Ancient Rome Agriculture And Trade

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A Gallic-Roman harvester ("vallus") relief from a wall in Buzenol in Belgium / Photo by DieBuche, Wikimedia Commons

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The great majority of the people ruled by Rome were engaged in agriculture.

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Curated/Reviewed by Matthew A. McIntosh
Public Historian
Brewminate

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Introduction

Roman Agronomics describes the farming practices of ancient Rome, an era that lasted yard years. From humble beginnings, the Roman Commonwealth (509 BCE to 27 BCE) and empire (27 BCE to 476 CE) expanded to dominion much of  Europe, northern Africa, and the Center Eastward and thus comprised a large number of agricultural environments of which the Mediterranean climate  of dry out, hot summers and cool, rainy winters was the most common. Inside the Mediterranean surface area, a triad of crops was most important:  grains, olives, and grapes.

The great bulk of the people ruled by Rome were engaged in agronomics. From a beginning of small, largely cocky-sufficient landowners, rural gild became dominated past latifundium, large estates owned by the wealthy and utilizing mostly slave labor. The growth in the urban population, particularly of the urban center of Rome, required the development of commercial markets and long-distance trade in agricultural products, especially grain, to supply the people in the cities with food.

The "Delightful" Life

A offset-century Advertizement bosom of Cicero in the Capitoline Museums, Rome / Photo by José Luiz, Wikimedia Eatables

Agriculture in ancient Rome was not only a necessity, but was idealized among the social elite as a way of life. Cicero considered farming the all-time of all Roman occupations. In his treatiseOn Duties, he declared that "of all the occupations past which gain is secured, none is ameliorate than agriculture, none more than profitable, none more delightful, none more than becoming to a free man." When one of his clients was derided in courtroom for preferring a rural lifestyle, Cicero defended country life as "the teacher of economy, of industry, and of justice"(parsimonia, diligentia, iustitia).^[ane] Cato,  Columella,  Varro  and  Palladius wrote handbooks on farming practice.

In his treatiseDe agricultura ("On Farming", 2nd century BC), Cato wrote that the best farms contained a vineyard, followed by an irrigated garden, willow plantation, olive orchard, meadow, grain land, woods trees, vineyard trained on trees, and lastly acorn woodlands.^[ii] Though Rome relied on resources from its many provinces acquired through conquest and warfare, wealthy Romans developed the country in Italian republic to produce a variety of crops. "The people living in the urban center of Rome constituted a huge market for the buy of food produced on Italian farms."^[iii]

Country ownership was a ascendant factor in distinguishing the aristocracy from the common person, and the more land a Roman owned, the more important he would be in the urban center. Soldiers were often rewarded with land from the commander they served. Though farms depended on slave labor, complimentary men and citizens were hired at farms to oversee the slaves and ensure that the farms ran smoothly.^[iii]

Crops

Grains

Staple crops in early Rome were millet, and emmer and spelt which are species of wheat. According to the Roman scholar Varro, common wheat and durum wheat were introduced to Italy as crops about 450 BCE.^[4][five] Durum (hard) wheat became the preferred grain of urban Romans, considering information technology could be baked into leavened bread and was easier to abound in the Mediterranean region than common (soft) wheat.^[6][vii] Grains, especially baked into bread, were the staple of the Roman diet, providing seventy to lxxx percent of the calories in an boilerplate diet.^[8] Barley was as well grown extensively, dominating grain product in Hellenic republic and on poorer soils where it was more productive than wheat. Wheat was the preferred grain, but barley was widely eaten and as well of import as brute feed.^[9]

Olives

The Romans grew olive trees in poor, rocky soils, and oft in areas with thin atmospheric precipitation. The tree is sensitive to freezing temperatures and intolerant of the colder atmospheric condition of northern Europe and loftier, cooler elevations. The olive was grown mostly about the Mediterranean Sea. The consumption of olive oil provided about 12 percentage of the calories and nigh 80 percent of necessary fats in the diet of the average Roman.^[x]

