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Albert-Ludwigs-Universitt Freiburg i. Br.Seminar fr Alte GeschichteWintersemester 2012/2013
Hauptseminare: Wandel der Politikformen in der spter Romische RepublikDr. Astrid Mller
THE CRISIS OF THE SECOND CENTURY: NEW PERSPECTIVES
Jose Luis Centeno DazMatrikel Nummer: 3559553
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STRUCTURE
0. INTRODUCTION
1. CRITIC OF THE PRINCIPAL SOURCES
1.1. PLUTARCH
1.2. APPIAN
2. THE CRISIS OF THE II CENTURY: TRADITIONAL AND NEW
PERSPECTIVES
2.1. TRADITIONAL VIEW OF THE CRISIS IN THE SOURCES
2.2. DEMOGRAPHIC MOVEMENTS
2.3. THE ECONOMY OFAGER PUBLICUS
2.4. SHORTAGE OF MANPOWER
2.5. THE NUMBER OF SLAVES
2.6. GRACCHAN REFORM
3. CONCLUSSIONS
4. BIBLIOGRAPHY
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0. INTRODUCTION
For the development of the next essay about the crisis of the second century
b.C. i am going to organize it in three parts. The first one is focused on making
a little critic of the write sources that tell us something about this period,
Plutarch and Appian. Secondly, i am going to talk about the crisis of the second
century, having this point several elements, such as the traditional view of the
crisis through the sources; the demographic aspects; the economy of ager
publicus; shortage of manpower; the number of slaves and the contemporary
perceptions. In every aspect i will try to show the traditional assessments and
the new perspectives that are creating about it.
1. CRITIC OF THE MAIN SOURCES: PLUTARCH AND APPIAN
1.1. PLUTARCH1
As we alredy know, the most valuable document of Plutarch are the Parallel
lives, where it is inserted Tiberius and Gaius lifes, who are really important for
understanding this epoch and its context. Firstly, we must say that the Parallel
lives have the purpose of axalt the greeks against the romans, and the romans
against the greeks, which is really difficult, doing this through the promotion of
1
About the life of Plutarch only saying that he was born in Chaeronea, nowadays dissapeared,
h. 50-id., h. 120). When he was twenty years he moved to Athens to study mathematics andphilosophy. He was disciple of the philosopher Ammonio de Saccas. Though, he almosttravelled thorough the whole Empire, most of his life he was in Chaeroneam where he
performed several public positions. He also was related to the Academy and he was the priestof Apollo in Delphi.
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the common values that will give as outcome the roman-greek civilization2. We
cant deny the importance of this work, but we should take into account some
aspects if we want to use this source as a historic document. Firstly, Plutarch
did not live in the same period that he talks about and, therefore, his only way to
approach to it were his own sources, notes and the formed image of these
characters through the time until Plutarchs time. Also, we have to stablish a
marked difference between biography and History 3 , because the first one
doesnt study process and contexts like the history does. Despite of that
Parallel lives are historic biographies they are mainly focus on individuals. Here,
we have the example of Sullas life, where Plutarch mentions a lot of details
and data of his private life and personality, but the author did not get deeper
into the problems of the characters frame. Also, we could add another relevant
difference between History and historic biography, that sometimes are confused
in the imperial times, focused on the second, which was not done with a
scientifc aim. Plutarch does not make any hypothesis or questions and,
therefore, he had not the need of answering them, while History must do so,
conecting the frame and the data. He tried to build lifes under his own theory of
the past, impregnated by a perception that the past always was better and
goldener than the present. This way Plutarch can introduce and give relevance
to the moral and educational aspects, doing of his lifes behavioral models, also
2
MESTRE, F. Plutarco y la biografa de poca imperial. Revista de Estudios Clsicos, N 34,2007, Universidad de Barcelona. Pp. 11-28.3
Plutarch left really clear in the first lines of the Alexanders life that his purpose was to writelifes not history. Though, This way Plutarch It must be borne in mind that my design is not towrite histories, but lives. And the most glorious exploits do not always furnish is with the clearestdiscoveries of virtue or vice in men; sometimes a matter of less moment, an expression or a
jest, informs us better of their characters and inclinations, that the most famous sieges, thegreatest armaments, or the bloodiest battles whatsoever. Therefore as portrait-painters aremore exact in the lines and features of the face, in which the character is seen, than in the other
parts of the body, so i must be allowed to give my more particular attention to the marks andindications of the souls of men, and while i endeavour by these to portray their lives, may befree to leave more weighty matters and great battles to be treated of by others.
