From the Gracchi to Nero: A History of Rome from 133 B.C. to A.D. 68 (46 page)

Such a cursory survey thus shows that, while the countryside would supply basic local needs, a considerable interchange of goods took place within each province and a brisk trade developed between various provinces; further, this interprovincial trade was not confined to luxuries. But trade also developed between the Empire and the peoples beyond the frontiers. It had in fact sometimes preceded the flag: thus for more than half a century before the Claudian conquest, there had been much interchange of goods between Britain and the Roman world. With ‘free’ Germany and the lands to the North trade steadily increased, though not all the objects found beyond the Rhine reached there through trade. Thus the famous silver dinner-service found at Hildersheim near Hanover may be loot taken from a Roman commander; much of the equipment of Varus’ legions must have passed into German hands (this may be the origin of a remarkable concentration of Augustan gold coins found between the Ems and Weser). Diplomatic gifts to
native chiefs may explain the origin of other finds, such as that discovered at Hoby on the Danish island of Laaland: of approximately Augustan date, this hoard consisted of a fine table-service of silver and bronze; since one of the silver cups, which represents a scene from the story of Philoctetes, bears the name ‘Silius’ scratched on its base, it may once have been owned by C. Silius the legate of Upper Germany from A.D. 14 to 21. But the volume of regular trade with the North increased. Most of the goods in the first century A.D. came from Italy and passed by road to the Danube at Carnuntum. Thence in the early part of the century they moved on to Bohemia, where the Marcomanni were for a time both customers and also acted as middlemen for distribution further north, but after the death of Maroboduus their importance decreased. Under Nero a new trade-route was brought under Roman control, the so-called ‘amber route’ from Carnuntum to the eastern Baltic. This was due to the enterprise of a knight who pioneered the route and brought back a great quantity of amber. All this northern trade stimulated the prosperity of Aquileia, the nodal point through which it passed; and beside acting as middlemen, Aquileia itself manufactured amber for export. The operation of Roman warships in the North Sea (p. 250) will have helped to open up the sea routes to Jutland and Scandinavia, but most of the carrier trade probably remained in the hands of the Frisii of the Dutch coast, and few Roman goods reached Norway or Sweden before the third century.

A few trading stations on the coast of East Africa are known, from the mouth of the Red Sea to Zanzibar. From this region exports to the Roman world included ivory, rhinoceros-horn, tortoiseshell, palm-oil, cinnamon, frankincense and slaves. At the southern exit from the Red Sea Augustus seems to have broken the monopoly of the Arabs who had acted as middle-men for goods coming from the East (see p. 211). Till this time any trade with India involved a long coast-wise journey from Aden, along the shore of southern Arabia, and thence to the mouth of the Indus and the west coast of India. But a great discovery was made, probably under Augustus (less probably earlier), by a sea-captain named Hippalus who found that it was possible to establish a direct sea-route from Aden to India by making use of the regularity of the monsoons. The summer monsoon would take ships safely to the mouth of the Indus and the anti-trade winds of winter would take them back; by Nero’s time an even more southerly direct route was taken to Muziris in South India.
⁴
This discovery revolutionized trade with India. The actual shipping was probably in the hands of Alexandrine and other Greeks, but Rome was the chief customer. Strabo records that 120 merchantmen would sail from the Red Sea harbour of Myos Hormos to India in a year, and the extent of the trade has recently been strikingly demonstrated by excavation at Podouke (modern Pondicherry) on the east coast of India, where quantities of Arretine ware manufactured in Italy
between 30 B.C. and A.D. 45 have been found. To reach the east coast involved sailing round the treacherous southern tip at Cape Comorin, which was not attempted until near the end of the first century (this explains Rome’s comparative ignorance of Ceylon, Taprobane, at this earlier date). In consequence goods were landed on the west coast and were carried over the tip by land via Coimbatore: this trade route is marked by the survival of many hoards of first-century Roman coins. The main exports from India were pepper, spices, jewels and muslin. These luxury goods were paid for by Rome very largely in gold and silver coins (which the Indians would treat as bullion; they therefore preferred coins minted before A.D. 64 when Nero depreciated the metal content). This Indian trade is said to have resulted in an annual adverse balance for Rome of 60 million sesterces in Nero’s day, and the effect of draining away so much precious metal to the East became serious. That this commerce was desired by India as well as by Rome is shown by the Indian embassies that were sent to the West: two at least, possibly four, visited Augustus.

Northern India produced less of what Rome required, but it played an important role as middleman in forwarding to the West other luxury goods from farther Asia as silk from China, turquoise and lapis lazuli. The normal trade route, the so-called Silk Route, ran from China to Bactra in Afghanistan and thence across Iran to Syria.
⁵
But in Iran lay a political barrier, the Parthians. Hence some goods were diverted when they reached Bactra and were sent on south-eastwards through Begram and Taxila (where most interesting finds have been made) to Barygaza (modern Broach) south of the Indus; here they could be picked up by the regular sea routes and brought to the West.

