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UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA 



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ROMAN CRAFTSMEN AND 

TRADESMEN OF THE 

EARLY EMPIRE 



BY 
ETHEL HAMPSON BREWSTER 



A THESIS 

PRESENTED TO THE FACULTY OP THE GRADUATE SCHOOL IN 

PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR 

THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY 



Vtt» (EoUcstatt |hrm 

GEOEOE BAIOA FX7BU8HINO COMPANY 

MENASBA, WISCONSIN 

1917 



'J 



• * 



Ill 



PREFACE 

Interest in the subject of this dissertation was stimulated by a study 
of the private life of the Romans. Investigations in the satiric writers, 
whose exaggerations form the usual lens through which the common 
view of Roman life is gained, left the impression that the picture which 
is habitually displayed gives no accurate portra)^ of ordinary society, 
but a distorted glimpse of court life, high society, and the social struggle 
therein. The thought presented itself, therefore, that it would be pos- 
sible to argue a human existence for even ''the butcher, the baker, the 
candlestickmaker. " 

The writer is glad to take this opportunity to acknowledge with 
gratitude her indebtedness to the University of Pennsylvania for the 
privilege of holding for a year and a half Bennett Fellowships in Classics. 
She desires also to express her earnest appreciation to Professor John 
C. Rolfe, Professor Walton B. McDaniel, Professor Roland G. Kent, 
and Assistant Professor George D. Hadzsits, whose helpful criticisms 
and suggestions have been of the greatest practical assistance, while 
their scholarly attainments have proved a never failing source of inspira- 
tion and encouragement 

£. xl. B. 



330722 



CONTENTS 

Verbaque provisam rem non invita sequentur 

Hor. EpiH. 2. 3. 311 



Page 



BiBUOGRAFHY vii 

Introduction xi 

I. Aerarii Ferrarii 1 

II. Argentarii III. Aurifices IV. Caelatores 6 

V. Caupones 9 

VI. Centonarii 13 

VII. Cerdones 13 

Vra. Coci 13 

IX. Coriarii 18 

X. Dendrophori 1^ 

XI. Fabri 19 

XII. Ferrarii 19 

Xni. FiguU 19 

XIV. Fullones 20 

XV. Institores 22 

XVI. Lanii 27 

XVII. Mangones 29 

XVm. Mercatores XIX. Negotiatores 30 

XX. Pistores 40 

XXI. Praecones 44 

XXII. Sutores Cerdones 53 

XXin. Tabemarii 60 

XXIV. Textores 74- 

XXV. Tignarii 77 

Collegia Fabrum Centonariorum Dendrophorum 79 

XXVI. Tonsores 87 

Conclusion 94 



Vll 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Tempus non tarn stilo quam inquisitioni instituti operis prope infiniti et legendis 
auctoribus, qui sunt innumerabiles, datiim est. Quint. Ptaej. 

All the impOTtant commentaries on the satiric writers of the early 
Empire have been examined for this dissertation. The text editions 
usually followed are: 

Q. Horati Flacd Opera, Wickham-Garrod. 2d ed., Oxford, 1912. 

A. Persii Flacd, D. lunii luvenalis, Sulpidae Saturae, Jahn-BUdieler-Leo. 4th ed., 

Berlin, 1910. 
Petronii Saturae et Liber Priapeorum, BUdider-Heraeus. 5th ed., Berlin, 1912. 
M. Val. Martialis Epigranunta, W. M. Lindsay. Oxford, 1902. 

Merely a selected bibliography is given here, since a complete list, 
especially of books of a general nature, would include all works on 
Roman private life. For an exhaustive bibliography on Roman Indus- 
trial Corporations, see Waltzing 1. 6-30. 

For books mentioned below, except when it is necessary to dis- 
tinguish between several works of one writer, only the author's name, 
with the number of the voliune and the page, is cited in the footnotes. 
For Latin sources, the abbreviations of the Thesaurus Linguae Laiinae 
are used, with a few common exceptions Uke CIL., Hor. Sai. Cross refer- 
ences to this dissertation are designated as follows: See p. — , n. — . 

Abbott, F. F., Sodety and Politics in Ancient Rome. New York, 1909. 

The Common People of Andent Rome. New York, 1911. 
Beck, C. H., The Age of Petronius. Cambridge (Mass.), 1856. 
Becker, W. A., Callus. Trans, by F. Metcalfe. London, 1895. 
Biot, £. C, De Tabolition de Tesdavage anden en ocddent. Paris, 1840. 
Blair, W., An Inquiry into the State of Slavery amongst the Romans. Edinburgh, 

1833. 
Bliimmer, H., Die gewerbliche Thatigkdt der Vdlker des klassischen Altertums. 

Ldpzig, 1869. 

Tedmologie und Terminologie der Gewerbe und Kttnste bd Griechen und R5mem. 

5 vols., Ldpzig, 1875-1887; vol. 1, new ed. 1912. 

Die romischen Privataltertiimer. Handbuch der klassischen Altertumswissen- 

schaft, von I. MOller, vol. 4. 2. 2, Munich, 1911. 
Bttrger, R., Der antike Roman vor Petronius. Hermes, vol. 24 (1892), pp. 345-358. 
Carter, J. B., Religion of Numa. New York, 1906. 
Cauer, F., Die Stellimg der arbdtenden Klassen in Hellas und Rom. Neue JahrbUcher 

fiir das klassische Altertum, vol. 3 (1899), pp. 686-702. 
Cooper, L., A Concordance to the Works of Horace. Washington, 1916. 
Cimningham, W., Western Civilization in its Economic Aspects. Vol. 1, Andent 

Times. New York, 1902. 
Daremberg et Saglio, Dictionnaire des antiquitds grecques et romaines. Paris, 1881 — 
Davis, W. S., The Influence of Wealth in Imperial Rome. New York, 1910. 



Vm BIBLIOGllAPHY 

Dessaui H., Inscriptiones Latinae Sdectae. Vol. 2.2, Berlin, 1906. 

DOl, S., Roman Society from Nero to Marcus Aurelius. New York and London, 1905. 

Donaldson, J., Woman: Her Position and Influence in Ancient Greece and Rome. 

London, 1907. 
Drumann, W., Arfoeiter und Communisten in Griechenland und Rom. Kdnigsberg, 

1860. 
Duniy, v.. History of Rome. Vok. V and VI, The Empire and Roman Society. Trans. 

by M. M. Ripley and W. J. Clarke. Boston, 1883. 
Emesti, J. A., De Negotiatoribus Romanis. Opuscula Philologica Critica. Leyden, 

1776. 
Fowler, W. W., Social Life at Rome in the Age of Cicero. New York, 1909. 
Frank, T., Mercantilism and Rome's Foreign Policy. Amer. Hbt. Review, vd. 18 

(1912-1913), pp. 233-252; also incorporated m: 

Roman Imperialism, ch. 14, pp. 277-297: Commercialism and Expansion. 

New York, 1914. 
Friedlinder, L., Roman Life and Manners under the Early Empire. Trans, of 7th 

ed.: vol. 1 by L. A. Magnus, vok. 2 and 3 by J. H. Freese, vol. 4 by A. B. Gough. 

New York, 1909-1913. 
Giese, P., De personis a Martiale commemoratis. Greifswald, 1872. 
Gilbert, O., Geschichte und Topographie der Stadt Rom im Altertum. 3 vob.» 

Ldpadg, 1883-1890. 
Godefroy, J., Codex Theodosianus cum perpetuis commentariis. New ed. by J. D. 

Ritter, Leipag, 1743. 
Gusman, P., Pompeii, the City, its Life and Art. Trans, by F. Simmonds and M. 

Jourdain. London, 1900. 
Harcum, C. G., Roman Cooks. Johns Hopkins Dissertation. Baltimore, 1914. 

Cp. Rankin, E. M., The Role of the M&y€ipoi in the Life of the Ancient Greeks. 

Chicago, 1907. 
Hirschfeld, O., Der praefectus vigilimi in Nemausus und die Feuerwehr in den r5m. 

Landst&tten. Sitzungsber. der Wiener Akad., vol. 107 (1884), pp. 239-257. 
Inge, W. R., Society in Rome under the Caesars. New York, 1901. 
Jahn, O., Darstellimgen des Handwerks und Handelsverkehrs auf Vasenbildem; 

Darstellungen antiker Reliefs, welche sich auf Handwerk imd Handelsverkehr be- 

Ziehen. Leipzig, 1861. 
Johnston, H. W., The Private Life of the Romans. Chicago, 1907. 
Jordan, H., Topographie der Stadt Rom im Altertimi. 2 vols., Berlin, 1871-1907. 
Knapp, C, Business Life as Seen in Horace. P.A.P.A., vdL, 29, pp. xliv-xlvi. 
Komemann, E., CoUegiiun. Real-Encyd., vd. 4. 1, pp. 380480. 

Fabri. Op, cU., vol. 6.2, pp. 1888-1925. 
Kiihn, G. B., De opificum Romanorum condidone privata quaestiones. Halle, 1910. 
liebenam, W., Zur Geschichte und Oiganisation des rdmischen Vereinswesens. Leip- 
zig, 1890. 
Mackenzie, W. M., Pompeii. London, 1910. 
Marquardt, J., Das Privatleben der Rdmer. 2 vols., Leipzig, 1886. 
Mau, A., Pompeii, its Life and Art. Trans, by F. W. Kdsey. New York, 1904. 
Mau£, H. C, Der Praefectus Fabrum. Niemeyer, 1887. 



BIBLIOGCAPHY ix 

Miller, A. 6., Roman Etiquette of the Late Republic. Univers. of Penn. Disser- 
tation, 1914. 

Mommsen, T., De collegiis et sodalidis Romanorum. Kiel, 1843. 

History of Rome. Trans, by W. P. Dickson. 5 vols., New York, 1911. 

Nicolson, F. W., Greek and Roman Barbers. Harv. Stud., vol. 2, pp. 41<56. 

Overbeck, J., Pompeii. 4th ed., Leipzig, 1S84. 

Pauly-Wissowa, Real-EncydopHdie der dassischen Altertumswissenschaft. Stutt- 
gart, 1894r— 

Peck, T., The Argiletum and the Roman Book Trade. Class. Phil., vol. 9 (1914), 
pp. 77 f . 

Peet, T. £., The Stone and Bronze Ages in Italy and Sicily. Oxford, 1909. 

PeUison, M.. Roman Life in Pliny's Time. Trans, by M. Wilkinson. New York, 1897. 

Platner, S. B., The Topography and Monuments of Ancient Rome. 2d ed., Boston, 
1911. 

Ren^, M., La vie priv6e des andens. Vol. 3, Le travail dans I'antiquit^. Paris, 1882. 

Richter, W,, Handd und Verkehr der wichtigsten Vdlker des Mittelmeers. Leipzig, 
1886. 

Sandjrs, J. E., A Companion to Latin Studies. Cambridge, 1910. 

Saulnier, A. le, Du travail salari6 k Rome. Paris, 1888. 

Sdianz, M., Geschichte der Rdmischen Litteratur. Handbuch von I. Miiller, vol. 
8.2.2, Munich, 1913. 

Schrdber, T., Atlas of Classical Antiquities. New York, 1895. 

Smith, W., Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. 3 vols., Lon- 
don, 1844-1849. 
Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities. 2 vols., 3d ed., London, 1901. 

Speck, E., Handelsgeschichte des Altertums. Vol. 3, Leipzig, 1906. 

Teuffd-Schwabe, History of Roman Literature. Trans, of 5th ed. by G. C. W. Warr. 
London, 1891-1892. 

Thomas, E., Roman Life under the Caesars. Trans. New York, 1899. 

Tucker, T. G., Life in the Roman World of Nero and Saint Paul. New York and 
London, 1910. 

Typaldo-Bassia, A., Des classes ouvri^res i Rome. Paris, 1892. 

Walde, A., Latdnisches etymologisches Worterbuch. Hdddberg, 1910. 

Wallon, H. A., Histoire de Tesclavage dans Tantiquit^. 3 vols., Paris, 1847. 

Walters, H. B., History of Andent Pottery. New York, 1905. 

"Waltzing, J. P., £tude historique sur les corporations professionnelles chez les Ro- 
mains. 4 vob., Louvain, 1895-1900. 

West, L. C, The Cost of Living m Roman Egypt. Class. Phil., vol. 11 (1916), 
pp. 293-314. 

Wezel, E., De opifido opifidbusque apud veteres Romanos. Berlin, 1881. 

IVissowa, G., Religion imd Kultus der R5mer. Handbuch von I. Miiller, vol. 5.4, 
Munich, 1912. 



XI 

INTRODUCTION 

In the various volumes that have been written on "The Private 
Life of the Romans, " the account of their industrial population is usually 
introduced by almost stereotyped expressions, stating that "Unfor- 
tunately our information concerning all this class is very inadequate. 
The Roman writers — ^historians, philosophers, rhetoricians, and poets — 
have extremely little to say about the hiunble persons who apparently 
did nothing to make history or thought. They are mentioned but 
incidentally, and generally without interest, if not with some contempt. "* 
Those, therefore, who have made a special study of the condition of 
"these small people"^ have sought more fertile fields than that of litera- 
ture proper. A. Typaldo-Bassia, for instance, in an excellent treatise 
entitled Des classes ouvri^res d Rome^ takes the Pandects as his chief 
source for a detailed study of the legal status of Romans who worked 
for their living. Again, G. B. Kiihn's dissertation, De apificum Romano- 
rum condicione privaia quaestiones, is an invaluable storehouse of inscrip- 
tional references to Roman craftsmen; these have been collected with 
laborious care from the Corpus InscripHonum LaUnarum^ and are 
arranged in S3rstematic lists classified according to occupations, with 
subdivisions for ingenui, liberti, and servi. 

It would seem almost inexcusable then for a novice to step in where 
the more enlightened have hesitated to tread for want of a firmer foot- 
hold. But after all, a collection of civil laws that were codified by 
Justinian, who was Emperor of the East in the middle of the sixth cen- 
tiuy, is scarcely a satisfactory basis upon which to establish an investi- 
gation into the social conditions of five hundred years earlier. Though 
the Digest contains excerpts from Q. Mudus Scaevola, consul in 95 
B. C, three-fifths of it is selected from Ulpian and Paulus,* whose 
"floruits" were in the reign of Septimius Severus, and much of it is due 
to still later jurists.' Now by the time of Septimius Severus, industrial 
corporations were coming more and more into the power of the emperors; 

^Tucker 246 f.; the same sentiment, passim; practically the identical words, 
Fowler 26: "Unfortmiately . . . we know little of its (Rome's) industrial population. 
The upper classes, including all writers of memoirs and history, were not interested 
in them." Id. 43: "These small people . . . did not interest their educated fellow- 
citizens, and for this reason we hear hardly anything of them in the literature of the 
time. Not only a want of philanthropic feeling in their betters, but an inherited 
contempt for all small industry and retail dealing, has helped to hide them away from 



us." 



* Teuffd-Schwabe-Warr 2.§§ 376 f ., 488. 

*J. J. Robinson, SdecHons from Rinnan Law^ Introd. 26 f. (New York, 1905). 



ZU ROMAN CRATTSMEN AND TRADESMEN OF THE EARLY EMPIRE 

and under Alexander Sevenis, in the cities, men of every occupation 
were compelled to form collegia, to which they were confined by such 
severe and restricting regulations that they completely lost all personal 
freedom and were reduced practically to the condition of serfs> So in 
the country, cdoni became bound to the soil.^ Such a radical shift 
in the status of the working man not only affected the laws of the time, 
but must have influenced the selection of excerpts from earlier codifi- 
cations and perhaps have instituted changes in them. This must be 
bom in mind, even while it may be agreed that legal forms possess a 
peculiar tenacity, and that fairly accurate inferences for a given period 
may often be drawn from much later legislation. Then too, paradoxical 
as it seems, the letter of the law and the spirit of the age may be at var- 
iance, as the necessity for certain legislative reenforcemements and 
revivals implies; and among the Romans, "customary law, growing 
out of the life and experiences of the community," was ever strong, 
continuing '^to have validity as subsidiary law when not expressly 
abrogated by statute. "• 

As for epigraphical soiurces, although inscriptions have proved of 
inestimable worth in filling lacunae along all lines of antiquarian research 
and in corroborating the theories of savants, yet with but chance excep- 
tions they are as cold and inflexible as the stone or metal on which they 
are incised. 

For vigorous, animated, actual Ufe, therefore, whether of the rich 
or poor, it seems necessary to turn to literatiure, and especially to the 
works of the satirist, "who must have a wide and comprehensive know- 
ledge of his fellow men, . . . must be able to paint society in all its 
m3rriad hues. "^ Such a course is especially appropriate in an investiga- 
tion into Roman conditions; for, to quote Quintilian, "Satira quidem tota 
nostra est;"* and as R. Y. Tyrrell has noted in his Lectures on Latin 
Poetry: "This was the way which Rome chose in which to 'hold the 
mirror up to Nature, to show Virtue her own featiure. Scorn her own 
image, and the very age and body of the time his form and pressure. ' "• 

* Waltzing 2. 45 flf., 253 f. 
» Cauer 699. 

* Robinson, op. ciL, 11 f. 

» Butler, Post-Augustan Poetry, 87 (Oxford, 1909). 

•Quint 10.1.93. Garrod in The Oxford Book of Latin Verse, Introd. XXII 
(Oxford, 1912), adversely criticises Quintilian's statement; but see Nettleship, The 
Roman Satura, 17-19 (Oxford, 1878), and Webb, On the Origin of Roman Satire, Class. 
Phil. 7 (1912). 188. 

* Tyrrell 219 (New York, 1895). 



INTRODUCTION XVl 



Horace possessed such keen insight into human nature that to the admira- 
tion of Persius, he could keep a man his friend and evoke a laugh from 
him even while he made sport of him: 

Qmne vafer vitimn ridenti Flaccus amico 
tangit et admissus circum praecordia ludit, 
callidus excusso populum suspendere naso.^® 

Juvenal names "Everything Pertaining to Man" as the subject of his 
medley: 

Quidquid agunt homines, votum timor ira voluptas 
gaudia discursus, nostri farrago libelli est.^^ 

And Martial's epigrams are, on his own assertion, merely "Little Stories 
of Real Life," with every page savoring of himianity: 

Hoc lege, quod possit dicere vita "Meum est." 
non hie Centauros, non Gorgonas Harpyiasque 
invenies: hominem pagina nostra sapit.^' 

Martial states also that it is especially characteristic of his Muse dicere 
de viHis, (though he adds that it is his wont parcere personis)'^ and it 
is an enumeration of crimes and excesses that causes Juvenal to exclaim: 
"DiflBcile est saturam non scribere."^* From an ethical point of view, 
therefore, it may not be "unfortunately" true, as suggested at the 
beginning, that the industrial population found little mention in the 
pages of the satirists. Moreover, whatever information is gleaned from 
these writers, either from between the lines or from stray allusions, may 
be more reliable than the sarcastic hyperbole and stinging rhetoric of 
their tirades on vice, in which, to press home their point, they are almost 
bound to exaggerate and magnify, while they keep their background 
and chance comparisons natural and normal. 

It is the writer's aim, therefore, to discuss Roman craftsmen and 
tradesmen as depicted by the satiric writers of the early Empire. The 
expression, "satiric writers," is adopted in order to include not only 
Horace, Persius, and Juvenal, but also Petronius and Martial; the 
simpler word "satirists" is occasionally employed in the body of the 
dissertation with this broad signification. In lieu of a more compre- 
hensive term, "craftsmen" is used to designate those whom the Romans 
called opifices. An attempt has been made to investigate in the authors 
above mentioned all passages relevant to our subject; to incorporate 

"Pers. 1.116-118. 
» Juv. 1.85 f. 
" Mart. 10.4.8-10. 
»W. 10.33.10. 
>* Juv. 1 JO. 



XIV ROMAN CRAFTSMEN AND TRADESMEN OF THE EARLY EMPIRE 

the informatipn secured into a connected account, with the aid of ref- 
erences from other sources by way of comparison or elucidation; and 
finally, to use this material as a basis for determining, so far as possible, 
the sodal status of Rome's industrial population during the period in 
question. Details have been added at times merely for the sake of inter- 
est, where they have seemed to vivify a character or enliven the narrative. 
There is, of course, much in the following pages that can lay no claim to 
novelty, but the work has all been done through independent research, 
and the result is submitted in the hope that there is a place for a mono- 
graph upon a subject which, in English at least, has received only scat- 
tered or fragmentary treatment. 



ROMAN CRAFTSMEN AND TRADESMEN OF THE EARLY 

EMPIRE 

Quot capitum vivunt, totidem studiorum 
milia 

Hor. S(U. 2.1.27 f. 

I 

AERAsn Ferraru 

Plutarch records a clever measiire which, he says, was adopted by 
King Numa in order to unite the opposing Roman and Sabine factions 
by binding them together through common interests. The policy 
included the distribution of the people into eight collegia, consisting of 
flute-players, goldsmiths, carpenters and builders, dyers, workers in 
leather, tanners, braziers, and potters. All other craftsmen, the bio- 
grapher continues, were collected into a single corporation.^ According 
to Pliny the Elder, the third of these pioneer labor guilds to be established 
was composed of fabri aerarii} Prolific excavations of actual articles, 
added to a wealth of literary material, give abundant evidence of the 
variety of bronze implements and utensils used by the Romans; it is 
readily inferred, therefore, that the ranks of the aerarii were nimierous 
at all periods, especially since statuaries appear to have been classed 
with them.' 

Practically nothing is to be gathered from Horace as to their social 
status, but two passages in which he refers to them demand special 
mention. In Epist. 2.1. 93-98 we read: 

Ut primum positisnugari Graeda bellls 
coepit et in vitimn fortuna labier aequa, 
nunc athietarum studiis, nunc arsit equorum, 
marmoiis aut eboris fabros aut aeris amavit, 
suspendit picta vultum mentemque tabella, 
nunc tibidnibus, nunc est gavisa tragoedb. 

The expressions nugari and in viHum labier forbode ill; they are also 
misleading. Although Horace no doubt felt that war was the most 
serious occupation of man, yet the context shows that he is here really 
commending the Greeks for having ceased from war. He has been 
scoring the laudator temporis acti, and at this juncture he points pre- 
sumably to the Athenians, who at the close of the Persian War had made 

» Plut. Numa 17. See pp. 7, 13, 18, 20, 27, 53, 77. 

* PUn. NcU. 34.1, a rege Numa conlegio tertio acrarium fabrum instiMo, There 
seems to be no occasion for Waltzing's interpretation (1.63) that aerarii were third 
in rank in a hierarchy. 

•Hor. EpisL 2.1.%; cp. 2.3.32 flf.; Mart. 9.68.6; Waltzing 1.52. 



2 ROMAN CILAFTSMEN AND TRADESMEN OF THE EARLY EMPIRE 

great advances in new fonns of literature and art,^ and had become the 
models of Horace's own time. His words can be no more disparaging 
to the faber than to poetay whom he mentions in the same connection; 
and surely the soldier who threw down his arms at Philippi to become a 
litterateur^ has little intention of criticizing devotees of the Muses. 

The second reference is from those verses in the Ars Poetica in which 
Horace discusses harmony and proportion as the first requisites for 
unity in a work of art. By way of illustration, he mentions a sculptor 
who was successfid in detail, but who failed with the Umt ensemble i 

Aemilimn drca ludum faber imus et unguis 
exprimet et mollis imitabitur aere capillos, 
infelix opens sxunma, quia ponere totum 
nesdet.* 

The words of special interest to us, faber imuSy form the subject of much 
discussion. Bentley, believing imus unintelligible, restored unuSy which 
he claimed to be the reading of codex Vxoniensis; he suggested the trans- 
lation "better than anyone else." This has been accepted by Orelli, 
Mimro, Macleane, and others; but many editors, among them Kriiger, 
Schiitz, and Kiessling, still defend imus, which is found in most manu- 
scripts; they interpret it as describing locality, or meaning "lowest in 
rank"; that is, "poorest," "most unskilful." The topographical 
explanation seems quite attractive in view of Horace's phrase in another 
Epistle, lanus summus ab imof this may be supplemented by the ad 
infimum Argiletum^ of Livy, and circa imum ArgUetum^ of Servius; in 
fact, Horace employs imus in the sense of "the end" in verses 126 and 
\S2oi\ht Ars Poetica itself, note: "(Persona) servetur ad imum, " "Primo 
ne mediimi, medio ne discrepet imimi. " Porphyrio's statement, too, is 
not to be disregarded; he maintains that the ludus of which mention is 
made was the gladiatorial school of Aemilius Lepidus, which by the 
commentator's day had been converted into the Baths of Polycleitus. 
He adds that Horace's words show that a faber aerarius had a shop in 
angulo ludi. Jordan argues that around the outer walls of the school 
there were probably shops which were rented hyfabri; and that the last 
of these, facing the main street, was occupied by the faber of Horace's 
lines and by his successors, under the sign of the figure of Polycleitus; 

• Aristot. Pol, 5.6. 

