Download Poverty in the Roman World

Poverty in the Roman World
Poverty in the Roman World
How do we define poverty?
 Who is considered to be poor?
 How did the Romans define poverty?
 Who was considered poor in the Roman
world?
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Chapter 1
1. What does Osborne mean by ‘the civic
model’?
 2. Was the free grain distribution an
attempt to relieve poverty?
 3. What was unique about the poor in the
city of Rome in comparison with other
urban centers in the Roman Empire?
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Chapter 2
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To what extent does the cultural context in
which scholars work affect their
interpretation of the ‘Roman Poor’?
Poverty in the Roman World
the elite perspective
Sources are problematic: literary sources
talk much about poverty – from
perspective of the wealthy
 Primarily philosophical treatises
 Stoic Philosopher Seneca mentions
poverty most frequently – he was worth
about 300 million (his idea of poverty was
to get along with just 1 slave)
 Poverty in philosophy linked to virtue
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Chapter 2
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What factors are important for a useful
study of the poor in Roman society?
The Roman view of poverty
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The poor were the rich who were not very
rich – i.e. the poet Horace who had only 2
farms and a 6000 sq ft. villa
Playing poor
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“ Still, my determination to put your moral
strength of purpose to the test is such that I
propose to give even you the following direction
found in great men’s teaching: set aside now
and then a number of days during which you will
be content with the plainest o food, and very
little of it, and with rough, coarse clothing, and
will ask yourself, ‘Is this what one used to
dread?’ It is in times of security that the spirit
should be preparing itself to deal with difficult
times; while fortune is bestowing favours on it
then is th time for it to be strengthened against
her rebuffs.
Digest 49.17.19.2.
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A son-in-power, having become a civilian, made a will disposing of
his peculium castrense and died in ignorance of the fact that he
had been suus heres to his father. He cannot be seen as having died
testate as regards his military property and intestate as regards his
paternal property, although there has even now been a rescript to
that effect in the case of a [serving] soldier, because a soldier had
been able from earliest times to die partly testate and partly
intestate; but this man does not have the right to make a will other
than with proper legal usage. Of necessity, therefore, the appointed
heir to the peculium castrense will take the entire property, just as if
a very poor man had died after making his will, in ignorance of the
fact that he had been made rich by the agency of his slaves carrying
on business in another place.”
Imperial funds from Emperors
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CE 315: The Law Code of Theodosius 11.27.1
“A law shall be written on bronze tablets or waxed
tablets or on linen cloths and clearly posted throughout
the towns and municipalities of Italy to prevent parents
from killing their infants and turn them to better
alternatives. It should be the concern of your office that,
if any parent should report to you a child which he is
unable, because of poverty, to raise, there be no delay in
issuing food and clothing, since the raising of a newborn
infant cannot withstand delays. We offer funds for this
program from our treasury and our private account.”
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Funds like these were established only occasionally
Private charity
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“To my fellow townsmen of Cirta (Numidia, North Africa) and to my
beloved Siccenses (citizens of Sicca), I, Publius Licinius Papirianus,
wish to give 1,300,000 sesterces. I trust to your good faith, beloved
townsmen, that from the 5 percent interest on this sum there may
be fed and maintained each year 300 boys and 300 girls, the boys
from the ages three to fifteen, each boy receiving two and a half
denarii a month, the girls from the ages three to thirteen at two
denarii a month. Residents as well as townsmen should be chosen,
as long as the residents reside in buildings within the boundaries of
our colony-town. If these arrangements seem acceptable to you, it
will be best for the duovirs of each year to choose the children; but
you must take care that a replacement at once be found for each
child who reaches adult age or dies, so that the full number may
always be fed and maintained.”
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CIL 8.1641 (ILS 6818)
Relief for the poor
Controlled grain prices
 Grain dole
 What were the motivations – was it relief
for the poor?
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Rome's corn dole was
measured out with a
modius. The coin, a
quadrans of Claudius
from 42 CE shows what
must be a standard type
of modius, set on a low
tripod.
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A modius resting on a
three-legged stand on the
reverse of a bronze
quadrans of Claudius.
Where did the Poor live?
Apartment Housing in the city of
Rome
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Our Sources: 1. literary references to rental; 2. types of
rental situations described in legal texts; 3. the
archaeological remains of apartment houses, particularly
in Ostia.
Majority of the populace in the city of Rome lived in
rental apartments – ranging from large luxurious ones to
tiny rooms sublet in tiny apartments.
Information on rental agreements are concerned
primarily with long-term and more luxury apartments
(cenacula) and involved renters of some social standing
Legal sources are biased in favour of individuals of
significant social status
For Rent
From August 13, with a 5-year lease
 On the property of Julia Felix, daughter of
Spurius: the elegant Venus Baths,
streetfront ships and booths, and secondstory apartments
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CIL 4 1136.
For Rent
The Arrius Pollio Apartment Complex
owned by Gnaeus Allius Nigidius Maius
FOR RENT from July 1 streetfront ships
with counter space, luxurious second-story
apartments, and a townhouse.
 Prospective renters, please make
arrangements with Primus, slave of
Gnaeus Allius Nigidius Maius
 CIL 4.138
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Majority of lower –class people lived in dingy very
cramped cheap apartments not in organized Cenacula
but in mezzanines or backrooms of ground-floor shops in
which they worked
Evidence suggests over 90% of population of Ostia lived
in the shops or small flats or slept in the streets. (see
Also Ammianus Marcellinus 14.6.25)
leases for poor different terms – no evidence
Small flats on upper floors of low quality buildings,
usually rows of small rooms, often larger rooms
partitioned into small cubicles with very poor or indirect
light; or could rent 1 or 2 rooms in an apartment suite
Sublets common
Terminology
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Meritoria – lodgings of the poor; in legal sources
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Taberna meritoria - often used for an inn
Taberna - dwilling of the poor in Horace,
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inns
Carmen 1.4.13
 In legal sources any residence
 Latin authors used terms with indifference wide
variety of words referring to lodging houses
 Inns probably had both transient lodgers and
permanent lodgers
Rent
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Lowest rent for cenaculum recorded 2,000 HS (paid by a freedman
in 2nd century BCE)
Senators rented in Rome usually higher than 6,000 HS
Low class rental (in Petronius) 1 as per night for room in unpleasant
inn
Context: late Republic unskilled labourer made about 1000 HS/year
Iulius Caesar in 48 BCE remitted all Roman rents up to HS
2,000/year, all Italian rents to 500 HS/year
To own an urban Insula (apartment complex/block) was excellent
investment but also risky
Rental contracts paid 6 months in advance and the rest at end of
annual term
Middleman used for subleasing of insua – 20-33% commission
payable