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impregnated by the Platonic4 philosophy. The predominance of the moral and
educational components in the biographies of the imperial time 5 burden a
historical view, because he adapted the data and the process to his own
purposes, omitting, emphasaizing or ignoring whatever he needs for doing his
aims. As a result, the biographer, in this case Plutarch, was a builder of realities
supported by his experiences, memory, notes and sources that let him to
explain historic events but with a moral mould. I would like to add that for the
construction of any kind of knowledge6 we must start by storeing it in our minds,
after this think about it with our resources and then the outcome, in this case
the Parallel lives and inside them Tiberius and Gaiuslife.
In the case of Tiberius life, and about his agrarian reform, Plutarch put a
big significance in Tiberius moral evolution through his life, so Tiberius porject
may have been perfectly honorable at first, but he ends up as a troublesome
demagogue, and the whole secuence of events ultimately illustrates the wisdom
of Laelius7.
4
We have to remember that Plutarch studied in Athens under the direcction of Amonio, from the
Platonic school.5
MESTRE, F, op. cit.6
We can not forget that the knowledge is accumulative, and the weakest elements tend to lose
in the process of storeing.7ROSKAM, R. Ambition and love of fame in Plutarch lives of Agis, Cleomenes and the
Gracchi. Classical Philology, Vol. 106, No. 3, 2011. Pp. 208-225
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1.2. APPIAN8
Nevertheless, some modern authors have pointed out some elements that we
should have on mind when we are using a source like Appian. First, Appian
presents to us a highly schematic version of the facts that tell us more about his
methods as historian that it does about the laws or the policies in that moment.
In the same way, his arguments for this part of the history are circulars, so he
starts and finishes with same problems, that is to say, the reform of Tiberius and
his brother could not solve these problems, restoring the same matters and
conditions that the Gracchan tried to fix before.
Another important issue is that Appian gives the same characteristics to the
laws of Tiberius that to the laws of the past years, supposing that the problems
were the same. At the same time, we find that, like Plutarch, Appian chooseswhat elements to include and how, depending on the needs of his narrative
estructure. Related with this element, we find that Appian uses the Gracchan
issue to introduce and emphasize the Civil Wars and the big elements that,
according to him, brought to them land fighting; citizenship; and the courts-.
He knew which was the result, the end of the Roman Republic, and he could go
adapting each cause to every effect.
8
About the life of Appian. Appian was born around the year 95 AD. He reached a high socialpossition in his homeland, and he did important functions in the imperial administration. Then,he was a lawyer in the imperial court and finally was procurator of the emperor. He wrote aRome History that included from its foundation until the year 35 BC with ethnographic content.
He used greek and roman literary sources, and possibly official documents from registers andarchives, which he could use because of his possition. Some of his sources were: Polybius,
Hieronymus of Cardia, Caesar, Augustus, Asinius Pollio, Plutarch, Diodorus Siculus,Posidonius, Livy, Sallust and Valerius Antias among others.
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2. THE CRISIS OF THE SECOND CENTURY
2.1. TRADITIONAL VIEW OF THE CRISIS (THE CRISIS IN THE
SOURCES)
To begin with this part of the work, i think that it is important to talk first about
the data and the process that the sources explained above can tell us about this
period.
Firstly, we have the contribution of Plutarch with the Life of Tiberius
Gracchus. Plutarch presents Tiberius really worried about the problems of the
peasants, specially during his journey toward Spain, where he saw in the
coastal parts of Etruria, the depopulation, of the country and the small farmer
and the shepherd were slaves and barbarians9. He also propposed a law
declaring illigal to anyone to posses more than 500 iugera of public land,
defending his proposal with a passionate speech the wild beasts that roam
over Italy have their dens and holes to lurk in, but the men who fight and die for
their country enjoy the common air and light and nothing else, but without a
house they keep wandering with his wife and childeren they are called the
masters of the world, but they do not posses a single clod of earth which is truly
their own10. The tale from Plutarch suggests that during the second century the
peasantry from Italy were the threatened by the expansion of using slaves in
the big estates of the rich.