» Hor. Carm, 2.7.9-14; Epist, 2.2.49-52. 

• lb. 2.3.32-35. 
» /J. 1.1.54. 
•Liv. 1.19.2. 

• Serv. on ^^rg. Am. 7.607. 



ROMAN CRAFTSMEN AND TRADESMEN OF THE EARLY EMPIRE 3 

the business signum, then, gave rise to the name by which Porphyrio 
says the Uidus was known after it had been turned into a Bath.^® It 
is not characteristic of Horace, however, to label the subjects of his 
criticism so unmistakably as he would be doing in this case, if he is 
referring to the artificer in the end shop of a given district. It seems 
more plausible, therefore, to modify the above suggestions, and to 
concede that the satirist may be referring in an indefinite^^ way to a 
sculptor who might have been found at the lower end of the Ludus 
Aemilius where many copper-smiths had their tabernae. 

In spite of the strength of the foregoing arguments, they are not 
completely satisfying. The fact is that to suit the context, and to 
preserve a proper balance with other illustrations, faber requires a quali- 
iyiag adjective which means "unskilful." Horace's purpose in writing 
the Ars Poetica was to discourage from the pursuit of letters would-be 
writers who possessed no real literary ability: "Neither gods, nor men, 
nor bookshops," he warns in verses 372-374, "grant poets the boon of 
mediocrity." Throughout the Epistle, he emphasizes the importance 
of ars and studium. He criticizes Democritus (295 f.), 

Ingenium misera quia fortunatius arte 
credit; 

and he lays down as his own dictum (409-411) : 

Ego nee studium sine divite vena 
nee rude quid prosit video ingenium; alterius sie 
altera posdt opem res et eoniurat amiee. 

Taking his precepts and examples at random, we note that it is a caUida 
. . . iunctura (47 f.) that is praised in the use of diction; and decor 
(157), in the drawing of characters. The verses of Ennius are attacked, 
charged ignoratae . . . artis crimine turpi (262); and aspirants to literary 
fame are reminded of the athlete, who cannot be indocttis (380), if he is 
to be successful. In the face of this study of the Epistle as a whole, 
we are almost forced to believe that imus in verse 32 means "humblest, "^* 
in the sense of "unskilful," and that it is but a S)nion3mi for iners (i. e,y 
in+(Mrs), This belief is confirmed, if we observe verse 31, which the 

»o Jordan, Hermes 9 (1875). 416-424. 

^^ Wilkins, in his ed. of Hor. EpisL, takes the expression as a general one, but he 
does not consider imus a localizing adjective. To strengthen the theory of indefinite- 
ness, it is worth noting that Horace has used not a present tense, but a future which 
seems almost equivalent to a potential subjunctive. Bennett, Syntax of Early Latin, 
1.44 f. (Boston, 1910), does not recognize such a future; Blase, Hist. Gramm. der lat. 
Spr. 3.119 (Leipzig, 1903), terms it the "Futurum der Wahrscheinlichkeit. " 

^ Cp. Hor. Carm, 1.34.12 f., ima summis / mutare; 3.1.15, insignis et imos. 



4 ROMAN CRAFTSMEN AND TRADESMEN OF THE EARLY EMPIRE 

Olustration of the faber is meant to elucidate. It reads: 

In vitium dudt culpae fuga, si caret arte. 

Considering the close connection of the lines, it can scarcely be doubted 
that imus merely repeats the thought of caret arte. If further evidence 
is demanded, it may be noted that Horace uses the adjective in a similar 
signification in the Ars Poetica 378, where he maintains that ''if a poem 
swerves in the least d^ee from excellence, it sinks to insignificance" 
("si paidum summo decessit, vergit ad imum"). 

It is quite possible, of course, to read into the phrase, faber imus, 
a reference to the sculptor's social position. Perhaps he was "himible" 
in rank, and so, through inefficient training, was unable to grasp a true 
artist's vision; but Horace had all due respect for the lowly bom; at all 
events, in these disputed lines, his criticism certainly appears to be 
directed against lack of skill, not want of high birth. In our zeal for 
discovering hidden significations in words, we must not be carried away 
by an imagination like that of Acron, who reports that in the opinion 
of some people, imus means ''short," — ^he himself is inclined to think 
that "Imus was a certain statuary"! 

When we turn to Martial, we find that his chief grievance against 
fabri aerarii was that the clatter of their mallets began at a very early 
hom: in the morning, and distiurbed the quiet all day long; we may infer, 
however, that they annoyed him no more than did chattering school- 
masters and sundry other noisy elements of the great city." 

Owing to the absence of ferrarii from Plutarch's list of the first 
industrial corporations at Rome,^^ we may suppose that the metal 
implements used by the primitive Romans were ordinarily cast from 
bronze." But with the increasing use of iron for military, agricultural, 
and other common implements," much work that had 
Ferrarii previously been done by aerarii passed into the hands of 
ferrarii. Because of the nature of their output, A. Typaldo- 
Bassia is inclined to grant a special dispensation for social recognition 
to certain workers in iron and bronze. Although he believes that 

" Mart. 9.68; 12.57; cp. Juv. 7.222 f. 

^* There was a conlegium fabrum ferrarium at Rome at the beginmng of the first 
centiuy of our era; cp. CIL. 6. 1892; Waltzing 2.122. 

"Cp. Liv. 1.43.2; Wezel 15; Marquardt 2.392 f.; Peet 492 f., 495-497, 510. 
For comparison with Greece, cp. Lang, Early Uses of Bronze and Iron, Class. Rev. 22 
<1908). 47. 

"Cp. Sen. Here. P. 930 f.; Petron. 108; Mart. 14.36; Juv. 3.309-311; 15.165-168. 
Iron became so common that ferrum and ferramenta seem sometimes to be employed 
generically for ''implements'' or "utensils," even when the material used is bronze. 



ROMAN CRAFTSMEN AND TRADESMEN OF THE EARLY EMPIRE 5 

Rome looked with disfavor upon most of the industrial and commercial 
classes, and gave little consideration to the working man, because it was 
essentially a mihtary nation; yet for this very reason, he maintains: 
"Toutefois il existait un genre d'ouvrage qui etait au-dessus du prejug6 
traditionnel et national; je veux parler de la construction des machines 
de guerre et de la reparation des armes ou projectiles."^^ He offers 
only the a priori argument to support his claim. Perhaps he had in 
mind Mamurius Veturius,^® who was said to have been one of the greatest 
artificers of the time of Numa; he was held in such high honor for pro- 
ducing shields in exact imitation of the ancile which dropped from the 
sky that his name was perpetuated in the song of the Salii.^® 

A. Typaldo-Bassia's simple reasoning seems somewhat fallacious. 
On such groimds it would be possible to make a rather sweeping asser- 
tion, highly agreeable to the present thesis, exempting from var)dng 
degrees of social disdain not only all fabri who followed the army, but 
cariarii who tanned leather for mihtary purposes, sidores who made 
caUgae for soldiers, infectores who dyed military vexiUa and tunicae, 
fullones who pressed triumphal robes and military apparel, and all 
other workers directly or indirectly connected with mihtary service. 
So far as the satirists are concerned, however, there is no evidence strong 
enough to gainsay the conclusion XhaX fabri aerarii andferrarii as a class 

*^ Typaldo-Bassia 3. 

" It is true that this name has been branded as epon3rmous to explain the words 
MamuH Veturi in the hjmm of the Salii, which, according to Varro Ling. 6.49 (45), 
really mean veterem memoriam; but see Wezel 16 f. for a review of the various theories 
and a defense of the nomen. The objection that Prop. 4(5) .2.59-64 says that this 
Mamurius made the wooden statue of Vertumnus in the Vicus Tuscus, while Varro 
distinctly states that the Romans had no anthropomorphic representations of the 
gods for 170 years (cp. Plut. Numa 8; Aug. Civ. 4.31; Wissowa 32), is not unanswerable. 
Propertius seems to be the only authority for his assertion, and he was possibly not 
an art connoisseur. Since many aerarii in his day were statuaries, it would be quite 
natural for him to assign this ancient image to the earliest faber aerarius of his know- 
ledge. The god was an Etruscan deity; it was in all probability the workmanship of 
an Etruscan, it was possibly even made in Etruria and brought to Rome by those who 
settled in the Vicus Tuscus. As it is now believed by some scholars that this settlement 
was composed of the workmen who had gone to Rome to build the temple of Jupiter 
Capitolinus in the time of Tarquinius Superbus (cp. Platner 172), in referring the 
statue to this period, there would be no conflict with Varro's statement. Propertius's 
words of commendation for the fortnae cadator aenae are suggestive of an appreciative 
Attitude shown toward aerarii of his own day, or at least for those among them who 
were also skilled engravers and embossers, caelatores (see p. 8). 

"Dionys. Hal. 2.71; Ov. FasL 3.367-392; Plut. Numa 13. 



6 ROMAN CRAFTSMEN AND TRADESMEN OF THE EARLY EMPIRE 

were free from what Typaldo-Bassia chooses to call "traditional^^ and 
national prejudice. " The irony in Juvenal's lines, for instance, which 
represent Vulcan as a blacksmith, attending a banquet of the gods before 
he thinks to wipe his arms, which are black from the smutty workshop,^ 
is directed primarily against the extravagance, perfidy, and irreverent 
religious tendencies of the poet's day; nor is it fair to say that the details, 
which seem purely conventional, heighten the sarcasm, unless the same 
is said also in the case of Saturn and his agrestem falcem,^ As a matter 
of fact, in his famous Satire on the Vanity of Human Wishes, Juvenal 
implies that the blacksmith's life, though confessedly humble, might 
offer in the end more happiness and contentment than an illustrious 
career. It was dis adversis, he says, that Demosthenes abandoned his 
father's smithy to attend a school of oratory.^ It is beside the point 
to argue that Demosthenes' father was not a blacksmith, but a wealthy 
manufacturer of swords, who derived three-fourths of his fortune from 
other channels. At all events he was called "the cutler," and the 
term was applied in derision.^ Whether Juvenal accepts the tradition 
as fact or metaphor is inmtiaterial. The significant thing is that the poet 
criticizes and reproves the unsocial spirit that had been dominant at 
Athens in the fourth century B C, a spirit which had been strongly 
reflected in republican Rome, and was still struggling to exist; but he 
praises the more liberal attitude of mind that was beginning to assert 
itself under the Empire in the belief, on the part of many, that a life 
of worth and satisfaction could be found amid humble pursuits.^ 

II III IV 

Argentaru Aurifices Caelatores 

A distinction must be made between argefUarii, who acted in the 

'''That it was not traditional, Wezel 32 maintains with ample proof, and he is 
convinced: ^'Opificiimi ilia aetate (i.e., Numae) aequalibus non sordidimi neque 
abiectimi visum esse, cimi rex studia opificum legibus ac beneficiis adiuvaret. ** 

" Juv. 13.44 f.; cp. schol. and Munro in Mayor's ed. of Juv.; Ludan Deor. Dial.. 
5.4 f. For those who understand from Juvenal's verses that Vulcan is not a cup- 
bearer, but a guest, there is even less occasion for ascribing extra acidity to the poet's 
qualifying phrase; for is it not probable that his picture of society among the gods 
is based upon actual social conditions existing in his own day? 

« Juv. 13.39 f . 

«/rf. 10.129-132. 

" For a collection and discussion of the literary evidence on this subject, see Arnold 
Schaier, Dentos. u. seine Zeit, 1.261-273 (Leipzig, 1885); Mayor on Juv. 10.130. 

" See pp. 86 f., on fabri in general. 



ROMEN CRAFTSMEN AND TRADESMEN OF THE EARLY EMPIRE 7 

capacity of brokers,^ and fabri argetUarii, who worked as silversmiths.^ 

With the former, we are not concerned here;' to the 
Argentarii latter, the satirists appear to have made no direct ref- 
erence. They are not even mentioned in the list of 
guilds which Plutarch ascribes to Numa;* silver, it seems, was not in 
common use at Rome in the early days of the city,*' and it is possible 
that at first, as was sometimes the case later, the crafts of argentarii 
and aurarii were combined.* Waltzing finds no datable evidence for a 
special corporation of silversmiths until the beginning of the third 
century of our era.^ Among sepidchral inscriptions there is one com- 
memorating a faber argentarius who had served as a magister vici^ 

Goldsmiths, aurifices, fabri aurarii, could boast greater antiquity 
for their trade; for they were represented in the so-called guilds of Numa.* 
Aurifices ^ conlegium aurificum still existed in Rome in the time 

of Augustus;* and there is evidence for separate corpora- 
Aurarii tions of amdarii^^ and hraUiarii {^hracteofii) inaurati^^ 

in the city. According to an inscription of Amsoldingen 
near Thun, two aurifices, father and son, had been members of a body 
of carpenters and builders, corporis fabr. Hgnuariorum; the father had 
held all the offices of the association.^ At Pompeii, aurifices universi 
figure in the wall graffiH, designating their preference for candidates 
in the municipal elections." Yet goldsmiths receive no special notice 
from any of the satirists of the Empire except Martial, and he merely 
accuses them of contributing to the city's incessant din from a very 
early hour in the day.^* 

• Sen. Contr. 1 praef, 19; Suet. Nero 5; Acron on Hor. Sat. 1.6.85; CIL. 6.9178, 
9181, 9186. 

a CIL. 6.2226, 9209, 9390-9393. 

*Cp. WalUing 2.114 f.; BlOmner, Miiller's Handhuch 4.2.2.651-656. 

*Seep. 1. 

» Cp. Darem.-Saglio 1.1.410; Bltimner, op. «7., 265, 392. 

• Cp. CIL. 6.9209; 11.3821. 
^Waltzing 2.111. 

• CIL. 6.2226. 

*CIL. 6.9202; Waltzing 2.111; 4.8 f. (Waltzing makes a careless mistake heie, 
quoting Pliny Nat. 34.1, which refers to aerarii; see p. 1, n. 2.). 
"CIL. 6.9144. 
» CIL. 6.95; cp. 6.9210, 9211. 
»« CIL. 13.5154. 
» CIL. 4.710. 
»* Mart. 12.57.9 f . 



8 ROMAN CRAFTSMEN AND TILADESMEN OF THE EARLY EMPIRE 

Expert workers in gold and silver, or even bronze," who were skilled 
in basso-relievo chasing, were called caekUores. The pages of the satirists 
contain a few chance aUusions to them. In the time of Martial and 

Juvenal, chased gold and silver plate was in such demand 
Caelatores that even the man in slender circumstances desired to 

find among his skilled slaves a cunms cadator attentively 
stooping over his work." Choice old pieces made by famous Greek 
caelatores of the fifth and fourth centuries B. C, such as Myron," Men- 
tor," Mys," and Polycleitus,*® or even Phidias,*^ Scopas,*^ and Praxi- 
teles,^ were especially sought; but in lieu of these, specimens of modem 
workmanship would suflSce,** especially when they were so delicately 
wrought as to admit the possibility of being passed oflF as genuine an- 
tiques.^ The shops of goldsmiths and silversmiths were to be found 
especially along the Sacra Via* and in the Saepta.* 

KUhn believes that the occupation of those who worked with the 
precious metals was not popular among ingenui; his lists of inscriptions 
concerning them show freedmen in the majority.* It may be argued 
that freebom Romans were disinclined to engage in the handicraft of 
the goldsmith and silversmith because of no feeling of contempt for it, 
but because of inferior ability; not possessing the innate artistic instincts 
of the sons of Hellas, they would easily be eclipsed by the Greek liberti 
among their competitors. As a class, these craftsmen must have been 
men of no mean endowment and refinement; for their tasks required 
not only skill, but intelligence and artistic taste. They doubtless met 
with due respect at the hands of liberal minded Romans. Among 
inscriptions we find the following appreciative epitaphs dedicated to 
two of their number: 

" Prop. 4(5).2.61; Ov. Past. 3.381. See p. 5, n. 18. 
MJuv. 9.145. 

" Mart. 4. 39. 2; 6. 92.2; 8.50(51).l. 

"W. 3.40(41).l; 4.39.5; 8.50(51).2; 9.59.16; 11.11.5; 14.93.2; Juv. 8.104. 
"Mart. 8.34.1; 8.50(51).l; 14.95. 
«•/(/. 8.50(S1).2. 
»/i. 3.35.1; 4.39.4; 10.87.16. 
«/i. 4.39.3. 

»Cp. Clodiana, Furniana, Gratiana, Plin. 33.139; Mart. 4.39.6; CIL. 6.9222. 
»* Mart. 8.34. 

"CIL. 6.9207, 9212, 9214, 9221, 9393. See pp. 69 f. CIL. 6.9208 names an 
aurifex extra Porta Flumentan, 
» Kiihn 45-47. 



ROMAN CRAFTSMEN AND TRADESMEN OF THE EARLY EMPIRE 



L. VETTIVS NYMPHIVS 

AVRIFEX . V.A . XVn 
ET . TE . TERRA . PRECOR . LEVITER 

SVPER . OSSA . RESIDAS 
SENTIAT . VT . PIETAS . PRAE3IIA 

QVAE . MERVIT 
ET . QVICVMQVE . SVIS . SINCERE 

PRAESTAT . HONOREM 
FEUCEM . CVRSVM . PERFERAT 
AD . SVPEROS^^ 



D . M 
M CANVLEI 

ZOSIMI 

VIX . ANN . XXVIII 

FECIT 
PATRONVS . LIB 

BENE . MERENTI 

HIC . IN . VITA . SVA . NVLLI . MA 
LEDIXIT . SINE . VOLVNTATE 
PATRONI . NIHIL . FECIT 
MVLTVM . PONDERIS 

AURI . ARC . PENES . EVM 
SEMPER . FVIT . CONCVPHT . EX . EO 
NIHIL . VMQVAM . HIC . ARTEM . CAELA 
TVRA . CLODIANA . EVICIT . OMNES^* 



Caupones 

After his journey to Bnindisium with the envoys whom Octavian 
was sending to Antony, Horace may have cherished some pleasant 
memories of days spent in comradeship with such literary lights as 
Plotius, Varius, and Virgil, and with the eminent embassadors Cocceius, 
Fonteius Capito, and Maecenas,^ but there were no cheering recollections 
of luxurious hotel accommodations. In his day, as during the Republic 
and on into the Empire, caupona^ and tabernae deversoriae^^ whether 
wayside inns or the best that lavish Capua offered, were apparently 
very undesirable places, to be endured for temporary shelter, but to 
be avoided whenever possible.* On the much travelled Appian Way 
the poet found at Aricia only a hospUium modicumf and at Forum Appii, 

«» CIL. 6.9204. 

» CIL. 6.9222. 

>Hor. S(U, 1.5. 

*Ih, V.51; EpisU 1.11.12; 1.17.8; Plin. Nat, 9.154; Gdl. 7.11.4, cauponula. 

» Varro Rust. 1.2.23; Cic. Orai, 2.234; EpisL 6. 19.1; 7.23.3; Colo 84; Liv. 45.22; 
Petron. 9, 15, 19, 81 f., 124, cp. 80, humUis tabema. 

* Cic. EpUt. 6.19.1; Cato 84; Hor. EpisU 1.11.11 f.; 1.17.7 f. 

» Hor. Sat, 1.5.1 f. Cp. Cic. Oral. 2.234; Cato 84; Petron. 85 f., 91. Other terms 
for "lodgings" are cenaculum (Petron. 3S; Hor. Epist. 1.191, the word apparently 
means "boarding house"), insula (Petron. 98), stabulum {Id. 6, 8, 16, 79, 97). Insula 
may be applied also to a block of houses or "tenement" (Mart.4.37.4; Suet. lul. 41; 
Tib. 48; Nero 38; Tac. Ann. 6.45; 15.43). 



10 ROMAN CKAFTSMEN AND TRADESMEN OF THE EARLY EMPIRE 

caupones malignif while in the important city of Beneventum, the 
hostehy was so old that it furnished ready fuel for the rapid spread of 
a fire, which was caused by a mishap when the bustling host was pre- 
paring a hurried meal; and it is to be noted that the first efforts of hungry 
guests and terrified slaves were directed toward saving the dinner, 
meager though it was!^ 

Wealthy and influential travellers were forced to put up with such 
unsatisfactory quarters, only when they had no country estates of their 
own, and when the establishments of friends or houses of call were 
either inaccessible or inconvenient. Villas were doubtless quite nu- 
merous along the various highways from Rome; and according to Cicero: 
"Semper . . . boni assiduique domini referta cella vinaria, olearia, 
etiam penaria est, villaque tota locuples est, abundat porco, haedo, 
agno, gallina, lacte, caseo, melle."^ On the embassy to Brundisium, 
Maecenas's party was entertained at Formiaeby Fonteius Capito,* 
and by Murena, who was probably the prime minister's brother-in-law;*® 
and the inns of the Caudine Forks were scorned for the plenissima vitta 
of Cocceius." 

A less commodious and bountiful home, termed by Horace a mUiday 
had opened its doors to them below Sinuessa.** This was presumably 
one of those rural houses which, though possibly belonging to private 
individuals, were appointed by the government to supply the needs of 
magistrates and public oflBicials who were travelling on state business. 
Their hosts were called copiariiy or parochi, a word which, as Porphyrio 
notes, was derived from the Greek irapkxetv}^ To prevent extortion 
on the part of guests, the Lex lulia de Repetundis^ had prescribed that 
road houses were bound to furnish only necessary shelter and food for 

• Hor. Sat, 1.5.3 f. 

'/ft. w. 71-76. 

•Cic. Caio 56. Cp. Mart. 3.58 for a description of Faustinus's splendid rural 
estate at Baiae; the epigram shows the contrast between an artificial villa and a well 
stocked country place. 

*Hor. Sat. 1.5.37 f. So far as the evidence in the lines is concerned, there seems 
to be no occasion to infer with Verrall and many editors that Murena himself was 
absent. The obvious interpretation seems to be that Capito entertained the envoys 
at dinner, but that they spent the night at Murena's villa. 

" Cp. Dio 54.3. On the identity of Murena, cp. Verrall, SPudies in the Odes of 
Horace, 16-18, 83-86 (London, 1884). 

" Hor. Sat, 1. 5. 50-70. On Roman Hospitality, cp. Miller 29-33. 

" Hor. Sat, 1.5.45 f. and Porph. 

" Cp. Tjrrrell and Purser, Correspondence of Cicero, 3.295 f. (London, 1890). 



ROMAN CRAFTSMEN AND TRADESMEN OF THE EARLY EMPIRE 11 

man and beast. From all accounts, the bare letter of the law was 
observed.^* 

Landowners who had country estates bordering upon roads frequented 
by travellers, were urged by Varro to build tabernae deversariae as ad- 
juncts to their villas, in order to dispose of their produce.^^ If the advice 
was taken, the iiins were probably put in charge of slaves or freedmen.^* 
Martial's clause, "Non segnis albo pallet otio caupo," which is descrip- 
tive of Faustinus's villa at Baiae, may refer to the practice." 

Cauponae at Rome were included by Martial among the shops that 
had become a nuisance to pedestrians; flagons chained to their door 
posts blocked the sidewaJks.^^ The city inns appear to have been 
primarily wine shops ;^® they must, of course, have furnished meals to 
guests; but they are to be clearly discriminated from cheap restaurants, 
popinae, where hot food and drinks were served to chance customers.*® 
Tabernae vinariae were evidently considered more necessary and less 
disreputable, and they were probably visited more frequently and 
openly by men who laid claims to respectability. Martial confesses 
that they were essential to his own happiness.^ Their greatest pat- 
ronage, however, was doubtless from slaves, but the domestic servants, 
Ubariiy archimagiri, carptores, whom Juvenal enumerates among 'the 
scandalmongers that gathered with caupones before dawn, seem to have 
• been considerably less objectionable characters than the murderers 
and other reprobates whom he assigns to pervigUes popinae.^ 

The reputation of caupones themselves is read^y seen from the open 
characterizations and covert insinuations of the satirists and others. 

