slaves, "familiarum numerum et nationes." In short, the evidence proving that there were very many slaves in the palaces of Rome is overwhelming, and appears to justify the estimate of at the least a hundred people in every domus. houses, and 46,602 insula, or large build- | proposal was rejected. Seneca asked the ings, let out in flats or single rooms, and Senate to consider "quantum periculi imcorresponding very closely with our model mineret si servi nostri nos numerare coelodging-houses. But how many people did pissent." Tiberius in the year A.D. 21 each of those buildings contain? Lipsius condemned the number and variety of reckons an average of a hundred. Gibbon reckons an average of twenty-five. The only reason given for Gibbon's estimate is that in his time the houses in Paris were mostly let out in flats, and contained only twenty-five people in each house. Thus the question is narrowed. Did the palaces on the one hand, and the insula or lodging-houses on the other, contain an average of twenty-five people or one hundred? The larger number is more probable, and therefore the estimate of a population of five millions is the more acceptable. As to the domus, or palace, we must recollect that it contained not only the master and his family, but many slaves. The slaves included (besides domestic servants) librarians, doctors, hairdressers, painters, carpenters, architects, and so forth. "Almost every profession," Gibbon says, "either liberal or mechanical, might be found in the house of an opulent senator." Pedanius Secundus, prefect of the city, whose office corresponded with that of the lord mayor of London, was murdered in his own house in the reign of Nero, A.D. 61, and the murderer was not identified. It was thereupon proposed that all the slaves in the house should be crucified; and, after a long debate in the Senate, which is fully reported by Tacitus, the proposal was adopted. It was then found that the slaves in this one house numbered four hundred. Again, we are told that when a great man went to make a call, he would, although his journey might not be more than a few hundred yards, have a retinue of at least fifty slaves. Ammianus Marcellinus, quoted by both Lipsius and Gibbon, gives a long description of the progress of a wealthy citizen from Rome to his country residence, a description which clearly suggests a household of four or five hundred slaves. It is certain that when it was proposed that the slaves should wear a distinctive dress the • Gibbon's Decline and Fall. Cap. a. ↑ Tacitus, Ann., xiv. 42. Then as to the 46,602 insula. Did they contain twenty-five people each (as Gibbon conjectures), or more than one hundred? There are many reasons for thinking that here Lipsius is nearer to the truth than Gibbon. These lodging-houses contained many flats; for we know that laws were passed by Augustus, Tiberius, and Nero, with the object of limiting the height to seventy feet from the ground — edicts which are said to have been constantly disobeyed. On the authority of Heineceus, Gibbon says that the annual rent of the several flats coenacula was about £360 a year. It may be taken for granted that in most cases each flat was occupied by several families, or that in any cases where a whole flat at such a rent was occupied by a single family there was a considerable company of slaves. Thus, the estimate of one hundred persons in each insula seems not excessive. The ground floor of the insula was often occupied by shops; the next two or three floors either by several families on each, or by single families wealthy enough to own a staff of slaves. The upper stories were let in smaller compartments, and often in single rooms. Juvenal † says that a man could purchase in the country, and within twenty miles of Rome, the freehold of a good house and a small garden for the same sum as was required for the yearly rent of a dark chamber in the attics (sub tegulis) in Rome; from which we may conclude that a single room, at the top of a house, would let for something like £20 a year. It seems safe, therefore, to conclude that each of the five or six flats of an insula contained twenty people, Tacitus, Ann., iii. 53. ↑ Juv., Satire, iii. 233. and that the 46,602 insula would hold a | paigns."* This fund was afterwards kept population of nearly five millions. As up by taxes. there were 1,780 palaces, we may be sure Again, Augustus, by his will left, after that the total population of the city was, legacies to his relations and friends,† as Lipsius and others have calculated, more than £350,000 to be divided viritim more than five millions. It may be said among the people of Rome, £83,000 for that the number of houses, of both kinds, the ten thousand Prætorians, £15,000 for in the reign of Theodosius is no guide to the city militia, and £4 3s. 4d. each to the the number in the reigns of Tiberius, legionary soldiers. Those legacies would Claudius, Nero, and Antoninus. If that require nearly two millions sterling. Nero be true, the argument is still good for the spent in presents alone more than eighreign of Theodosius; but we might ex-teen millions sterling during his reign of pect that the migration under Constantine fourteen years.