The contribution of Appian for this period is in the book number one of
his work Civil Wars. In his account Appian focus on several aspects for the
9Plut. Tib. Gracch. 8.7
10Ibid. 9.4-5
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description of the second century, before the tribunate of Tiberius: the
occupation of public land by the rich, the expulsion of the por, the growth of the
slave-staffed estates, and a decline in the number of free citizens. This way it is
presented the classical view of the second century and its problematic. The
process that these four characteristics point out is quite simple: as a result of
their conquest of Italy, the romans took land from those who they have defeated
and there they stablished their own people, solving the problem of the land,
makeing settelments. Also, they can use the uncultivated land for their
purposes, paying a rent to the treasury. However, the rich took first big parts of
the land and began to acquire the parts of the other people, creating large
estates worked by slave labour. The corollary of this picture is simple the rich
became richer, while the italians declined because of taxes, poverty and military
service, what explains the demographic backward movement that Appian
attributes to this time and to the Tiberiuss reform.
Also, it is really important for the reconstrucction of this period, specially
for the demographic movements, the census figures that Titus Livius give us.
This figures, that will be studied in the next point, have been used for
corroborating the arguments presented by the sources, but they must be
studied deepper.
2.2. DEMOGRAPHIC MOVEMENTS
One of the aspects more hotly debated during the recent years about the crisis
of the second century has been the demographic movements of the Italy
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population during this century and more particuraly during 168-115. I do not
expect in this section to offer a exact conclussion about this theme, but to
potenciate and to present the several perspectives that nowadays exist and
develop about this topic.
The traditional picture about the demographic aspect has been
supported by the account of Appian and Plutarch, who tell us that the free
peasantry of Italy was increasingly threatened by the ever-expanding slave-
staffed estates of the rich11 . This idea holds that the population of free-
peasandtry in Italy fell in poverty as the result of the widespread use of slaves,
causing this way that the peasants postpone their marriages, which will implies
a decrease in the number of newborns and, therefore, a reduction and a decline
of the free Italian population in general terms. This idea is also apparently
supported by the figures of the roman census12
for those years.
However, as i have said above, this picture is being really discussioning.
In this debate, we could say that we have two perspectives for focusing on this
problem. On the one hand, we have the view of the low-counters and on the
other one we have the high-counters position that show a different perspectives
of the census figures for the years 169-115.
According to many low-counters, it really existed a downard trend in the
census figures between the years 164-114, reflecting a genuine population
decline13, which will explain the frame for the subsequent Gracchan reform.
This assumption would implies that the figures for the next years (125--) of the
11
DE LIGT, L.Poverty and demography: the case of the gracchan land reforms in
Mnemosyne, vol. 57, fasc. 6, 2004, pp. 725-757. pp. 72712
See table n.113
DE LIGT, L.
Some thoughts on the nature of the demographic crisis of the second centuryb.C.in Crisis and the Roman Empire, Classical studies, 2007 pp. 167-188.
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census would be wrong, because they show a trend of population growth. In the
view of De Ligt14 this figures are approximately correct, this way, we should ask
why the figures for the years 164-130 are so low and tend to diminish. One
answer for this problem could be that during the period of 164-130 it produced
an increased in the amount of poor peasants, rising the number ofproletarii,
which were registered less effectivily than the assidui. Therefore, we have here
a problem of under-registration, but no a problem of population decline. Another
support for answering why the figures for these years (164-130) contrast so
much with the numbers for the next years, we could find it in the increasing
reluctance of many Roman citizens to serve in the army15. We have the
example, among others, of the wars in Hispania, where the dead could be easy
and the adavantage really escarce.
Another scenario has been proposed for understanding the figures of the
census for the years of the second century and explaining its demographic and
population tendencys. This tendency is known as the high-counters who
propose that the figures given by the low-counters are less reliable. For
supporting this affirmation, they argue that most of the people that compound
the census for the years of the second century are assidui, what could fit with
the minor effectiveness and care in the registration. However, with the intention
of seeding doubt around the reliability of the figures, they point out that the
majority of the citizen body was compound by proletarii. The reconstrucction
explained by Lo Cascio is a good example for the high-counter scenario. His
argumentation implies that there must have been some 500.000 adult male
14Ibidem
15For example Evans 1988, esp. 128-9. Cf. Also Brunt 1987, 33-4 in DE LIGT, L., 2004, op. cit.