This healthy state of economic life was largely a spontaneous growth and the result of private enterprise. The State interfered as little as possible, and in Egypt, where Augustus inherited a highly centralized economic system, State ownership and monopolies were decreased. Certain internal customs barriers existed within the empire, but these indirect taxes (
portoria
) were imposed merely for purposes of revenue and not for ‘protection’ or to keep provincial goods out of Italian markets. The frontiers, at which a fixed percentage of the value of the goods that crossed was exacted, enclosed larger units than the individual provinces: thus the three Gauls formed a customs district that paid 2½ per cent, ‘Illyricum’ (i.e. all the Balkan provinces) paid 5 per cent, Spain paid 2 per cent. At certain points within these districts, at bridges or ferries, transit tolls were collected. There is little evidence to suggest that these taxes, the collection of which was let out to
publicani
, proved a serious burden to
trade.
⁶
Goods that came into the Empire from outside also paid duty: thus, for example, luxuries from the East were subject to a 25 per cent tax at Leuke Kome. Some individual cities also might impose local octrois and transit tolls to help their municipal revenues: thus there is later evidence for elaborate tariffs at the caravan city of Palmyra under Hadrian.

Though the emperors might avoid direct interference, they kept a watchful eye on some activities and gave indirect encouragement. In particular they were concerned about the corn-supply and the feeding of Rome, the supply of metals for the coinage, and all the needs of the army. Thus Claudius took measures to improve the harbour and warehouse facilities at Ostia and to encourage the corn merchants (see p. 248). The operation of mines during the Republic had been let to companies of publicans, but under the Empire the mines of precious metals and quarries came under imperial ownership or control: there must be no shortage of gold and silver for the currency, iron and lead for the army, stone and marble for roads and buildings. Another indirect stimulus to trade that came from the emperor was the provision of a sound currency which won the confidence of traders throughout the provinces. Yet another was the existence and upkeep of the great road system of the Empire: designed first mainly for military purposes, it also served the ends of peace. The arterial roads, the rivers, and the sea-routes, all carried a rising quantity of merchandise which was reasonably free from risk of attack by robber or pirate. In a world at peace there was an unceasing movement of goods from one end of the Empire to the other along a network of communications. Men could move freely, without passport and unhampered in the main by racial prejudice or colour bar. Though sea voyages were avoided in the winter, during most of the year travellers could normally rely on finding a passage from the great ports. But journeys, though reasonably safe, were slow by modern standards. On land the imperial post service covered some fifty miles a day, but ordinary commercial traffic would be slower. Ships, up to 1000 tons, might carry some 600 persons, but ordinary freighters were probably only about 200 tons or less. The journey from Ostia to Gades took over a week, to Alexandria nearly three weeks, and to Berytus about a month. If transport by land was dear, it was cheaper by sea, but there were still many risks and difficulties to be encountered at sea, as the story of St. Paul’s journey to Rome, recounted so vividly in
Acts
28, illustrates. St. Paul’s adventures, as he travelled freely on his missionary journeys to the cities of Asia Minor, Macedonia and Greece, provide a classic example of the liberty of movement allowed to all citizens and non-citizens alike. The traders were men of all races and status: many, of whom a great number were of freedman origin, went forth from Italy to East and West, and even more orientals, Syrians and Alexandrians, found their way to the West. The class of
negotiatores
included importers and distributors of foreign goods (such as the Italian merchants in
Gaul, mentioned by Diodorus, who in exchange for slaves distributed wine by river or land transport), together with travelling merchants, both salesmen and buyers, who went from town to town with their goods. In the same way independent shipowners ‘tramped’ their cargoes from port to port; partnerships might be formed, but these seem to have been generally limited and not to have worked with more than four or five ships. Foreign merchants might rent an office (
statio
), perhaps with warehouse facilities and dock space, in another country, as those of the Nabataean Arabs and of the Tyrians at Puteoli which are attested for a later period. At Ostia a large portico (Piazzale delle Corporazioni) behind the theatre was set aside as a chamber of commerce for foreign shippers. This represents an attempt by the government not to control trade, but merely to provide facilities for encouraging the corn-supply that was so vital to Rome’s needs; although the famous mosaics that adorn this building belong to a much later period, offices in the portico probably existed in the early Principate. Thus organization and distribution generally continued on a small scale, though a kind of co-operative society may have developed for the distribution of the mass output of
terra sigillata
by the Gallic factories at La Graufesenque, and the shippers may have acted as salesmen as well as mere distributors.