‡ Vitellius is said to have in the fourth century would have reduced squandered seven millions and a half ster. the population of Rome. The enormous ling in his reign of less than a year.§ growth of the population of Constantinople is ascribed by Gibbon mainly to the great emigration from Rome of opulent senators, officials, tradesmen, and slaves. If there was so vast an exodus in the reign of Constantine, it is probable that the population of five millions in the reign of Theo- tions. Seneca, a man of vile character, dosius was not greater than that under Tiberius or Hadrian, or at least during the second century. These are, of course, examples of the wealth of emperors, but of emperors in their private capacity, on which no public claim could be made. We shall, however, arrive at a similar conclusion as to the wealth of Rome from other considera yet of almost saintly reputation (so different was his life from his writings), was worth at least two millions and a half It is difficult to compare the realized sterling. Yet Nero said to him: "You wealth and the annual income of Rome know that there are very many men in this with that of London. We can only pick city, and these by no means your equals out isolated facts and indicate the conclu- in accomplishments, who possess still sions which they seem to warrant. It more. As to the freedmen, who are may be well to begin with the private wealthier than the richest citizens, I am fortunes of the emperors, who for a long ashamed to speak."T Much of Seneca's time rejected any kingly title and claimed wealth came from the lavish gifts of Nero; to be only citizens elected to high office, but he derived a great revenue from the as Principes Senatus, Tribuni Plebis, and extortionate interest which he charged for Imperatores; not as civil rulers, but only loans in the provinces. In fact, a rebelas commanding the armies of the State. lion was caused in Britain by Seneca's Most of them began their reigns with large usuries. fortunes. They had, indeed, to provide from the various revenues for all the expenses of government; but the surplus of receipts over expenditure was constantly very large, and that surplus was as completely under their control as if it had been private property. Neither Senate nor people had any voice in the matter. Before the Empire was fully established, Augustus says, "In the consulship of M. Lepidus and L. Arruntius I paid 100,700,000 sesterces (about £900,000), in the name of Tiberius Cæsar and myself, into the military treasury for the fund designed to pay bounties and pensions to soldiers who had served twenty or more cam Claudius Felix was a freedman. Yet he was the governor of Judæa who judged St. Paul. His brother Pallas also was a freedman of Claudius. He is said by Tacitus to have possessed two millions and a half sterling. A present of £130,ooo** was voted by the Senate.tt Yet he had formerly been a slave of Antonia, the mother of Claudius. It is to him that Arnold, p. 101. 454 66 Juvenal refers when he says that if con- As another proof of wealth Lipsius quotes from Pliny some instances of the price paid for slaves. Thus, Daphnis, who seems to have been a great linguist, was sold for three hundred and seventy thousand sesterces, about £3,500,"grande pretium in uno fluxo et mortali homine, et quem solus Grammatici titulus commendebat."* Suetonius says that Laelius Præconensis was sold for about £1,760. Seneca says that Calvisius had many slaves employed as readers, and that each of them had been bought for "centum millibus" nearly £840.t Cilicia, found himself the richer, in one The wealth and luxury of the rich is almost incredible. The carruca (coaches) of the Romans were often of solid silver, curiously carved and engraved; while the trappings of the horses were embossed with silver and gold.t Pliny says that many Romans had more silver plate on their sideboards than Scipio Africanus According to brought from Carthage. Pliny's own estimate, that would be about £14,000; and this we should probably adopt, although Livy says that Scipio Let us take some other illustrations at brought back £300,000. Juvenal tells a random. When L. Calpurnius Piso was well-known story of the mullet which appointed governor of Macedonia for one weighed eight pounds and was sold for year, he drew for his outfit from the public nearly £50.