" Cic. AU. 5.16.3; Hor. Sat, 1.5.46, cp. 2.8.36 where parochus is used jocosely for 
a misedy host; Marquardt 1.199. 

» Varro Rust. 1.2.23. 

" Cp. Petron. 61. 

'^ Mart. 3.58.24 Caupo, however, is suspicious here; out of nine cases this is the 
only place in which Lindsay adopts the spelling caupo instead of copo; of the MSS. 
B^ has carbo, C^ capo. 

" Mart. 7.61.5, 9. See p. 61. 

"Mart. 1.26.9; 2.51.3. 

••Hor. Epist. 1.14.21, 24; Mart. 7. 61.5, 8 f. Some cauponae may have degener- 
ated into popinae; perhaps in small towns, like Pompeii, the latter were near inns or 
connected with them, cp. Mau-Kelsey, 400-404. See pp. 15flf. 

"Mart. 2.48.1; cp. Suet. Claud. 40.1. 

«Juv. 8.158, 172-176; 9.107-112; 11.80 f.; cp. Hor. Epist. 1.14.24. 



12 KOICAN CRAPTSMEN AND TRADESMEN OP THE EARLY EMPIRE 

Horace's sedulus hospes^ perfidus caupo^ and cauponibus maligni^ 
testify to the innkeeper's dishonesty and maleficence, and to his obsequi- 
ous or enticing manner.* Virgil's Copa gives an attracting invitation 
to a pleasant arbor and a babbling brook, to roses, violets, lilies, chestnuts, 
and lusdous fruits; but these very charms liure to temptation, and the 
S3Tian hostess herself is guilefid. In Petronius, inns and lodging houses 
are places of riot and houses of ill repute;^ and Juvenal exposes the 
domestic troubles of a dty tavern-keeper whose wife was the type of 
woman that resorted to the fortune tellers of the Circus and the Agger.^ 
Martial deemed caupones hzy^ and deceitful. Among his indictments, 
we find: 

Callidus inposuit nuper mihi copo Ravennae; 
cum peterem mixtum, vendidit ille merum.'<* 

The poet has adroitly prepared his readers for the justice of callidus 
and inposuit in the neighboring couplet : 

Sit dstema mihi quam vinea malo Ravemiae, 
cum possim multo vendere pluris aquam.'' 

But pure wine was very rare, it seems, in a coimtry where water was 
plentifid; in fact, hints the epigranmmtist, honesty in tavern-keepers 
was prevented by fate; for 

Continuis vezata madet vindemia nimbis: 
non potes, ut cupias, vendere, copo, merum.** 

Petronius also, in jocund vein, notes the hand of destiny and makes 
Trimalchio in one of his garrulous outbursts offer the suggestive informa- 
tion that caupones were bom imder Aquarius, along with "cabbage- 

"Hor. 5al. 1.5.71. 

*^Ib. 1.1.29. This reading seems absolutely irrelevant to the context. The 
poet has twice grouped mercator and miles, agricda and iuris considius, and now return- 
ing to them for the third time, strangely substitutes caupo for lawyer. Causidicus, 
or a circumlocution of kindred meaning, would still be consistent and would satisfy 
the objection that jurisconsults received no money. I am, therefore, indined to 
adopt one of the various emendations, preferably Mtiller's perdUus hie causis\ q>. 
Qrdli-Mewes' ed. of Hor. 

« Hor. Sat. 1.5.4. 

» Cp. Cic. Cluent. 163; Virg. Copa; Plut. De VU. Pud. 8; Juv. 8.159-162. 

"Petron. 9, 15flf., 79flF., 91flf.; cp. Virg. Copa 1-6, 31-34. 

"•Juv. 6.588-591; cp. Petron. 61. By the Agger is meant, presumably, the 
Rampart of Servius Tullius between the Porta CoUina and the Porta Esquilina, q>. 
Landani, Ruins and Excavations , 62 (New York, 1897); Platner 114. See p. 76. 

*«Mart. 3.58.24, but see n. 17. 

••/i.3.57. 

«/i.3.56. 

«/i 1.56. 



ROMAN CRAFTSMEN AND TRADESMEN OF THE EARLY EMPIRE 13 

heads," cucurhUae,^ Maxtial adds further accusation in a distich which 
was intended to be attached to barley when presented as a gift: 

Mulio quod non det tacituris, accipe, mulis. 
haec ego coponi, non tibi, dona dedi.^ 

Friedlander interprets this to mean that the muledriver sells to the 
innkeeper at a very low figure the barley apportioned to him for his 
mules. But the epigram is apparently not addressed to the muleteer, 
and the clause, "mulio quod non det," merely describes the poor quality 
of the hordeum. Pliny says that bread made from barley was in favor 
among the ancients but that in his time, "quadrupedum fere cibus 
est."^ Perhaps, then, the inference in the Unes quoted above is as 
follows: "The barley which I am giving you is of such poor quality 
that the muleteer would not give it to his dumb animals, but the inn- 
keeper will have no scruples against using it, and so you will turn my 
gift over to him. " 

After such testimony, we cannot but assign caupones to a very low 
rank in the social scale. Martial was amazed to find that a cobbler 
and a fuller had achieved the degree of success that permitted them to 
exhibit gladiatorial shows, but he intimated that the limit would be 
reached when these should be given by a caupo,^ 

VI Centonarh 
This subject is treated with Tignarii, in XXV, page 80. 

VEI Cerdones 

This subject is treated with Sutores, in XXII, page 54. 

VIII 

Coci* 

At the time when the Romans were first divided into guilds according 
to their various occupations,^ no collegium cocorum, it appears, was 

» Petxon. 39. 
« Mart. 13.11. 
» Plin. Nat. 18.74. 
•• Mart. 3.59. 

*For a discussion of the two spellings coqui and coci, q>. Harcum 7. The present 
section was written before the appearance of Dr. Harcum's dissertation on Roman 
Cooks. References to her monograph have been inserted at various points; but ^ce 
she has concerned herself chiefly with domestic cooks, and has either overlooked or 
disregarded cooks in trade, there is no serious overlapping. 

» See p. 1. 



14 ROMAN CRAPTSHEN AND TRADESMEN OF THE EARLY EMPIRE 

instituted; for, as Waltzing suggests, cookery was merely a household 
occupation.' Like baking, it would naturally be the work of women' 
or of domestic servants; indeed there do not seem to have been even 
special slaves for this purpose at first. Apparently general domestics 
prepared the ordinary meals; but by the time of Plautus, at least, there 
is evidence indicating that professional cooks could be hired from the 
Forum;* gradually, trained cod were to be found in private households. 
We have it on Livy's authority that slave cooks had been considered 
very worthless chattels by the ancient Romans both in value and in 
usefulness; but, he adds, with the introduction of extravagant and 
luxurious tastes upon the return to Rome of the victorious army from 
Asia, even meals were prepared with greater care and expense; then 
cooks became valuable, and what had hitherto been a menial service 
began to be considered an art.'^ 

The cocus and his ars continued to rise in money value as the desire 
for delicacies increased. The elder Pliny offers a delightful "fish story" 
apropos of this. After noting that complaint had formerly been raised 
because a cook cost as much as a horse, he solemnly avows, "but now 
cooks are purchased at the price of three of these, and it takes the cost 
of a cook to buy a fish!"® Juvenal counts the cocus, and the structor 
associated with him,^ among the costly luxuries of an establishment 
that boasted every extravagant and elaborate appointment.' According 
to Martial, it even came into vogue for those who were especially gidosi 
to secure as cooks slaves of marked beauty of hair and feature, such 

'Waltzing 1.67. Later corporations of cooks were apparently collegia domestica, 
cp. Waltzing 1.215, 346; 2.148; 4.154 f.; Harcum 79 ff. CIL. 11.3078 records a pos- 
sible exception, but this is referred to cooks only through a conjecture, cp. CIL. /.c, 
note. 

•Cp.Plin.iVa/. 18.107. 

*Plaut. Aid. 280 f.; Merc. 697; Pseud. 790; Plin. Nai. 18.108; Harcum 15-18, 
58-60. 

• Liv. 39.6. The Cena Trimalchionis of Petron. abounds with examples of the 
cook's skill (e.g.y 47, 49, 74); Daedalus, whose very name proclaimed his ingenuity, 
could serve an innocent pig as fish, woodpigeon, bacon, tiu-tle dove, and fowl (69 f.; 
cp. Mart. 1 1 .3 1 . 1 1- 14) . A cook-book entitled A pici Cadi de re coquinaria is still extant. 
This collection of recipes of every variety was compiled possibly about the third 
century after Christ; on the question of its authorship, cp. Teuffel-Schwabe-Warr2.§ 
283.2; Schanz 506 f. Cp. Harcum 9-14, 47 f. 

• Plin. Nat. 9.67. Cp. Harcum 51-57. 

^ On the cook's assistants, cp. Harcimi 69-77. 

•Juv. 5.120-123; 7.184 f. and schol; 11.136-141; cp. Mart. 10.48.15. 



ROMAN CRAFTSMEN AND TRADESMEN OF THE EARLY EMPIRE 15 

as were far better fitted to be cupbearers. The poet makes protest 
in the foUowing indignant epigram: 

Quis, rogo, tarn durus, quis tam fuit ille superbus 

qui iussit fieri te, Theopompe, cocum? 
banc aliquis fadem nigra violare culina 

sustinet, has uncto polluit igne comas? 
quis potius cyathos aut quis crystalla tenebit? 

qua sapient melius mixta Falema manu? 
Si tam sidereos manet exitus iste ministros, 

luppiter utatur iam Ganymede coco.* 

Cooks were not engaged in domestic service only. Especially during 
the Empire, many cod conducted eating houses, popinae, and swelled 
the ranks of culpable shopkeepers who blockaded the public sidewalk 
in front of their tabernae, until they were restrained behind their thres- 
holds by a law of Domitian.^® 

Restaurants are represented as hot, grimy, dirty, greasy places.^^ 
Before some of them probably himg canvas awnings or curtains on which 
the bill-of-fare or business sign was inscribed; this we may infer from the 
following lines of Juvenal: 

Lateranus ad illos 
thermarum calices inscriptaque lintea vadit^*. 

This passage may also be cited as evidence that cafes were sometimes 
located near baths, or were even connected with them.^' Corroborating 
testimony is furnished by Martial, who tells us that Syxiscus squandered 
ten million sesterces, "in sellariolis vagus popinis / circa balnea quat- 
tuor."^* The force of sellariolis is plainly seen from the dosing lines 
of the epigram: 

» Mart. 10.66; cp. 12.64. 

"/rf. 7.61.8 f.; cp. 1.41.10. See p. 61. 

"Hor. Sal. 2.4.62; Epist. 1.14.21; Mart.5.44.7-10; 7.61.8; Juv. 11.81. 

" Juv. 8.167 f. and schol.\ cp. Mart. 1.117.11; Friedlander-Magnus 1. 291 f. This 
is the interpretation adopted by Mayor and Friedlander in their editions of Juv. 
Lewis, commenting upon the same passage in his own edition, adduces strong evidence 
in support of his argument that lintea refers to curtains of brothels, but it seems to 
me that the lines in question are so closely connected with what precedes and follows 
that verse 168 is but a circumlocution for popinas and popina of verses 158 and 172. 
Indeed Syriae in 169 may be a not unintentional repetition of Syrophoenix of 159 f.: 
''Lateranus actually frequents cook-shops and yields to the allurements of Oriental 
hosts, although he is of ripe age to go to the Orient to battle for his country. ** 

" Wright, in his ed. of Juv., sees here an opportunity to compare popinae with the 
thermipolia of Plaut. Cure. 292; Rud. 529; Trin, 1013. 

"Mart. 5.70; cp. Sen. Epist. 122.6, Quint. 1.6.44, Mart. 17.70, although these 
may refer to caupanae. 



16 ROMAN CRAFTSMEN AND TRADESMEN OP THE EARLY EMPIRE 

O quanta est gula, centiens comesse! 
quanto maior adhuc, nee accubare! 

The gourmand's gluttony is shown to have been all the greater because 
he indulged it in ordinary cook-shops, where people sat upon common 
stools,^ instead of amid the refinements of a respectable dining-room, 
where he would recline upon a couch. 

Popinae offered for sale wine,^® cooked meats, and vegetables, includ- 
ing the richest and rarest delicacies. ^^ They seem also to have sent out 
hawkers, called coci^^ or popinarum institare^^ who peddled smoked 
sausage about the streets. Various emperors attempted to check intem- 
perance by sumptuary laws. Tiberius forbade the sale of any cooked 
food, even pastries.** Claudius, however, who had tenants of his own 
engaged in the business, disregarded this ban and removed the aediles' 
supervision.^ Nero passed a new law permitting the sale of no cooked 
food except vegetables, legumina aut holera.^ His regulation was 
evidently not enforced,^ for Vespasian had to make a similar one.^ 
He appears to have met with as little success, since we have only to 
turn to Juvenal to read of the rich viands that were obtainable in res- 
taurants under Hadrian.^ 

Men who frequented cook-shops were usually of the most degraded 
type. Horace's phrase, obscuras humili sermone tabernas^ may well 
be applicable here. In Petronius, we find Eumolpus on the point of 
going the rounds of the eating-houses to search for a lost slave." Accord- 
ing to Martial, gamblers might be sheltered with their illicit pleasure in 
a secluded popina until they were spied and dragged away by the aedile.*® 
Among other regular patrons were numbered criminals and the lowest 

" See the illustration in Darem.-Saglio 1.2.973, fig. 1257, reproducing the wall 
painting in a Pompdan cal€. 

"Mart. 5.84.5; Juv, 8.162, 168, 177. 

"Hor. Sat. 2.4.58-62; Mart. 5.44.7-11; Juv. 11.81; Suet. Nero 16.1. 

"Mart. 1.41.9 f. See p. 23. 

» Sen. Epist, 56.2. 

»Suet. rt6. 34.1. 

^ Id. Claud, 38.2; but Dio 60.6 says that Claudiiis, too, forbade the sale of dressed 
meats and hot water. 

» Suet. Nero 16.2. 

» Cp. Id. VUd. 13.3. 

« Dio 66.10. 

»Juv. 11.81. 

» Hor. Epist. 2.3.229. See p. 72. 

^ Petron. 98. 

» Mart. 5.84.3-5. 



ROMAN CRAFTSMEN AND TRADESMEN OF THE EARLY EMPIRE 17 

class of slaves: percussores, natUae,fureSyfugiHvi, carnificeSjfabri sandapi- 
larumy galli,^^ squalidi fossores^^ mediastini?^ The application of the 
term popino to any one carried gross insult. Lenaeus the freedman of 
Pompey hurled the word at Sallust, when he was enraged at the his- 
torian for some slighting remarks about his master.^^ Yet rumor con- 
nected with cabarets even noble names. As we have seen, one of the 
aristocratic Laterans, possibly Plautius Lateranus who was consul 
elect in 65 A. D. but was put to death by Nero before he could enter 
upon his office,^' was accused by Juvenal of repeated visits to a pervigUis 
popifMy where he was accorded a most cordial welcome by an enticing 
host and barmaid.^ Claudius apparently had an early predilection for 
similar resorts.^ Nero, it is said, disguised himself by a peruke or by a 
freedman's cap and entered cook-shops after dark.*^ ViteUius, too, 
when travelling, availed himself of cafes to allay his insatiable appetite.^^ 
Such habits in men of mature years left a deep and lasting blot upon 
their reputation, but indiscreet young nobles, it seems, might yield to 
temptation, and still hope to find many a lenient censor who would 
recall: "Fecimus et nos / haec iuvenes. "^^ 

When we note the low nature of restaurants and find the sentiment 
expressed that the kitchen was no place for even a slave if he be comely, 
we cannot but conclude that cod met with little esteem. They were, 
perhaps, almost at the bottom of the social order. The evidence at 
hand indicates that the majority of them were slaves, or at best, freed- 
men.^' It is probable that they were seldom recruited from the ranks 

»Juv. 8.171-178. 

*^Id. 11.80. 

•»Hor.£^M.14.14, 21. 

** Suet. Gramm. 15; q). Hor. Sat, 2.7.39. 

»Tac. Ann. 15.49.3; 15.60.1 f.; cp. 11.30.3; 11.36.5; 13.11.2. 

"Juv. 8.158-162. 

» Cp. Suet. Claud. 38.2; 40.1 (but see p. 11). 

^ Id. Nero 26.1. 

*^Id. Vitd. 13.3. 

w Juv. 8.163 f.; cp. Suet. Clavd. 16.1. 

"Petron. 36, 38, 47 ff., 68, 70, 74 f.; Mart. 1.50; 3.13; 3.94; 5.50.8; 6.39.6 f.; 
6.61(60).8; 7.27.7 f.; 8.23; 9.81.3 f.; 10.48.15; 10.66; 11.31.11-14; 13.10, 52, 70; 14.220; 
Juv. 5.120-123; 7.184 f.; 9.107-110; 11.136-141. These include allusions to archi- 
magiri, carptoreSf structores. Most of them appear to refer to domestic coci or their 
assistants; it is possible that many household cooks after being emancipated, estab- 
lished public eating-houses. Cp. Harciun 20, 62-64, 67 f ., and chapters 4 and 5 on the 
nationality and the names of cooks. 



18 ROMAN CRAFTSMEN AND TRADESMEN OF THE EARLY EMPIRE 

of ingenuiy^ nor did they come, as a rule, from a high class of slaves. 
One "excellent cook,"** a freedman, is on record as having been promi- 
nently connected with the ailt of the Emperor at Alba Fucens. He appar- 
ently served both as dendrophorus!^ and as sevir AugusHf* such distinction 
for a cocus was doubtless very rare. Petronius brands all occupants of 
the kitchen as ill-smelling;^ a peddler cook is described as a common 
verna, base in trade and character;^ and the attributes applied to caf^s 
{immunda, uncta,^ seUariola, arcana, nigraf''' pemgUis,^^ speak little 
for the refinement of their hosts. 

IX 

CORIARn 

If we refer again to the collegia ascribed to Nimia by Plutarch, 
we find recorded among them that of tanners, coriarii} To have merited 
this special recognition they must early have conducted an extensive 
and important business; it is fair to assume that they became increasingly 
necessary and useful in the state. 

Our investigations have revealed only one significant passage which 
bears directly upon tanners. This' is in Juvenal's fourteenth Satire in 
which the poet deplores the avaricious spirit that leads a father to incul- 
cate a desire for gain in his son, both by example and by precept. To 
this end, says the satirist, he urges the boy to join the ranks of lawyers, 
warriors, or merchants, and finally exclaims: 

Nee te fastidia mercis 
uUius subeant ablegandae Tiberim ultra, 
neu credas ponendum aliquid discriminis inter 
unguenta et corium.* 

« But q). CIL. 11.3078, and Waltzing 1.89; 4.87. See n. 2. 

« CIL. 9.3938. 

** See p. 82. 

« See p. 96. 

** Petron. 2, 70. On the characteristics and social position of domestic cooks, 
cp. Harcum 49 f ., 62-68. 

«Mart. 1.41.9 f. 

«Hor. Sat. 2.4.62; Episi. 1.14.21. 

^^Mart. 5.70.3; 5.84.4; 7.61.8. 

^•Juv. 8.158. 

^This is the interpretation of Plutarch's aKvroSef/Qv {Nutna 17) accepted by 
Wezel 25, Marquardt 2.392, Waltzing 1.63, and Bliimner in Miiller's Handhuch 4.2. 
2.591 f. Mommsen, however, in his Hist, of Rome, 1.249, apparently translates it 
fuUones in spite of its derivation; so Bliimner in his earlier work, TfUUigkeitf 110. 
See p. 1. 

« Juv. 14.201-204. 



ROMAN CRAFTSMEN AND TRADESMEN OF THE EARLY EMPIRE 19 

These lines, though few in number, are rq)lete with meaning. They 
point out that certain occupations, such as tanning, were relegated 
beyond the Tiber ;^ these had once been considered trades of last resort; 
but there was money in them, and one of the chief complaints against 
them was their offense to the olfactories. But the verses also admit a 
more subtle interpretation. As evidence for changing social conditions, 
they bear witness that commercialism in its steady progress was n^eeting 
less and less opposition, and that it had champions who considered 
aversion even to the trades of the Trastevere mere fastidia, not well 
groimded odia. Whether the reason was indomitable avarice, as Juvenal 
here maintains, or whether there was rather a complication of causes 
from which other social changes evolved under the emperors, the fact 
remains that commercialism was gaining enough recognition to be a 
cause for satire: fastidiousness in the choice of business occupations 
was disappearing, and there was beginning to be no distinction inter 
unguenta et corium, 

X Dendrophori 
This subject is treated with Tignarii, in XVII, page 82. 

XI Fabri 
This subject is treated with Tignarii, in XVII, page 78. 

XII Ferrarh 
This subject is treated with Aerarii in I, page 4. 

XIII 

FiGULI 

Pliny the Elder is authority for the statement that figidi composed 
the seventh corporation established by Numa.^ He also shows that 
they continued to be indispensable under the Empire in spite of the 
lavish use of precious metals and crystal which great wealth permitted; 
for their energies were directed not only to the manufacture of crockery 
and vases of all kinds, but also to the making of bricks, tiles, and stat- 
uettes.* 

• This was the case with the sulphur trade and other nuisances, such as peddlers, 
etc., cp. Mart. 1.41.3-5; 6.93.4. See pp. 22, 25. 

*Plin. Nat. 35.159: "Septimum conlegium figiJorum instituit.** See p. 1, 
nn. 1 f. 

«Hor. Epist. 2.3.21 f.; Plin. /.c; Mart. 14.102,171, 178, 182; Juv. 4.133; 10.171; 
Marquardt 2.635-669; Bliimner, Tech., 2.5-7; Walters 2.279-555. 



20 ROMAN CSAPTSMEN AND TRADESMEN OP THE EARLY EMPIRE 

Modelers of clay, it appears, were not usually domestic slaves,' 
but worked independently or were employed in public or pnvB,tefiglinae.^ 
It is interesting to note that Abbott's investigations on "Roman Women 
in the Trades and Professions" have revealed from a study of brick 
stamps that the brick business was largely in the control of women of 
prominent families.^ Pliny names several towns in Italy, Asia Minor, 
Africa, and Spain which were famous for their potteries and brick plants.' 
Since the population of these places doubtless consisted primarily of 
figulif we may conceive that there, at least, workers at the wheel and 
kiln were actively prominent in much of the life of the community. The 
satirists' references to craftsmen of this class are not oppressive with 
scorn or mockery, although Juvenal consigns them to the ranks of the 
humble.^ The nickname Prometheus was apparently applied to them 
in jest rather than in ridicule; compare Martial's merry couplet for a 
clay figurine of a hunchback: 

Ebrius haec fedt terris, puto, monstra Prometheus: 
Saturnalido lusit et ipse luto.* 

Both Horace and Persius employed the metaphor of the potter's wheel 
to stand for that which was dearest to each, poetry and philosophy;' 
it seems imlikely that they would have drawn their figure from a source 
that was wholly despised or disdained. 

XIV 

FULLONES 

When the first industrial colleges were instituted at Rome, it is 
possible that Hnciores, dyers, were acting also in the capacity oifuUones, 
fullers, since Plutarch does not mention the latter as forming a guild 
of their own.^ Probably, however, as Wezel and Bllimner* suggest, 

* Cp. Juv. 4.134 £., "Sed ex hoc / tempore iam, Caesar, figiili tua castra sequan- 
t\ir," and Friedl&nder's conunent. 

* Marquardt 2.665-669. 

» Abbott, Society and Politics, 98 f . 

* Plin. 35. 160-173; cp. Walters 2.474-554. 

^ Juv. 10.171 f. shows the lowly degree of brickmakers by contrasting them with 
Alexander the Great: "Cum tamen a figulis munitam intraverit urbem, / sarcophago 
contentuserit." 

