Table Of ContentTrading Communities in the Roman World
Columbia Studies in the
Classical Tradition
Editorial Board
William V. Harris (editor)
Alan Cameron, Suzanne Said,
Kathy H. Eden, Gareth D. Williams, Holger A. Klein
VOLUME 37
The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/csct
Trading Communities in the
Roman World
A Micro-Economic and Institutional Perspective
By
Taco T. Terpstra
LEIDEn • bOSTOn
2013
Cover Illustration: Marble plaque dedicated by Iulius Aurelius Heliodorus to the Palmyrene gods
Malachbel and Aglibol. Capitoline Museums, Rome (author’s photograph).
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Terpstra, Taco T.
Trading communities in the Roman world : a micro-economic and institutional perspective /
by Taco T. Terpstra.
pages cm. — (Columbia studies in the classical tradition, ISSn 0166-1302 ; 37)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISbn 978-90-04-23860-2 (hbk. : alk. paper) — ISbn 978-90-04-24513-6 (e-book) 1. Rome—
Commerce—History. 2. Microeconomics. 3. Social archaeology—Rome. 4. Rome (Italy)—
History—To 476. I. Title.
HF377.T47 2013
381.0937—dc23
2012044489
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ISSn 0166-1302
ISbn 978-90-04-23860-2 (hardback)
ISbn 978-90-04-24513-6 (e-book)
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COnTEnTS
Preface ................................................................................................................ vii
Abbreviations ................................................................................................... xi
Introduction ..................................................................................................... 1
I. Intra-Community Exchange and the Use of Law in Puteoli ..... 9
Legal Interaction and Personal Knowledge ............................... 9
The Murecine Tablets: Archive and Archaeology .................... 11
Intra-Community Exchange in Puteoli ....................................... 15
Commerce and Social Standing in Ancient Puteoli ................ 23
Path Dependence: ‘History Matters’ ............................................... 31
Path Dependence: ‘Sunk’ Organizational Capital .................... 37
Path Dependence: Satisfactory Outcomes ................................. 43
Conclusion ........................................................................................... 48
II. Inter-Community Exchange and the Role of Trading Stations
in Puteoli ................................................................................................... 51
Intra- and Inter-Community Trade .............................................. 51
Inter-Community Exchange and the Debate on the Roman
Economy .......................................................................................... 54
Inter-City Trade in Twelfth- and Thirteenth-Century
Florence ............................................................................................ 56
Individual Legal Responsibility; The Murecine Tablets ......... 59
A Micro-Economic Model of Inter-Community Exchange ... 65
The Tyrian Trading Station ............................................................. 70
Tyrian Agents as a Trading ‘bridge’ .............................................. 79
Overseas Agency as a General System of Exchange in
Puteoli ............................................................................................... 84
Conclusion ........................................................................................... 92
III. Coalitions of Foreign Merchants and Shipowners in Ostia ....... 95
The Maghribis’ Coalition and Medieval Trade ......................... 95
Comparing the Maghribis and Trade networks in the
Roman Empire ............................................................................... 99
The Ostian Material Evidence: the ‘Piazzale delle
Corporazioni’ .................................................................................. 100
vi contents
The Role and Importance of Coalition-Membership ............. 112
Overseas Settlers in Ostia ................................................................ 118
Conclusion ............................................................................................ 124
IV. Inter-Community Trade and the City of Rome ............................. 127
Orbis in Urbe ....................................................................................... 127
Stationes on the Forum Iulium ..................................................... 130
Stationes on the Sacra Via ............................................................... 137
Ephesians in Rome ............................................................................ 147
Palmyrenes in Rome ......................................................................... 152
Syrians in Rome .................................................................................. 160
The Western Provinces and Africa ............................................... 164
Conclusion ............................................................................................ 167
V. Roman Traders in the Province of Asia ........................................... 171
The Roman East as a Case-Study .................................................. 171
Law and Life of Asia .......................................................................... 177
Romans Resident in Ephesus ......................................................... 194
Romans Resident in Magnesia and Tralles ................................ 197
Romans Resident in Apamea ......................................................... 203
The Roman Settlers’ Social Position ............................................. 207
Conclusion ............................................................................................ 219
Conclusion ........................................................................................................ 223
bibliography ..................................................................................................... 227
Index ................................................................................................................... 239
PREFACE
This book is the reworked version of my doctoral thesis, written at Colum-
bia University between 2006 and 2011. However, the seed for this book
was sown when I studied the Sulpicii archive during my MA in Classics
at Groningen University. The Sulpicii archive is the only ancient source
I actually recall reading for the first time. My mentor at Groningen, Wil-
lem Jongman, introduced me to this material in a peculiar setting, which
I still remember vividly. Visiting friends in Cambridge and on my way to
a May ball at one of the colleges, I went to see Wim, who was spending
a semester at the University. He had just checked out Camodeca’s edi-
tion of the Sulpicii archive from the library—a recent publication at the
time—and showed it to me, sitting in his garden. In the chilly spring dusk,
seated on a plastic lawn chair, uncomfortably dressed in white tie, I leafed
through the pages. Even reading the Sulpicii documents only cursorily that
first time, I was fascinated with them: their content provides the kind of
direct evidence for business in the Roman world that is exceedingly rare.
