Studies in the History of Greece and Rome

Farms, Families, and Death in the Middle Republic

Nathan Rosenstein

• Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press
• Year: 2005
• ISBN:
  9780807864104
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Roman Ancient History
• Index: History

Historians have long asserted that during and after the Hannibalic War, the Roman Republic's need to conscript men for long-term military service helped bring about the demise of Italy's small farms and that the misery of impoverished citizens then became fuel for the social and political conflagrations of the late republic. Nathan Rosenstein challenges this claim, showing how Rome reconciled the needs of war and agriculture throughout the middle republic. The key, Rosenstein argues, lies in recognizing the critical role of family formation. By analyzing models of families' needs for agricultural labor over their life cycles, he shows that families often had a surplus of manpower to meet the demands of military conscription. Did, then, Roman imperialism play any role in the social crisis of the later second century B.C.? Rosenstein argues that Roman warfare had critical demographic consequences that have gone unrecognized by previous historians: heavy military mortality paradoxically helped sustain a dramatic increase in the birthrate, ultimately leading to overpopulation and landlessness.

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Rome at War
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• illustrations
• Acknowledgments
• Chapter 1: Introduction: Agriculture in Italy from Hannibal to Tiberius Gracchus
• Chapter 2: War and Agriculture: A Critique of the Conventional View
• Chapter 3: War and the Life Cycles of Families: Three Models
• Chapter 4: Mortality in War
• Chapter 5: Military Mortality and Agrarian Crisis
• Appendix 1: The Number of Roman Slaves in 168 B.C.
• Appendix 2: The Accuracy of the Roman Calendar before 218 B.C.
• Appendix 3: Tenancy
• Appendix 4: The Minimum Age for Military Service
• Appendix 5: The Proportion of Assidui in the Roman Population
• Appendix 6: The Duration of Military Service in the Second Century B.C.
• Appendix 7: The Number of Citizen Deaths as a Result of Military Service between 203 and 168 B.C.
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index