People, Land, and Politics: Demographic Developments and the Transformation of Roman Italy, 300 BC-AD 14

Front Cover
Luuk de Ligt, Simon Northwood
BRILL, Nov 30, 2008 - History - 73 pages
Recent research has called into question the orthodox view that the last two centuries of the Roman Republic witnessed a decline of the free rural population. Yet the implications of the alternative reconstructions of Italy's demographic history that have been proposed have never been explored systematically. This volume offers a series of in-depth discussions not only of the republican manpower and census figures but also of the abundant archaeological data. It also explores the growth of cities, especially Rome, and the changing distribution of the population over the Italian landscape. On the rural side it addresses the interplay between demographic, economic, and legal developments and the background to the Gracchan land reforms. Finally it examines the political implications of demographic growth and large-scale migration to the provinces. The volume as a whole demonstrates that demography is the key to many aspects of Italy's economic, social, military, and political history.
 

Contents

Introduction
1
I DEMOGRAPHY
15
The Logic of the Debate Walter Scheidel
17
The Much Maligned Peasant Comparative Perspectives on the Productivity of the Small Farmer in Classical Antiquity J Geoffrey Kron
71
Urbanisation and Development in Italy in the Late Republic Neville Morley
121
The Population of Cisalpine Gaul in the Time of Augustus Luuk de Ligt
139
II CENSUS FIGURES AND POPULATION
185
Counting Romans Saskia Hin
187
Two Case Studies Maurizio Gualtieri
387
IV ALLIED MANPOWER AND MIGRATION
415
Mobility and Migration in Italy in the Second Century BC Paul Erdkamp
417
Fixity and Mobility in SecondCentury Italy Will Broadhead
451
The Gracchi the Latins and the Italian Allies Henrik Mouritsen
471
V AGER PUBLICUS
485
The Gracchan Reform and Appians Representation of an Agrarian Crisis Daniel J Gargola
487
BG Niebuhr and the Limitation of Landholding in the Roman Republic John Rich
519

Roman Census Figures in the Second Century BC and the Property Qualifi cation of the Fifth Class Elio Lo Cascio
239
Census and Tributum Simon Northwood
257
III SURVEY ARCHAEOLOGY AND DEMOGRAPHY
271
Regional Field Survey and the Demography of Roman Italy Robert Witcher
273
Poor Peasants and Silent Sherds Dominic Rathbone
305
Settlement Organization and Land Distribution in Latin Colonies Before the Second Punic War Jeremia Pelgrom
333
Polybius and the Field Survey Evidence from Apulia Douwe Yntema
373
Regional Variations in the Use of the Ager Publicus Saskia T Roselaar
573
V IDEMOGRAPHY AND THE END OF THE REPUBLIC
603
Jack Goldstone and the Roman Revolution Nathan Rosenstein
605
Population Distribution and the End of the Roman Republic Michael Crawford
631
Index
645
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