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The first comprehensive study of Pliny the Elder’s economic
thought—and its implications for understanding the Roman
Empire’s constrained innovation and economic growth The elder
Pliny’s Natural History (77 CE), an astonishing compilation of
20,000 “things worth knowing,” was avowedly intended to be a
repository of ancient Mediterranean knowledge for the use of
craftsmen and farmers, but this 37-book, 400,000-word work was too
expensive, unwieldy, and impractically organized to be of
utilitarian value. Yet, as Richard Saller shows, the Natural
History offers more insights into Roman ideas about economic growth
than any other ancient source. Pliny’s Roman Economy is the first
comprehensive study of Pliny’s economic thought and its
implications for understanding the economy of the Roman Empire. As
Saller reveals, Pliny sometimes anticipates modern economic theory,
while at other times his ideas suggest why Rome produced very few
major inventions that resulted in sustained economic growth. On one
hand, Pliny believed that new knowledge came by accident or divine
intervention, not by human initiative; research and development was
a foreign concept. When he lists 136 great inventions, they are
mostly prehistoric and don’t include a single one from
Rome—offering a commentary on Roman innovation and displaying a
reverence for the past that contrasts with the attitudes of the
eighteenth-century encyclopedists credited with contributing to the
Industrial Revolution. On the other hand, Pliny shrewdly recognized
that Rome’s lack of competition from other states suppressed
incentives for innovation. Pliny’s understanding should be noted
because, as Saller shows, recent efforts to use scientific evidence
about the ancient climate to measure the Roman economy are flawed.
By exploring Pliny’s ideas about discovery, innovation, and
growth, Pliny’s Roman Economy makes an important new contribution
to the ongoing debate about economic growth in ancient Rome.
During the Principate (roughly 27 BCE to 235 CE), when the empire
reached its maximum extent, Roman society and culture were
radically transformed. But how was the vast territory of the empire
controlled? Did the demands of central government stimulate
economic growth or endanger survival? What forces of cohesion
operated to balance the social and economic inequalities and high
mortality rates? How did the official religion react in the face of
the diffusion of alien cults and the emergence of Christianity?
These are some of the many questions posed here, in the new,
expanded edition of Garnsey and Saller's pathbreaking account of
the economy, society, and culture of the Roman Empire. This second
edition includes a new introduction that explores the consequences
for government and the governing classes of the replacement of the
Republic by the rule of emperors. Addenda to the original chapters
offer up-to-date discussions of issues and point to new evidence
and approaches that have enlivened the study of Roman history in
recent decades. A completely new chapter assesses how far Rome's
subjects resisted her hegemony. The bibliography has also been
thoroughly updated, and a new color plate section has been added.
The distinctions and similarities among Roman, Jewish, and
Christian burials can provide evidence of social networks, family
life, and, perhaps, religious sensibilities. Is the Roman
development from columbaria to catacombs the result of evolving
religious identities or simply a matter of a change in burial
fashions? Do the material remains from Jewish burials evidence an
adherence to ancient customs, or the adaptation of rituals from
surrounding cultures? What Greco-Roman funerary images were taken
over and "baptized" as Christian ones? The answers to these and
other questions require that the material culture be viewed,
whenever possible, in situ, through multiple disciplinary lenses
and in light of ancient texts. Roman historians (John Bodel,
Richard Saller, Andrew Wallace-Hadrill), archaeologists (Susan
Stevens, Amy Hirschfeld), scholars of rabbinic period Judaism
(Deborah Green), Christian history (Robin M. Jensen), and the New
Testament (David Balch, Laurie Brink, O.P., Margaret M. Mitchell,
Carolyn Osiek, R.S.C.J.) engaged in a research trip to Rome and
Tunisia to investigate imperial period burials first hand.
Commemorting the Dead is the result of a three year scholarly
conversation on their findings.
The first comprehensive study of Pliny the Elder's economic
thought-and its implications for understanding the Roman Empire's
constrained innovation and economic growth The elder Pliny's
Natural History (77 CE), an astonishing compilation of 20,000
"things worth knowing," was avowedly intended to be a repository of
ancient Mediterranean knowledge for the use of craftsmen and
farmers, but this 37-book, 400,000-word work was too expensive,
unwieldy, and impractically organized to be of utilitarian value.
Yet, as Richard Saller shows, the Natural History offers more
insights into Roman ideas about economic growth than any other
ancient source. Pliny's Roman Economy is the first comprehensive
study of Pliny's economic thought and its implications for
understanding the economy of the Roman Empire. As Saller reveals,
Pliny sometimes anticipates modern economic theory, while at other
times his ideas suggest why Rome produced very few major inventions
that resulted in sustained economic growth. On one hand, Pliny
believed that new knowledge came by accident or divine
intervention, not by human initiative; research and development was
a foreign concept. When he lists 136 great inventions, they are
mostly prehistoric and don't include a single one from
Rome-offering a commentary on Roman innovation and displaying a
reverence for the past that contrasts with the attitudes of the
eighteenth-century encyclopedists credited with contributing to the
Industrial Revolution. On the other hand, Pliny shrewdly recognized
that Rome's lack of competition from other states suppressed
incentives for innovation. Pliny's understanding should be noted
because, as Saller shows, recent efforts to use scientific evidence
about the ancient climate to measure the Roman economy are flawed.
By exploring Pliny's ideas about discovery, innovation, and growth,
Pliny's Roman Economy makes an important new contribution to the
ongoing debate about economic growth in ancient Rome.
During the Principate (roughly from 27 BC to AD 235), when the
empire reached its maximum extent, Roman society and culture were
radically transformed. But how was the vast territory of the empire
controlled? Did the demands of central government stimulate
economic growth or endanger survival? What forces of cohesion
operated to balance the social and economic inequalities and high
mortality rates? How did the official religion react in the face of
the diffusion of alien cults and the emergence of Christianity?
These are some of the many questions posed here, in an expanded
edition of the original, pathbreaking account of the society,
economy and culture of the Roman empire. As an integrated study of
the life and outlook of the ordinary inhabitants of the Roman
world, it deepens our understanding of the underlying factors in
this important formative period of world history. Additions to the
second edition include an introductory chapter which sets the scene
and explores the consequences for government and the governing
classes of the replacement of the Republic by the rule of emperors.
A second extra chapter assesses how far Rome's subjects resisted
her hegemony. Addenda to the chapters throughout offer up-to-date
bibliography and point to new evidence and approaches which have
enlivened Roman history in recent decades.
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