§ Several of the prætors in or the reign of Honorius are said to have treasury eighteen million sesterces £150,000. He did not want the money spent on public games alone £50,000, for that purpose; everything required by £90,000, £180,000. If we suppose the a pro-consul was supplied to him by the smallest sum to be correct, it is more than province. Piso simply took the money any lord mayor of London would like to for himself, and lent it out in Rome at spend. high interest. C. Verres was charged by Cicero with having robbed Sicily of £350,000 in three years, besides many valuable works of art. He practically admitted his guilt by retiring from Rome without attempting any defence. Cicero, when governor of the poor province of So much for the senators, who may be compared with the nobles of England. The equites, also, who occupied the same kind of position as our knights and squires, were a very wealthy class. From this class governors of provinces were some. • Decline and Fall, cap. 31. Juv., Sat. iv. 15. times chosen. Pontius Pilate was a notable example. Others were commissioners of revenue in the imperial, and sometimes in the senatorial, provinces. But the great bulk of the equites were engaged in farming the taxes. Sometimes a single knight would farm the taxes of a small province; but as a rule the work was undertaken by societates (companies). The taxes were farmed for five years, and the terms were fixed by auction. Security for the due payment of the amount offered at the auction had to be provided. The equites thus employed were called publicani (the publicans of the New Testa ment); and, as the story of Zacchæus and other publicans prove, they often extorted more than was legally due, and became extremely rich. When harvests and trade were good they made very large profits; and, in all cases, they were able to escape loss by illegal extortions. "If I have wronged any man I restore fourfold," Zacchæus said; but very few of the publicani reached this altitude of equitable dealing. However, I am only concerned now to show that the equites as a class must have been very rich. They had to give security for, and provide the punctual payment of, about fifty millions sterling a year. It is a common saying- even Gibbon repeats it that there was no middle-class in Rome - only a luxurious aristocracy, and a clamoring crowd of plebeians. Such a generalization must be wide of the mark. It is impossible that the necessities and luxuries required by so great and wealthy a community could have been provided for without a large middle-class of bankers, money-lenders, manufacturers, and shopkeepers. Many of the bankers and moneylenders were equites; but many more were private citizens and freedmen. The probable number of this last class has scarcely been fairly considered; but it must have been very great, and in most cases the freedman had to earn a large part of his living by commerce or by in dustry. The amount of money invested abroad by the negotiatores was so great that the war with Mithridates seriously affected public credit in Rome.* Cicero says that in Gaul not a single payment passed from hand to hand without the intervention of a negotiator. Three hundred of them were formed into a council or society by Cato, at Thapsus in Africa. These men had to pay to Cæsar a fine of nearly £17,000 for Arnold, p. 81. ↑ Cic., pro Fonteio i. supporting the cause of Pompey, while the bankers at Adrumetum were fined £42,000 for the same reason.* Banking has always been considered an occupation more honorable than mere trade. But trade also must have been considerable. It was chiefly carried on by freedmen. It will be sufficient to give a single example. The trade in silks and pearls passing through Alexandria is said to have amounted to £1,300,000 a year. £560,000 was obtained from silks, which were sold at their weight in gold (about £40 a pound.) † Amber was imported from the Baltic, and diamonds from Bengal. Of other trades, such as wool and iron, we have few particulars. But it is quite clear that there must have been a class of wealthy merchants to carry on the trade of imports to Rome. A fleet of one hundred and twenty vessels brought goods from Arabia, the Red Sea, and Ceylon. Of mere shopkeepers there are naturally very few notices in the histories written by Romans. It was beneath the dignity of Latin historians to make any mention of traders. It was beneath the dignity of a Roman citizen to keep a manufactory or a shop. Cicero says, "Nec enim quicquam ingenuum potest habere officina."+ But shops and manufactories were keptmostly by freedmen or Syrians or Greeks and we have many particulars of every kind of trade, although little mention of the traders. One barber is mentioned twice by Juvenal, Patricios omnes opibus quum provvcet unus Quo tondente gravis juveni mihi barba sona bat Difficile est saliram non scribere. § He is mentioned again as the owner of innumerable villas. So, too, Juvenal twice refers to Crispinus, a household slave brought from Egypt, then a freedman and a shoemaker, then a favorite with the emperor; an exemplar of every vice, and the most fastidious epicure in Rome. He greatly increased his wealth by the purchase or the building of villas and by buying land in the city. Both men must have made money by trade before they could speculate in lands and houses. Demetrius and other silversmiths in Ephesus may be taken as examples of wealthy traders. In short, there was, of necessity, both in Rome and in the prov See Merivale ii. 367. ↑ Gibbon, cap. ii. Cir. Off. i. 42. Juv., Sat. i. 24. 