Building Mid-Republican Rome

Labor, Architecture, and the Urban Economy

Seth Bernard

Employs the evidence for Roman architecture as a means of studying Roman urban history
Incorporates the Mid-Republic into the study of Roman economic history by insisting that many of the institutional structures of the later Roman economy emerged for the first time in this period
Includes a new catalog of Mid-Republican public building projects at Rome, incorporating both textual sources and archaeological data including the results of the author's fieldwork
Presents a new way to model and contextualize the labor costs of Mid-Republican architecture

Building Mid-Republican Rome

Labor, Architecture, and the Urban Economy

Seth Bernard

Description

Building Mid-Republican Rome offers a holistic treatment of the development of the Mid-Republican city from 396 to 168 BCE. As Romans established imperial control over Italy and beyond, the city itself radically transformed from an ambitious central Italian settlement into the capital of the Mediterranean world. Seth Bernard describes this transformation in terms of both new urban architecture, much of it unprecedented in form and extent, and new socioeconomic structures, including slavery, coinage, and market-exchange. These physical and historical developments were closely linked: building the Republican city was expensive, and meeting such costs had significant implications for urban society. Building Mid-Republican Rome brings both architectural and socioeconomic developments into a single account of urban change. Bernard, a specialist in the period's history and archaeology, assembles a wide array of evidence, from literary sources to coins, epigraphy, and especially archaeological remains, revealing the period's importance for the decline of the Roman state's reliance on obligation and dependency and the rise of slavery and an urban labor market. This narrative is told through an investigation of the evolving institutional frameworks shaping the organization of public construction. A quantitative model of the costs of the Republican city walls reconstructs their economic impact. A new account of building technology in the period allows for a better understanding of the social and demographic profile of the city's builders. Building Mid-Republican Rome thus provides an innovative synthesis of a major Western city's spatial and historical aspects, shedding much-needed light on a seminal period in Rome's development.

Building Mid-Republican Rome

Labor, Architecture, and the Urban Economy

Seth Bernard

Chapter 1: Introduction: Building as historical process
Chapter 2: Materials and supply
Chapter 3: Rome from the Sack of Veii to the Gallic Sack
Chapter 4: A cost analysis of the Republican circuit walls
Chapter 5: The nobilitas and economic innovation: censors, coinage, and contracts
Chapter 6: The labor supply of Mid-Republican Rome
Chapter 7: Technological change in Roman stonemasonry before concrete
Chapter 8: Conclusion

Appendix 1: Cost analysis of ashlar masonry in volcanic tuff
Appendix 2: Catalog of public building projects, 396 - 168 BCE

Bibliography and Abbreviations

Building Mid-Republican Rome

Labor, Architecture, and the Urban Economy

Seth Bernard

Author Information

Seth Bernard is Assistant Professor of Classics at the University of Toronto.

Building Mid-Republican Rome

Labor, Architecture, and the Urban Economy

Seth Bernard

Reviews and Awards

"Bernard's study offers a cogent argument for the reappraisal of the period prior to the Second Punic War, weaving disparate developments together into a coherent narrative to reopen the debate on the changing social makeup and economic mentalities operating in the Early and Mid-Republican city. He presents an original model for reconstructing the formative process of economic institutions commonly associated with Rome's later history.... His expert use of buildings and construction processes as historical sources in their own right opens the way for a more nuanced exploration of Republican urbanism in Italy and will prompt further quantitative research on the demographic and economic effects of urban development in higher-order settlements. Already a classic, the book is its own building block for future work." -- Journal of Roman Archaeology

"In this innovative and impressive study, Seth Bernard examines public construction at Rome between the Gallic sack and the mid-third century BC in order to explore its social and economic consequences. He draws on archaeological, numismatic, and epigraphic evidence as well as literary sources to focus our attention on this neglected aspect of Republican economic history. His chapters marry often novel analyses of seemingly disparate developments to shed unexpectedly revealing light on them. The conclusions he draws boldly challenge much of what we thought we knew about developments in this period and are certain to provoke salutary debate and reevaluation among scholars of the mid- Republic (as they did for this one) ... Bernard has written an important and timely book, one that takes its place among a number of recent studies that are fundamentally reshaping our picture of early and mid-Republican Rome." -- Nathan Rosenstein, Bryn Mawr Classical Review

"This book provides an interdisciplinary insight into Rome's mid-republican architecture, building technology, economic and socio-political history." -- Niccolo Mugnai Classical Review

"Many of the topics are considered holistically and intertwine over several chapters, rendering the author's arguments more persuasive. The volume comes together to provide a vivid description of the mounting sophistication of Rome during the mid-Republican period. This is an excellent and ably presented book, balancing a wide-ranging approach with intricate detail." -- Albert J. Nijboer, Antiquity