The Roman world of work : social structures and the urban labour market of Roman Italy in the first three centuries AD

Abstract

The urban labour market must have been substantial in early imperial Roman Italy, where the economy was thriving and urbanization rates were unprecedented. It could be argued that the existence of slavery precluded an actual labour market. The Roman World of Work argues, however, that the economic concepts of a labour market and labour market segmentation hold explanatory power for understanding labour in the cities of Roman Italy. It turns out that gender was more restricting for the position of an individual than legal status, or skill levels. The Roman labour market was segmented along these lines of sex, legal status and skill levels. Yet such factors were culturally determined: they were given meaning and filled in by family and non-familial relations. An individual labourer cannot therefore be viewed on his or her own, but should be understood in the context of the prevailing social structures. This was true for the freeborn, but also for the slave and freed components of the group. Family and non-familial collectives provided intersecting trust networks that were crucial to economic interaction in Roman society, where reliable information was scarce and economic insecurity loomed large.