•Mart. 14.182, cp. 176. Cp. also Juv. 4.133; Ludan Prom, in Verb. 2. 

* Hon Epist, 2.3.21 f.; Pers. 3.23 f. 

' Plut. {Numa 17) uses the word fia^kov which, it is conunonly agreed, means 
dyers. Monunsen, contrary to most scholars, interprets tncvroSef^Qv as fullers. See 
pp. 1; 18, n. 1. 

* Wezel 25-27 thinks that he also has evidence for carpentarii, lanarii coactUiarii, 
and lanii; Bliimner, Mtiller's Handbuch 4.2.2.593, names besides fulhnes: lanii, pisca- 
tores, restiones. 



ROMAN CRAFTSMEN AND TRADESMEN OF THE EARLY EMPIRE 21 

they were included in the ninth general division that represented various 
kinds of trades.' At all events they must have been in business from 
very early days. Livy, for instance, speaks of a law of the fifth century 
B. C. which forbade poUtical candidates to have their robes whitened 
with fullers' chalk when canvassing for ofl5ce> Pliny cites the lex 
Metilia . . . ftiUonibus dicta, prescribing the technical processes to be 
employed.* Waltzing agrees with Dirksen that this was a statute 
directed against the frauds of individual artisans.® Pliny's addendum, 
" Adeo omnia maioribus curae fuere," implies that such measures, though 
probably necessary, were not frequently enacted in his own day, but 
that the industrial worker usually went his way unmolested. 

According to Martial 14.51.2, "Non tam saepe teret lintea fullo 
tibi," fullers evidently cleaned linen in addition to woolen garments;^ 
in the first century, too, as in the twentieth, laundries were "hard on 
the clothes"; this is one of the instructive items to be gathered from the 
conversation at Trimalchio's dinner; for Seleucus, taking his fellow 
guests into his confidence, proclaims, "I do not bathe every day; for the 
bathman is a regular fuller, and water has teeth."* Since fulleries 
were both tailoring and laundering establishments, in view of the foppery 
and extravagance of the first centuries of the Empire, when a man whose 
toga did not hang well was a laughing-stock,* and when one prided 
one's self on the number of one's cloaks and syntheses and on the neatness 
of the plaits in one's attire,^® it would seem that fullers were on the 
high-road to wealth and success. Some evidently attained their goal; 
for Martial admits, though with no satisfaction, that 2i fullo had exhibited 
a gladiatorial show at Mutina." The q)igrammatist apparently felt 
no brotherly afifection for ftdlones; their associations were distinctly 

• For the view that this ninth dass contained, not opifices, but the "farmers and the 
rest of the citizens, " cp. Mommsen, De colleg.y 29. 

*Liv. 4.25.13. 

•Plin. Nat, 35.197 f. The law probably belongs to the year 220 B. C, when 
L. Aemilius and C. Flaminius were censors, cp. Smith, Diet, of Biog.f 3.1359. 

•Waltzing 1.183. 

^ On the fulling business, cp. Marquardt 2.527-530; Blttmner, MUller*s Handbuch 
4.2.2.256; Tech., 1.170-190. 

•Petron. 42. 

•Hor.E^/. 1.1.95-97. 

"Mart. 2.46; 2.57; 3.56.10; 4.66.3 f.; 5.79. 

" Id. 3.59.2. 



22 ROMAN CRAFTSMEN AND TRADESMEN OF THE EARLY EMPIRE 

unpleasant to him; their vocation had an odorous connection in his mind 
with the trade across the Tiber;" and their presence among the inevi- 
table "kissers" at Rome was obnoxious." The choice of individuals 
whom he singles out of the laboring classes to receive opprobrium on 
this last score may be significant; for he selects the textoff fulloy sutor; 
that is, those who clothed him. Could it have been that the suggestion 
of unpaid bills was one of the things that made a wider berth desirable?^* 
The phrase avarus fulld^ in another passage carries suspicion with it. 
It is unfortimate that of the satirists only Martial oflFers testimony on 
fullers. Excavations at Pompeii give a more attractive impression of 
them. Two large fulleries and a smaller one which have been unearthed 
are suggestive of the extent of their business. Graffiti show that ftdlones 
themselves took an interest in town elections," and their trade is one 
of those charmingly idealized in the graceful Cupid and Psyche pictures 
in the House of the Vettii.^^ 

XV 

Institores 

As a legal term in the third century, instUor designated one "qui 
tabernae locove ad emendum vendendumvepraeponitur, quique sine 
loco ad eundem actimi praeponitur. "^ This definition from Paulus- 
apparently involves two classes of men: namely clerks, agents, or 
managers in charge of any business concerned with buying and selling; 
and also street venders, hawkers, or peddlers. A study of the word 
as it occurs in a number of literary passages of the period imder investi- 
gation supports the view that at this time the second signification was 
the one in common use. 

Livy, for instance, in disclosing the parentage of C. Terentius Varro^ 
who lived at the end of the third century B. C, says of his father : * *Lan- 
iiunfuisse . . . ipsimi institorem mercis. "^ Although at this republican 

»/<i. 6.93.1-4. See pp. 18 f. 

«Mart. 12.59. Cp. 7.95; 11.95, 98; Friedlander-Magnus 1.90-93. 

" See pp. 75 f. for another explanation. 

« Mart. 6.93.1. 

" CIL. 4.998, 2966. 

" Overbeck 390-396; Mau-Kelsey 335-336, 393-397. 

* Dig. 14.3.18. 

« Liv. 22.25.19. See pp. 28 f. 



ROMAN CRAFTSMEN AND TRADESMEN OF THE EARLY EMPIRE 23 

date it may have been considered degrading to manage one's own busi- 
ness,' yet the historian's words may convey even a deeper cause for 
scorn. We know that it was customary in Martiars time for butchers 
to have their meat sold on the streets. " Omnia crudelis lanius per compita 
portat,"* he tells us. The practice has persisted until our own day and 
was probably no new one in the first century of our era, so that it may be 
justifiable to read in Livy's statement a reference to the "butcher's 
boy" who delivered his master's wares. Horace couples insPUor with 
navis magister and nautae,^ thus combining "paddlers of the seas" with 
"peddlers of the streets." Ovid alludes to a vender of commodities 
which appealed to feminine interests with the distich: 

Institor ad dominam veniet disdnctus emacem, 
expediet merces teque sedente suas,* 

and Propertius says of a fishmonger: 

Suppetat hie, pisces calamo praedabor, et ibo 
mundus demissis institor in tunicis.' 

Seneca complains that the extravagance of his day demanded numerous 
venders of iced water: "Habet institores aqua, et annonam, pro pudorl 
variam."® The popinarum instUores^ of the same author must be 
claimed as hawkers, not only because they are described by the phrase, 
"mercem sua quadam et insignita modulatione vendentes,"' but because 
their counterpart is found in Martial's verses, "fxmaantia qui tomacla 
raucus / circmnfert tepidis cocus popinis. "^® Quintilian's metaphorical 
insHtorem eloquentiae is qualified by the expressive adjective amhitiosum.^ 
Analogy would plausibly consign Juvenal's institor hihernae tegetis 
niveique cadurci^ to the peddler class, even if reason for it were not at 
hand in Ulpian's note in the Digest: "Etiam eos institores dicendos 
placuit, quibus vestiarii, vel lintearii dant vestem circmnferendam et 

* Cp". Cic. Flac. 18: "Opifices et tabemarios atque illam omnem faecem civitatum 
quid est negoti concitare?" Cp. Id. Dotn, 13. 

* Mart. 6.64.21. 

» Hor. Epod. 17.20; Carm. 3.6.30 f. 

•Ov..4fjl.421f. 

^ Prop. 4.2.37 f . 

'Sen. Nat, 4.13.8. Snow and ice were packed in storage plants, reponendae 
nivis officinaSf and preserved with straw; iced water was carted around by pack ani- 
mak, lb. §§3-9; cp. Petron. 31. 

* Sen. EpisL 56.2. 
"Mart. 1.41.9 f. 

" Quint. 11.1.50; cp. 8.3.12. 
»Juv. 7.221. 



24 ROMAN CRAPTSHEN AND TRADESMEN OP THE EARLY EMPIRE 

distrahendam, quos vulgo drdtores appellamus."^' The sulphuratae 
lipfnis instUor mercis of Martial's lines^* is of course a street vender, as 
is dear from the terms ambukUar and proxeneta which the poet elsewhere 
applies to one who sold sulphur matdies in exdiange for broken glass.^ 
Our last passage from Martial is one of spedal interest; it is the opening 
verse of the epigram whidi commends Domitian's law requiring shop- 
keepers to stay within bounds: 

Abstulerat totam temerarius institor urbem." 

Now if institor here is merdy a synon3ma for tabernarius, as most editors 
understand it, we shall have to infer that the word also signified shop- 
keeper at this period. But the references quoted above have rather 
implied that such a meaning was probably obsolete except in legal 
parlance. If this be true, Martial has again shown his adroitness in 
punning. The Roman reader's first concept from instUor would be of 
a peddler; but as the epigram unfolded, he would grasp the poet's subtle 
purpose and no doubt laughingly agree with him that tabernarii who, 
like peddlers, carried their business out to the people were not really 
shopkeepers but street venders, and therefore well deserved the name 
insiitares. 

Those whom the Romans classed as peddlers are naturally not 
accredited with flattering attributes. They were usually slaves^' and 
are described as discinctus,^^ demissis in tunicis,^^ and are termed vUes 
pueri^ and vernae?^ Like many a salesman in the Latin countries of 
to-day, they set no prixfixe upon their goods, but took what they could 
get from the individual purchaser: Seneca calls attention to this trait 
in water-dealers;^ Juvenal, in sellers of fabrics.^ Venders whose wares 
gained them admission to the women of the household were bold, corrupt, 

"Dig. 14.3.5.4; q). Plin. Nat, 18. 225, where the setting of the constellation 
Vergiliae is called a harbinger of winter, like the peddler of heavy garments, vestis 
institor; but the text of the passage is imreliable. 

"Mart. 12.57.14. 

" Id. 1.41.3-5; 10.3.3 f. Cp. Stat. Silv. 1.6.73 f.; Juv. 5.48. 

"Mart. 7.61.1. The clever suggestion has been made to me that institor here 
may refer to peddlers with push carts, but the general context seems to be opposed 
to this, especially verses 2, 5, 8, 10. See p. 61. 

" They were sometimes freebom, cp. Liv. 22.25.19; Dig. 14.3.1. 

"Ov..4r5 1.421. 

» Prop. 4.2.38. 

"Mart. 1.41.8. 

^Id. 1.41.2 ff.; cp. Pers. 4.21 f.; Mart. 10.3.1. 

"Sen.iVoi. 4.13.8. 

» Juv. 7.220 f. 



ROMAN CRAFTSMEN AND TRADESMEN OF THE EARLY EMPIRE 25 

and immoral.^ Hawkers were noisy and vulgar.^ Horace mentions 
medical "quacks," pharmocopolae^ in dissolute associations, and ranks 
the driver of a huckster's caballus^'' in the same category with a gladiator. 
To secure a contemptuous simile, Persius resorts to a comparison with a 
woman herbseller.^^ Martial describes the p)eddler of sulphur matches 
and broken glass as lippris^^ and transtiherinus?^ Unks him with imposters 
and renegades, and includes in the same list venders of sausage and of 
pea soup'^ and the vUes pueri salariorum,^ Yet Petronius testifies 
that a man who had once been a peddler became a successful lawyer, 
and that another who used to carry wood on his back was able later to 
coimt his eight hundred thousand sesterces.^ 

The duties of the pueri salariorum, of whom mention has been made 
above, are matters for dispute. Marquardt denies that salarii were 
the same as salsametUariiy and maintains that they were retailers of 
salt.** Waltzing concedes that they may have been either "les mar- 

»*Hor. Epod. 17.20; Carm. 3.6.29-32; Ov. Ars 1.421 f.; Rem. 306; Juv. 6.591. 

»Sen. Epist. 56.2; Petron. 68; Stat. Silv. 1.6.73 f.; Mart. 1.41.3 ff.; 10.3.1-4. 

*Hor. Sat, 1.2.1-3; qp. Gell. 1.15.9 quoting Cato: "Auditis, non auscultatis, 
tamquam pharmacopolam. Nam eius verba audiuntur; verum se nemo committit^ 
si aegerest." 

"'Hor. Epist. 1.18.36. 

*• Pers. 4.21 f . Cp. Petron. 7. 

**This adjective in itself, of coiirse, is not necessarily derogatory. Bad eyes 
seem to have been conmion among the Romans: Horace calls himself lippiis (Sat. 
1.5.30 f.; cp. 1.7.3; Epist. 1.1.29), and as Habinnas reminds us in Petronius 68, Venus 
herself was cross-eyed! But Horace would doubtless have objected to lippus as a 
characterizing epithet for himself; it often implies sensual excess, and even its figura- 
tive use is usudly disparaging, cp. Hor. Sat. 1.1.120; 1.3.25; Pers. 1.79; 2.72; 5.77; 
Petron. 28; Mart. 6.39.11; 6.78.2; 7.20.12; 8.9.2; 8.59.2; 12.57.14; 12.59.9; Juv. 10.130. 

•» See pp. 19, 22. 

•* Some of these were sent out by cook-shops, but others seem to have been inde- 
pendent: Sen. Epist. 56.2; Mart. 1.41.6, 8, 9f. Cp. Hor. Epist. 2.3.249; Petron. 
14; Mart. 1.103.10. There was apparently some contrivance for keeping the food 
heated, cp. Juv. 3.249-253 and Darem.-Saglio 1.2.1502, fig. 1939. Seneca, /.c, men- 
tions hawkers of pastries and confections. See p. 16. 

"Mart. 1.41; 10.3; 12.57.11-14. 

» Petron. 38, 46. 

"^ Marquardt 2.469.3. He claims that salinator meant originally ''Salinenar- 
beiter " ; salariuSy " SalzverkSufer. " Later, he thinks, the two became interchangeable, 
and he cites Amob. 2.38, salinatores ( = "Salzverkaufer")» bolonas, ungtientarios, 
aurificeSf aucupes, and CH^. 6.1152, divo / Constantino / avgvsto / corpvs / 
SALARfORVM ( = " Salinenpachtcr ") /iosvervnt. 



26 ROICAN CRAFTSMEN AND TRADESMEN OF THE EARLY EMPIRE 

chands de sd en detail ou les marcfaands de saumure. "^ There seems 
to be little evidence for positive proof, but the conjecture " salt dealers' ' 
is reasonable on the analogy of Via Salariay " Salt Road, " and {argewtum) 
solarium, "salt money."" Martial's salarUf however, certainly savor 
of fish, especially those to whom allusion is made in an epigram addressed 
to the book which he is sending to ApoUonaris for criticism. If you 
meet with his approval, says the poet, 

Nee scombris tunicas dabis molestas. 
si damnaverit, ad salariomm 
curras scrinia protinus lioebit, 
inversa pueris arande charta." 

It is quite patent that the lines refer to the custom of using worthless 
manuscripts to wrap fish;*^ they further imply that the dealers' slaves 
scribbled accounts or memoranda on the back.'^ It appears, therefore, 
that in Martial's time salarii did deal in scombri; but this discovery 
surely need not interfere with considering them salt retailers; for i;i4io 
would be more appropriately engaged in pickling and salting? It may 
well be that salarius meant to the Roman what "salter" does to us, 
"one who makes, sells, or deals in salt; . . . one who salts meat or 
fish."*® SalsametUarius may have been applied commonly to peddlers 
of salt meat or fish,^ many of whom were doubtless viles pueri salariorum. 
We are told that Horace's father was a salsametUarius and that this was 
cast up to his son as a deep reproach; but the story, which is found in 
Suetonius's life of the poet, is probably an interpolation.^ Hawkers 

** Waltzing 2.226 f. He holds that salinatores were commercial speculatores, 
and he does not believe that the word salarii in CIL. 6.1152 designates those who were 
connected with salt mines. 

•• Cp. Plin. Nat. 31.89. 

"Mart. 4.86.8-11. 

•• So also Pers. 1.43, "scombros metuentia carmina"; Mart. 3.2.4, "cordylas 
madida tegas papyro"; 3.50.9, 'quod si non scombris scelerata poemata donas"; 
13.1.1, ''ne toga cordyUs et paenula desit olivis.'' See p. 68. 

**The context seems to demand this interpretation rather than to refer pueris 
to "school children," as most editors explain it. Why change to school children at 
the end, when the warning throughout has been against salt fish dealers? That 
the backs of old MSS. were utilized for accounts, the Oxyrhynchus Papyri give evidence. 
On the use of worthless MSS. for scribbling and trivial writing in general, cp. Horace 
Epist. 1.20.10-13 and schol.; Mart. 8.62. 

*• Century Dictionary. 

^ Wdlflim, Archiv. Lai, Lex., 10, considers salsametUarius a dealer in salted foods 
of all kinds. 

^ Reifferscheid, ed. of Suet., 44 (Leipzig, 1860), cp. critical note. 



ROMAN CRAFTSMEN AND TRADESMEN OF THE EARLY EMPIRE 27 

of this kind were apparentiy a worthless type, yet from their dregs, 
it is said, there issued a princeps equUum^ favored by Domitian, despised 
by the people, and designated by Juvenal, "pars Niliacae / plebis, 
. . . vema Canopi / Crispinus. "^ 

XVI 

Lanu 

Butchers may have been among those collected into the ninth general 
guild which Plutarch says was established by Nimia.^ Livy refers to a 
butcher-shop in the Forum in his story of Virginia which relates to the 
year 449 B. C.^ Since, however, the historian may be guilty of an 
anachronism in this case, his words cannot be taken for conclusive 
proof of the presence of lanii in the Forum at the beginning of the repub- 
hcan period. The earliest epigraphical evidence for a collegium laniorum 
belongs apparently to about the middle of the second century B. C; it 
records a corporation instituted near what was later the Piscina Publica.' 

The butcher's trade appears to have been quite extensive and lucra- 
tive. Livy mentions a lanius of the third century B. C, who had 
acquired a large fortune.* By Cicero's time many meat-dealers, appar- 
ently, were required in order to administer to the extravagant tastes 
of high livers.*^ Trimalchio, in Petronius, selecting laniones et ungueniarii 
to typify shopkeepers who sell by weight, maintains that they were 
born under Libra? Martial considered a lanius to be essential even in 
an obscure country hamlet: "Give me a tavern," he says, "a butcher- 
shop, a place to bathe, a barber, draughtsnien and board, a few books 
personally selected, a congenial companion, a tall slave of enduring 
comeliness with a sweetheart to content him: give me these, Rufus, 
even at Butuntum, and you may keep for yourself the Thermae of Nero. "^ 
In another passage also Martial points to the butcher's omnipresence, 

« Juv. 4.32 f . 

**Id. 1.26-29; 4.28-33, 108 f. 

^ Wezel and BlUmner are of this opinion. See pp. 1; 20, n. 2. 

« Liv. 3.48.5. 

•CIL. 6.167 f.; Waltzing 1.88.5; 4.26.65; BlUmner, MUller*s Handbuch 4.2.2. 
593.6. The date is determined by the orthography: AI for AE^ EIS for / (nom.), 
01 for U, M omitted; q). Ritschl, Opuscula PkUologica, 4.765 (Leipzig, 1878); Egbert, 
Latin Inscriptions, 407 (New York, 1896). 

* Liv. 22.25.18 ff. 
» ac. Off. 1.150. 

• Petron. 39. 
' Mart. 2.48. 



28 ROHAN CKAFTSMEN AND TRADESMEN OF THE EARLY EMPIRE 

not only by the association in which he places him, but by the mere 
mention of him; for he singles him out together with the tonsar, copOy 
and cocus to represent the inconsiderate shopkeepers who had blockaded 
the sidewalks, until Domitian's law had demanded that they stay within 
bounds.* It is hardly to be supposed that the poet would have made 
special note of only a rare offender. There may be the further inference, 
too, that Martial was a forerunner of the advocates of sanitary methods, 
and therefore called attention here to those whose business was most 
unsuited to an open thoroughfare. 

The unfeeling butcher, crudelis lanius, sinned against hygienic law, 
it seems, in still another direction; for although he foimd it advantageous 
to his trade and convenient for his patrons, to provide a prototype of 
the now familiar butcher's wagon and have his meats transported omnia 
per compiUiy he evidently did not deem it necessary to furnish a covering 
for his wares or to take the precaution of previous inspection as to savor 
and freshness!* 

Butchers in their social aspect have been maligned because of Livy's 
denunciation of C. Terentius Varro, of whom he renders the following 
report: ''Loco non hmnili solum sed etiam sordido ortus. Patrem 
lanium fuisse ferunt, ipsum institorem mercis, filioque hoc ipso in ser- 
vilia eius artis ministeria usum. "^° This is sometimes qupted to prove 
the ill repute not only of laniiy but of the industrial population in general.^^ 
There are three considerations, however, which strip the excerpt of much 
of its assiuned implication. In the first place, any disparagement 
conveyed in the lines may express the attitude of the republican period 
only; for Livy may merely be cop)dng the words of his source. Then 
too, no matter whose sentiments are expressed, it is to be noted that 
despite what may have been this man's due in theory, he managed, in 
reality, to win high position: he studied law, gained great influence, 
though by dishonorable cases, it was said, and actually ran the full 
gamut of the cursus honorum, becoming quaestor, plebeian and curule 
aedile, praetor, and finally consul and one of the commanding generals 
at the battle of Cannae, even receiving a magnificent ovation from 
senate and people upon his return from that disastrous struggle.^ The 
story of his early life may not have been true, but it doubtless gained 

*Id. 7.61. See p. 61. 

•Mart. 6.64.18-21. 

«Liv. 22.25. 18 f. 

" E.g., Fowler 44; Kiihn 10. 

"Liv. 22.26; 56.1-3; 61.14; Plut. Fab, 18. 



ROMAN CRAFTSMEN AND TRADESMEN OF THE EARLY EMPIRE 29 

credence and therefore proves that as a matter of fact, lowly or even 
disreputable birth did not necessarily per se keep one from rising to 
power, even in the aristocratic days of the Republic. The third sug- 
gestion that presents itself is, that it would be no illogical interpretation 
of Livy's lines to balance humili with laniumy sordido with institorem, 
and refer servilia to the latter.^' It would appear then, that Varro 
was of humble birth because he was the son of a butcher, but his heritage 
was ignohile as well; for his father had peddled his meats himself, per- 
forming the service which was usually consigned to a slave, institor'^^ he 
had even employed his son in these servile duties. Since, therefore, the 
heaviest aspersions in the passage seem to be directed against a slave's 
occupation and a lawyer's dishonesty, they cannot fairly be cited as 
committing lanii and other tradesmen to the depths of social disgrace 
and degradation. All that is clearly proved is that butchers were of 
humble station; and the references of the satirists add no more definite 
information. 

XVII 

Mangones 

Men who earned their Uving by traffic in human lives seem not 
to have been able to purchase respect with their ill-gotten gains. 
Whether they were installed ad Castoris in shops which, according to 
Seneca, were cranmied with a mob of slaves of the worst type;^ or whether 
they had their p]atforms» cafastaej concealed from the rabble's gaze in 
the secluded rooms of some respectable quarter such as the Saepta,^ 
and there, to the inspection of the elect, displayed the "flower of Asia,"' 
which yielded from one to two hundred thousand sesterces per capita,*^ 
the word mango designated the class and branded them all "tricksters," 

"Otherwise the adjective is unnecessary. I consider that both lanium and 
insPUorem refer to pairentf institorem being rendered more emphatic by the intensive 
ipsum; -que^ therefore, joins fuisse and ttsum. 

" See pp. 22-27, especially pp. 22 f . 

»Sen.Z)f a/. 2.13.4. 

* Mart. 9.59.1-6. See pp. 69 f. 

'Juv. 5.56. Great numbers of slaves, many of them especially prized, came 
from the East, cp. Hor. Epist. 1.6.39; Petron. 31, 44, 63, 69; Mart. 7.80.9 f.; 10.76.3; 
Juv. 11.147; Wallon 2.48-50. 