Grapes

Viticulture was probably brought to southern Italian republic and Sicily by Greek colonists, but the Phoenicians of Carthage in northern Africa gave the Romans much of their noesis of growing grapes and making wine. By 160 BCE, the cultivation of grapes on big estates using slave labor was common in Italian republic and wine was condign a universal drink in the Roman empire. To protect their wine industry, the Romans attempted to prohibit the cultivation of grapes outside Italy,^[11] but by the 1st century CE, provinces such every bit Spain and Gaul (mod day France) were exporting wine to Italia.^[12]

Other Crops

The Romans as well grew  artichoke,  mustard,  coriander,  rocket,  chives,  leeks, celery, basil, parsnip, mint, rue, thyme 'from overseas',  beets,  poppy,  dill,  asparagus,  radish,  cucumber,  gourd,  fennel,  capers,  onions,  saffron, parsley, marjoram, cabbage, lettuce, cumin, garlic, figs, 'Armenian'  apricots, plums, mulberries, and peaches.^[13]

Farming Practices

In the 5th century BC, farms in Rome were pocket-sized and family-endemic. The  Greeks of this menses, withal, had started using crop rotation and had large estates. Rome's contact with Carthage, Greece, and the Hellenistic Due east in the 3rd and 2nd centuries improved Rome's agricultural methods. Roman agronomics reached its acme in productivity and efficiency during the belatedly Commonwealth and early on Empire.^[14]

Farm sizes in Rome can be divided into 3 categories. Small farms were from 18–108 iugera. (One iugerum was equal to about 0.65 acres or a quarter of a hectare). Medium-sized farms were from eighty–500 iugera. Large estates (calledlatifundia) were over 500 iugera.^[15]

In the late Republican era, the number oflatifundia increased. Wealthy Romans bought land from peasant farmers who could no longer make a living. Starting in 200 BC, the Punic Wars chosen peasant farmers abroad to fight for longer periods of fourth dimension.^[16]

Cows provided milk while oxen and mules did the heavy piece of work on the farm. Sheep and goats were cheese producers and were prized for their hides. Horses were not widely used in farming, but were raised by the rich for racing or war. Sugar production centered on apiculture, and some Romans raised snails equally luxury food.^[15]

The Romans had four systems of farm management: directly piece of work by owner and his family; tenant farming or sharecropping in which the owner and a tenant separate up a farm'due south produce; forced labour past slaves owned by aristocrats and supervised past slave managers; and other arrangements in which a subcontract was leased to a tenant.^[15]

Cato the Elder (likewise known as "Cato the Censor") was a politician and statesman in the mid-to-belatedly Roman Republic and described his view of a farm of 100 iugera. He claimed such a farm should take "a foreman, a foreman'southward wife, ten laborers, one ox driver, one donkey driver, one man in accuse of the willow grove, one swineherd, in all sixteen persons; two oxen, two donkeys for railroad vehicle work, one donkey for the factory work." He also said that such a subcontract should have "3 presses fully equipped, storage jars in which 5 vintages amounting to eight hundred cullei can be stored, 20 storage jars for wine-press refuse, xx for grain, carve up coverings for the jars, six fiber-covered half amphorae, four fiber-covered amphorae, 2 funnels, 3 basketwork strainers, [and] iii strainers to dip up the flower, ten jars for [treatment] the wine juice…"^[ii]

Trade

Naturalis Historia , 1669 edition, title page. The title at the meridian reads: "Volume I of the Natural History  of Gaius Plinius Secundus" / Wikimedia Commons

There was much commerce between the provinces of the empire, and all regions of the empire were largely economically interdependent. Some provinces specialized in the production of grains including wheat, emmer, spelt, barley, and millet; others in wine and others in olive oil, depending on the soil blazon. Columella writes in hisRes Rustica, "Soil that is heavy, chalky, and wet is not unsuited to the growing for winter wheat and spelt. Barley tolerates no place except one that is loose and dry."^[17]

