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Information Landscapes and Economic Practice in the Roman World

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Managing Information in the Roman Economy

Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in Ancient Economies ((PASTAE))

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Abstract

This chapter explores the reality of asymmetric information in Roman economic practice by analyzing the historical development of information landscapes in the Roman world, and by assessing what these imply for the contexts in which asymmetric information could play a role in everyday transactions. Space remains an underexplored issue in approaches to economic practice in the ancient world, even though it is clear that, particularly in the Hellenistic period and the early Roman Empire, the nature and the dynamics of space change drastically, within regions, they change as a consequence of political unification, economic integration, and urbanization and, within cities, they change because of developments in architectural practice and increasing monumentalization. This chapter discusses these developments both at the regional level and the urban level. Focusing on the regional level, it observes the emergence, within the Roman Empire, of a limited number of clusters with a rather dense pattern of urbanization, implying strongly integrated regional information networks, and large areas were cities were fewer and further in between, suggesting more dispersed information networks, and a less natural circulation of information. These differences matter for economic actors operating at a supra-local level, and they have implications for the information strategies they can develop. Within cities, this chapter observes an increasing development toward the construction of permanently accessible public facilities in and around the urban center which suggests a more predictable communication landscape, and therefore a more stable circulation of information, while the increasing amounts of shops along urban thoroughfares particularly in Roman Italy increased the density of urban information landscapes. This means that more, and better information was available to more people. The final section of the chapter explores what this means for information asymmetries, contending that this transformed the role that information assymetries played in everyday economic praxis.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    On the role of product and pricing information in the dynamics between buyers and sellers see Akerlof 1970, with Dari-Matiacci et al. 2011.

  2. 2.

    On vestiarii see, for example, Buonopane 2003; Menella 2000.

  3. 3.

    See the long lists of prices in Ed. Diocl. 19 (wool, 73 lines) and 26 (linen, >140 lines).

  4. 4.

    Horden and Purcell 2000.

  5. 5.

    Bang 2008: 137–138.

  6. 6.

    See esp. Bang 2008, but also Morley 2007a, 2007b, and, on the other side of the interpretative spectrum, Temin 2013.

  7. 7.

    See esp. Adams 2012.

  8. 8.

    Scheidel 2014.

  9. 9.

    Cf. Bang 2008: 137 on the problem of pre-industrial merchants not having accurate market information on arrival in a city.

  10. 10.

    See, for example, Erdkamp 2005: 190: “good information on market conditions was much easier to obtain along the busy shipping lanes than on isolated coasts”.

  11. 11.

    Broekaert 2013, 2015. See also recent discourse on trading communities Bang 2008: 239–89; Rice 2016; Terpstra 2013; Verboven 2011.

  12. 12.

    The most recent book-length survey on Roman urban geography is Hanson 2016.

  13. 13.

    Search terms used, by category: monetary culture: pecunia sua, sua pecunia, denarius, HS, nummus (EDCS); ἐκ τῶν ἰδιων, δηναριον (SGI); statuary: statua (EDCS); ἀγάλμα, ἀνδριας, εἰκῶν (SGI); spectacle architecture: amphitheatrum, circus, theatrum (EDCS); θεάτρον, σταδίον (SGI). Spectacles: ludus, spectaculum, venatio (EDCS); ἀγων, ἀγωνοθετης, θεωρία (SGI); bathing: thermae, bal(i)neum (EDCS); βαλανεῖον, γυμνάσιον (SGI). The total amount of inscriptions underlying the map of Fig. 10.1 is 11.591. A full overview of the database used, and a live version of the map in Fig. 10.1 are available via http://www.mikoflohr.org/romanworld/

  14. 14.

    For example, Golvin 1988; Humphrey 1986; Manderscheid 1988, 2004; Sear 2006; Welch 1998. The total amount of baths and spectacle buildings underlying the map of Fig. 10.1 is 1.501.

  15. 15.

    See, for example, Wilson 2011: 163–167; Jouffroy 1986.

  16. 16.

    The density of settlements was measured by counting, for each settlement, the number of settlements within a radius of 30 km as the crow flies. This distance was chosen as reflecting a journey of one day on foot, or one day back and forth by cart. The map highlights cities with more than two neighbors within this distance.

  17. 17.

    For example, CIL 2.3278, referring to Valeria Petina, flaminica in Corduba, Castulo, and Tucci; CIL 9.2438 (169–172 AD) shows magistrates from Bovianum and Saepinum in Samnium operating together; CIL 9.6760 (from Aesernia, second century AD) shows these two cities had an eques, Flavius Celer, who was their shared curator.

  18. 18.

    On these market circuits see De Ligt 1993. Strabo (5.3.8) recalls how Pompeii was the port city of Nuceria and Nola.

