Pompeii - Economy

Introduction to Roman Economy

The issue for some historians, is how to characterize the scale and importance of trade and commerce in the overall economy of the Roman empire. Some emphasize how different, and essentially backward, the Roman economy was in comparison to the modern. They point to the Roman élite's apparent contempt for commerce in favour of agriculture.

Factories in the modern sense did not exist in the ancient world. Cities did not grow up as centres of manufacturing; they are better seen as centres of consumption. Basic goods, such as wine, olive oil, and corn, also pottery of all kinds, can be shown to have been carried in large quantities over long distances but mostly to replenish Roman families, retinues and armies and not to trade with as such. Beyond Rome, it is much less clear that local élites shared the same distaste for trade, with investments, often managed by their freedmen, in potteries, mines and textile production. The number of shipwrecks in the Mediterranean recorded for the period 100 bc to ad 300 is much larger than for either the preceding period or the Dark Age; this suggests a level of operation which was not to be reached again until the high Renaissance. The greatest spur to the development of this trade was the creation of a fully monetarized economy throughout the empire although barter continued to exist.

The existence of local markets was strictly regulated. The senate had to be petitioned for permission to hold markets; many such requests came from large landowners who wished to hold markets on their estates. The reason for the control was probably to limit competition with well‐established markets in the local towns. This suggests that the volume of trade in the countryside was limited.

The expansion of the empire itself could open up major new markets to be exploited. Best known is the large market among the Gauls for Italian wine. Although again this should not be exaggerated. Also the prevalence of pottery that survives through to modern day should not bias us towards over estimating its impact either. It is quite possible that form forms of trade existed but evidence has been lost over time.

Commercial Life in Pompeii

See also Pompeii - Eroticism and Prostitution

Pompeii was ideally situated as an intermediary between the coastal and inland region. Pompeii hosted one of the most important regional markets. They showed an enthusiasm for making money as depicted in many mosaics. At the House of Umbricius Scaurus his mosaic proclaimed profit is my joy

The ancient town was not a major centre of production and there was no ‘industrial’ production on the scale of modern economies. The evidence suggests instead that the majority of craft and trade activities were on a small scale and carried out by a limited number of workers. But it is clear from the evidence at Pompeii that there was a remarkable diversity in the range of trades and crafts taking place (to date, over 900 commercial or craft premises have been identified within Pompeii’s walls) and this was probably typical of other Roman towns, too.

Shops and Markets

The main thoroughfares were crowded with shops. With one of two rooms connected to the house where the occupants lived. They either worked in the shop or rented the space out. There is evidence that rooms in the private dwelling were used to store merchandise. We really do not know what was sold in these shops or what crafts were being practiced although it is possible to infer from wall paintings and signs such as one depicting a mason's tools or another depicting a carpenter's tools. There were also shops at the Forum. At the Macelleum was sold fish and meat. There may also be building that sold grains and cereals as well as temporary stalls erected on special days. At the House of Julia Felix paintings reveal stalls and mules pulling carts.

Currency

In 1st C AD Roman cities the basic denominations were

• 1 gold aureus = 25 denarii
• 1 silver denarius = 4 sestertii
• 1 bronze sestertius = 4 copper asses

Thousands of poor quality copper coins were in circulation worn bare by use and were mostly new Vespasian coinage. A typical Pompeian family might spend 6 or 7 sesterces a day on food and provisions and have an annual average income of 2,500 sesterses.

Water Fountains

Only the very wealthy citizens of Pompeii had water distributed to their own houses and so in order to provide water to the poor as well as to the wealthy, many public fountains were set up in the streets of Pompeii. These fountains provided water for travellers, animals and the poor. Water fountains were fed by lead pipes with tanks atop arches or other buildings. For this reason they were often found at street intersections.

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  Vicolo della Maschera. Relief of tragic mask

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  Via Stabiana

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  Via Stabiana Relief of comedy mask

Bars and Inns

It is likely that Pompeii was a lively and busy place full of bars, eating places and inns throughout its history. A pompina is a bar that served food and drink and hospititium was a guest house and finally a stabulum was a tavern or inn. It is difficult and futile to try and assign each of these terms to particular buildings in Pompeii as these establishments probably fulfilled one or more of these functions.