Pliny the Elder wrote extensively about agronomics in hisNaturalis Historia from books XII to XIX, including chapter XVIII, The Natural History of Grain.^[eighteen]

Greek geographer Strabo considered the Po Valley (northern Italy) to be the most important economically because "all cereals do well, simply the yield from millet is exceptional, because the soil is so well watered." The province of Etruria had heavy soil skillful for wheat. Volcanic soil in Campania made it well-suited for wine product. In addition to knowledge of different soil categories, the Romans also took interest in what type of manure was all-time for the soil. The best was poultry manure, and cow manure i of the worst. Sheep and goat manure were also good. Ass manure was all-time for firsthand use, while equus caballus manure wasn't practiced for grain crops, but co-ordinate to Marcus Terentius Varro, it was very good for meadows considering 'information technology promotes a heavy growth of grass plants like grass.'"^[15]

Economic science

In the grain-growing expanse of north Africa (centered on the ancient city of Carthage, a family of six people needed to cultivate 12 iugera/ 3  hectares  of state to meet minimum food requirements (without animals).^[19] If a family owned animals to help cultivate country, then 20 iugera was needed. More land would exist required to meet subsistence levels if the family unit farmed as sharecroppers. In Africa Proconsularis in the 2nd century Advert, one-third of the total ingather went to the landowner as hire^[19] (See Lex Manciana).

Such figures detail only the subsistence level. It is clear that large scale surplus production was undertaken in some provinces, such equally to supply the cities, specially Rome, with grain, a process known as the Cura Annonae. Egypt, northern Africa, and Sicily were the principal sources of grain to feed the population of Rome, estimated at ane 1000000 people at its peak.^[20]

For yields of wheat, the number varies depending on the aboriginal source. Varro mentions x:1 seed-yield ratio for wheat as normal for wealthy landowners.^[21] In some areas of Etruria, yield may accept been every bit high as fifteen:1. Cicero indicatesIn Verrem a yield of eight:1 as normal, and 10:1 in exceptionally skilful harvest. Paul Erdkamp mentions in his bookThe Grain Market place in the Roman Empire, that Columella was probably biased when he mentions a much lower yield of 4:1. According to Erdkamp, Columella wanted to brand the point that "grain offers little profit compared to wine. His argument induces him to exaggerate the profitability of vineyards and at the same time to diminish the yields that were obtained in grain cultivation. At all-time Columella provides a trustworthy effigy for poor soils; at worst, his estimate is not reliable at all."

Average wheat yields per year in the tertiary decade of the century, sowing 135 kg/ha of seed, were around one,200 kg/ha in Italy and Sicily, 1,710 kg/ha in Egypt, 269 kg/ha in Cyrenaica, Tunisia at 400 kg/ha, and People's democratic republic of algeria at 540 kg/ha, Greece at 620 kg/ha.^[22] This makes the Mediterranean very difficult to boilerplate over all.

An agronomical unit of measurement was known every bit alatusfundus mentioned by Varro every bit a great estate.^[23] Which can be interpreted as a Latifundia or at 500 iugera or around 125 hectares because this is the land limit imposed by Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus every bit tribune in 133 BCE.^[24]

In 99 in that location was an Egyptian crisis due to inadequate flooding.^[25]

Pliny the Younger stated that for "long information technology was generally believed that Rome could only be fed and maintained with Egyptian aid". However, he argued that "Now [that] nosotros have returned the Nile its riches… her business is not to let us food merely to pay a proper tribute.^[25]

Mechanization

The Romans improved crop growing by watering growing plants using  aqueducts. An increasing amount of prove suggests that some parts of the industry were mechanized. For example, all-encompassing sets of mills existed in Gaul and Rome at an early on date to grind wheat into flour. The most impressive extant remains occur at Barbegal in southern France, near  Arles. Sixteen overshot water wheels arranged in ii columns were fed by the main aqueduct to Arles, the outflow from ane being the supply to the next i downwards in the series. The mills apparently operated from the end of the 1st century AD until about the end of the 3rd century.^[26] The capacity of the mills has been estimated at 4.5 tons of flour per day, sufficient to supply enough bread for the 12,500 inhabitants occupying the boondocks of Arelate at that time.^[27]

