The Economy of Pompeii
Edited by M I K O F L O H R
and
A N D R E W W I L S O N
1
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Preface
Pompeii is perhaps the most studied archaeological site of the Roman world, and it features prominently (perhaps, sometimes, too prominently) in hand- books on Roman art, archaeology, and urbanism. Indeed, there are few aspects of Roman urban history that do not, at some point, lead scholars and students to the ruined city on the Bay of Naples: Pompeii is our default Roman city, and the place one may find evidence for almost any debate in Roman history in quantities and of a quality unmatched elsewhere. Yet while there is no lack of scholarly discourse on the archaeology and history of Pompeii, there has been relatively little debate specifically on Pompeii’s economic history, and the recent upsurge of interest in the study of the Roman economy has largely bypassed the city. The present volume aims to contribute to changing this: rather than offering a definitive account of the Pompeian economy, it aims to connect ongoing developments in Pompeian studies to ongoing debates about Roman economic history, and reignite debate on what the thorough study of individual cities can add to our understanding of the Roman economy.
This volume stems from a conference organized by the Oxford Roman Economy Project, which took place at All Souls College and the Ioannou Centre for Classical and Byzantine Studies in Oxford on 29 and 30 June 2012.
This brought together specialists in Pompeian studies and specialists in Roman economic history from all over the world to discuss how recent developments in Pompeian archaeology and in the debate about the Roman economy had changed our insight into Pompeii’s economic history compared to the late 1980s, when Wim Jongman wrote his monograph on The Economy and Society of Pompeii. With one exception, all chapters stem from papers given at that conference. We are very happy that we were able to add Domenico Esposito’s contribution on the economy of wall painting, which had been presented at an earlier occasion, to this volume. We regret that a busy schedule kept Philippe Borgard from contributing to the present volume, as his work on Pompeii’s textile workshops has been fundamental to debates about Pompeii’s manufacturing economy.
The editors wish to thank Baron Lorne Thyssen for his continuing support of the Oxford Roman Economy Project, without which this conference would have been impossible. A major contribution to the costs of the conference was provided by the scientific research network Structural Determinants of Economic Performance in the Roman World, funded by the Research Foundation Flanders, and we thank Koenraad Verboven for making this
hosting the conference, and to All Souls College and Brasenose College for providing accommodation for the speakers.
Journal abbreviations in this volume follow the style of L’Année philologique.
Miko Flohr and Andrew Wilson January 2016
Contents
List of Figures ix
List of Tables xiii
List of Contributors xv
Introduction: Investigating an Urban Economy 1 Miko Flohr and Andrew Wilson
I. CITY AND HINTERLAND 1. The Agricultural Economy of Pompeii: Surplus and
Dependence 23
Girolamo Ferdinando De Simone
2. Quantifying Pompeii: Population, Inequality, and
the Urban Economy 53
Miko Flohr
II. QUALITY OF L IFE
3. Consumer Behaviour in Pompeii: Theory and Evidence 87 Nick M. Ray
4. Sewers, Archaeobotany, and Diet at Pompeii and Herculaneum 111 Erica Rowan
5. Skeletal Remains and the Health of the Population at Pompeii 135 Estelle Lazer
III. ECONOMIC LIFE AND ITS CONTEXTS 6. Measuring the Movement Economy: A Network Analysis
of Pompeii 163
Eric Poehler
7. Urban Production and the Pompeian Economy 209 Nicolas Monteix
8. Wealthy Entrepreneurs and the Urban Economy: Insula
VI 1 in its Wider Economic Contexts 243
Damian Robinson
Domenico Esposito
IV. MONEY A ND TRADE
10. Re-evaluating Pompeii’s Coin Finds: Monetary Transactions
and Urban Waste in the Retail Economy of an Ancient City 293 Steven J. R. Ellis
11. Bes, Butting Bulls, and Bars: The Life of Coinage at Pompeii 339 Richard Hobbs
12. Currency and Credit in the Bay of Naples in the First
CenturyAD 363
Koenraad Verboven
13. Conflicts, Contract Enforcement, and Business Communities
in the Archive of the Sulpicii 387
Wim Broekaert
V. DISCUSSION
14. Pompeii Revisited 417
Willem Jongman
Index 429
