The Organization of Rome's Wine Trade by Alexander Conison a Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements
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The Organization of Rome’s Wine Trade by Alexander Conison A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Greek and Roman History) in the University of Michigan 2012 Doctoral Committee: Professor Bruce W. Frier, Chair Professor David S. Potter Professor Nicola Terrenato Professor Raymond H. Van Dam Acknowledgements This project has relied on the help, directly and indirectly, of my many colleagues, advisors, and friends here at the University of Michigan. But my space here is short, and it is altogether impossible to describe the suggestions, questions, and conversations held in the Classics department, Ann Arbor bars, and friends’ homes which have allowed me to bring this project to completion. First, the financial and intellectual support given me by the University of Michigan and the Interdepartmental Program in Greek and Roman History has been beyond generous. My fellow students in IPGRH, IPCAA, and Classical Philology are among the most pleasant, intelligent, and entertaining group of colleagues one could hope for. I owe, in addition, singular debts of gratitude to the following people: Ben Acosta-Hughes; Alex Angelov; Michelle Biggs; H.D. Cameron; David, Jay, & Nancy Conison; Kevin Dicus; Bruce Frier; Traianos Gagos; Charlotte Maxwell-Jones; Raji Mittal; Jason Parnell; Davorka “Seki” Radovcic; Jon Rowland; Gina Soter; Ray Van Dam. Brief words here could not possibly do justice to the many ways, great and small, you all have impacted my life over the last six years. ii Table of Contents Acknowledgements……………………………………………………………………………………………………..ii List of Figures……………………………………………………………………………………………………………...v Chapter I. Introduction ........................................................................................................ 1 “Wandering Drunk on the Shore” ................................................. 1 A Brief History of Wine’s Diffusion Among the Romans ............... 6 II. Methods and Models for the Study of Roman Wine ....................................... 20 Free-Market or Embedded Trade? .............................................. 20 “At the Distancce of Centuries…” ................................................ 31 Models ......................................................................................... 39 Sources ........................................................................................ 49 “These fragments I have shorn…” ............................................... 64 III. The Scope of the Roman Wine Firm ............................................................... 67 “The Price was Inviting” .............................................................. 67 Business Organizations and Asset Partitioning ........................... 76 “Everything is in the Power of the Contracting Parties…” ........ 100 Conclusion ................................................................................. 119 IV. Wine Production ........................................................................................... 122 “Quality, Quality, Quality: What is Quality to Me?” ................. 122 Differences between the Roman and Medieval Wine-Trade .... 143 “Surplus-Producing Areas” and International Trade ................. 153 Conclusions ................................................................................ 163 V. The Problem of Storage ................................................................................. 168 “The Most Precious Gift to the Temperate and Rational Man” 168 An Overview of Urban Storage .................................................. 172 Ostia .......................................................................................... 176 Storage at Rome ........................................................................ 194 iii VI. Dynamism in the Roman Wine Trade ........................................................... 208 Cellae and Horrea: Why the Distinction? .................................. 208 A Simple Model of Storage ........................................................ 217 Locking Devices: Technological Development .......................... 221 Locking Devices: Legal Developments ....................................... 230 “Keys to the Kingdom of God…” ................................................ 246 VII. Conclusion ................................................................................................... 249 Bibliography ....................................................................................................... 256 iv List of Figures Figure 2.1 Ratio of Rome’s Consumption........................................................................27 2.2 Institutional Analysis.......................................................................................47 3.1 Vendor-Buyer Game......................................................................................118 4.1 Areas of Wine Production..............................................................................145 4.2 Roman Senator Provenance...........................................................................162 4.3 Moving Percentage of Wine and Senators.....................................................163 4.4 Distribution of Amphora Provenance at Ostia...............................................164 5.1 Unnamed Corridor Horrea.............................................................................174 5.2 Courtyard Horrea...........................................................................................175 5.3 Horrea Lolliana..............................................................................................175 5.4 Ostian Corridor Horrea..................................................................................181 5.5 Unexcavated Ostian Horrea...........................................................................181 5.6 Ostian Courtyard Horrea................................................................................182 5.7 Caseggiato dei Doli........................................................................................184 5.8 Dolia Defossa (Via di Anno).........................................................................185 5.9 Dolia Defossa (V.XI.5)..................................................................................186 5.10 Deposito di Olii............................................................................................187 5.11 Interior Spatial Distribution.........................................................................189 5.12 Significance of Difference...........................................................................190 5.13 Horrea at Nauportus.....................................................................................192 5.14 Roman Horrea Type.....................................................................................198 5.15 Roman non-Horrea storage facility..............................................................198 5.16 Insulae, Domus, and Horrea densities at Rome...........................................200 5.17 Cellae vinariae Nova et Arruntina...............................................................203 6.1 Appreciation-depreciation equilibrium..........................................................219 6.2 Risk allocation curve for storage...................................................................220 6.3 Average key lengths.......................................................................................229 v Chapter I Introduction “Wandering Drunk on the Shore” Roman authors cared little about the drinking habits of Rome’s general population.1 There was no Roman Charles Buxton, who in an 1868 jeremiad against drunkenness, argued that, “the best thing…for the improvement of the morals of the working classes…was the closing of the public houses on the Saturday night” and that “undoubtedly the State can do much to lessen the temptation to drunkenness.”2 The upper-class Romans declaimed through their silence a rousing “who cares” when responding to the habits (drinking and otherwise) of the lower social orders. Nevertheless, glimmers of light emerge from that general obscurity and make clear that, as in later societies, drinking in quantity was commonplace among Rome’s population by the high Classical age. This silence on lower-class drinking initially seems especially surprising because Roman authors certainly observed and at times criticized alcohol’s effects on their peers. As early as the mid-2nd century BCE, a certain Gaius Titius argued for the passage of the Lex Fannia, a sumptuary law, because so many men were carrying out business in the Forum while drunk.3 Cicero likewise inveighed against his opponents by accusing them 1 Noted by D’Arms (1995: 304-17). 2 Buxton (1868: 27, 54). 3 Macrob. Sat. 3.16.14-15: describens enim homines prodigos in forum ad iudicandum ebrios commeantes, quaeque soleant inter se sermocinari sic ait: ludunt alea studiose, delibuti unguentis, scortis stipati.…inde 1 of drunkenness and identified such drunkenness as a form of insanity.4 Such aspersions were not uncommon: Seneca criticized one of Caesar’s assasins, Tillius Cimber, for being a violent drunkard, and the young Octavian used Antony’s association with Dionysus as an excuse to accuse him of orgiastic drunkenness.5 The vast majority of references to drunkenness was in reference to upper-class behavior and is usually indistinguishable from broader, moralizing observation and criticism. Yet the ancient sources are not wholly