narrow streets with one-room
homes and small apartments. When a Roman city was built on
the site of a conquered village or town, the wage earners lived in
the old barbarian part of the city. Th ey were regarded as fi lthy
and smelly, unfi t for mingling in society. As such, they formed
a permanent underclass that existed throughout the empire at
all times. Wage earners sometimes rebelled against their mal-
treatment, and their riots were feared by other Romans.
Th ere was a hierarchy among Rome’s laborers. At the bot-
tom were town criers and undertakers, who were forbidden by
law to hold public offi ce. At its top were construction workers
and musicians. In the middle were mechanics, artists, bakers,
weavers, among others. Barbers were feared because their iron
razors were diffi cult to control and could cut. Clothes washers
were avoided because the chemicals they used not only made
them permanently smell awful but gave them skin diseases.
Physicians fell into two categories, one being wage earners,
who had to go visit patients, and the other consultants, to
whom patients had to come. Greeks were generally regarded
as crazy and immoral, but Greek doctors were well respected.Marble relief of Jason the physician and patient, Roman, second
century c.e.; Greek doctors were especially respected in Roman society,
and all doctors were exempt from paying taxes. (© Th e Trustees of the
British Museum)employment and labor: Rome 433