ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL
CHANGES OF THE SECOND CENTURY BC
1 AGRICULTURAL
DEVELOPMENT OF LARGE LANDHOLDINGS DESIGNED FOR PRODUCTION OF CASH CROPS – wine
and olive oil exports from
CATO THE ELDER, DE AGRICULTURA , LATIFUNDIA, SLAVE DRIVEN
AGRICULTURAL ESTATES,
2. URBAN, PUBLIC
BUILDING PROGRAMS
PASTORAL ECONOMY – large
scale herding in Appenines
3. Rise of large scale
slave combines
TENNEY FRANK, THE ROMAN
ECONOMY, ECONOMIC SURVEY OF ANCIENT ROME, 250,000 human prisoners relocated
from the Mediterranean periphery to
TI. SEMPRONIUS GRACCHUS, COS 178, suppressed Sardinian
revolt, sold 80,000 Sardinians into slavery
Slave Revolts in
4. Decline in Roman
Military Readiness
CENSUS OF 164 BC
337,022; 136 BC, 317,933
A
slight decline in Roman male citizens eligible for the draft at a time when
population was rising.
GARRISON DUTY imposed
new demands on Roman draft levies; DRAFT DODGING? Roman
citizens abandoning small farms in rural landscape to evade the draft?
5.Rising importance of Roman aristocracy and Equites
Rising Costs of
Political Careers – Corruption, Displays of Conspicuous Consumption,
Specialization
Creation of Permanent
courts (quaestiones)
to prosecute election bribery, extortion in the provinces
Roman elites focused
attention on majestic rural villas, fish ponds, expensive slave staffs for
their villas and their Roman town houses in the city. Promagistrates
exploited their provincial commands to enrich themselves
Cato the Elder, cos.
195, censor 184; Orat. Rom. Frag.
Plautus (254-184 BC);
Terence, contemporary reflections on Roman private life
Miles Gloriosus, - Braggart Warrior, Pseudolus,
paedegogus