  19. 19.

    On the impact of Rome see Morley 1996. On the role of Africa see Hobson 2015: 63–102; Mattingly 1995: 138–55. On Baetica see Haley 2003.

  20. 20.

    See, for a vivid depiction of such a scenario, Bang 2008: 137–138.

  21. 21.

    All distances were measured as the crow flies using Google Earth. Locations of the cities mentioned were based on Ahlfeldt’s Digital Atlas of the Roman Empire, dare.ht.lu.se, May 8, 2019. Orbis gives a travel time of 2.3 days by foot from Osca to Caesaraugusta, and 3.5 days from Osca to Ilerda; orbis.stanford.edu, May 8, 2019.

  22. 22.

    On the demography of Rome see Morley 2013.

  23. 23.

    On the pre-Roman urbanization of Baetica see Houten 2018: 32–36.

  24. 24.

    For Baetica see Haley 2003. For Africa see Sears 2011. Italy has been intensively discussed, but see, for example, Vermeulen 2017: 108–161.

  25. 25.

    See for the flourishing of euergetism in the imperial period in general Jouffroy 1986; Patterson 2006; Zuiderhoek 2009.

  26. 26.

    Cic. Rosc. Am. 132: ‘aptam et ratione dispositam se habere existimant, qui in Sallentinis aut in Bruttiis habent unde vix ter in anno audire nuntium possunt’. Cf. Morley 1996: 72.

  27. 27.

    On the role of the forum see Flohr 2020a; Laurence et al. 2011: 170–202.

  28. 28.

    See, for example, Broekaert 2017. Cf. CIL 4.3340:155 (Pompeis in foro). TPSulp 1–18 (Puteolis in foro), 19 (Romae in foro Augusto). See also Flohr 2020a.

  29. 29.

    For example, Vitr. De Arch. 5.1.2.

  30. 30.

    Liv. 41.27; Lackner 2008: 271.

  31. 31.

    Cf. Baratto 2003; Bouet 2012; Cavalieri 1999; Roberti 1995.

  32. 32.

    Baaziz 1987.

  33. 33.

    See also Ellis 2018.

  34. 34.

    On the porticus of Popidius at Pompeii see (Pesando & Guidobaldi 2006: 51–52. On the porticus in general see Frakes 2009; Lackner 2008: 271; Nünnerich-Asmus 1994.

  35. 35.

    See on the forum and the imperial fora Coarelli 2008: 47–155.

  36. 36.

    On this issue see Flohr 2020b.

  37. 37.

    On the emergence and spread of the basilica see Gros 1996: 235–60; Lackner 2008: 266–71; Nünnerich-Asmus 1994. See also Laurence et al. 2011: 170–202.

  38. 38.

    Vitr. De Arch. 5.1.4.

  39. 39.

    See esp. Nielsen 1990; Patterson 2006: 130–60; Thébert 2003.

  40. 40.

    See, for example, Apul. Met. 9.24–26. For a demographic breakdown of the visitors to Roman baths see Fagan 2002: 189–219.

  41. 41.

    On these see Laurence et al. 2011: 231–84; Patterson 2006: 130–148.

  42. 42.

    On the archaeology of the taberna see Holleran 2012: 99–158, 2017.

  43. 43.

    See, for example, Flohr 2016a:168–169.

  44. 44.

    As is the case with the small fullonicae of Pompeii. Cf. Flohr 2013: 319.

  45. 45.

    At Pompeii, 284 of ca. 900 excavated tabernae had a direct internal connection to a house, while the total number of tabernae associated with houses (including both independent and internally connected tabernae ) is 598. See for the underlying data Flohr 2018.

  46. 46.

    The depiction of the activities in a textile workshop on the façade of house IX 7, 1–2 at Pompeii are a good example. Cf. Potts 2009. It has to be emphasized, however, that the actual spread of such paintings should not be overestimated.

  47. 47.

    Frakes 2009; Laurence et al. 2011: 170–202. The limited spread of the taberna outside Italy was not explicitly noted by Ellis 2018, but it is implicit from the virtual absence of non-Italian tabernae throughout his analysis.

  48. 48.

    See for comparable problems Bang 2008: 138.

  49. 49.

    On wool from these regions see Flohr 2016b, 2017.

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  1. Universiteit Leiden, Leiden, The Netherlands

    Miko Flohr

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    Cristina Rosillo-López

  2. University of Roehampton, London, UK

    Marta García Morcillo

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Flohr, M. (2021). Information Landscapes and Economic Practice in the Roman World. In: Rosillo-López, C., García Morcillo, M. (eds) Managing Information in the Roman Economy. Palgrave Studies in Ancient Economies. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-54100-2_10

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