* Hor. Epist. 2.2.5 sets 8000 HS. as a conservative price for a slave. According 
to Petron. 68, a clever slave, a Jack-at-all-trades, was purchased for 300 denarii. 
Mart, tells of an undesirable girl who would not bring 600 HS. But cp. Mart. 1.5S.1 ; 
2.63.1; 3.62.1; 11.70.1; Juv. 5.56-61; Wallon 2.160-176; Marquardt 1.173-175. 






30 ROMAN CRAFTSMEN AND TRADESMEN OF THE EARLY EMPIRE 

if we are right in foUowing the commonly accepted etymology from the 
Greek iikyyovov^ fiayyaveixa} The name was apparently no misnomer. 
They were adepts in magnifying the fine points of the slaves which they 
had for sale; but as Seneca charges: "Qnicquid est, quod displiceat, 
aliquo lenodnio abscondunt, itaque ementibus omamenta ipsa suspecta 
sunt: sive cms alligatum sive brachium aspiceres, nudari inheres et 
ipsum tibi corpus ostendi."* The philosopher descries no trace of good 
in the cheap slave dealer, "sub quo nemo nisi mains est."^ Martial 
declares mangones to be criminal in their greed.^ Persius and Juvenal 
name their business as the last resort of the unprincipled,* and Quintilian 
characterizes a mango as a man cruel in rage, "qui non erubescit, nihil 
observat; etiam periculose avarus est. "^® 

XVIII XIX 

Mercatores Negotiatores 

Roman trade was said to have received its first encouragement 
in the time of Numa.^ After a gradual develc^ment in local fairs and 
markets, upon the opening of a grain trade with the city of Cumae, it 
appears to have expanded on the economic side into an interstate com- 
merce; and in its religious phase, into the worship of Mercury,* a deity 
who, according to Professor J. B. Carter, was patterned after the Greek 

* This is approved by Walde 461, and is sanctioned by most editors of the satirists 
who explain the word. Wilkins, however, in a note on Hor. E^st. 2.2.13, disagrees; 
he connects it with oE. mangere "a dealer, " Germ, -menger from mangian "to traffic, " 
ultimately mang "a mixture. '' It could be used of any dealer, it seems, who attempted 
to enhance the value of what he had to sell by clever mixing, furbishing, or misrepre- 
sentation; e.g.f a polisher of jewels (Plin. Nai. 37.199), a mixer of medicines or per- 
fumes {Ih. 12.98; cp. 24.35), a dealer in wine {Ih. 23.39) or mules (Suet. Vesp. 4.3); 
but its specific signification in the Empire was evidently "slave trafficker," cp. Dig. 
50.16.207: "Mercis appellatione homines non contineri, Mela ait: et ob eam rem 
mangones non mercatores, sed venaliciarios appellari ait." At all events it seems 
to imply regularly a deceitful dealer. 

•Sen. Epist, 80.9. Cp. Hor. Epist. 2.2.3-15, with llj^vv. of virtues to \}4 of vice; 
Plin. Nat. 24.35; Quint. 2.15.25; Mart. 6.66. 

'^ Sen. D/a/. 2.13.4. 

* Mart. 9.5(6).4 f.; cp. 6.29.1, avarae cakLstae. 

* Pers. 6.77; Juv. 3.33, see pp. 46 ff. 
" Quint. Decl 340. 

> Cic. Rep. 2.27. 

«Hor. Sat. 2.3.25; Pers. 5.112; Petron. 29, 77. 



ROMAN CRAFTSMEN AND TRADESMEN OF THE EARLY EMPIRE 31 

Hermes Empolaios, the protector of merchants.' Although this divinity 
later figured in Latin poetry with many attributes and functions of 
Hermes, Professor Carter believes that in actual cidt " he never regained 
the many-sidedness which he had lost in coming to them (the Romans) 
merely as a god of trade. "* A temple was built to him near the Circus 
Maximus, and upon its dedication in 495 B. C. there was instituted a 
collegium mercatorum^ an embryonic Chamber of Commerce, whose 
members were known as mercuricUes^ 

9 

During the Republic Rome's commercial activities steadily in- 
creased and became so important that Mommsen^ has put forth the 
theory that her territorial expansion at this time was due to mercantile 
influence. Professor Tenny Frank, in his volume on Roman Imperial- 
ism,^ opposes this view on the ground that the evidence offered does 
not bear examination; he concludes that traders did not exert any 
considerable influence upon the policies of the senate. His refutation 
is ingenious though not thoroughly convincing, especially in view of 
such a statement as Cicero's: "Maiores nostri saepe mercatoribus aut 
naviculariis nostris iniuriosius tractatis bella gessenmt."* Perhaps a 
middle course between the two extreme opinions would more nearly 
approach the truth. 

In the first centiuy of the Empire, trade was so extensive that 
Claudius, carrying out a project contemplated by Julius Caesar, made 
vast improvements at Ostia to provide a safe and convenient harbor.^^ 
With the completion of this great work, a fresh impetus must have been 
given to mercantile interests, which under the emperors became world- 
wide in scope. From random references in the satirists, we learn that 
caravans brought pepper, gold, ebony, and ivory from farthest India ;^ 

* Carter 77 f . 

* Id. 79. 

» Liv. 2.27.5. 

* Cic. Ad. Q. Fr. 2.5.2; cp. Wissowa 5.4.304 f. 

^ Mommsen-Dickson, Hist, of Rome, 3.238 f., 274, 295, 415 f., 421; q). Ferrero, 
Greainess and Decline of Rome, 38 (New York, 1907). 

* Ch. 14, " Commercialism and Expansion. " See p. viii. 

•Cic. Jlf am/. 5.11. 

" Juv. 12.75-81 and schol.] Suet. Claud. 20.1; Dio 60.11; Lanciani, Ann. dell Inst. 
40(1868). 144 ff. 

" Hor. Carm. 1.31.6; Epist. 1.1.45; Pers. 5.135 f., cp. 54 f. and Virg. Georg. 2.116 f . 



v 



\ 



/ 



32 ROMAN CRAFTSICEK AND TRADESICEN OF THE EARLY EMPIRE 

China furnished silk;" Arabia, incense;" Phoenicia, dyes;^^ $3^ria, spices 

jand perfumes;"/Cilicia, safiFron." Voyages were made to Phrygia and 

JBithynia for timber and marble,^^ to Pontus for herring, oil, and tow.^^ 

! Crete and the islands of the Aegean^* were active in conmierce. But the 

'vagus mercatar^ did not stop with the East; leaving the Aegean, he made 

for the African Seas and passed between the Pillars of Hercules, far oat 

into the Atlantic.** Every quarter of the world** from the rising to the 

setting sun** delivered its own special products. 

It was not without great anxiety of spirit and peril of life** that 
these distant journeys were made. The discomforts on shipboard 
were many. Even the captain of the enterprise might have to eat 
his dinner from the rowers' bench, propping himself against a coil of 
rope and partaking of wine that woidd probably be flat.*^ His vessel 
was at the mercy of wind and storm, and partial or total shipwreck was 
not uncommon.** Indeed dis carus ipsis^ as Horace maintains, was he 
who sailed to the Atlantic three and four times a year and came back 
safe.*^ 

Yet the trader's calling seems to have had no dearth of devotees: 
''Behold harbor and sea teeming with big vessels," says Juvenal, "the 
greater portion of mankind is now on the deep. "*^ Was it the danger 

"Pctron. 119; Mart. 11.27.11. 

" Pcre. 5.135, q). Virg. Georg. 2.117. 

"Hor. S<a. 2.4.84; Episi. 1.6.18; Mart. 8.48. 1; 9.22.13; 10.87.10; et passim; 
Juv. 1.27; 7.134. 

" Hor. Carm. 1.31.12 and schol.; 2.7.8. 

"/(f. Sai. 2.4.68; Mart. 3.65.2; 9.38.5; Juv. 14.267 and Mayor's note. 

"Hor. Carm. 1.35.7 f.; 3.1.41; Epist. 1.6.33; Mart. 9.75.7 f. 

»«Pere. 5.134 f. 

"Pcre. 5.135; Mart. 1.88.3; Juv. 14.270 £. 

««Hor.£/^M/. 2.3.117. 

»/(f. Carm, 1.31.11-14; Juv. 14.278-280. 

» Pcra. 6.76. 

" Hor. Sat. 1.4.29 f. For a highly colored description of the extent of Rome's 
commerce at the end of the Republic, cp. Petron. 119. 

*^ Hot. Epist. 1.1.44-46. 

»Pere. 5.146-148. 

»Hor. Carm. 1.1.13-17; 3.1.26; Sat. 1.1.6; Pere. 6.27-31; Petron. 76, 114; Mart. 
4.66.14; 5.42.6; Juv.12.17-82; 14.268, 292-302. 
*fKor. Carm. 1.31.13-15. 
«« Juv. 14.275-277. 



ROMAN CRAFTSMEN AND TRADESMEN OF THE EARLY EMPIRE 33 

and excitement that lured them; or was it the air of importance with 
which they could fairly bristle upon their return, when as tumidi negotia- 
tore^ they would be able to play the role of Othello and prate 

Of antres vast and deserts idle, 



And of the Cannibals that each other eat, 
The Anthropophagi, and men whose heads 
Do grow beneath their shoiilders?*^ 



All this made its appeal perhaps, but in the eyes of the satirists the 
real inspiration came from avarice. She it is, we gather from Horace, 
who drives men indefatigably over every sea and headlong into danger. 
They strive to be first in port and to lose no bargain; for they must 
procure the round sum of a thousand talents, then another thousand, 
and another, and still another, until they have made their fortimes 
square. In the midst of a storm they may long for the ease of home, 
but they later repair their battered ships, indociles pauperiem pati?^ 
Avarice makes her demands, Persius adds, even upon the man who loves 
the luxury and comfort of home. Rousing him from his snoring slum- 
bers, she goads him on to load his slave with packing-skin and wine-jug 
and to set out for the hardships of a voyage, merely that he may be able 
to squeeze a greedy eleven percent from the money that he had been 
nursing at Rome for a modest five. She would have him sell his very 
soul for gain.** Petronius, too, notes the high interest that buoys up 
the man who trusts the sea.^ 

**Mart. 10.87.9, cp. 104.16. On the history of the change in meaning of nego- 
tiator, cp. Emesti's treatise, De Negotiatoribus Romanis. By abundant evidence he 
proves quite satisfactorily that throughout the republican |>eriod, the negotiator cor- 
responded in the provinces to the faenerator at Rome; it became part of his business, 
however, to attend to the shipment of the state grain supplies, and since to this extent 
his duties coincided with those of the grain merchant, the terms for the two became 
confused, and in the Empire negotiator was sometimes used interchangeably with 
mercaior. See p. 36. Martial's tumidus negotiator was evidently an impk)rter with a 
shop in the Portico of Agrippa, cp. Juv. 6. 153-157. Cp. Petron. 43, homo negotians, 
referring to a wine merchant; Id. 76, negotiari, used in connection with wine and other 
merchandize; Id. 116, negotiation negotiatores, designating broadly business in general. 
On Mart. 11.66.2 where the original meaning of negotiator seems to be retained, see 
pp. 36 f . 

••Shakesp., OtheUo, 1.3.140-145; cp. Juv. 12.81 f.; 14.281-283. 

« Hor. Carm. 1.1.13-18; 1.31.10-15; Sat. 1.4.25 f., 29-32; Epist. 1.1.42-48; 1.6.31-38. 

«Pers. 5.52-55, 111 f., 132-150; 6.75-80. 

«» Petron. 83. 



34 ROMAN CRAFTSMEN AND TRADESMEN OF THE EARLY EMPIRE 

Juvenal is the bitterest critic. In one vivid, caustic description he 
sums up the whole situation: the broad extent, the danger, and the 
ultimate aim of foreign trade. The passage is familiar, but its interest 
makes it worth recalling. It is better than any play, the poet pro- 
claims, to watch the peril that the avaricious man incurs in his struggle 
for wealth. Do tight rope walkers or acrobats hurled from the spring- 
board furnish the mind more delight than you who tarry forever in your 
Corycian bark, offering a life-long plaything to Corns, the northwester, 
and Auster's southern blasts — you reckless and worthless merchant of 
an odorous bag of merchandize?" ... A fleet will go wherever pros- 
pects of gain shall call. . . . Yet the grand reward of your exertion 
is that you may return home from your voyage with bulging purse, 
proud of your swollen money-bags, and may boast that you have seen 
ocean monsters and the young folks of the sea. . . . Though he does 
not tear his tunic and cloak, that man is in need of a keeper, who fills 
his ship even to the very bulwarks with cargo and is separated from the 
waves only by a plank, since the incentive to this great hardship and 
risk is but a silver coin stamped with the Emperor's miniature and 
superscription. A tempest threatens, yet "Cast off the hawsers," 
cries the owner of the grain and pepper that he has bought up, " this 
colored sky, this strip of black cloud portend no ill; it's only a bit of 
heat lightning." Poor wretch, perhaps that very night his ship will 
be shattered; overboard he'll go, and all but sink overwhelmed by the 
billows, as he grasps his money-belt with his left hand and his teeth. 
Then he whose desires were not sated a while ago with all the gold that 
the Tagus and the Pactolus roll in their ruddy sands will now be satisfied 
with a morsel of food, and a few rags to cover his shivering loins, while 
as a shipwrecked mariner he asks for a penny and maintains himself 
by his painted picture of a storm at sea.'^ 

Wide indeed was the merchant's range and hazardous his lot. Juve- 
nal's account, however, is certainly much exaggerated. It is hardly 
probable that every quiet sea returned a millionaire to the moneyed 
aristocracy, and that every angry one was destined to set a mendicant 
adrift in the dregs of the populace. Of those who begged at Rome, 
carrying a picture of their disaster at sea painted on a fragment of the 
vessel, some were probably imposters;^ others may have been the 
surviving nautae of a shipwrecked crew, and would, therefore, come for 

^ See p. 38. 

* A paraphrase of Juv. 14.256-302. 

» Pers. 1.88-91. Cp. Id. 6.27-33; Petron. 115; Mart. 12.57.12. 



ROMAN CRAFTSMEN AND TRADESMEN OF THE EARLY EMPIRE 35 

the most part from the ranks of slaves.®^ But since the promotors and 

managers of mercantile projects not only required strong financial 

backing, but also gained great profits, we may with reason suppose that 

they, in the majority of cases, were members of the equitesf^ or that 

in the course of events they became citizens with equestrian rating; 

indeed, Trimalchio informed his guests that he had made ten million ^ 

sesterces on a single voyage.^^ Some men of means were apparently i //-^'^ ^0 

interested in merchant ships merely as an investment;*^ others were /'v.^--*^',' 

doubtless capitalists who financed imdertakings but had the actual ''. ^ 

business carried on by freedmen.*^ On this point. Professor Frank,} j'-j'*"^ 

speaking for the republican period, expresses the belief that " traders \ (^r " ** 

in the provinces were looked upon at home as a somewhat low class of y;// -» j £A^ ^* 

adventurers, who had Uttle connection with the vital interests of the state,'* i f. h , 4u J: ^ 

and that wealthy Roman citizens, even though they had made their /\\tf\ 

money in foreign commerce, yet being "always lovers of terra firma, 

gradually drifted into capitalistic enterprises on land, leaving the freed- 

men of Oriental and Greek stock in Italy and their sons to gain control 

of the shipping. "*^ 

Although it is possible that the last part of this statement may 
hold for the early Empire, too, yet if the evidence from the satirists is 
at all reliable, we must suppose that many f reedmen also engaged in 
maritime trade. Juvenal's assertion, "Plus hominum est iam / in 
pelago,"^ speaks for the popularity of commercial pursuits; both Horace 
and Persius refer to the competition that prevailed,^ and the long satiri- 
cal passages in Persius and Juvenal upon the merchant's life are pre- 
simiably directed against men of the higher classes.^ Considering the 

^'Cp. Hor. Sat. 1.5.11, 16, 19, nautae, of canal boatmen on a tow path; Mart. 
10.85.1, on a natUa of the Tiber; Juv. 8.174. 

w Friedlander-Magnus 1.143; Fowler 26; Tucker 238. 

»• Petron. 76, cp. 43. 

" Cp. Petron. 141; Mart. 4.66.14; 5.42.6. 

« Cp. Petron. 76. 

** Frank, Roman Imperialism, 286, 289. Cp. Frank's interesting observation* 
in an article on "Race Mixture in the Roman Empire," Amer. Hist. Rev. 21 (1915- 
1916). 689-708; he concludes from inscriptional evidence that in the time of Juv. and 
Tac., probably 90% even of the free plebeians had Oriental blood in their veins, and 
that in the melting-pot of the whole Empire, the Oriental formed a very large part 
of the amalgum. 

**Juv. 14.276 f. Frank, in the article last cited, at one time (695) discounts 
similar "sweeping statements" of Juv., at another (690) takes them at their face value. 

^Hor. Epist. 1.6.32 f.; Pers. 5.136. 

« Pers. 5.52 ff., 132 ff.; Juv. 14.265 ff. 



36 ROMAN CRA7TSMEN AND TRADESMEN OF THE EARLY EMPIRE 

greed for aTn^«^<sing fortunes in the first century after Christ, and the 
possibilities that foreign trade held for satisfying it, it is altogether 
likely that some financial corporations gave their attention solely to 
this line of gain and for greater security managed their own enterprises; 
in such cases capitalist and merchant would be one and the same. This 
would furnish another cause for the practice which arose in the imperial 

period of using the terms negoHator and mercator 
Negotiatores interchangeably; not only did the individual designated 

by the former (that is, according to Emesti's theory, 
the money lenders in the provinces) enter the latter's domain by super- 
intending the grain trade, but the merchant, by uniting with others 
of his kind into stock companies for business on a large scale, assumed 
to a degree the original nature of the negotiator.^ On the other hand 
there must have been a tempting inducement for independent local 
tradesmen who were shrewd and successful, to broaden their interests 
and do their own importing; in this way freemen of the lower ranks, as 
well as freedmen, would enter the lists of mercatores. 

Public opinion seems to have varied at different periods in regard 
to those engaged in commercial activities. The above characterization 
of them as a "low class of adventurers" would no doubt have received 
Cicero's sanction; for in accoimting for the Carthaginians' proneness 
to lie and cheat, he laid it to their natural location on a good harbor, 
which had caused them to be associated constantly with merchants and 
foreigners, and had therefore enticed them to the pursuit of deceit in 
their eagerness for gain.*^ Again, it is with biting irony and malicious 
intent that he says of Verres: "Mercatorem in provinciam cum imperio 
ac securibus misimus."** But even Cicero leaves a loop-hole. While 
branding small trade as degrading, he adds that it is not only not repre- 
hensible but is even laudable for a person to engage in extensive' mercan- 
tile enterprises, especially if, after having made reasonable profits, he 
shall retire straightway to landed estates.*' One would be inclined to 
believe that the philosopher himself had interests in mercatura . . . 
magna et copiosa! 

Among the references to traders, from which we may judge of the 
attitude toward them under the Empire, we find one in which Martial 
accuses a disreputable character of being a ddator, calumniator ifraudaiofj 

^ See n. 29. 

*^ Cic. Leg. Agr. 2.95; cp. Ojf, ISO. 

« Id. Verr. 4.8. 

« Id. Off. 1.151. 



ROMAN CRAFTSMEN AND TRADESMEN OF THE EARLY EMPIRE 37 

negotiator, and other despicable things.^® Fortunately for the merchant, 
it cannot be proved that negotiator is here used synonymously with 
mercator, as it sometimes was during the Empire.^^ On the contrary, it 
is more probable that the word, which in this case is apparently equiva- 
lent to "swindler," has its common Ciceronian meaning oi faeneratorf^ 
the inference is supported by the closing words of the epigram: "Miror 
/ quare non habeas, Vacerra, nummos." Petronius hints that a homo 
negotians will never do well, unless he is suspicious and distrustful of 
others, and is therefore (by inference) inclined to dishonesty himself; 
yet the wine merchant whom this very passage lauds for his liberality 
and his trusting nature, is said to have succeeded phenomenally.^ 

Some of the citations from the satirists which have been noted on 
the preceding pages soimd quite derogatory, but they can scarcely be 
considered a safe criterion for obtaining a sane judgment of the general 
attitude of the time to which they refer; for practically all of them are 
directed against excessive attention to trade, which was resulting in a 
struggle for wealth for money*s sake only. Persius, the philosophic 
recluse, who probably knew the least about actual conditions in the 
business world, is especially bitter in his attacks. Striving to maintain 
in his fifth Satire the Stoic paradox that none but the philosopher is 
truly free, he argues that he who is under the influence of some over- 
whelming passion can offer no claim as a free agent. Mercatura, there- 
fore, which to him symbolizes avaritiay he condemns as a sort of pre- 
liminary vice in a cursus dedecorum consisting of luxuria, amor, ambitioy 
and superstitio.^ He also puts the merchant, named metaphorically 
for the avaricious man, into another group with doubtful associates; 
namely, the bonvivant, athlete, gambler, and debauchee.^ As shown 
in the sixth Satire, too, his animosity to trade seems due to the fact 
that he thought it as impossible to discover a man of moderation engaged 
in it as to find one who could answer Chrysippus' question as to when 
the pile has become a heap. The mercator whom he scores is the one 
who, to gain his ends, would stoop to dishonesty, or to slave-dealing,^ 
the lowest form of trafl&c.^^ 

"Mart. 11.66. 
" Cp. Id. 10.87.9 f. 
" See n. 29. 
" Petron. 43. 
"Pers. 5.132-188. 
» Id. 5.52-6L 
«/<i. 5.137; 6.75-78. 
»' See pp. 29 f . 



38 ROMAN CRAFTSMEN AND TRADESMEN OF THE EARLY EMPIRE 

It is apparently this same type that Juvenal had in mind in his 
fourteenth Satire; such was his perditus ac vilis sacci mercatar olentisf^ 
nowhere else is he so scornful, and here the text is corrupt; the Bucheler- 
Leo restoration assiculis lessons very much the sting of ac vilis. Further- 
more Juvenal manifests a sincere affection for a certain Catullus*^ who 
was presumably a merchant®^ and had barely escaped shipwreck in a 
storm at sea. In gratitude for his friend's preservation, the poet makes 
sacrifice to his household gods and to Jupiter Capitolinus. On the day 
of the festivities, he writes to a mutual acquaintance that the occasion 
on which he is permitted to pay this honor is dearer to him than his own 
birthday; his motives for making it are entirely unselfish, and his only 
regret is that his offering cannot be more Uberal.^^ His further declara- 
tion that there were none of Catullus's confreres so little addicted to 
avarice as Catullus himself,*^ may be ascribed to a biased judgment. 

The following lines from the same hand are more noncommittal: 

Mense quidem brumae, quo iam mercator laso 
dausus et armatis opstat casa Candida nautis, 
grandia tolluntur crystallina.** 

Of them Duff in his edition says: ''He (Jason) is called mercatar sarcas- 
tically, because of the purpose of his voyage; the Argonautae are degraded 
to nautae,'^ Certainly there is no positive indication in the verses 
themselves that this was Juvenal's intention, and it is a question whether 
he was wasting any irony upon the male sex at this point. Was he 
not rather venting all his sarcasm on extravagant women who demanded 
rich vesseb of crystal from the expensive shops of the Particus Argonau- 
tarum even at the time of the Saturnalia, when the Portico was possibly 
hidden from view by the canvas booths erected for the sigillariay^ 
the image-fair, to which most people were repairing to purchase ordinary 
figures of day? The expedition of Jason and his comrades was of course 
an appropriate theme for mural decoration in a shopping district and 
its symbolism must have been evident to all, so that imless these heroes 

'* Juv. 14.269 (Jahn, 1851), the reading commonly adopted. 

••/<i. 12.1-30,83-98. 

*® Id. 12.37-47, describing a rich cargo that had to be thrown overboard. 

"/(f. 12.1-16, 83-98. 

«/rf. 12.48 f. 

«/(f. 6.153-155. 

"Suet. Claud. 5.1; Schol. on Juv. 6.154. Cp. Mart. 14.182; Suet. Claud. 16.4; 
Nero 28.2; Gell. 2.3.5; 5.4.1; Marquardt, SkuUsverwaliungf 3. 563; Darem.-Saglio> 
4.2.1302; Smith, Dia. of AtUiq., 2.600 f. 



