Peasants and Slaves
The Rural Population of Roman Italy (200 BC to AD 100)

A radical interdisciplinary reappraisal of the agrarian background to the political events which shaped Rome during the Late Republic.

Alessandro Launaro (Author)

9781107004795, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 19 May 2011

364 pages, 28 b/w illus. 15 maps 66 tables
24.9 x 17.5 x 2.5 cm, 0.88 kg

'… this book is essential reading for both ancient historians and classical archaeologists as it presents the fundamental arguments concerning the demographic calculations of the Roman population and the contribution of archaeology to historical debates.' Arctos

The crisis of the Roman Republic and its transformation into an Empire have fascinated generations of scholars. It has long been assumed that a dramatic demographic decline of the rural free peasantry (which was supplanted by slaves) triggered the series of social and economic developments which eventually led to Rome's political crisis during the first century BC. This book contributes to a lively debate by exploring both the textual and the archaeological evidence, and by tracing and reassessing the actual fate of the Italian rural free population between the Late Republic and the Early Empire. Data derived from a comparative analysis of twenty-seven archaeological surveys – and about five thousand sites – allow Dr Launaro to outline a radically new picture according to which episodes of local decline are placed within a much more generalised pattern of demographic growth.

Preface
Introduction
Part I. An Outline of the Historical Demography of Roman Italy: 1. The Italian population under Augustus
2. Competing arguments and relevant implications
Part II. Demography and Landscape Archaeology: Towards an Integration: 3. Absolute figures and relative trends
4. A comparison of relevant trends
Part III. Archaeological Evidence from Surveys: 5. Site trends across Roman Italy
Part IV. The Rural Population of Roman Italy (200 BC–AD 100): 6. Settlement and demography
7. A view of the countryside
Appendix. Survey projects database.

Subject Areas: Classical Greek & Roman archaeology [HDDK], Ancient history: to c 500 CE [HBLA]