Agricultural Implements Of The Roman World

This book deals with the tools that the Roman world used in farming and with the way they used them. The author uses practical knowledge of agriculture, as well as learning, to identify and interpret the objects under examination.

This collection presents new analyses for the nature and scale of Roman agriculture. It outlines the fundamental features of agricultural production through studying the documentary and archaeological evidence for the modes of land exploitation and the organisation, development of, and investment in this sector.

In a fascinating study of ancient Roman architecture, classics scholar Alexander McKay examines simple houses, mansions, estates and palatial buildings, interior furnishings, and gardens--revealing that Roman civilization was astonishingly similar to our own. He also discusses the conditions of life in the Roman provinces. 153 illustrations.

Often viewed as self-sufficient, Roman farmers actually depended on markets to supply them with a wide range of goods and services, from metal tools to medical expertise. However, the nature, extent, and implications of their market interactions remain unclear. This monograph uses literary and archaeological evidence to examine how farmers – from smallholders to the owners of large estates – bought and sold, lent and borrowed, and cooperated as well as competed in the Roman economy. A clearer picture of the relationship between farmers and markets allows us to gauge their collective impact on, and exposure to, macroeconomic phenomena such as monetization and changes in the level and nature of demand for goods and labor. After considering the demographic and environmental context of Italian agriculture, the author explores three interrelated questions: what goods and services did farmers purchase; how did farmers acquire the money with which to make those purchases; and what factors drove farmers’ economic decisions? This book provides a portrait of the economic world of the Roman farmer in late Republican and early Imperial Italy.

This definitive study from the author of From the Gracchi to Nero, examines the period from the foundation of Rome to the fall of Carthage. An accessible introduction to these centuries of change, this book will also be useful as context for those studying later developments in Roman history.