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citizens on the eve of the Hannibalic War16, and the population of Italy as a
whole was roughly six million in 225 B.C.17 to reach the thirteen million in the
time of Augustus. Nonetheless, the rate of growing and the total of population
have a serious weakness. Firstly, we can say like how managed to make living
this great amount of people and, secondly, the incredible growth rate that would
imply a 0.5-0.8 per cent per year over a period of 200 years18. The answer to
first question could be as tenants or as wage labourers, but we can find really
unlikely that the 50% of the popualtion depend on the incomes from a tenancy
or from the occasional labour, when this kind of work was seasonal at that time.
Their arguments are weaken by the economic19 and demographic implications
as we have seen. Other elements that are used by the high-counters for
supporting the high level of population are the centralization for doing the
census in Rome. That is, only the people physically present in Rome could be
signed in the lists, and therefore, lot of people kept under-registration. This way
could be really impractical, when the most of the assidui must have been
reluctant to travel to Rome20 and the efficacy of the census useless. The
archaeological evidence neither support the conclussions of the high-counters
about a fast and strong growth that support their figures of population. We
can conclude this section saying that the high-counter scenario suffer from
16
For example Lo Cascio, Elio, The Size of the Roman Population: Beloch and the Meaning ofthe Augustan Census Figures, The Journal of Roman Studies Vol. 84, 1994, pp. 23-40.17
DE LIGT, L., 2007, op. cit.18
This is the growth rate that offers Roselaar, Roselaar (2012, 197); but we can find anothercalculations in Rosestein (2004, 146) who argues 1.3-1.5% per year between 200-168 and 0.6-
0.8% between 168-124.19 DE LIGT, L. 2007, op. cit. p. 17220
BRUNT, P, Italian Manpower 225 B.C.- A.D. 14., Oxford, 1971, p. 40-43
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several difficulties, but equally the low count scenario is not free from problems
either21.
For concluding this section, i would like to say that we have to recognise
a population growth instead of decline for the second century, as most of
schcolars has pointed out so far, but more according with the low-counter
scenario. The population growth was solved firstly with the foundation of
colonies22, especially in Cisalpine Gaul. Though, this growth rate could seem
low for provoking socio-economic problems, that the Gracchi would try to
resolve, we have to take into account the next point: if we combine the growth
rate inherent per year, together with the increasing competition for the land,
especially in Central Italy 23 , plus the manumission of slaves or natural
inmigration, then we may be see some of problems of the second century but
with regional character.
Table 1. Roman census figures (169/8-115/4)24
YEAR CENSUS FIGURE SOURCE
169/8 312.805 Per. Liv 45
164/3 337.022 Per. Liv 46
159/8 328.316 Per. Liv 47
154/3 324.000 Per. Liv 48
21
ROSELAAR, S. T., Public Land in the Roman Republic. A Social and Economic History of
Ager Publicus in Italy, 369-89 BC. Ed. Oxford University Press, New York, 2010, p. 19822
The foundation of colonies almost stopped after 17723
It is really important to try to know the regional variations in population and economic
developments for explaining the reforms of the Gracchi, since the zone of Rome could applypolitical pression. See ROSELAAR, T. S. op. cit. p. 20024
In DE LIGT, L., 2007, op. cit. p. 169
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147/6 322.000 Euseb. Armen. Ol. 158.3
142/1 327.442 Per. Liv 54
136/5 317.933 Per. Liv 56
131/0 318.823 Per. Liv 59
125/4 394.736 Per. Liv 60
115/4 394.336 Per. Liv 63
2.3. THE ECONOMY OF THEAGER PUBLICUS
As we have just seen in the conclussion of the previous section, the competition
for the land as well as the expansion of commercial agriculture rose during the
second century. Both aspects are central for any reconstruction or
approximation to the socio-economic frame of this century.