I decided then and there I wanted to study the archive.
Working in Pompeian archaeology for many years, and becoming famil-
iar with the general area where the tablets were found, made the archive
even more evocative to me. I have often stood under Pompeii’s Porta
Stabia, gazing at the road leading into Pompeii, wondering if the people
I knew from the archive ever walked that street. I like to think that they
did, although as the archaeological section of the Chapter 1 makes clear,
chances are this is just my fantasy.
The topic for this book grew out of a number of practical questions
I developed reading the Sulpicii documents, and out of simple curiosity:
how did Roman merchants, not just the merchants in the archive but in
the Roman world in general, manage to trade around the Mediterranean
basin and beyond, while information and goods traveled only slowly?
Why did they use Roman law and Roman courts if there was no state
mandate to that effect and the state did not enforce the courts’ verdicts?
I did not find satisfactory answers to those questions in the literature,
so I decided to devise them myself. because of the scarcity of data on
the Roman economy, I needed a general framework to slot the limited
ancient sources into. During my doctorate I was able both to develop the
theoretical framework I needed—an exercise that allowed me to engage
viii preface
with economic theory, a subject since long of interest to me—and expand
on the evidentiary data pool for my model.
A note on the system of references to secondary literature used in this
book: for authors cited with surname, year, and page numbers, e.g. Camo-
deca (1994) 104–109, the full reference can be found in the bibliography.
Works not separately listed there, such as the entries in Eva Steinby’s Lexi-
con Topographicum Urbis Romae, are cited with initial, surname, year, and
page numbers, e.g. E. Papi ([in: Steinby V] 1999) 10–12. If the pages referred
to are in a journal, the author’s initial and surname along with the abbre-
viated journal title are given, e.g. R. Lanciani, N.d.sc. (1881) 114. A full list
of journal abbreviations used in this book is given below. A full list of
abbreviations of the epigraphic corpora is also included.
I could not have written this book alone, and in the course of writing
it have incurred many debts of gratitude. First and foremost I am deeply
indebted to William Harris and Roger bagnall who, during my years at
Columbia, have provided me with essential guidance, feedback, and criti-
cism. Their professional mentorship has been a constant reminder to me
of just how lucky and privileged I was, working with scholars of their
stature.
A number of people have contributed to this work with enthusiastic and
critical comments. I would like to thank in particular: Justin Dombrowski,
Emily Holt, Willem Jongman, Marco Maiuro, David Ratzan, Peter Temin,
and Arjan Zuiderhoek. All of them have read parts or all of the manu-
script, and have provided me with valuable feedback. My deep gratitude
also goes to Ronald Findlay and Adam Kosto. I am very thankful to both
for lending me their expertise and for giving me advice; this book is much
the better for it. I would also like to thank Jessica Goldberg for allowing
me access to her (at the time) unpublished Past & Present article, and
for providing me with helpful reading suggestions. The usual disclaimer
applies of course: any remaining flaws and mistakes in the argument or in
the handling of sources are wholly mine.
I would further like to express my gratitude to Columbia University
for providing me with a W. Stuart Thompson Memorial Fellowship for
research at the American Academy in Rome during the academic year
2008/2009. I would not have been able to write the third and fourth chap-
ters of this book as they now stand without this generous support. I would
also like to thank Columbia’s Center for the Ancient Mediterranean for
providing me with the opportunity to visit Turkey’s west coast during the
Center’s field-trip in June 2008. The knowledge acquired on that trip has
been of great help to me in writing Chapter 5. My gratitude also goes
preface ix
to the Stanwood Cockey Lodge Foundation, which financed the imaging
work in this book.
Finally I would like to thank my parents who, throughout my long
journey from MA student to Ph.D. candidate at Columbia, have been an
invaluable source of inspiration and support to me. Their encouragement
has been crucial; their sense of pride has been heartwarming. This book
is dedicated to them.
