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IV. Society

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 February 2016

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Extract

‘Society’ covers a very broad range of human activity, and the interests of historians of Roman society have differed markedly. The great social historians of imperial Rome writing about a century ago were primarily concerned with a description of what anthropologists call ‘high culture’ (including literature, philosophy, and religion). Since then, the primary interest of social historians has shifted from ‘the inner moral life of the time’ to ‘daily life’ in Rome and, more importantly, the structure of Roman society. This last interest will form the subject of the present chapter.

Which terms and categories are best suited to the analysis of Roman social structure? Rostovtzeff’s monumental Social and Economic History of the Roman Empire, exemplary in its integration of the social with the economic and political developments of the Principate, employs a system of economic classes, including an entrepreneurial bourgeoisie, which is more appropriate to a modern capitalist society than the Roman world. A more satisfactory explanation of the course of Roman history has not yet been provided by any Marxist writer, for example in terms of class struggle between propertied exploiters and propertyless exploited. There will remain overt political conflicts, such as that between propertied freedmen and propertied senators, which are difficult to accommodate in the model.

Type
Research Article
Information
New Surveys in the Classics , Volume 15: The Early Principate: Augustus to Trajan , 1982 , pp. 22 - 27
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1982

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References

Notes

1. Friedlaender, L., Roman Life and Manners under the early Empire, 7th ed. (London, 1908-13)Google Scholar; Dill, S., Roman Society from Nero to Marcus Aurelius (London, 1904)Google Scholar.

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5. Finley (1973), ch. 2; Cohen, B., ‘La notion d’ «ordo» dans la Rome antique’, Bull, de l’Assoc. G. Budé 4 ser. 1 (1975), 259-82CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

6. See Millar (1977), pp. 290 ff.; Nicolet, C., ‘Le cens senatorial sous la République et sous Auguste’, JRS 66 (1976), 20–38 Google Scholar.

7. See Millar (1977), pp. 279 ff., where perhaps not sufficient account is taken of the chronological distribution of titles pointed to by Duncan-Jones, R. P., ‘Equestrian Rank in the Cities of the African Provinces under the Principate: an Epigraphic Survey’, PBSR 35 (1967), 147 Google Scholar ff. For the equestrian order, see Stein, A., Der römische Ritterstand (Munich, 1927)Google Scholar.

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9. Garnsey (1970).

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12. On freedmen see Duff (1928); Veyne (1961); Duthoy, R., ‘La fonction sociale de l’augustalité’, Epigraphica 36 (1974), 134-54Google Scholar; Hopkins (1978b), 115-31; Garnsey, P., ‘Independent Freedmen and the Economy of Roman Italy under the Principate’, Klio 63 (1981), 359-71CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

13. Finley (1980), ch. 3. The classic work on Roman slavery remains Buckland (1908). See also Crook (1967), pp. 179 ff.

14. Garnsey (1970), ch. 11; Sherwin-White (1973), part II.

15. Hill, H., ‘Nobilitas in the Imperial Period’, Historia 18 (1969), 230-50Google Scholar. P. Weaver, ‘Social Mobility in the Early Empire: the evidence of the imperial freedmen and slaves’ in Finley (1974), pp. 121-40.

16. Hammond, M., ‘Composition of the Senate, A.D. 68-235’, JRS 47 (1957), 74–81 Google Scholar; cf.Burton, G. P., JRS 70 (1980), 204-5Google Scholar. For some of the problems facing demographic studies see Finley, M. I., JRS 48 (1958), 154-64Google Scholar; Hopkins, M. K., ‘On the probable age structure of the Roman population’, Population Studies 20 (1966), 245-64CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed. For a summary of the demographic literature see Brunt (1971), ch. 11.

17. Reflected in dreams of windfall legacies. See MacMullen, R., ‘Social History in Astrology’, Anc. Soc. 2(1971), 105-16Google Scholar.

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19. Hammond (n. 16); on qualifications and connections, Saller (1981).

20. Yavetz (1969); Veyne, P., Le pain et le cirque (Paris, 1976)Google Scholar; MacMullen (1974), pp. 124 f.; Alföldy (1975), p. 137.