ROMAN CRAFTSMEN AND TRADESMEN OF THE EARLY EMPIRE 39 

had been painted on the Portico for their eternal disgrace and degrada- 
tion, it seems hardly necessary to read into the lines just quoted any 
such implication as Duff suggests. 

There is still another passage from Juvenal which displays no special 
ill-feeUng against the mercalor. In the seventh Satire, after deploring 
the lack of patronage granted to poets in his day, he hints that they had 
better find some other honorable vocation, and suggests mercatura 
together with militia and agricultura as suitable occupations.® Horace, 
too, grouped together in his lines the merchant, the soldier, and the 
tiller of the soil, and he seems to have been of the opinion that in the 
making of money any one of them had as great an advantage as another.® 
Indeed in the social discontent attendant upon the changing conditions 
of his time, he found them each envying the other, yet he felt assured 
that none of them would really wish to change his lot if he should have 
the opportunity.*^ And suppose merchants do amass a fortune, he 
reasons in one of his Epistles, to be sure they are slaves to their owil 
desires and are deserters from the side of Virtue, but they are also useful 
to society; let them relieve the market and fill your larders and granaries, 
don't crush them.*® 

Because of this utilitarian value, if for no more generous reason, 
practical people like the Romans must, at all periods of their history, 
have recognized the importance of tnerccUores both socially and economi- 
cally. From the very beginning of the Empire certainly, due to an 
example set by the Emperor himself, those engaged in mercantile pur- 
suits seem to have met with much encouragement. In the ode addressed 
to Augustus as the savior of the state and society, Horace deems it not 
unfitting to invoke him in the name of Merciuy, the promoter and 
patron of trade and conmierce; and for him even in this capacity, he 
offers the fervent prayer: 

Serus in caelum redeas diuque 
laetus intersis populo Quirini.** 

" Juv. 7.32 f. Cp. Petron. 116 where strangers approaching Croton are advised, 
if they be negotiatores (i. e., presumably, business men of any sort, see n. 29), to change 
their occupation; but if they are clever liars, they may hasten on to wealth: the town 
has the reputation of supporting two classes of people, legacy-hunters and their victim3. 
See pp. 43 f., 48 f. 

"Hor. Sat. 1.1.4-32; cp. Epist. 1.16.70-72; 2.3.117; Petron. 83. 

•' Hor. Sat, 1.1.1-19; cp. Carm. 1.1.11-18. 

** Id. Epist. 1A6.67-72, 

••Id. Carm. 1.2.45 f., cp. 41 flf. 



40 ROMAN dtATTSMEN AND TRADESMEN OF THE EARLY EMPIRE 

XX 

PiSTORES -^ ' '/' '^ 

The baker's trade was not one of long standing at Rome, and con- 
sequently was not represented among the early mdustrial colleges 
which Plutarch ascribes to Numa.^ The omniscient elder Pliny explains 
the situation quite fully in his Naturalis Historia. There were no 
bakers at Rome, he says, until the time of the war with Perseus, more 
than five himdred and eighty years after the foimding of the dty; before 
that, bread had been made at home under the supervision of the women.^ 
In the light of Pliny's further statement, we must interpret pistores 
in Plautus as "millers"; for he claims, on the authority of Ateius Capito: 
"Cocos tum panem lautioribus coquere solitos pistoresque tantum eos 
qui far pisebant nominatos. "' 

Later, however, when baking was introduced as a trade, in accordance 
with Greek practice apparently, it was adopted as an additional occu- 
pation by those who ground the grain; and miUer and baker became 
identical, both designated by the common title, pistar.^ Hence it is 
that, to quote Mau-Kelsey, "we rarely find in Pompeii — and then only 
in private houses — an oven without mills under the same roof."* 

Although baking did not cease, of course, to be a home employment, 
and although the wealthy often maintained special pistores among their 
slaves,® bakeries, which were called pistrina (ae) OTfurnariae' from both 
the old and the new business conducted in them, received ample pat- 
ronage. More than twenty of them have already been unearthed in 
Pompeii.® At Rome, according to the fourth century regionary catalogue, 
there were at that time* from fifteen to twenty-four in each regio. 

Martial complains of the noise of the industry, which he declares 
to have been insufferable even before daybreak; in his own words: 

* See p. 1. 
«Plin.iVfl/. 18.107. 

*Ib. 108; q). Varro in Non. 223; Fest. 58 M. 

*Cp. Mart. 8.16.4 f. 

» Mau-Kelsey 388. 

•Varro in Cell. 15.19.2; Petron. 38, 60; Mart. 11.31.8-10; 13.10. At times, no 
doubt, as had been the custom before the introduction of professional bakers (see n. 2; 
cp. Harcum 74 f.), cod were also charged with the baking, cp. Petron. 68. 

7 Sen. EpisL 90.22; Petron. 73; Plin. Nat. 7.135; 18.86; Suet. Aug. 4.2; VM. 2,1. 
For a discussion of bakeries, cp. Bllimner, Tech., 1.89-95. 

« Mau-Kelsey 388. 

• Notitia (cp. Jordan 2.541-564). 



ROMAN CRAFTSMEN AND TRADESMEN OF THE EARLY EMPIRE 41 

"Negant vitam . . . nocte pistores."^® One score against them 
seems to have been the disturbing jargon of the hawkers, who were 
sent out, especially by the makers of pastries and confections, to sell 
their wares upon the street. Each had his own individual singsong 
cry and might begin to rend the air as early as cockcrow, in order to 
catch the small boys who were on their way to school and had been 
obliged to leave home too early for breakfast.^^ But a far more serious 
cause for grievance must have been the grinding and grating of the 
heavy mills. These were usually turned by asses and mules.^ The 
use of horses for this purpose is mentioned by Juvenal in a verse which 
requires further comment because of a disputed reading. In giving 
some soimd advice to reprobate nobles, whom he urges to live on their 
own honors instead of on the laurels of their forebears, he instances the 
case of steeds of excellent breed, which win no glory from a famous 
pedigree, if they are themselves segnipedes dignique molam versare 
nepotesP Jahn, in his edition of 1851, and Mayor read NepoHs 
and presimaably interpret it as referring to Nepos, a miUer-baker. 
The form as quoted, however, seems to be correct beyond a doubt, 
both because it is foimd in the first hand of the best manuscript,^* and 
because it accords better with the context.^ If nepotes (v. 67) is con- 
sidered as merely a repetition of posteritas (v. 62) and a term in contrast 
with maiarum (v. 64), a strong and desirable antithesis is obtained 
between the renown of noted ancestors and the ignominy of their im- 
worthy progeny. Especially interesting and convincing on this point 
is the following inscription, which records the victories — and the lineage 
— of a famous race horse: hirpinvs. n(epos). aqvi / lonis . vicit. 

CXnn / SECVNDAS. TVUT / LVI. TERT. TVL. / XXXVI.^® 

" Mart. 12.57.4 f. 
" Sen. Epist. 56.2; Mart. 14.223. 

"Ov. Ars 3.290; Fast. 6.311 f. For illustrations and a description of the whole 
subject, cp. Mau-Kelsey 388-392; Bliimner, Tech.^ 1.20-49. 
"Juv. 8.67. 

" Cp. Jahn-Bucheler-Leo edition, critical note and Praef. v ff., xiii, xv, xxii. 
" The verses from 62 are: 

Sed venale pecus Coryphaei posteritas et 

Hirpini, si rara iugo victoria sedit; 

nil ibi maiorum respectus, gratia nulla 
65 umbrarum; dominos pretiis mutare iubentur 

exiguis, trito ducimt epiraedia coUo 

segnipedes dignique molam versare nepotes. 
" CIL. 6.10069. Cp. Mart. 3.63.12; Friedlander-Freese 2.21-33; Friedlander- 
Gough 4.148-166. 



42 ROMAN CKA7TSMEN AMD TRADESMEN OF THE EARLY EMPIRE 

Since the turning of a mill was such inglorious work even for beasts 
of burden, it would seem to have been no proper task for human beings, 
but they were sometimes forced to perform it. Slaves and criminals, 
for instance, might be sent to pistrina to suffer the penalty of hard 
labor in chains.^^ Naturally the work was very degrading and to employ 
freemen at it against their will, says Bliimner, was strictly forbidden.^^ 
Mau-Kelsey point out that at Pompeii there were a number of small 
bakeries rather than a few large establishments;^* this fact, coupled 
with literary and epigraphic evidence, leads to the conclusion that 
pistores were wont to specialize in trade along certain lines. Bakers 
of two varieties of bread mentioned by Pliny*® are recalled in a particvdar- 
ly vivid manner in inscriptions. One reveals the clibinarii of Pompeii 
supporting a certain Trebius for the aediliship;^ the other is on a tomb- 
stone dedicated by a wife to her beloved husband, M. Junius Pudens, a 
wholesale baker of Parthian (?) bread, cvm.qvo.vixit. a. virginitate. 
ANNis . XXXV / sine.vllo.dolore.nisi.diem.mortis.eivs.** Other in- 
scriptions record a pistor candidarius,^ a carpus pistorum magnariorum 
et castrensariorum,^ a carpus pistorum siliginiariarum,^ Among pastry 
confectioners*" there were crusUdarii^ and dulciarii. One of the last 

" Plaut. Persa 21 i.;Poen, 827 f.; Ter. Andr. 199 i.;Pkorm. 249; Wallon 2.227. 

" Bliimner, Tech., 1.33.3. 

!• Mau-Kdsey 388. 

*®Plin. Nat. 18.105!.: oysterbread, ostrearitis; cake bread, artolaganus) hurry 
bread, speusHcus; oven hreadf furnaceus; tin bread, arhpticeus', mold bread, in clibanis; 
Parthian or water bread, PartkicuSf aquaticus; Picentine bread, PicerUinus (q). Mart. 
13.47). Petron. 66 speaks of whole wheat bread, autopyrus; for other varieties see 
Bliimner, Tech., 1.77-89. 

» CIL. 4.677. 

^ CIL. 6.9810. The designation of the trade is in the line pistori.magnario. 
PEPSiANO. Editors before Mommsen understood the last word as Persiano=Par- 
THico. He believes this wrong and thinks that the form found in the inscription may be 
connected with the Gr. x^ts^Lt. coctura; he refers to the breads which Plin. (l.c.) says 
were named a coquendi ratione. Bliimner, Tech., 1.92.8, suggests Gesundheitsbrot; com- 
pare our "Holsum Bread.'' The old explanation, however, seems as simple and rea- 
sonable as any; the misspelling is unimportant, cp. libertarbvs in the last line. 

» CIL. 14.2302; cp. Petron. 66, 

»• CIL. 6.1739. 

» CIL. 6.22, cp. Waltzing 2.80. Cp. CIL. 6.1958. 

» Cp. Bltimner, Tech., 1.94 f. 

^ Sen. EpisL 56.2; libarii here is the conjecture of Caelius Rhodiginus for biberari 
and Uberariif) of the MSS., cp. CIL. 4.1768. 



ROMAN CRAFTSMEN AND TRADESMEN OF THE EARLY EMPIRE 43 

is praised by Martial for his honey knick-knacks; to quote the poet: 

Mille tibi dulces operum manus ista figuras 
extruet: huic uni parca laborat apis.^* 

Bakers appear to have been especially prominent in the business 
world during the Empire. What reputation they enjoyed is a matter 
for conjecture. Suetonius tells us that Antony and Cassius of Parma 
taunted Augustus with being descended from a baker of Aricia.^' Their 
scorn was probably characteristic of the prevailing attitude toward 
trade at the dose of the Republic; yet it may be remarked that the bio- 
grapher's anecdote, whether true or false (for a fictitious tale to be worth 
its fabrication requires a foimdation or semblance of truth), shows what 
possibilities might be in waiting for a baker's scion. 

The emperors doubtless encoiuuged pistores, in order to facilitate 
the distribution of flour and bread. From the time of the Republic, 
Waltzing notes, the aediles entered upon contracts with them, to enable 
the people to buy bread gf good quality at a moderate price.*® Martial, 
writing in Domitian's time, mentions the bakery with the wine shop as 
the natural place to spend one's last denarius.'^ Speaking of Trajan's 
reign, Aurelius Victor reports: "Annonae perpetuae mire consul tum, 
reperto firmatoque pistorum collegio. "^ Since reperto and firmato have 
been considered contradictory terms, the emendations recepto and 
reparato have been suggested, and the explanation is offered that the 
guild was probably established earlier, but that Trajan gave it special 
privileges and settled its relation to the grain supply .'^ It may have 
been the strong incentives put before pistores at this time that caused 
Juvenal to choose their trade as representative of the money-making 
occupations which, he asserts, even famous and illustrious poets had been 
on the point of entering, had not a worthy patron of literature appeared 
in the person of the Emperor.** If there is this connection between the 

** Mart. 14.222, cp. 223. For various confections of pistores, cp. Petron. 60,66; 
Mart. 11.31.8-10. 

*• Suet. Aug. 2.3; 4.2. It was said also that Vitellius's great-grandfather had mar- 
ried the daughter of a baker, cp. Suet. VUd. 2.1. 

••Waltzing 2.79; cp. Petron. 44. 

« Mart. 2.51.1-3. 

** Aur. Vict. Caes. 13.5. The corporation was under the supervision of the prae- 
fectus annonae. Waltzing 2.82 observes that such a corpus would become indispensable 
to the state in the third century, when, between the time of Alexander Severus and 
Aurelian, bread instead of flour was distributed free. 

» Waltzing 2.79 and n. 5; cp. 4.37-39. 

"Juv. 7.1£f. See pp. 48 f. 



44 ROMAN CRAFTSMEN AND TRADESMEN OF THE EARLY EMPIRE 

poet's verses and a historic fact, the Caesar addressed in the Satire is 

undoubtedly Hadrian, and the disputed question on this point is settled.'^ 

Although Juvenal's reference to the baker's trade in the passage 

just cited is doubtless ironical, nevertheless he maintains that it was at 

least an honorable means of livelihood, befitting free men, and far better 

than perjury or the practices of the dekUar, by which slaves, freedmen, 

and others were rising to influence and power. Two lines from Martial 

depict a pistor as a man of low character and immoral habits, but they 

refer to a slave, and presumably to one in domestic service.* The 

epigrammatist cannot resist a jibe, either, at the baker who became a 

lawyer and was trying to make two hundred thousand sesterces. As 

fast as he made money, however, he squandered it. This characteristic 

Martial describes in a jesting metaphor which clearly gives his view on 

the mooted question of the "leopard's spots"; it reads: 

A pistore, Cypere, non recedis: 
et panem fads et fads farinam.*' 

Bakers who did not indulge in the impulse to change their occupation, 
as Cyperus did, were by no means doomed therefore to suffer financial 
straits. Archaeology bears witness to this fact; for the tomb of M. 
Vergilius Eurysaces at Rome near the Porta Maggiore, which is wrought 
with reliefs portraying the processes of the baking business, proves 
by its elaborate proportions and minuteness of detail'* that it sheltered 
the last remains of one who in life was a captain of industry and who 
felt that neither shame nor degradation was attached to his trade. 

XXI 

Praecones 

The term praeco appears to have been applied by the Romans to 
several classes of men whose duties were quite distinct but who, as 
Cicero expressed it, "employed their voice as a means for gain.'*^ 
Juvenal, perhaps ironically, uses it once instead of nomendaiof* for the 
domestic slave who knew all his master's clients and whispered their 

* The supposition that Hadrian is meant is now commonly accepted by editors, 
cp. also FriedUlnder-Goiigh 4.312-315. Hermann, K. F., De Juvenalis ScUirae septi- 
mae temporibtis (1843) and Teuffel-Schwabe-Warr 2.§330.2 argue for Trajan (but 
cp. Id. §331.4), and Nettieship, Jour, of Phil. 16(1888) .55-57, suggests Domitian. 

» Mart. 6.39.105 f.; cp. Friedlander-Magnus 1.244. 

•'Mart. 8.16. 

»« Cn.. 6.1958; Bliimner, Tech., 1.39, fig. 13; 40, fig. 14; Platner 474. 

^Cic. Quinct. 11. 

»Juv. 1.99-101. 



ROMAN CRAFTSMEN AND TRADESMEN OF THE EARLY EMPIRE 45 

names to him when they called upon him or met him on the street. 
Petronius mentions a crier of lost children;^ and there were also public 
officials called praecones, who attended certain magistrates and, as the 
vocal medium between them and the people, performed a variety of 
tasks dependent upon the office of him whom they served.* Some, 
for instance, summoned to court plaintiffs, defendants, and witnesses. 
It is doubtless this practice to which Martial refers when he says to 
Fabianus, whom he urges to keep away from the city: "Potes . . . 
nee pavidos tristi voce citare reos";^ to judge from the context, he accuses 
court svunmoners of a tendency to become ddatores, and enrolls them in 
his list of rogues. 

With none of the foregoing, however, is the present account con-; 
cemed; we are more interested in the auctioneer, the praeco to whom Juve- i 
nal referred the downtrodden provincial, that the latter might dispose 
of the few tattered effects that had not fallen into the hands of an extor- 
tionate governor.* A praeco of this sort was wont to set up a hasta 
in the forum^ or public squares, at the cross-roads or street corners,* > 
and sell to the gathered throng of common people' all kinds of cheap | 
trumpery, vUia scruta-^^ old garments,^^ for instance, flagons, tripods, 
bookcases, caskets, and second-hand books by third-rate dramatists such 
as Paccius and Faustus.^^ Or if it were some ruined bankrupt whose | 
goods were being put up under the sign of the spear,^ the praeco would • 
collect a less lowly throng perhaps, in regular auction-rooms" like the \ 
airia Licinia which Cicero mentions.^* Public sales were advertised in j 
advance, but all imfortunates were probably not so indifferent as the 
poor undertaker described by Petronius. He had once been able to 
dine like a prince, spilling more wine imder his table than some people 
had in their cellars; but his business began to fail, and so fearing that 

» Petron. 97 f.; q). Plaut. Merc, 663 f. 
^Mommsen, Staaisrechty 1.347-350. 
•Mart. 4.5.4; q). Suet. Tih. 11.3. 

• Juv. 8.95-97 and schoU 
' Cic. O/. 2.83. 

• Id, Leg, Agr, 1.7. 

• Hor. Epist. 2.3.419. 
"/ft. 1.7.65. 

" Juv. 8.95. 
»/rf. 7.10-12. 

** Cic. Leg, Agr. 1.7, in atriis aucHonariis; q). Juv. 7.7. 

"* Cic, Quinct, 12.25. Cp. Jordan 1.2.433; 1.3J31.21, 359.42 vs. Landani, Ruins 
and Excavations, 400 (Boston, 1897); Platner 460. 



46 ROMAN CRAFTSMEN AND TRADESMEN OF THE EARLY EMPIRE 

his creditors would surmise that he was going into bankruptcy, he 
nonchalantly advertised as follows, "Caius Julius Proculus will sell 
at auction some of his superfluous artideftl"^ 

Cicero expresses his opinion of auctioneers in his oration for Pubhus 
Quinctius, when he chides Gains Quinctius for associating with Sextus 
Naevius, ''whom nature had endowed with nothing but a voice, to whom 
his father had bequeathed nothing but freedom." He was a bonus 
vir, the orator admits, a witty buffoon, and a civil auctioneer, but he 
lacked the training and culture, ''ut iura sodetatis et offida certi patris 
familias nosse posset. "" 

The artide Praeco in Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman Anti- 
quities contains the statement that the contempt in which the office 
of praeconium was held is seen in Juv. 3.33, 7.6, and CIL. 1. 206.^^ An 
examination of these passages may prove interesting. The first in its 
context is as follows: 

29 Vivant Artorius istic (i. e. Romae) 

et Catulus, maneant qui nigrum in Candida vertunt, 
qui8 ladle est aedem oonducere flumina portus, 
siccandam eluviem, portandum ad busta cadaver, 

33 et praebere caput domina venale sub hasta. 

For verse 33 two interpretations are commonly suggested: either ''to 
be sold up as a bankrupt," or ''to sell slaves at auction." According 
to the former, the thought seems to be that "only dishonest men, who 
will stoop to the basest means, can thrive at Rome; those for instance, 
who after taking certain public contracts, embezzle the money received, 
put the greater part of their property beyond the reach of the law, and 
then go into bankruptcy to defraud the state. " If this is the meaning, 
it would seem that the stigma implied in facile est, verse 31, holds over 
to verse 33, and does not necessarily attach itself to conductores in general, 
but merely to the individual scoxmdrek who entered into public con- 
tracts with the intention of cheating the state. Under the second 
explanation, contractors as a class are scorned and put on a par with 
dealers in slaves, who, as we have seen, were in very poor repute.^* 
Friedlander and others, in their editions of Juvenal, adopt the rendering 
'' sell slaves at auction, " and observe that the line shows the calling of praeco 
to be despicable. Mayor's note on the verse itself suggests "is sold up" 

" Petron. 38. 

"* Cic. Quinct, ni. 

'7 W. Smith and G. £. Marindin in Smith 2.475 f. 

" See pp. 29 f . 



ROMAN CRAFTSMEN AND TRADESMEN OF THE EARLY ElSfPIRE 47 

as a translation, but on Satire 7.6, he says: "How much the praecones 
were despised, appears from III 33 n. 157. " There is great ambiguity 
here: his note on 3.33 is not concerned with praecones, and according 
to his interpretation of the line, any slur that is insinuated is certainly 
on the bankrupt, not on the auctioneer who sold his property sub hasta. 
Although the embezzlement supposition is ingenious and fits the 
sense of verse 30, it is rather involved and requires much reading between 
the lines. The other has some support from the verses immediately 
following, which should undoubtedly be taken in close connection with 
29-33: 

34 Quondam hi cornlcines et municipalis harenae 

perpetui comites notaeque per oppida buccae 
mimera nunc edunt et, verso pollice vidgus 
cum iubet, occidunt populariter; inde reversi 
conducunt foricas. 

There is the possible inference that men who had been tnmipeters at 
gladiatorial contests in provincial towns and who had, threfore, doubt- 
less been slaves themselves, might find incentives and opportunities to 
acquire wealth by becoming dealers in slaves, and so might sell th«n 
at auction, employ them as workmen for public contracts which required 
heavy or disagreeable labor,^® or exhibit gladiatorial shows of their 
own. In this case, however, the subject of the infinitive would natiuully 
be mangones or mancipes, rather than praecones. 

But there is a third interpretation, an off-shoot of the first, which 
I have not noted in any of the editions, although it seems very obvious. 
According to this, the line refers to delatores, and the passage in full 
means: "men who can take up pubUc contracts of the most degrading 
sort, inform against one another, and in this way furnish the emperor 
with those whose property may be sold at public auction to fill his 
coffers." This translates praebere venale literally and is substantiated 
by the scholiast, who explains venale sub hasta by the clause, " qui possimt 
a fisco vendi quasi debitores fisci. "^ The rendering is wholly in keeping 
with the inmiediate context: almost at this very point, Juvenal makes 
Umbricius exclaim, "What am I to do at Rome? I can not lie"; then 
after adding that he has no genius for flattering, fortune telling, or 
abetting murder, adultery, or theft, he ends this part of his discourse 

" Cp. Trajan, Plin. Epist. 10.32 (41): "Ministeria quae non longe a poena sint 
... ad balineum, ad purgationes doacanmi, item munitiones viarum et vicorum.'' 

*^ It is rather significant that the scoliast says quasiy and uses fiscus rather than 
aerarium, but cp. Tac. Ann. 6.2(8). 1: ''£t bona Seiani ablata aerario ut in fiscum 
cogerentur tamquam referret. " 



48 ROliAN CRAFTSMEN AND TRADESMEN OF THE EARLY EMPIRE 

with the complaint, ''Who finds favor now unless he is a confidante 
and has a mind boiling and seething with secrets which should never 
be revealed. . . . Dear will he be to Verres who can accuse Verres 
at any time he wishes."** The thought reappears later in the same 
Satire, when as a climax to his invective against the Greeks, Juvenal 
through Umbricius accuses the race of being expert ddatares,^ Finally, 
special reference to the informer is included in parallel passages from both 
Juvenal and Martial." 