Vertical water wheels were well known to the Romans, described by Vitruvius in hisDe Architectura of 25 BC, and mentioned by Pliny the Elder in hisNaturalis Historia of Ad 77. At that place are also subsequently references to floating water mills from Byzantium and to sawmills on the river  Moselle  past the poet Ausonius. The use of multiple stacked sequences of contrary overshot water-wheels was widespread in Roman mines.

There is evidence from bas-reliefs that farmers in northern Gaul (nowadays mean solar day France) used a kind of automated harvester or reaper when collecting ripe grain crops. The machine, called the "vallus" or "gallic vallus", was patently invented and used by the Treveri^[28] people. It cutting the ears of grain without the harbinger and was pushed by oxen or horses. Pliny the Elderberry mentions the device in theNaturalis HistoriaXVIII, 296. Possibly considering the vallus was cumbersome and expensive, its adoption never became widespread and it barbarous into disuse after the fourth century CE.^[29]  Scythes  and  sickles were the usual tools for harvesting crops.

Acquiring a Subcontract

Aristocrats and common people could acquire land for a farm in one of 3 ways. The most common way to gain land was to purchase the land. Though some lower form citizens did ain small pieces of land, they often found it too difficult and expensive to maintain. Because of the many difficulties of owning land, they would sell it to someone in the aristocracy who had the financial backing to support a subcontract. Though there were some public lands bachelor to the common person for use, aristocrats also tended to purchase those pieces of land, which caused a peachy deal of tension between the two classes. "Mass eviction of the poor by the rich underlay the political tensions and ceremonious wars of the final century of the Roman Republic."^[3] Another style to acquire land was as a reward for going to war. Loftier ranking soldiers returning from war would oft be given small pieces of public state or country in provinces as a fashion of paying them for their services. The concluding way to obtain land was through inheritance. A male parent could leave his land to his family, usually to his son, in the result of his death. Wills were drawn out that specified who would receive the land every bit a way of ensuring that other citizens did non try to have the country from the family unit of the deceased.

Aristocracy and the Land

Though some pocket-size farms were owned by lower class citizens and soldiers, much of the land was controlled by the noble class of Rome. State ownership was just ane of many distinctions that set the aristocracy apart from the lower classes. Elite would "reorganize small holdings into larger more profitable farms in society to compete with other nobles."^[3] It was considered a indicate of pride to ain non simply the largest piece of country, but also to have country that grew loftier quality produce. As Marcus Cato wrote "when they would praise a worthy man their praise took this class: 'Good husband good farmer'; it is from the farming class that the bravest men and the sturdiest soldiers come."^[thirty] The farms would produce a diversity of crops depending on the season, and focused on trying to learn the all-time possible farm nether the all-time possible weather. Cato discusses many of the primary focuses of the farmer and how to distinguish a great piece of state. He notes that a practiced farmer must take precious time to examine the land, looking over every particular. Not only did the state demand to be perfect for purchase, but the neighbors must maintain their farms as well because "if the commune was proficient, they should be well kept." Individuals looking to buy a piece of land had to likewise take into consideration the weather of the area, the condition of the soil, and how shut the farm would be to a boondocks or port. Careful planning went into every detail of owning and maintaining a farm in Roman culture.^[30]

Running a Subcontract in Rome

While the elite owned most of the land in Rome, they ofttimes were not present at the farms. With obligations as senators, generals, and soldiers at war, many of the actual landowners spent very footling time working on their farms. The farms instead were maintained past slaves and freedmen paid to oversee those slaves.^[30] The overseer of the farm had many responsibilities that coincided with maintaining the state. He was responsible for ensuring that the slaves were kept busy and for resolving conflicts between them. An overseer had to be undecayed and trustworthy in that the land owner had to know that the person he hired to run the farm was not going to attempt to steal any of the produce from the subcontract. Overseers were besides responsible for ensuring that both servants and slaves were properly fed and housed, and that they were assigned work fairly and efficiently. They had to ensure that any orders given by the possessor of the land were followed diligently and that everyone on the farm honored the gods completely and respectfully, which Romans believed was necessary to ensure a bountiful harvest. Good inscription prove of how the system was organized is visible in the Lex Manciana.