Bars can normally be identified by their masonry counters with an embedded dolia. It was thought that food and drink were server from here but it would have been impractical to clean. So it is more likely that they were filled with dried fruit and grains. It is also possible that these bars doubled as grocery shops; hanging vegetables and other foods from the ceiling.

Dolia

Objects found in the excavated bars include amphorae for wine, jugs, bronze caldrons and outside the Bar of Salvius was a picture of a males figure with the head of an animal with a huge phallus in his hand. The bar is famous for the painted panels found in the front room depicting drinkers arguing over whose drink it is; another depicts a gambling man cheating with dice perhaps; two drunk men fighting and a scene of a man and woman kissing.

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• Bar6.jpg
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Graffiti outside other buildings help us identify lodging places. Rental accommodation here. Dining room with three couches. It is believed that Julia Felix owned buildings that were rented house to residents or visitors. At the House of Pansa a poster reads Gnaeus Nigidius Mauis, leader of the colony and duumvir derived income as a landlord.

Pottery Production

There is not sufficient evidence to confirm that pottery was a large scale industry as most pottery items such as Samarian ware was imported. But there is evidence of the manufacturing of daily household items for cooking and dining. Since exporting of oil, garum and wine was a large scale industry in Pompeii, it is possible that amphorae were produced for shipping. A kiln, where pots are fired to harden the clay, was discovered in Via di Nocera, still full of oil lamps which had been fired before the eruption. There is a fresco referred to as “the Workshop Lesson” in Pompeii, but I was unable to determine the specific location. This implies that the craft of pottery making was a significant line of work. I think that the production of local pottery was important not only for shipping goods but to enable working class people to produce or purchase less expensive wares. Imported items were primarily marketed to the wealthier patrons of Pompeii.

Pottery urn

The Fuller

It would appear that, based on the extensive archaeological remains found at Pompeii, evidence confirms that the fullers’ trade was of major importance to the town. The description of the trade (Hornblower&Spawforth,2003,p1490) is based on the physical remains of the four large fulleries identified and there are also several smaller premises which can be identified as carrying out this trade, (Berry,2007,p222). Physical evidence can also be endorsed by the number of references to this trade in inscriptions such as D71, (Cooley&Cooley,p72) and programmata for example F20, (Cooley&Cooley,p117) which associates the trade with political elections.

The Eumachia Building in the Forum has also some connection to the Fullers, given that they set up the statue of her in the building. This suggests to some that this was the headquarters of the trade, (Cooley&Cooley,p98). Whether or not this was the case, the fact that the Fullers were responsible for the statue in this prominent building in the Forum, suggests to me that they were an important part of the commercial activities of the town.

Garum Production

Excavations has uncovered hundreds of Garum conainers that were locally produced, many of them were attributed to Aulus Umbricius Scaurus.

The area was conducive to garum production - close to the sea where fish and salt water were available. Contemporary evidence that the production of garum was important to Pompeii included Pliny the Elder's claim that the town was well known for garum. There is also a reference to sause makers in an electoral notice.

Scarurus may have operated 6 or more shops producing gurum and his name appeared as far a field as France suggesting an export trade to a greater or lesser degree

The rest of the evidence is also circumstantial. It may be that the success of the Scarurus family was reflected in their increasing political influence. They felt confident enough to commission a mosaic depicting garum ingredients. The importance of fish industry may be attributed to the fine mosaic found in the House of the Faun.

Nevertheless there have been no discoveries of large salting basins - perhaps these have yet to be found or or the installations were closer to the sea. These are likely to be located along the ancient coast but due to the volcanic material covering the area and the modern buildings on top of this, excavation hasn't yet discovered the ancient shoreline. The location of these would be somewhere beneath the modern road outside the Porta Marina ticket entrance or where the Circumvesuviana train station is located today.

http://goo.gl/maps/2xEYh - look for the small blue train icon marked 'Villa dei Misteri'

Metal Work

There ware speculation about the production of metal goods in Pompeii (Berry 227) Based on the information that a production of bronze items in the Campanian area was famous.

