Cuentito

CJ FORUM ONLINE 2009.11.01 Roman Social History: A Sourcebook. By TIM G. PARKIN and ARTHUR J. POMEROY. Routledge Sourcebooks for the Ancient World. London and New York: Routledge, 2007. Pp. xvii + 388. Paper, $37.95. ISBN 978–0–415–42675–6. This book gathers together an interesting, diverse and suggestive selection of Greek and Latin sources regarding Roman social history, mainly intended for theundergraduate student. The period in question comprises the best part of the Principate, i.e. the 1 st and 2nd centuries AD. The wide selection of very different texts ranges from literary sources and legal texts to papyri and inscriptions, in addition to outlines by the authors concerning regions of Rome and their buildings (p. 51), census data (p. 64) and age-rounding (p. 66). [[1]] The authorsin their introduction highlight that in the attitude towards the ancient word of recent scholarship, there is “no monolithic ‘Roman’ society.” Coherent with this tendency, they include subjects in a way neglected by traditional sourcebooks: peasantry, freedmen or slaves. As a conceptual framework, the authors have chosen the already classic handbook by P. Garnsey and R. Saller, The Roman Empire:Economy, Society and Culture (London, 1987), which explains Roman society by insisting on all these aspects and taking account of “power structures” (p. 2). [[2]] The sources included are structured around nine topics: social classes (3–42), demography (43–71), family and household (72–135), education (136–53), slavery (154–204), poverty (205–43), the economy (244–91), the legal system and courts(292–327), and leisure and games (328–56). Each chapter has a brief but sufficient introduction, and each entry a short informative note. The first chapter is entitled “Social Classes,” and in the introduction the authors use terminology of this type (“The Roman world shows both untrammelled capitalism and remarkable state intervention in the economy…”). The authors’ use of these terms is, ofcourse, merely pedagogical use of these terms. But it might have been useful to outline the difference between the technical value of modern terms such as “social class” or “capitalism” and their meaning in the Roman world to help students to be accurate with these concepts. [[3]] The main subject in this chapter is the hierarchical structure of Roman society, ranging from the superior ordines,probably less than 0.1 per cent of the population (senators and equestrians and their provincial equivalents, i.e. “town councillors or even tribal chiefs”) to the common people. The starting point of the political framework, the so-called “mixed constitution” is rightly exemplified not through Polybius, as typically, but through a contemporary text, Cicero Rep. 1.43, 67. The part played by the emperorin the new regime is characterized via Pliny the Younger (not only the epistles, but especially

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the panegyric) and some carefully chosen inscriptions, such as ILS 8781 (“an oath of allegiance to the emperor”) and ILS 8794 (“Nero’s benefaction to the Greeks”). The new configuration of the senatorial status is profusely explained, as well as the equestrian order (regulation on thewearing of rings…) and the decurions (Tab. Her. 89–97). As for the lower orders, the examples are extracted from Patristic sources or inscriptions. In my view, the text by Artemidorus (Oneir. 1.35)—presumably selected by Pomeroy [[4]]—on the significance of the dream of losing one’s head is extremely telling, as the prediction is adapted to the status of the dreamer, and the image of the capitisdeminutio is clearly implied. “Demography,” the next chapter, is mainly based on Parkin’s work on the subject, the main conclusions of which are clearly stated in the Introduction (pp. 43–6). [[5]] Extremely varied material is used to exemplify the author’s conclusions, including the Res gestae divi Augusti, data excerpted from the Egyptian census, literary sources about plagues, disease and...