456 inces, a large and often wealthy middle | were others. The earliest was built by class. It makes a good antithesis to say Curio, and was of wood. The first amphi that all was luxurious splendor or squalid theatre of stone was that built in the poverty; but it is very far from being Campus Martius by Statilius Taurus. true. The common people, who are sup- Another was built by Julius Cæsar, and There were three called after Pompeius posed to have been so miserably poor, another by Nero.* deserve the epithet used by Gibbon. principal theatres, Poor in Magnus, Cornelius Balbus, and Marcellus, They were "lazy plebeians." the last built by Augustus in honor of hard cash they probably were; but that was because they would not work. And his favorite nephew. Many thousands of they would not work regularly, because gladiators were employed at the amphia serious war that was thought to be the duty of slaves, theatres; so many that at one time they Three thousand and because, without work, they had so rebelled, and carried on many of the blessings of life provided for against the Republic. them. Bread was given daily to two hun-dancers and as many singers daily amused dred thousand citizens, at the rate of a the public. If there were seats at places three-pound loaf for each. Formerly it of amusement for five hundred thousand had been given in corn, at the rate of five people at once, Gibbon's estimate of the modii (pecks) a month; but, as the people total population as one million seven hundid not like the labor of grinding and bak-dred and fifty thousand is absurd. ing, it was afterwards supplied in loaves Under the from public baking ovens. later Empire bacon was distributed to the poor for five months in every year. In this way about thirty-two thousand hundredweights were given away every year. The Wine was sold on very easy terms. commodities not given away were very cheap.t Wine was sixteen pence a gallon; bacon a little more than three halfpence a pound; and oil three half-pence a gallon. But the oil required for lighting and for the bath was given away; Africa alone was compelled to contribute, as part of its taxation, more than three hundred thousand gallons every year. Such, then, was the condition of the Food and wine and oil, Roman poor. baths, theatres, and amphitheatres, were provided either free or at extremely low charges. There was no Union workhouse, no labor test. Newspapers were circulated regularly- not only in Rome, but in all the camps and the provinces "per provincias et per exercitus." It may safely be inferred that both in population and in wealth the city of Rome under the Empire was fully equal to modern London; while in the magnificence and beauty of its public buildings, in the splendor of its gratuitous entertainments, and in the profusion of its liberality towards the poor, it was much superior. Besides all this, every Roman had the It may, perhaps, be objected to these use of the public baths on payment of about half a farthing. These were not conclusions that they affect the capital such structures as we call public baths, cities only, and that after Rome, Italy had; but superb buildings, lined with Egyptian no cities or towns to compare with Glasgranite and Nubian marble. Warm water gow, Manchester, Liverpool, Birmingham. was poured into the capacious basins But even this would not be the exact through wide mouths of bright and mas-truth. There were very large and opulent sive silver. The most magnificent baths cities in Italy besides Rome-cities such were those of Caracalla, which had seats as Venice, Milan, Naples, Tarentum, of marble for more than sixteen hundred Pompeii, Baiae. In fact, Italy, when the all adult people; and those of Diocletian, which last recorded census was taken, contained had seats for three thousand people. For about seven million citizens the further delectation of the people there males. Adding the wives and children, were theatres and amphitheatres. Gib- we have a population of thirty millions. bon says that there were sometimes four Adding the liberti, the libertini, the forhundred thousand spectators at the amphi-eign residents, and the slaves, we have a theatres alone. The Colosseum could total population of more than sixty mil only seat one hundred thousand.§ There lions. Gibbon, cap. 4.. + Cor., Theod., viii. 4, 17. Gibbon, iv. cap. 31. Ramsay, Rom. Antiquities, p. 357. EDWARD J. GIBBS, M.A. Ramsay, Rom. Antiquities, p. 48. t See the speech of Capito Cossutianus against Thrasca.-Tac., Ann., xiv. 32. |