Firstly, we must take into account that the people who wanted to invest
with the intention of producing for the market would have been reluctant to use
public land, since we know the insecurity of such holdings25. Then, we should
ask ourselves about how important was the occupation ofager publicus, how
deep was the competition for the land, and how big was the market for the
commercial agriculture. These three elements would imply a supposed rise of
the large estates worked by slaves to the detriment of the small farmers, one of
the aspects that the Gracchi tried to resolve.
25For the ager publicus and its evolution during the republican period, see ROSELAAR, T S.
op. cit.
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For answering the first question, i recommend the broad work of Saskia
Roselaar where the ager publicus and its evolution is explained in more detail.
For the other two questions, i have also followed Saskia Roselaar26
, and i have
focused myself in the next aspects: the competition for the land, the expansion
of the commercial agriculture and the size of the market. Besides, i am going to
explain the role of the villae in the roman economy, because its very related
with the three points i have presented before.
About the competition for the land in the second century, it is generally
accepted that the Roman aristocracy gained the most of their incomes from the
agriculture and, therefore, there was a great competition for the land and the
poor were expelled from their holdings, normally in the ager publicus. This
traditional picture can be challenged if we take into account that the commercial
agriculture was limited to those areas with an important market nearby and that
the villae worked by slaveswere rather small that it was previously assumed.
Then, how can we maintain the question about the accumulation of the land by
rich, which caused the proletarianization for the small farmers?.
The first element, as i have mentioned above, is the size of the market 27. The
second aspect is focused on avoiding the classical separation between poor
and rich, since it existed a middle class who sold reguraly their products in the
market. The presence of this middle class can be seen clearly through the
property of slaves, who was not only restricted for the rich, and the finding of
estates that do not fit in the classical clasification, big and small holding. This
implication suggest that there were more sellers that is thought as usual, thus
26
ROSELAAR, S. T., Public Land in the Roman Republic. A Social and Economic History ofAger Publicus in Italy, 369-89 BC. Ed. Oxford University Press, New York, 2010.27
Ibidem, p. 180
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the profit could not be so high and that the richs should have gained profit from
others activities, being therefore the pressure on the land less relevant.
Nonetheless, in the ancient societies, buying land was a secured invest, since
the land did not lose its value. In this way, the competition for the land, the size
of the market and the presence of slaves was much smaller than is usually
assumed and it seems unlikely that this was the sole cause for the difficult
possition of the small peasants.
The second point i am going to talk about is the expansion of the commercial
agriculture. The existence of commercial farms was not extended in Italy in a
homogeneous way. We have to remember the geographical factors of the
italian peninsula, like the mountains that divide the territory in small units. In this
way, the fertile lands that were in the isolated valleys were not focused on the
central italian market, because of the costs of the transport, but on the local
market, wich was getting important as well. The biggest pole of commercial
attraction, Rome, was supplied from its surrounding area28 with this kind of
agriculture, which we can find already in the 4th and 3rd BC centuries and
increased after the Hannibalic War.
In Rome and central Italy the competition for the land and the accumulation of it
was getting stronger for satisficing a rising market that supplied this big area,
whereas in the rest of Italy the importance of the local market had being rising
but without these characteristics.
28
At this point for studying a central market, in this case of Rome, is important the theory of Von
Thnen, who argues that the land closest to the market will produce the perishable goods andflowers, fruit, and vegetables; further away staple foods, such as grain, will be grown, andbeyond that extensive animal husbandry will be practised.
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As we have said before, the size of the market is really important for
understanding the other elements of this point. So far, the reserach had
determined that the size of the market was quite significant, but recent studies,
as the made by Jongman seed new light about its limitations. This
investigations argue that the population of the whole Italy was 1.9 millon, even
slaves, for the year 28 BC. If we consider the average of nutritional needs for a
male and the estimation yield of crops, he concludes that only 20,800 km 2, the
20 per cent of all arable land in Italy, were need for feeding this 1.9 million of
people through basic food (grain, olives and wine). Knowing that the population
for the year 133 was fewer than for the first century, therefore, the amount of
land to meet the urban market was fewer as well. We must conclude that the
size of the market was smaller than is usually thought.
Once i have explained these three fundamental aspects for the roman economy
of the second century BC, im going to talk about the villae, as i have said in the
introduction of this point.