Since Juv. 3.33, therefore, is most probably an allusion to delatores; 
or may be primarily concerned with bankrupts or manganes; and if it 
refers to auctioneers at all, has to do specifically with only one class 
who dealt with slaves and gladiators,** it is scarcely fair to give it a place 
of prime importance in a generalization upon the estimate of the trade 
praeconium. 

Now let us retmm to the second reference cited in the classical dic- 
tionary. This is Juv. 7.6; with the adjoining lines it reads: 

5 Nee foedum alii nee turpe putarent 

praeeones fieri, cum desertis Aganippes 

vallibus esuriens migraret in atria Clio; 

nam si Pieria quadrans tibi nullus in umbra 

ostendatur, ames nomen victumque Machaerae 
10 et vendas potius eommissa quod auctio vendit. 

The satirist has been complaining of the neglect of literary men which 
has forced poets of renown to the point of keeping bathing establish- 
ments, nmning bakeries, and becoming auctioneers. While verse 5 
does imply that there had been people who considered such callings 
beneath their notice, it also gives indication that in the first century 
after Christ, the attitude toward various occupations was changing. 
In view of the dishonesty that was rife among favored freedmen and 
even in higher circles, men of worth were doubtless beginning to learn 
that humble employments could offer at least an honest livelihood. 
As Juvenal says: "If there should be no sign of a single cent for you in 
the shady grotto of the Muses, you would adore the name and calling 
of Machaera,**^ and prefer to open an auction and sell what it has to offer 
to a crowd of b)rstanders. . . . This is better than to declare before 

» Juv. 3.41-54. 
« 76. 113-125. 

« Mart. 4.5, cp. 3.38; Juv. 7.1-16. 
« Cp. Mart. 6.66; Juv. 3.157 f. 

" Most editors agree that Machaera was a praeco of Juvenal's time, but Weber 
(quoted in Mayor's edition) eompares it to Gr. fx&xoxpa and thinks it may mean '' cook. ' ' 



ROMAN CRAFTSMEN AND TRADESMEN OF THE EARLY EMPIRE 49 

a judge, *I have seen' what you have not seen, as knights who hail 
from Asia do. "* Although he adds later that thanks to the patronage 
extended by Hadrian, the hopes of literary men have revived because 
none henceforth will be forced to endure studiis indignum laborem,^'' 
his words should scarcely be considered a special disparagement of the 
tasks he has just mentioned; for indignum laborem from his point of 
view woidd no doubt refer to any exertion whatever that would be likely 
to divert poets from their pursuit of the Camenae. Taking the extract 
as a whole, therefore, it appears to be rather to the advantage of the 
praeco than otherwise. 

In conmienting upon Juv. 7.6, a line which beyond a doubt alludes 
to auctioneers, Mayor notes that praecones were not eligible to the rank 
of decurion, so long as they followed their profession. This information 
he obtained from a portion of the Lex Julia Municipalis which happens 
to be the third of the passages mentioned at the beginning of this dis- 
cussion. The Latin is: "Neve quis, quei praeconiimi dissignationem 
libitinamve faciet, dimi eorum quid faciet, in muni / cipio colonia prae- 
fectura II vir(atmn) IIII vir(atum) aliimive quem mag(istratimi) 
petito neve capito neve gerito neve habeto, / neve ibei senator neve 
decurio neve conscriptus esto neve sententiam didto."^® Now prae- 
coniutn here may of course have its general signification and mean all 
persons who held the office of praeco of any kind. If so, then dissigna^ 
Honem too should be generic, including all who served as designator, 
such as the master of ceremonies at funerals,^' the usher at the theatre,'^ 
and the imipire at. public spectacles.^* However, its close connection 
by -ve with libiiinarii leaves no doubt that its use in this case is specific, 
and that it denotes the designator in his relation to funerals. It must 
be permissible, therefore, to take praeconium also in a restrictive sense; 
and so T)m:ell, as was evidently Mayor's intention too, refers it to the 
auctioneer, and explains that he was apparently regarded with detesta- 
tion like modem pawnbrokers and usurers, as trading upon the mis- 
fortunes of others.*^ But when the word admits a choice of meanings, 

"Juv. 7.8-11, 13 f. Cp. Petron. 116, see p. 39, n. 65. 
« Juv. 7.17. 
*»CIL. 1.206. 94 ff. 

"Hor. Epist, 1.7.6 and schol.\ Sen. Benef. 6.38.4; Tertul. Spect, 10. 
»• Plaut. Pom., prol. 19 f. 
«Cp. Dig. 3.2.4.1. 

"Tyrrell and Piirser, Correspondence of Cicero y 4.419 (London, 1894), note on 
Epist, 6.18.1. Cp. Post on Mart. 1.85. 



50 ROMAN CRAFTSMEN AND TRADESMEN OF THE EARLY EMPIRE 

it seems rather incongruous to assume at once that it pertains to the 
fn^aeco of the auction-room, especially when the only other classes men- 
tioned in the same clause are funeral marshals and imdertakers. The 
belief that consistency would be maintained in a formal law suggests 
that there were praecones whose duties were obituary. The reason for 
their being debarred from participation in political life would then be 
the same as for designatores and Ubiiinarii, Furthermore there are the 
dear statements of Festus** and Varro" that the services of a praeco 
were employed to summon the participants in a public fimeral. In the 
words of Marquardty who sums up and expands their evidence: ''Die 
Au£Forderung zur Theilnahme an jedem solennen Leichenzuge erging 
durch einen offentlichen Aufruf (davon indictivum funus), bei welchem 
der Herold mit den Worten einlud: *011us Quiris leto datus. Exsequias, 
quibus est commodimi, ire iam tempus est. Ollus ex aedibus eflfertur.' "* 
There can be little doubt that it was these praecones attendant upon 
funerals, and not ordinary auctioneers, whom the Lex Julia Municipalis 
declares ineligible to become decurions in municipalities, colonies, and 
prefectures. The ban was evidently put upon them only because of 
their connection with the dead. Should they resign their office, it 
appears that no stigma attached to them, but that they could be elected 
to the highest magistracies; for Cicero, after inquiring into the law, wrote 
to a friend: "Rescripsit eos, qui facerent praeconium, vetari esse in 
decurionibus; qui fecissent, non vetari."** While they followed their 
profession, those at Rome were doubtless under the direction of the 
fimeral contractors, with headquarters at the Temple of Libitina.'^ 
That the duties of associated officials might be combined, at least in 
small towns, is testified by a sepulchral inscription, which also adds 
strong evidence for consigning the praeco now xmder dispute to funereal 
employment. It reads: 

C.MATIENI.CF.OVF 
OVICVLAE 
ANN0RUM.XXvii 
PRAEC0.IDEM.DISSIGNAT0R.*^ 

^ Fest. 106 M, 254 M. 
"VarroLwi:. 5.160; 7.42. 
"Marquardt 1.351. 
^ Cic. Epist. 6.18.1. 
" Cp. Marquardt 1.384 f. 
w CIL. 10.5429. 



ROMAN CRATTSMEN AND TRADESMEN OF THE EARLY EMPIRE 51 

Although it seems necessary, then, to discard several of the passages 
that are commonly accepted as alluding to auctioneers or including 
them, there are still a number from which something may be gleaned 
about the character of this class of people and their condition in life. 
Loquacity was a noticeable trait. Cicero terms an auctioneer pert, 
dicaXy and adds that one of free birth would take advantage of his lihertas 
to indulge in special freedom of speech.^* Horace intimates that the 
chatter of praecones was enticing and persuasive, having the power to 
attract a crowd with the lure of wonderful bargains to be obtained.*® 
In Juvenal's estimation, this talkativeness surpassed that of the gram- 
marian, rhetorician, and advocate, but was doomed to fall before a 
woman's art.*^ According to Martial, it was likely to develop into 
garrulousness and end in extreme stupidity. He instances a facetious 
praeco who was attempting to dispose of some highly cultivated fields 
and magnificent acres of land on the outskirts of the city: " 'Whoever 
thinks that Marius is forced to sell' comments the auctioneer, *is very 
much mistaken; he is not in debt, but quite the contrary, and has money 
out at interest.' 'What's the matter then?' someone asks. 'Why he 
has lost everything here,' is the ready answer, 'all his slaves, flocks, and 
crops, consequently he doesn't like the place.' " — ^Nor does anyone 
else, as Martial remarks in conclusion, and Marius's ill-fated farm still 
clings to him.^ But some praecones could be very effective talkers, the 
poet admits in another epigram: "Two praetors, four tribunes, seven 
advocates, ten poets, " he says, "were recently asking a certain old gentle- 
man for the hand of his daughter in marriage. Without a minute's 
hesitation he gave her to Smooth-talk, the auctioneer!" The epigram- 
matist does not take the responsibility of condenming him, but closes 
with the question: "Tell me, Severus, was he altogether a fool?"^ 
There was of course a motive behind the father's choice. This may 
easily be traced to the suitor's financial standing; for even as early as 
the time of C. Laelius Sapiens, a certain auctioneer, Gallonius by name, 
had been serving novel dainties upon his table and living in the lap of 
luxury.^ His name had become a b3rword and is recalled by Cicero and 

••Gc. Gttwc/. 11. 

*«Hor.Jg;/^/. 2.3.419 f. 

*i Juv. 6.438-440; cp. Fulgent. Myth, l(p. 23 Muncker). 

*«Mart. 1.85; q). 6.66. 

« Id. 6.8. 

« ac. Fin, 2.24. 



52 ROMAN CRAFTSMEN AND TRADESMEN OF THE EARLY EMPIRE 

Horace'.^ Under Domitian even such stupid specimens as the above 
mentioned Marius had employed were making an enviable livelihood, 
so that Martial, in an extremely modem tone, makes a strong, if sarcas- 
tic, plea for vocational training to settle that momentous question, 
"After College What? — ^For Boys.'* Don't send yom* son to the gram- 
marians and rhetoricians, he admonishes Lupus, to have him waste 
his time over Cicero or VirgU. If he shows an inclination to write 
verses, disinherit him. If he wishes to learn lucrative arts, have him 
taught music that he may perform on the lyre or the pipes; but if he is 
dull, make him an architect or an auctioneer!^ One of Trimalchio's 
friends may have been influenced by similar advice; for although he 
hoped to make his boy something of a jurist, he decided, if the child 
recoiled from this, to have him learn the trade of barber, auctioneer, 
or advocate at least — something which he could carry to the grave with 
him.*^ 

According to FriedlSnder on Mart. 1.85.1, "Das Gewerbe des Aus- 
rufers bd Auktionem stand dem des Spassmachers nahe und darum in 
Missachtimg. "** If we were to judge entirely from the praecones who 
come imder the sting of Martial's ridicule, we might be inclined to 
believe that this characterization is very near to the truth; but Horace 
presents quite a different type in the Volteius Mena of one of his Epis- 
tles.^' He represents him on his own declaration as an auctioneer, a 
man of modest circumstances and of blameless reputation, who enjoyed 
a home of his own and agreeable friends of humble rank like himself. 
He liked to resort to the games on holidays and to the sports of the 
Campus Martins after business was over, but he knew how to work and 
play, make money and spend it, each at the proper time. Unf ortimately 
this praeco resigned his independence and became the subservient client 
of the famous orator L. Marcius Philippus,^^ who while walking across 
the Forum to his home on the Carinae early one afternoon, saw Volteius 
leisurely sitting in a barber shop, aheady shaved and quietly cutting 
his own nails; Philippus was at once attracted, apparently by his appear- 
ance of ease and contentment. We recall how Mena, although resisting 

« Id. Quind. 94; Hor. Sal. 2.2.4648. 

* Mart. 5.56. Cp. 9.73 and see p. 58. For further allusions to the lack of patron- 
age granted to letters, eloquence, and learning in general, cp. Petron. 83, 88, 116; 
Juv. 7. 1 £f. 

*7 Petron. 46. 

«Cp. Cic. Gtttnc/. 11. 

^» Hor. E^*5/. 1.7.46 ff. 

«o Cp. Cic. Brui. 173; De Oral. 3.4. 



ROMAN CRA7TSM£N AND TRADESMEN OF THE EARLY EMPIRE 53 

the advocate's advances at first, finally yielded to the glamor of a client's 
life, but later begged to be returned to his former condition, after he 
had made a dismal failure of farming. This anecdote from Horace's 
pen praises contentment with one's lot*^ and shows that that of the 
praeco could be far from imdesirable. It gives a pleasing and no doubt 
accurate picture of what must have been the life of the ordinary auction- 
eers who attended to business and did not bother about the shallow 
proprieties of high sodety, but kept themselves morally upright, and 
found joy and satisfaction in living. They may have been exposed to 
snobbishness or to the temptation of parasitism, but they may also 
have resisted them both and in leading their own lives well, have met 
with the respect of their fellow-men, being measured by their character, 
not their profession. Hence it was, doubtless, that Horace's father, 
who was in all probabiUty connected with auctions himself, thought 
it worth while to give his son an education of culture and refinement, 
even though it should fall to his lot to become only an auctioneer or 
collector. In the words of the poet: 

Nee timuit sibi ne vitio quis verteret oUm 
si praeco parvas aut, ut fuit ipse, coactor 
mercedes sequerer: neque ego essem questus.** 

Then follow those lo3ral words that were no doubt echoed by many 
another worthy son in similar station: 

Nn me paeniteat sanum patris huiiis. 

XXII 

SUTORES CeRDONES 

It would seem only natural to find that in primitive Rome tanners 
had for some time engaged in all varieties of the leather business, includ- 
ing shoemaking; yet according to Plutarch, stUores were incorporated 
from the first in a separate collegium} Literary allusions to this class 
are comparatively numerous. Possibly because they plied a very 
familiar trade, they are not uncommonly mentioned generically for 
working men or for the common people in general. Cicero, for instance, 
designates a popular assembly at Pergamum as a gathering of stUores 
ei zanarii — and a virtueless set he considers them; incapable of upright 
judgment, and abjectly subservient to the demagogue who could best 

" Cp. Hor. Sat, 2.6.79-117, a fable of the same purport on "The Town and Country 
Mouse." 

»»Hor. S<U. 1.6.85-87; q). Suet. Vita Hor. 44 (Rei£ferscheid). 
dee p. 1. *v 



54 ROMAN CRAFTSMEN AND TRADESMEN OF THE EARLY EMPIRE 

sate their appetites.' Horace twice refers to shoemakers as typical 
opifices; he adds no disparaging remarks upon their character, but 
rather calls attention to their skill.' Juvenal uses the same figure. It 
occurs in a passage of stinging derision in which a drunken brawler, 
ready to offer insult, to pick a quarrel, exclaims: 

Quis tecum sectile pomim 
sutor et elixi verveds labra comedit? 
nil mihi respondes? aut die aut acdpe calcem. 
ede ubi consistas, in qua te quaero proseucha?^ 

The sentiment expressed may not have been Juvenal's own; and when 
we consider the source from which it sprang, we must conclude in all 
justice that it may not necessarily have been the view of fair-minded 
men in his time, but was perhaps a reflection of the common republican 
attitude surviving in a bully and worthless reprobate, who probably had 
nothing else to his credit but birth. It is to be noted that the intended 
calumny in classing the wayfarer with stUares did not prove strong enough 
to produce the desired effect, and resort had to be made to more obvious 
slander. 

Friedlilnder comments that sidor in the verses just quoted is used 
contemptuously as in Juv. 4.153, 8.182; Mart. 3.16.1, 59.1, and 99.* 
Now it happens that neither Juv. 4. 153: 

153 Sed periit postquam cerdonibus esse timendus 

coepeiat; hoc nocuit Lamiarum caede madenti, 

nor 8.182: 

179 Quid facias talem sortitus, Pontice, servum? 

nempe in Lucanos aut Tusca ergastula mittas. 

at vos, Troiugenae, vobis ignosdtis, et quae 
182 turpia cerdoni, Volesos Brutumque decebunt, 

contains any specific reference to a shoemaker! Cerdo, which is some- 
times interpreted." cobbler '*• on the strength of the Martial 

Cerdones passages dted, should in all probability be written with 

a capital;^ for it was a Greek proper name conunonly 

« Cic. Place, 17. 

»Hor. Sat, 1.3.124-133; 2.3.106. 

* Juv. 3.293-296. 

* Friedl&nder's notes on these passages are all-indusive and inconsistent. 

* Harper^s Lex. and many commentators. 

» So Conington opines; cp. his note and text for Pers. 4.51, "Tollat sua m\mera 
Cerdo." 



ROMAN CRAFTSMEN AND TRADESMEN OF THE EARLY EMPIRE 55 

applied, like Dama,^ to slaves and freedmen;* the word also appears 
to have been employed at times to represent the slave class or rabble.*® 
The Digest, for instance, uses it as a slave name typifying a class; 
observe the formula, ''Cerdonem servum meum manumitti volo, ita 
ut operas heredi promittat. "" In the light of history, the only plausible 
interpretation for cerdonibus of Juv. 4.153, which concerns the death 
of Domitian, is that it designates the ranks of slaves or of those who had 
been bom in slavery; for Suetonius enumerates as the Emperor's 
assassins: "Stephanus, Domitillae proou^tor . . . Clodianus comi- 
cularius et Maximus Partheni libertus et Satur decurio cubiculariorum 
et quidam e gladiatorio ludo."" The poet's words therefore evidently 
mean: "Domitian met his fate when he began to be an object of alarm 
to Cer^s..(i-^' slaves and freedmeii). This was the imdoing of one 
who was reeking with the blood of Lamias (i,e,, noblemen). "" Only by 
spelling Cerdonibus with a capital is a proper balance obtained with 
Lamiarutn. In each case, the poet chooses a name which stands for 
a class; it is quite natural that the allusion should be more specific in 
the second part: the name of some prominent noble who had suffered 
at Domitian's hands would doubtless be known to everyone, but it is 
not so likely that the identity of the slaves and freedmen who had been 
accomplices in the Emperor's murder would be a matter of common 
knowledge. The same contrast is drawn in Juv. 8.182; for cerdoni 
there is plainly just a S3aionymous repetition of servum in verse 179. 
The import of the quotation, then, is: "You haughty descendents* of 
the Trojans make excuses for yourselves, and what is a disgrace for 
slave Cerdo will be deemed becoming for Lords Volesus and Brutus. " 
Kkpdcav in Greek is expressive of knavish amning;^* compare KepdiSj, 
"the wily one," "thief"; Kipdoainni, "cunning," "craft," "shrewd- 
ness"; Kkpdea, pi, "cunning arts," "wiles," "tricks." The word in 
Latin, sa}^ Duff in his conunent on Juvenal 8.182, "is clearly used as a 

•Hor. Sat. 1.1.101 and sckoL; 1.6.38; 2.5.18, 101; 2.7.54; Pers. 5.76, 79; Petron. 
41; Mart. 6.39.11; 12.17.10. 

» Demos. Nicosir, 1252; Petron. 60; CEL. 2.4970.130; 4. 6867, 6868; 5.5300; Dig. 
38.1.42. 

\" Cp. scfud, on Pers. 4.51; id. Juv. 4.153, 8.182. We may compare our common 
"Tom, Dick, and Harry," or, as Conington (see n. 7) stiggests, the "Hob and Dick" 
of Shakespeare's Coriolanus. 

^^ Dig. 38.1.42. Compare "John Doe" in modem legal usuage. 

" Suet. Dom. 17.1 f. 

" Cp. Juv. 6.385; Suet. Dom. 1.3; 10.2. 

" Cp. schol. on Pers. 4.51; id. Juv. 4.153, 8.182; Fest. 56 M. 



1 



56 ROMAN CRAPTSMEN AND TRADESMEN OF THE EARLY EMPIRE 

contemptuous sobriquet for the dass engaged in small trade and handi- 
craft. "" Even if "clearly" should be stricken out, we could not accept 
the statement without restriction. There is Uttle likelihood that the 
term was applicable indiscriminately to the "class engaged in small 
trade and handicraft," the definition in the Thesaurus, operarius, opifex 
infimi generis, is probably more accurate." Judging from the etymology 
of the word and from its use in the references which we have examined, 
it appears to have been employed primarily a^ ° pr/ip^r nair^^ j^nr^a 
slave or f reedman who was clever in turning \\\^ f%^t? fl^ng. any line 
into honest (?) or, more frequently perhaps, dishone3t.^;|dn. Especially 
in point is Petronius's allusion to three slaves of Trimalchio's, one of 
whom, their master said, "was called Cerdo; another, Felicio; the third, 
Lucrio."^^ Because of the common use of Cerdo as a slave name, it 
was sometimes made to typify, as we have seen, the servile class in 
general, especially the unscrupulous rabble. Finally, just as Tempe, 
for instance, could be applied to any beautiful vale," so Cerdo may 
have been used occasionally to designate a slave workman, hence the 
definition in the Thesaurus, which has been quoted above. There is a 
fragment of a pillar at Pompeii which might throw light on this point 
if the inscriptions on its four sides were more intelligible. The fol- 
lowing words, of interest here, can be discerned: cil. 4.6867, Cerdo 
soDALiBus; 6868, Cerdo mc didit; 6869, cerdo cerdonibvs / sal.; 
6871, CERDO Hi(c) ; 6877, operari(i)s pane(m) / denariv(m). Since this 
column was excavated at Boscoreale, it may bear witness to a sodalUas 
which had been organized by the slave workmen of the Villa. Accord- 
ing to all indications, therefore, any implication involved in Cerdo is 
concerned with its relation to slaves (or freedmen); certainly there is no 
definite proof among the references which we have noted that it signifies 
"cobbler" or "shoemaker" specifically. In Spon's Misc, page 221, 
mentioned by Jahn and Conington on Pers. 4. 51, it is coupled with 
faber] and in the inscriptions just quoted, it has some connection with 

" So also Post on Mart. 3.99. 

" Cp. arUfex sordidus: Weise, Griechischen Worter im Lateitif 375 (Leipzig, 1882); 
Saalfeld, Tensaurus lUdogfaecus^ Idl (Wien, 1884). But Weise 202 also refers the 
word specifically to shoemakers. 

^^Hesdtine, in his 1913 translation of Petron. for the Loeb Series, can surely 
not be right in assigning these names to the images of the lares ^ which were apparently 
two in number, as usual, and were brought in by two of the slaves. The "veritable 
image" of the freedman Trimalchio was doubtless the third slave, "Gain," or "Luck, " 
or "Profit," whichever it was that carried the wine around. 

" Cp. Virg. Georg, 2.469; Ov. Am, 1.15; Fast. 4.477. 



ROMAN CRAFTSMEN AND TADESMEN OF THE EARLY EMPIRE 57 

bread and operarii; we may recall also the use of operas in the lines 
previously cited from the Digest. At times no doubt the main emphasis 
involved, not "craftsmen," but "crafty men." 

Martial presumably had this point in mind in the three passages which 
seem to have given rise to the interpretation "cobbler," "shoemaker"; 
namely, 

3.16. 1 Das gladiatores, sutonim regule, cerdo, 

6 nunc in pelliculai cerdo, tenere tua, 

3.59. 1 Sutor cerdo dedit tibi, culta Bononia, miinus, 

fullo dedit Mutinae: nunc ubi copo dabit? 

3.99. 1 Irasd nostro non debes, cerdo, libello. 

ars tua non vita est carmine laesa meo. 
innocuos permitte sales. Cur ludere nobis 
non liceat, licuit si iugulare tibi? 

There is every indication that the term under discussion should be 
capitalized in all three epigrams.^^ Since sutor, according to the lexica, 
signifies both "shoemaker" and "cobbler," the combination sulor 
(sutorum) cerdo in 16 and 59 is redundant; and the context of 99, especially 
verse 2 and iugidare in verse 4, proves almost conclusively that it refers 
to the same person as the others. Proper names occur much more 
frequently than common nouns as vocatives in the opening and closing 
verses of Martial's epigrams, and the wording of 16.1 particularly de- 
mands a nofpten. It is not surprising that Martial does not name the 
fuUo and the copo in 59; by specifying the sutor, he makes him of prime 
importance, and shows a connection between 59 and 16. Furthermore, 
the name was probably chosen to imply that this particular nouveau 
riche had been not merely a plebeian sidor, but originally a slave, and one 
whose wealth perchance had been accumlated by questionable means. 
This use of an appellative with double and appropriate meaning is alto- 
gether characteristic of Martial. 