The capital behind all this commercial activity came largely, so far as the Romans were concerned, from the Equites who now enjoyed less opportunity for exploiting the provinces and turned therefore from tax-farming to trade. Roman aristocrats may have used their freedmen and agents to promote business interests but they did not break with tradition so far as to come out into the open as business-men, while men who enriched themselves through trade would retire to country villas if they wanted to gain any social standing. An example of the wealthy retired businessmen living on country estates is the portrait or caricature that Petronius has drawn of Trimalchio, a slave from Asia Minor who was set free by his master from whom he inherited some wealth. Then as he told his guests at his famous banquet, he went into business: he built five ships and loaded them with wine, but every ship was wrecked; not losing heart, he built more ships, larger and better ones, which he filled with wine, pork, beans, perfumes and slaves. As a result of this voyage, so he boasted, he made ten million sesterces; he then, significantly, bought up all his former master’s farms and went in for cattle-raising. When he was wealthier than all his fellow-citizens put together, he retired from active business, made his freedmen agents, and built a palatial home on his Campanian estate. But if such a vulgar parvenu was a suitable subject for satire, the emergence of other more thrifty freedmen craftsmen, shopkeepers and agents will have contributed to the common good.

The quickening of economic life was linked with the increase in the number of cities and of the prosperity of the bourgeoisie living in them. In
the third century B.C. as a result of the policy of Alexander the Great, the Near and Middle East had been studded with Greek cities; many of these began as military colonies, but they soon attracted Greek civilians and developed into self-governing cities, with a Greek bourgeoisie which helped to spread Greek culture as far as the Indus. It was the work of the early Principate and of the Italian bourgeoisie to parallel this achievement in the west, where city life was promoted not only in the already partly urbanized areas but also through much of the tribal areas in Spain, Northern Gaul and Britain. Urbanization thus led to the Romanization of the interior of the provinces, and the presence of Roman troops had a similar effect on many of the frontier areas. Thus the middle-class town-dwellers of Italy and the provinces fulfilled both a cultural and an economic role, and the urbanizing policy of Augustus and his successors had far-reaching effects. As many of the older senatorial families were dying out (a process hastened by the reigns of terror under Tiberius and his successors), a new class more easily came to the fore, whose main interests lay in industry and trade, and whose energy increased the prosperity of the towns and of the whole Empire. Old and newer towns alike flourished: in Italy, Puteoli and other cities of Campania, Ostia, Aquileia and Patavium; in the East, Corinth, Ephesus, Antioch, Palmyra and Alexandria; in Africa, Carthage and Utica; in Spain, Gades (the second city of the Empire; the number of its capitalists were equalled by Patavium alone, according to Strabo); in Gaul, Arelate and Lugdunum; in Britain, Londinium; and a host of others.

While the Roman world pulsated with activity, really large-scale industry and large-scale commerce may have been limited to a comparatively small number of towns, and the perennial importance of land should not be forgotten.
⁷
In Italy it was still the main source of senatorial incomes; and the governing aristocracy in the majority of the towns of the Empire consisted of a group of local landowners who lived in the town, although it would be increasingly recruited from the sons of men who had made money in trade or industry and had invested it in land. Nor did such town councils show much interest in promoting or protecting local trade: the imperial policy of
laissez faire
was reflected at this lower stage also. They did of course generally provide a market and encourage the adornment of their cities with fine buildings but the motive will have been civic pride more than economic development. The construction of baths, theatres and (though less in the east than west) amphitheatres was designed to provide public games and entertainments worthy of a city’s local patriotism, and if possible better than those of its neighbours: only incidentally were the economic benefits considered. It is also noteworthy that although great individual fortunes could still be made, they were often soon dissipated: upstart freedmen,
nouveaux riches
, and reckless luxury were features of social life under Nero; thereafter wealth was used
with greater moderation and wisdom and more of it was diverted from luxuries into productive industry and commerce, while the really large fortunes were made more easily in the provinces than in Italy.

A wealthy aristocracy and a prosperous middle-class were not balanced by any great improvement in the condition of the labouring class which consisted largely of freedmen and slaves. Skilled slaves would normally receive reasonable treatment, if only because of their economic value, and their conditions tended to improve (p. 273). The life of the freeborn labourer was more precarious and must often have been grim; competition by slave labour will have depressed his living standard and many men must have been near to bare subsistence. He could be kept from actual starvation by the corn-dole, and the State also supplied free amusements and free public baths where he could meet his friends. There existed also societies of craftsmen and traders, but these were not real guilds or unions which bargained for better wages or working conditions. They were rather social clubs or friendly societies, and membership of such a
collegium
was not rigidly limited to followers of a particular trade. Most of them, whatever other purpose they served, were ‘burial clubs’ which beside providing companionship in life also assured a member a decent burial. When judged by modern standards conditions must often have been bad, but they tended to get better: thus even in the mines, worked generally by slaves and convicts, arrangements improved, since regulations for the mining settlement at Vispasca (in southern Portugal) show that under Hadrian the children of the workers had schools and teachers and that the pit-head baths were open from 2 to 8 p.m. Many free workers must have shared in the general affluence of Italy, while some of the less fortunate may have found a better life by joining the army or emigrating to the provinces where free labour predominated and where a rising tide of prosperity led to the extraordinary flowering of municipal life that was one of the great achievements of the Empire.