The study of the size and the weight of the market for the commercial
agriculture is really relevant because it is directly related with the rise of large
estates, worked by slaves and, therefore, with one of the elements that are
presented in the crisis of the second century. In this way, we must study the
size and location of this estates, often called latifundia, to know the size of the
market. These are composed by great amounts of land and numerous slaves.
However, this kind of estates do not appear until the first century BC, when it
evolucionated towards estates with more land and luxus. Besides, all the
archaeological evidence about villae dated from the second century BC are
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much smaller and they produced not only for the market, but also for the
subsistence of his own personal. The denomination of villae for this kind of
estates, that were above of the subsistance level and were probably engaged in
production of the market, seems more suitable29
.
About the size and location of the villae we have our best source in Caton (234-
149)30, who stims the size of the olive plantations in 120/240 iugera and the
vineyars in 100 iugera. However, the land for other products must be added to
the land needed for the main crop, being the total larger than is usually
mentioned31. The estimations about how much land will be needed for the other
produce of the farm could be 30 iugera, having then 130 in the case of the
vineyards and 270 in the olive plantations32. Besides, we have the possibilities
that the farmer could have additional land in other part or will use ager publicus.
We can conclude that, given that the size of the villae was smaller than is
usually thought, and the accumulation of land and slaves less important, the
impact over the peasantry was less significant. At the same time, the size of the
market neither had the development and the consolidation that will reach in the
subsequent times, and therefore, there is no need for enormous estates.
29
Ibidem, p.15630
In general terms Caton describes this estate with the aim of doing profit in the market, and be
self-suffcient. The first element is corroborated by telling us wich size should have the city in thenearby of the villae or the importance of the presence of the sea, river or a good road for thetransport. The self-suffuciency should be satified with the growing of wine, olive oil, grain for the
slaves and many other products needed for the support of the farm and its inhabitants.31 ROSELAAR, S. T., op. cit. p. 15832
Ibidem, p. 160
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2.4. ROMAN MANPOWER IN THE SECOND CENTURY
Another problem that emerges when we study the dinamics of the second
century BC, are the anxities of manpower, as we can read in the accounts of
Plutarch and Appian.
Different arguments have been propused for explaining this fact, such as the
impoverishment of the population, caused by the riseing in the time and
distance of the wars, the increase in the use of slaves and the preassure on the
land.
The distance and the new duration of the wars broke the balance between war
and agriculture, harming widely in the peasantry and its capacity of subsistence.
However, this traditional view is being challenged in the last years. One of the
best examples for supporting this is the work of Nathan Rosenstein, who
maintain that the warfare between the demands of the military service and the
farming needs alredy existed in the previous centurys before the Hannibalic
War. The time of the war rose33 alredy in the fourth century34. If this is true, and
it seems really viable, the principal problems of the second century caused by
the impossiblity of joining war and agriculture should be visible before this time.
One of the big achievements of Rosenstein is to have shown the high
compatibility between farming cycles and a long time spent in the army, through
the patterns of familiar models and the needs for the production. As he shows,
the late age of male marriage ensured that for some family patterns it was a
positive adventage to have a son away at war and for others strategies were
33
Another examples for the extension of the campaign we can find them in the war against
Pyrrhus.34ROSENSTEIN, N., Rome at War, University of North Carolina Press, Chapell Hill, 2004, p.
26-58
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available to minimize harm, while, except at times of greatest preassure the
levying authorities may have avoided taking men whose loss would jeopardize
farm survival35
.
At the same time, the need or the supposed need of manpower by the Roman
state can be understandable, since we have notice about the high reluctance
for the dangerous and little profitable wars36.
2.4. THE NUMBER OF SLAVES
One of the big problems that we have to handel when we study the second
century and its problematic is the quantitative importance of the slavery, though
this a hard task because of the less resources for doing it. The slavery is closely
related with the appearance and rise of the villae, with the impoverishment of
the small peasants and with the demographic aspect, alredy outlined in the
previous sections.
About the different estimations that have alredy done on this issue, firstly
we find the results of Hopkins37 who has ventured the suggestion that in the
early imperial period Italy had two million of slaves, using the evidence collected
by Brunt. Of this two million, 1.2 million were assigned to the country, causing
this way the alredy known consecuences for the small farmers that the sources
like Appian and Plutarch tell us. However, this estimations do not reflect more
35
Ibidem, 63-10636
RICH, J.W. The supposed Roman manpower shortage of the later second century BC.