Regarding the marble relieve (Berry 219) it could be a mixed metal work-shop both for coloured metals and blacksmithery (note the central figure with a hammer on the both hands, just the iron is worked in that way) The other character to the right is engraving a bronze or silver bowl with a chisel.

If Pompeii would produce metal-work at large scale, surely the archaeologists would find large amount of metal dross (from bronze or iron) as those materials doesn't disappear. Compare with the Etruscan hills of iron dross, which reflected the strong commerce of iron items produced in Tuscany. Those which later the Musolini's Italy re-milded to produce iron for the warfare

It seems that the production of metal goods had a local function and that metal goods of high quality were imported as luxury items rather than exported elsewhere from Pompeii.

Agriculture

There are limitations to what can grow and raise within the city walls but with 10-20 thousand inhabitants in a relatively small area there must have been no shortage of demand for surplus food products that homeowners could produce. However, the staple diet item for a Roman was bread but cereal growing was only possible in the plains around the city. Vines too would be best suited to growing on the slopes around Vesuvius yet at the Vineyard at 11.5 and other houses there was small scale production and storage of wine containers that were sold to Pompeians supplemented with imports from other locations. The producers would either sell the wine directly to customers or supplied other taverns or at the theatres and amphitheatre.

Market Gardens may also have been significant - flower growing for perfumes and garlands( Not sure if it is true but I read elsewhere that Pompeii and Herculaneum were one the main centers for perfume production in Italy). Fruit trees (for dried fruits) and especially olive tress that can survive prolonged dry spells have been identified from root cavities. Surplus product may have been sold in the local markets near the forum or to the numerous indoor or outdoor eateries .

Berry concludes that the majority of the production satisfied domestic needs, with surpluses sold to those who were in other trades in the city with perhaps only the headache-inducing wine being sold further a field. We know that a large area of Pompeii remains unexcavated and it would be my guess that the area north of Amphitheatre in Regio 3 would uncover further agricultural evidence should they search for it.

Large numbers of cultivated gardens have been found, particularly in Regions I and II. These were clearly important to the economy. Firstly, it would have made the residents of these houses (and their dependents) self-sufficient. Secondly, surplus (of which there must have been lots) could be sold at market in Pompeii, and possibly also in nearby towns. Pompeii is a good example of this hidden economic aspect that isn’t preserved in other Roman towns.

It’s important for a variety of reasons that we consider all parts of the whole ‘consumer city’ debate. The city doesn’t just consume the resources of its hinterland; to a certain degree, it also generates its own resources. The question is, however, how great the surplus was, and therefore how great the impact on the economy as a whole was.

The Villas of Pompeii and the Economy

There were two kinds of villas that summarise the countryside villa typology: the villa that combined luxurious dwelling spaces along with large estate used for agricultural production such as the Villa Pisanella and the smaller type focussed upon production as its main activity without wealthy accommodation such as the Villa Regina. These two types of villas were very different.

The Pisanella villa was excavated at the end of the 19th century when the excavators were interested primarily in wall-paintings, while the Villa Regina is a modern excavation in which even the smallest artefact has been recorded properly by 20th century standards. This obviously impacts what can be reconstructed about them.

In addition, the Villa Pisanella has luxury quarters as well as a functioning farm area. Both were active farms, however, and viticulture was a primary activity (but on a larger scale in the Villa Pisanella). While a large number of these farms may have been small holding types (or had limited amounts of produce to sell), this production activity had a massive impact on the economy of the area. Not only did it supply the Vesuvian region, but some of it was exported from the area. In fact, Pompeii even became famed for its onions and cabbages, although not for its wine as we have learned!

These villas are also important for what they tell us about farming. Great illustrated texts were produced to show the forms of these tools and in some areas of Europe until the 1970s these were unchanged (see the work of Robert Curtis on tools in Portugal). Jashemski’s work on the casts of roots revealed the agriculture grown and the patterns it was growing in at AD 79, invaluable information for reconstructing the farming methods of ancient Pompeii.