The majority of the work was washed by servants and slaves. Slaves were the chief source of labor. In Roman society, there were 3 primary ways to obtain a slave. The commencement and peradventure most common way to proceeds a slave was to buy one on the market place. Slaves were purchased at auctions and slaves markets from dealers or were traded between individual slave owners. Another way slaves were acquired was through conquest in warfare. Equally  Keith Hopkins explains in his writings, many landowners would go to state of war and bring back captives. These captives were and then taken back to Roman territory and either sold to some other denizen or made to work on the capturer's farm. The concluding mode a slave could be obtained was through nativity: if a female slave gave nascence to a kid, that child became property of the slave's owner. Extramarital relations with women who were non citizens was not considered to exist infidelity nether Roman law (and Roman wives were expected to tolerate such beliefs), then there was no legal or moral impediment to having children existence fathered past a slave's owner or overseer.

Slaves were relatively cheap to use considering they were belongings;^[31] their treatment depended on the humanity of their owners, who met the needs of their slaves on what they cared to spend, not what they had to. Overseers motivated slaves by imposing punishments and past giving rewards. "If the overseer sets his face against wrongdoing, they will not do it; if he allows it, the master must non let him go unpunished."^[30]

Problems for Farmers

Roman farmers faced many of the issues which have historically afflicted farmers upward until modern times including the unpredictability of weather, rainfall, and pests. Farmers also had to be wary of purchasing land also far away from a city or port because of war and land conflicts. Equally Rome was a vast empire that conquered many lands, it created enemies with individuals whose land had been taken. They would often lose their farms to the invaders who would take over and endeavour to run the farms themselves.^[3] Though Roman soldiers would often come to the aid of the farmers and try to regain the land, these fights often resulted in damaged or destroyed property. Land owners also faced problems with slave rebellions at times. "In add-on to invasions by Carthaginians and Celtic tribes, slaves rebellions and civil wars which were repeatedly fought on Italian soil all contributed to the destruction of traditional agricultural holdings.^[3] (pg. iv) Too, as Rome'southward agriculture declined, people at present judged others by their wealth rather than their character."^[3]