Historia: Zeitschrift fr Alte Geschichte, Bd. 32, H. 3, 1983. Pp. 287-331.37HOPKINS, K, Conquerors and slaves, Cambridge, 1978, p. 68, quoted in DE LIGT, L, 2004,
op. cit.
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than the alredy known frame about the genuine slave society that Italy had38.
The doubts about this figures had risen in the last years, which does not deny
that in the Roman Republic the use of slaves for working in the big estates was
a fact. But in which proportion?. Another perspectives that study the number of
slaves in the Roman Republic fit better with the reconsideration of the basic
supports for this period. One good example of these can be the recent
demonstrations of Jongman, who affirms that fewer than 200.000 hectares of
Italian soil were needed to produce all the wine and oil that was consumed
annually by all the cities of Italy, even Rome39. We know through the writings of
Varro and Columela40 that one slave was needed for growing 7 iugera (which
correspond with 1.75 hetares) of wineyard, fewer for the olive plantations, then
we could assume that, combining this affirmations with Jongmans stimations
about the land needed, only 100.000 slaves were necessary to work in the
vineyards and olive plantations. To this number we have to add the numer of
slaves for the supervion, around another 100.000, and the slaves for growing
the grain. This way we get a number of slaves around 250.000, which implies
that the figures provided by Hopkins are really high and they only could
manintained by assuming that some 80 percent of the rural slave work force
was to grow grain41. Even if we take into account the existence of the middle
class who could afford having slaves42, this figures are less realistic. The
calculations presented for the section belong to the early imperial period, when
the urbanization was much spread, and, therefore for our period of studying the
38
DE LIGT, L, 2004, op. cit, p. 745 39
JONGMAN W., 2003, Slavery and the Growth of Rome. The Transformation of Italy in the
Second and First Centuries BCE, in, EDWUARDS, C., WOOLF, G. (eds), Rome theCosmopolis, Cambridge, 100-22, quoted in DE LIGT, L., 2004, op. cit. p. 746.40
While Columela presents one slave per 7 iugera, Plinio in his Natural History(17.215) talks
about one slave per 10 iugera. In DE LIGT, L., 2004, op. cit.41DE LIGT, L., 2004, op. cit. p. 746
42ROSELAAR, S., op. cit, p. 182.
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figures should be still lower. That is to say, that the tradition weight given to the
slave element for the crisis of the second must be revised as one of the main
causes for the impoverishment of the small farmers and the subsequent
consecuences that led the Gracchan to make their reforms.
2.5. THE GRACCHAN REFORMS
At this point about the reforms that the Gracchi did with the intention of
solving the different problems of his own time, i am not going to focus on
explain their content, but i am going to try to approximate briefly to his
perception of their own time. Firstly, we can talk about the contemporary
perception of the demographic decline, although we have concluded before with
the census figures for the years 124 y 114 that it does not seem to exist such
fact, but otherwise, a situation of population growth. However, the literary
sources present the reforms for the year 133 as an attemp for stopping the
demographic backward. For understanding this fact it is perfectly reasonable
that Tiberius acted thinking that the number of peasants had declined, thought
his understanding of the census figures was not effective, which is
understandable if we take into account that to get an accurate demographic
view as a whole it is really difficult from a contemporary situation.
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3. CONCLUSSIONS
As the main conclussions for this work about the different aspects of the second
century crisis i argue that:
For the conclussion of the demographic factor in the second century, we
must take into account the new researchs and interpretations of the old
and new data, that supports more a population growth than a decline in
this period. However, the figures between the years 159 y 136 show a
population depcline, which can be understandable, as of the reluctance
of going to war and less efficacy in the registration of the census.
About how afect the increasing preassure for the land to the Italy of the
second century and how important was the market for the commercial
agriculture, we can conclude that for the first factor we have to take into
account the geographical conditionant of Italy, can reducing the zone to
he central Italy, where Rome acted like a big pole of attraction. For the
second point, supported by the figures of Jongman, we can say that the
market for Italy was quite small than is usually thought and, therefore, the
commercial agriculture had not a so fundamental role, supporting this the
explication about the villae and its size.