Appendix

Notes

1. Pro Roscio Amerino 75.
2. Cato the Conscience, Columbia University Records of Civilization: On Farming, translated by Ernest Brehaut (Columbia University Printing)
3. Hopkins (1978).Conquerors and Slaves. New York: Cambridge University Press. pp. 1–9.
4. Fussell, G. E. (January 1967), "Farming Systems of the Classical Era,"Technology and Culture, Vol. viii, No. l, p 22
5. James, Bruce R., Diazzi, Carmelo, and Blum, Winfried E. H. (2014), "Bread and Soil in Ancient Rome: A Vision of Affluence and an Ideal of Order Based on Wheat, Grapes, and Olives," [ane]. Accessed 10 Nov 2018
6. Erdkamp, Paul, "The Nutrient Supply of the Capital letter," inThe Cambridge Companion to Ancient Rome, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 262-263
7. Jameset al, p. 165
8. Rosenstein, Nathan (2013), "Agriculture, Roman Republic,"Encyclopedia of Ancient History,https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/9781444338386.wbeah20007, Accessed 9 Nov 2018.
9. Jasy, Naum (1950), "The daily bread of the Ancient Greeks and Romans,"Ostria,, Vol. 9, pp. 231-233. Downloaded from JSTOR.
10. Jameset al, p. 169
11. "Vino and Rome", [2], accessed 15 Nov 2018
12. Casson, Lionel (1991),The Ancient Mariners, Princeton: Princeton University Press, pl 200.
13. Henderson, John (2004).Roman Book of Gardening. London: Routledge. pp. twoscore–65.
14. Howatson, M. C. (1989).The Oxford Companion to Classical Literature. Oxford University Press. pp. 17–19.
15. White, K. D. (1970).Roman Farming. Cornell University Press.
16. Cornell, Tim (1982).Atlas of the Roman World. Facts on File. p. 55.
17. Lucius Junius Moderatus Columella,On Agriculture (Res Rustica), (Loeb Classical Library), Book 2, p. 145
18. "Pliny the Elder, the Natural History, BOOK I".
19. Kehoe, D. (1988).Economics of Agriculture on Roman Imperial Estates in North Africa. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht.
20. Rickman, G.E. (1980). "The Grain Trade Under the Roman Empire".Memoirs from the American Academy in Rome.36: 263, 264.. Downloaded from JSTOR.
21. Green, C. 1000. C. (1997). "Free equally a Bird: Varro de re Rustica 3".American Journal of Philology.118 (3): 427–448. doi:10.1353/ajp.1997.0040.
22. Hopkins , M. ( 1983 b) ' Models, ships and staples ', in Garnsey , Whittaker ( 1983 ), 84 – 109
23. Erdkamp, P. (2005).The Grain Marketplace In The Roman Empire: A Social, Political And Economic Study. Cambridge University Press.
24. Ligt, Luuk de; Northwood, S. J. (2008-01-01).People, State, and Politics: Demographic Developments and the Transformation of Roman Italia 300 BC-AD fourteen. BRILL.
25. Erdkamp, Paul (2005).The Grain Market in the Roman Empire. Cambridge University Press. pp. 42–44, 49, 243, quote on page 228. ISBN 978-0521838788.
26. Ville d'Histoire et de Patrimoine Archived 2013-12-06 at the Wayback Machine
27. La meunerie de Barbegal
28. King, Anthony (1990),Roman Gaul and Germany. Berkeley: University of California Printing, pp. 1001-101
29. White, K.D. (2010),Agricultural Implements of the Roman Globe Reissue Edition, Cambridge: Cambridge Academy Printing, pp. 160-171
30. Marcus Cato,On Agronomics, 1-2,5
31. Finley, K. I. (1973).The Ancient Economy. Berkeley: University of California. p. 62, a slave is belongings, subject area to the rules and procedures of property, with respect to sale, lease, theft, natural increment and so on.
32. Kevin Greene,The Archaeology of the Roman Economy, p. 85.

Bibliography

• Buck, Robert J.Agriculture and Agricultural Exercise In Roman Law. Wiesbaden: F. Steiner, 1983.
• Cato, Marcus Porcius.Cato, the Censor, On Farming. Translated by Ernest Brehaut. New York: Columbia University Press, 1933.
• Columella, Lucius Junius Moderatus.On Agriculture. Translated by Harrison Boyd Ash. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1941.
• Erdkamp, Paul.The Grain Market In the Roman Empire: A Social, Political and Economical Report. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2005.
• Horden, P., and N. Purcell.The corrupting bounding main: A study of Mediterranean history. Oxford: Blackwell, 2000.
• Kehoe, D. P.Investment, turn a profit, and tenancy: The jurists and the Roman agrarian economy. Ann Arbor: Univ. of Michigan Printing, 1997.
• Reynolds, P.Hispania and the Roman Mediterranean AD 100–700: Ceramics and trade. London: Duckworth, 2010.
• Spurr, M. S. "Arable tillage in Roman Italy: c. 200 B.C.–c. A.D. 100."Journal of Roman Studies Monographs three. London: Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies, 1986.
• White, Chiliad. D.Roman Farming. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Printing, 1970.
• –.Farm Equipment of the Roman Globe. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Printing, 1975.

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