As we have just seen in this point the impoverishment of the peasants
caused by the increase of the distance and the loger time of the war
must be revised, as have done Rosenstien. He shows a high
compatibility between war and agricultur and argues that the two
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elements used to defend the idea of impoverischment in the peasantry
caused by this factors can no be mantaied.
About the number of slaves we should say that its number was fewer
than is usually thought, having into account the extension of Italy and its
arable land, the expansion of the estates and its size, which is really
lower than in the subsequent periods.
As the last point of this work i would like to say that it would be really
interesant to pay more attention to the different feelings and thoughts of
the contemporaries about this problems. The formation of the different
perceptions could be complemented and detailed with any source
(litteraty or archaeological) that could add some data or interpretation.
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4. BIBLIOGRAPHY
PRIMARY SOURCES:
APPIAN, Guerras Civiles. Edicin de Antonio Sancho Royo. Biblioteca Clsica
Gredos, Madrid 1980.
PLUTARCH, Vidas Paralelas. Vidas de Alejandro y Csar. Y Vidas de Tiberio Y
Cayo Graco. Editorial Gredos.
SECONDARY SOURCES:
ABURTO LAGOS, L. Plutarch and the construction of knowledge ParallelLives
on.Tiempo y Espacio, Vol. 25, 2013. Pp. 1-13.
BOREN, C H. The Gracchi. Ed. Twayne Publishers, New York, 1968
BRUNT, P., Italian Manpower 225 B.C.- A.D. 14., Clarendon Press, Oxford,
1971
LO CASCIO, ELIO, The Size of the Roman Population: Beloch and the
Meaning of the Augustan Census Figures, The Journal of Roman Studies Vol.
84, 1994, pp. 23-40
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ERDKAMP, P. Hunger and the Sword. Warfare and Food Supply in Roman
Republican Wars (264-30 BC). Dutch Monographs on Ancient History and
Archaeology, Vol. XX. Ed. H.W. Pleket and F.J.A.M. Meijer, Amsterdam, 1998.
GARGOLA, D. J. Appian and the aftermath of the Gracchan reform, in The
american journal of Philology, Vol. 118, No. 4, 1997, pp. 555-581.
DE LIGT, L. Some thoughts on the nature of the demographic crisis of the
second century b.C. in Crisis and the Roman Empire, Classical studies, 2007
pp. 167-188.
------------. Poverty and demography: the case of the gracchan land reforms in
Mnemosyne, vol. 57, fasc. 6, 2004, pp. 725-757.
------------. The economy: agrarian change during the second centuryin
ROSENSTEIN, N. A companion to the Roman Republic. Malden, Mass:
Blackwell Publ, 2006.
------------. Roman Manpower Resources and the Proletarization of the Roman
Army in the Second Century BC. In BLOIS, L and LO CASCIO ,E (eds.), The
Impact of the Roman Army (200 BC- AD 476). Vol. 6, Leiden-Boston, 2007.
MESTRE, F. Plutarco y la biografa de poca imperial. Revista de Estudios
Clsicos, N 34, 2007, Universidad de Barcelona. Pp. 11-28
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RICH, J.W. The supposed Roman manpower Shortage of the later century BC.
In Zeitschrift fr Alte Geschichte. Bd. 32, H. 3, 1983, pp. 287-331
-----------. Tiberius Gracchus, land and manpower in Crisis and the Roman
Empire, Classical studies, 2007 pp. 153-166.
ROSELAAR, S. T. Public Land in the Roman Republic. A Social and Economic
History ofAger Publicus in Italy, 369-89 BC. Ed. Oxford University Press, New
York, 2010.
------------------Ager publicus in the roman republic and the evolutionary theory
of land rights, in The Italians on the land: changeing perspectives on
Republican Italy then and now. L. Earnshaw-Brown & A.P. Keaveney (eds.),
Newcastle, 2009, pp. 11-30.
ROSENSTEIN, N., Rome at War, University of North Carolina Press, Chapell
Hill, 2004.
------------------ A companion to the Roman Republic. Malden, Mass: Blackwell
Publ, 2006.
ROSKAM, R. Ambition and love of fame in Plutarch lives of Agis, Cleomenes
and the Gracchi. Classical Philology, Vol. 106, No. 3, 2011. Pp. 208-225