The epigranunatist would have f oimd the proprieties better observed, 
it seems, if shoemakers had obeyed that proverbial admonition attrib- 
uted to Apelles: "Ne supra crepidam sutor iudicaret."^ "You are 
intoxicated, " he exclaimed to a Cerdo who had exhibited a gladiatorial 
combat; "for never in your sober senses would you come to the point 

^* Duff in his note on Juv. 8.182 inclines to this opinion. 
«« Plin. Not, 35.84 f . 



I 



58 ROMAN CRAFTSMEN AND TRADESMEN OF THE EARLY EMPIRE 

of wishing to take your amusement at the expense of your hide! You 
have had your sport to your cost, but take my advice, and remember 
henceforth to 'stick to your last' ''^ It was apparently to excuse 
himself for thb piece of pleasantry" that he wrote 3.99, declaring apolo- 
getically: "Ars tua non vita est carmine laesa meo"; that is (since 
airs tua and iugulare (v. 4) are presumably synonymous"), 'Mt is your 
avocation, not your vocation, that I have satirized in my poem." 

Yet shoemakers evidently did not ''stick to their last." They 
appeared upon the street to hail returning travelers with a kiss of greet- 
ing, regardless of the fact that their lips had just been in contact with 
leather." From their ranks, apparently, came one who, entering the 
literary arena, dared to criticize Martial's verses and write others of 
his own" — small wonder is it that siUores met with little favor from the 
epigrammatist's pen! Another of their number, or it may have been 
the same, became an envied dominus living in luxury on a splendid 
country estate at Praeneste. A slave's quarters there would have been 
too good for him, declares Martial, yet he had actually inherited the 
place from his patron. "Ah," the poet concludes with a truly modem 
flavor, "what fools my parents were to give me a liberal education! 
What good are grammarians and rhetoricians to me? Break my trifling 
pens and tear up my poems, Thalia, if a boot can give all that to a cob- 
bler."" 

"All that?" — ^Yes, and more; for under Nero, Vatinius, a suhr of 
Beneventum, rose to a position of influence, wealth, and power.^^ It 

» Mart. 3.16.3-6. 

« And Id, 3.59. 

" I.e., ars ^ ars gladiatoria but does not, I think, include ars sutaria as Post holds. 
Strictly speaking, of course, the man who merely provides money for a show would 
not be said to foUw the ars gladiatoria; but if 3.99 does refer to 3.16 and 3.59, as is 
highly probable, the thing that is criticized in these two epigrams is the giving of 
gladiatorial exhibitions; and in both 3.16.2, 4 f. and 3.99.4, MartiaPs diction plajrfully 
confuses the donor of the shows with the gladiator himself. 

*• Mart. 12.59.6 f.; cp. 3.16.6; 6.64.31; 9.73.1. See pp. 22, 75 f. 

» Mart. 6.64. 

^Id, 9. 73. Martial 5.56 expresses the same sentiment in connection with the 
musician, the architect, and the auctioneer; cp. Petron. 46. See p. 52. 

*' Cp. Porph. on Hor. Sal. 1.3.130. He records that Alfenus Varus, a sidor of 
Cremona, closed his shop and went to Rome; there he became intimate with Sulpidus 
the jurisconsult, and rose to such high position, that he won the consulship, and at 
his death was honored by a public funeral. Acron says that the consul was a "son 
of a shoemaker." But see p. 91, n. 36. According to one report chronicled by 
Suet. Vitd. 2.1, this Emperor was the great-great-grandson of a sulor veteramerUarius, 



ROMAN CRAFTSMEN AND TRADESMEN OF THE EARLY EMPIRE 59 

was not, however, the trade which he had learned in a sutrina taberna 
that had set him on his towering eminence and roused the people's 
disdain and hatred for him, but his physical deformity and moral deprav- 
ity; to wit, his unusually long nose and his sycophantic habits.^^ The 
former gained him admission to the imperial court as a buffoon,^' the 
latter formed the ladder by which he climbed. In mockery of him 
apparently, cheap goblets with very long spouts were known as calices 
Vatinii, Martial tags one of them with the following expressive couplet: 

Villa sutoris caHcem monimenta Vatini 
accipe; sed nasus longior ille fiiit.'® 

No doubt the epigrammatist's scorn for Vatinius was shared by many, 
but it is to be questioned whether his animosity against shoemakers in 
general was shared by aU. We may readily infer that much of his 
satire was aroused by individual cases on personal grounds. Moreover, 
the stUares of his poems are slaves'^ or freedmen, and rogues besides; 
but his lines do not convey the idea that they were shoemakers and 
therefore rogues, but rogues who happened to be shoemakers. 

There were respectable stUores, presumably, who played no insignif- 
icant part in town life. At Athens, according to Lysias, the cobbler's, 
the perfumer's, and the barber's oflFered favorite rendezvous;^ since 
the same was true at Rome of the last two,^ it was probably so with the 
first. The headquarters of the shoetrade is referred by Platner to the 
Argiletum.** His belief seems to be based upon a single passage from 
Martial:^ 

Tonstrix Suburae faudbus sedet primis, 
cruenta pendent qua flagella tortonim 
Argique Letum multus obsidet sutor. 

This is rather doubtful authority for such a sweeping assertion. The 
reference at most can be concerned only with the upper end of the 
Argiletum where it meets the Subura. But it is more probable that the 

» Tac. Ann. 15.34; Hist. 1.37; Dial. 11; Dio 63.15. 

«» Cp. Suet. Tib. 61.6. 

*^ Mart. 14.96; q). 10.3.4; Juv. 5.46-48 and schoL Fumeaux, in his comment on 
Tac. Ann. 15.34, suggests that Vatinius may have made the cups that bore his name; 
but this does not seem a natural inference in view of Martial's distich. 

^StUores were sometimes foimd among domestic slaves, cp. Petron. 68. 

"L)rsias Orat. 24.20; cp. Demos, vs. Phorm. 13. 

» See p. 73. 

•* Platner 459, cp. 457. Jordan's statement 1.3.328 is not so strong, but he, too, 
quotes only the one reference; cp. 1.2.452, where he consigns the headquarters to the 
Subura and the Vicus Sandaliarius. 

» Mart. 2.17.1-3. 



60 ROHAN OlAFTSHEN AND TRADESMEN OF THE EARLY EMPIRE 

qua dause is a periphrasis for qua incipU Vicus Sandaliarius; for this 
street, if the location assigned to it by topographers be the correct 
one," branched off from the Argiletum near its juncture with the Subura; 
and since it practically took the place of a continuation of the main 
thoroughfare, if we consider the narrow entrance between it and the 
Subura proper as the Suburae fauces ^ it may well be said to have ''blocked 
the ArgOetum. " There is apparently no objection therefore to applying 
Martial's words to the Vicus whose name naturally designates it as the 
center of the shoe business.'^ The street seems to have been in good 
repute: Augustus erected a statue of ApoUo there,^ and the magisiri 
vici are shown by inscriptions to have been especially active and gen- 
erous.'* Besides a Sandalmakers' Street of some prominence, there 
was a Shoemakers' Hall which is mentioned in literature and inscriptions 
in connection with a certain religious celebration, the tubilustrium.^ 
Here on March and May twenty-third the sacrorum tubae, which accord- 
ing to Fowler were to be used for assembling the comitia curiata on the 
next day,^ were purified by the sacrifice of a lamb.** The festival was 
the occasion for a half holiday.^ Why the Atrium Sutorium was chosen 
for the rite is open to conjecture; possibly it was merely on account of 
its size or convenient location,^ although there is the natural inference 
that sutares may have been concerned with the celebration in some 
special capacity. At all events our evidence proves that shoemakers 
exerted an influence in their commimity even beyond their own peculiar 
province. 

XXIII 

« 

Tabernarh 

With commerce and trade making great strides under the l^mpire, 
as wealth increased and extravagance grew rife, Rome became a dty of 

"Jordan 1.3.329; Platner 448. 
oC6 n. «j4. 

''Suet. Aug. 57.1. This was doubtless because of his interest in booksellers, 
who also had shops there during the Empire. See pp. 62 ff. 

»• CIL. 6.448, 761. 

*• Varro Ling, 6.14; Fest. 352 f. M; FasL Praenes.y CIL. 1, p. 315. 

« W. W. Fowler, Roman Festivals, 64 (New York, 1899). 

«Fest. /. c. 

• CIL. 1, p. 315. 

^The location of the Atrium is not known. Jordan 1.2.452 and Platner 459 
think that it may have been on the site of the Forum Transitorium; Monmisen, Arch, 
ZeUung 5(1847). 109, and Gilbert 1.144 argue for the Palatine; Mommsen, CIL. p. 
369, identifies it with the Atriimi of Minerva. 



ROMAN CRAFTSMEN AND TRADESMEN OF THE EARLY EMPIRE 61 

shops of every description. Juvenal paints their vicinity as unattrac- 
tive by night; for their shuttered fronts were chained and barred, so that 
the streets were dark and were frequented by thieves and ruffians.^ 
But by day tabernae were scenes of color and animation; they were 
open to the air in front and sometimes on the side; their pillars might 
be hung with flagons, books, or other wares, or covered with advertise- 
ments of the commodities on sale within.^ True to the innate Italian 
tendency to conduct any operation of daily life under the open sky, the 
inconsiderate shopkeeper had overnm the whole city, Martial declares, 
leaving no trace of a threshold where a threshold naturally should 
be.' Domitian finally passed a law forbidding encroachment on the 
public thoroughfare.* The poet's epigram on this subject is particularly 
vivid and illuminating: 

Abstulerat totam temerariiis institor* urbem ' 

inque suo nullum limine limen erat. 
iussisti tenuis, Germanice, crescere vicos, 

et modo quae fuerat semita, facta via est. 
nulla catenatis pila est praedncta lagonis 

nee praetor medio cogitur ire luto, 
stringitur in densa nee caeca novacula turba 

occupat aut totas nigra popina vias. 
tonsor, copoy cocus, lanius sua iimina servant. 

nimc Roma est, nuper magna tabema fuit.* 

Of the business sections, the Argiletum is popularly claimed to have 
been the center of the book and shoe trade.^ We have already questioned 
whether the evidence is strong enough to uphold the last part of this 
tenet,* and Professor Tracy Peck also takes exception on the same groimds 
to a sweeping assertion about the book-trade. It rests, he says, on 
three references from Martial, two of which, at least, may refer to the 
same place.* After reviewing the available sources, in which he finds 

> Juv. 3.302-304. 

*Hor. Sal. 1.4.71 f.; Epist 2.3.372 f.; Mart. 1.117.11 f.; 7.61.5; Juv. 8.168, see 
p. 15, n. 12. 

'This may refer also to the practice of building wooden booths out over the 
sidewalk, cp. Typaldo-Bassia 24, Friedl&nder-Magnus 1.5 f. 

• FriedUinder, in his note on Mart. 7.61, assigns the law to the autumn or winter 
of 92. 

• For a discussion of this word see p. ^4. 

• Mart. 7.61. See pp. 11, 15, 24, 28, 89. 

'Becker 335; Jordan 1.3.328.15; Post on Mart. 1.2.8; Platner 173, 457. 

• See pp. 59 f . 

• Cp. Jordan, Hermes 4(1870).232 f. See p. 63. 



62 ROMAN CRAFTSUES AND TRADESMEN OF THE EARLY EMPIRE 

mention of the sale of books in the Sigillaria,^^ the Vicus Tuscus,^ the 
Forum,^^ and especially the Vicus Sandaliarius,^ where according to 
Galen most bookstores were in his day, he concludes that the trade was 
widely distributed and that at least in the segond century of our era, it 
was particularly prominent, not in the Argiletum, but in the Vicus 
Sandaliarius.^ Professor Peck's main premise and ultimate conclusion 
are undeniably true, but we find, after a dose scrutiny of the pertinent 
passages, that several slightly different or additional inferences may be 
drawn. 

Martial has seven epigrams relating to booksellers. Four of them 
are of no topographical interest; three of the four disclose the names of 
Quintus Valerianus Pollio^* and Tryphon." The latter was apparently 
the editor of Quintilian also; to his accurate work the grammarian bears 
testimony in the dedicatory preface of the De InstiMione Oratoria, 
Turning to the three excerpts from Martial, which have acquired perhaps 
undue importance, we read: 

1.2.7 Libertum docti Lucensb quaere Secundum 

limina post Pads Palladiumque forum, 

1.3.1 Argiletanas mavis habitare tabemas, 

cum tibi, parve liber, scrinia nostra vacent, 

1.117.9 Argi nempe soles subire Letum: 

contra Caesaris est forum tabema 



13 illinc me pete. Nee roges Atrectum — 
hoc nomen dominus gerit tabemae — : 
de primo dabit alterove nido (Martialem). 

The second clearly states that Martial's books could be purchased in 
more than one store of the Argiletum. The third also plainly refers 
to the same street and locates the shop of Atrectus opposite the Forum 
of Caesar. There is doubt as to which fonmi is meant, but it seems most 
natural to understand Caesaris in the usual manner as relating to the 
reigning Emperor^* and designating therefore the Forum Palladium or 

"GeU. 2.3.5; 5.4.1. 
" Hor. Epist. 1.20.1 and schol. 
"GeU. 18.4.1; Galen 19.8 (Klihn). 
" Peck, Class. Phil. 9(1914).77 f . 
"Mart. 1.1 13.5 f. 
« Id, 4.72.2; 13.3.4. 

" Most editors incline to this view. Cp. also Jordan, Hermes 4(1870) .232; Htilsen, 
Rheinisches Museum 49(1894).630. 



ROMAN CRAPTSMEN AND TRADESMEN OF THE EARLY EMPIRE 63 

Transitorium, which, though begun by Domitian, was finished by 
Nerva and was afterward associated with his name." Friedlander, 
however, favors the Forum Julium, which was also called Caesaris}^ 
It is unnecessary to attempt to settle the dispute; for the same general 
locality at the beginning of the Argiletum may be involved in either 
case.^* 

The first extract quoted above does not expressly mention the dis- 
trict in question. Furthermore, there are grounds for disputing the 
theory that Secundus (1.2.7) and Atrectus (1.117.13) were one and the 
same: in the first place, the context implies that the former sold choice 
and rare editions of parchment, while the latter dealt in the more common 
papyrus roUs;^® then too, it has been argued, as we have noted, that 
PaUadium and Caesaris may not signify the same forum; finally, the 
prepositions may indicate that a physical inability would be involved, 
unless Atrectus Secundus had two estabUshments and divided his 
energies between them as Martial distributed his name. If the point 
of view is from the Forum Romanum Magnum, as reason would lead 
us to infer in 1.2, and the context of 1.117 (especially verse 6, "Longum 
est, si velit ad Pirum venire," and the use of suhire, verse 9), then post 
(="behind") and contra (="opposite," i.c^ "in front of") would 
designate opposing directions.^^ Moreover, it would be illogical to 
suppose that the location would be changed, if one should wish to adopt 
Stephenson^s comment and consider post from the position of Martial's 
house, which was probably on the west slope of the Quirinal.^ Surely 
the front and rear of the imperial fora would be determined by their 
relation to the great Roman Forum; the phrase "behind the Temple 
of Peace and the Forum Palladium" would therefore describe a quarter 
that would remain immobile, regardless of the chance position of a 
directing agent. Now limina post Pacis Palladiumque forum seems a 

" Jordan 1.2.449-453; GUbert 3.232 f.; Platner 282-284. 

"Friedlander on Mart. 1.117.10. Cp. Jordan 1.2.437-441; GUbert 3.225-227; 
Platner 275 f . 

" See p. 64. 

^ I find that Friedlander, on Mart. 1.2.7, resorts to this argument. 

" If it could be proved that contra Caesaris . . . forum refers to the upper end of 
the Argiletum, then the sites indicated by contra and post might coincide; but the 
points adduced above would have to be considered. 

«Cp. Mart. 1.108.3; 1.117.6. 



64 ROMAN CRAFTSMEN AND TRADESMEN OF THE EARLY EMPIRE 

needlessly full and even inaccurate expression^ to designate only the 
Argiletum,^ but may with good reason be regarded as evidence that 
in Martial's day, too, a favorite stand for bookdealers was the Vicus 
Sandaliarius, which, according to topographers, branched off from the 
Argiletum behind the Forum Palladium, and ran directly behind the 
Forum of Peace in a course almost parallel to it.^ 

We have an intimation that this same Vicus was a book district even 
as early as the time of Augustus; for when the Emperor was setting 
up images of gods in several streets, he chose for the Vicus Sandaliarius 
a statue of ApoUo,* whom, in his desire to turn the minds of men to the 
pursuits of peace and literature, he was raising to the first place of 
prommence in Roman reUgion.'^ Further information on bookshops 
of the Augustan period is revealed by Horace's words to his book: 

Vertumnum lanumque, liber, spectare videris, 
scilicet ut prostes Sosionim pumice mundus.** 

The lines apparently indicate two sections just off the Forum, one in 
the vicinity of the statue of Vertiunnus in the Vicus Tuscus;** the other 
near the shrine of Janus Geminus, which references in literature consign 
to the lower end of the Argiletum,*^ a district corresponding perhaps 
to that just noted in Martial 1.117.9 ff.'^ The Sosii, says Porph)nio, 
were two brothers who were well-known bookdealers of the time.^ 
From the verses quoted above, it would appear that their firm did 
business on both sides of the Forum.'' 

"It might designate a district about 185 m. in breadth, since the dimensions 
given for the Forum of Nerva are 40 x 120 m., and for the Forum of Vespasian 
145 X 85 m. (Platner 281 f.). 

** Of course, as the Aigiletum ran diagonaUy, it might roughly be said to have 
been "behind" both fora, but there is no need to suppose tliat post is used so loosely, 
when a dose and natural rendering of the Latin offers no difficulty; cp. plans of the 
imperial fora. 

■ See p. 60, n. 36. 

" Suet. Aug, 57.1. See p. 60. 

'^ On the worship of Apollo under Augustus, cp. Carter 164-167; Wissowa 296 f. 

»Hor. EpisL 1.20.1 f.; cp. 2.3.345: Hie meret aera liber Sosiis. 

» Varro Ling. 5.46; possibly Hor. Epist, 2.1.268-270; Prop. 4.2.2 ff.; Jordan 1.2. 
469.40; Gilbert 3.416; Platner 173. See p. 68, and n. 65. 

»«Liv. 1.19.2; Ov. Fast. 1.258; Serv. on Virg. Aen. 7.607; Jordan 1.3.327; Platner 
191. 

« See p. 63. 

» Schd. on Hor. Epist. 1.20.2, 2.3.345. Little confidence can be placed on Aaron's 
comment that they were on the rostra. 

^ According to Platner 257, there is no certain reference to an arch of Janus 
across the Vicus Tuscus. 



ROMAN CRAFTSMEN AND TRADESMEN OF THE EARLY EMPIRE 65 

Our considerations, then, have led us to infer that from the beginning 
of the Empire both the Argiletum and the Vicus SandaUarius were 
popular book quarters. The former probably yielded precedence, 
because the lower end of it may have become absorbed in the Forum 
Palladium, but the Vicus possibly profited by the overflow from the 
contracted Argiletum, so that by the time of the Antonines it contained, 
as Galen says, most of the bookshops in Rome.^ 

Although there seems to be insufl&cient authority for yoking the 
Argiletum with the Subura as "the most crowded, noisy, and disrepu- 
table" quarter in the city,^ the description appears fairly accurate for 
the Subura itself. This had evidently been a residential section at 
one time. Julius Caesar is said to have dwelt there in an unpretentious 
house, until as Pontifex Maximus he took up his abode in the Domus 
Publica;** but it had become a district clamosa^'^ a,nd fervens,^^ from which 
residents were moving to the Esquiline or even to distant places of peace 
and quiet.'* It was possibly one of the busiest parts of Rome. At 
its entrance where it joined the Argiletum and apparently the Vicus 
SandaUarius,*® sat a woman barber, says Martial; no "clipper" was she, 
he adds, but a veritable "shaver": "Non tondet, inquam. Quid igitur 
fadt? Radit. "^ Within its confines could be secured all the produce 
of market, dairy, and poultry yard: fowl, eggs, fruit, meat, olives, and 
vegetables — as the epigrammatist humorously describes it: " My diminu- 
tive fields bear nothing but myself, but whatever is sent to you by your 
Umbrian bailiff, your husbandman, your famed country estate three 
miles from the city, your villa in Tuscany or Tusculum, this I have 
raised for me all over the Subura. "^ Inscriptions locate in this quarter 
crepidariL^ ferrarii^ impiliarii,'^ lanarii^ lintearii,^'' praecones,^ The 
neighborhood seems also to have been infested with brothels, and quales 

»* See n. 12. ** Id. 7.31; cp. 10.94. 

» Plainer 457. ** CIL. 6.9284. 

» Suet. /«/. 46; cp. Gramm, 7. ** Ih. 9399. 

" Mart. 12.18.2. « Ih. 33862. 

wjuv. 11.51. « 76. 9491. 

••/rf. 3.5; 11.51. « 76. 9526. 

*• See pp. 59 f. *«76. 1953. 
*» Mart. 2.17. 



66 ROMAN CRAFSTMEN AND TRADESMEN OF THE EARLY EMPIRE 



1 



-I 



in media sufU Subura^ as a characterization of women, was equivalent 
to famae nan nimium honae}^ 

In spite of its unenviable connections in the concrete, the phrase 
in media Subura appears to have held no unpleasant associations in the 
abstract, but to have signified the "heart of Rome" as vitalizing the 
throbbing, pulsating center of daily toil and business. Juvenal, for 
instance, gives expression to Hannibars avowed ambition by the words: 
"Media vexillum pono Subura",-" and Martial in a poem of tribute to ( 

Marcella, the patroness of his last years at Bilbilis, declares her worthy 
to grace the imperial court, and unsurpassed either by a native bom 
daughter of Rome or a foster child of the nation's capital, proclaiming: 

Nulla nee in media certabit nata Subura 
nee Capitolini collis alumna tibi.*^ 

Furthermore, the Subiua seems to have continued to number the resi- 
dences of prominent men within its limits. According to Martial, 

Atria stmt illic consulis alta mei: 
latirigeros habitat facundus Stella penatis.*' 

Perhaps Stella lived on or near the Clivus Suburanus which led up the 
slope of the Cispian Hill to the homes of other friends of the poet, such 
as Pliny the Younger** and Paulus." No doubt it, as well as the Esqui- 
line, was fast becoming a favorite residential quarter; for its muddy 
flags were always crowded, and if we are to believe the epigrammatist, 
it was as much as one's life was worth to break through the long ranks 
of mules as they dragged up great blocks of marble." 

The trading district that stretched south of the Forum to the Tiber 
is generally considered to have labored under a rather unsavory reputa- 
tion. Horace in recounting various providers of luxuries for a prodigal 
gourmand, notes: 

*»Mart. 6.66; q). 9.37; 11.61.1-4; 11.78.11. 

"Juv. 10.156. 

" Mart. 12.21, cp. 31. 

«/rf. 12.2(3). 10 f. 

^Id. 10.20(19) .3-5: "Facundo mea Plinio Thalia/ i perfer: brevis est labor 
peractae / altum vincere tramitem Suburae." 

**Id, 5.22.2, 5: "Sint mihi, Paule, tuae longius Esquiliae. / . . . alta Suburani 
vincenda est semita divi. " Friedlander, in his ed. of Mart., suggests that the subject 
of the epigram is probably Velius Paulus, q). Friedlander-Gough 4.318. 

» Mart. 5.22.6-8. 



ROMAN CRAPTSMEN AND TRADESMEN OF THE EARLY EMPIRE 67 

227 Edidt piscator uti, pomarius, auceps, 

unguentarius ac Tusci turba impia vici, 

cum scuriis fartor, cum Velabro omne macellum, 

mane domum veniant.** 

The poet's arrangement may be roughly topographical, as was Plautus's 
m his familiar description of life in the Forimi of his day.*^ In this 
case, verse 227 may refer to the market section around the Forum which 
is not included in the succeeding Unes; it may, however, allude only to 
the Vicus Tuscus. The phrase turba impia, according to the context 
(cp. V. 231) and to the explanation which is most acceptable to the 
scholiasts, presumably indicates lenones, and implies that the Vicus 
Tuscus had not altogether lost the character attributed to it by Plautus, 
who reported: "Ibi sunt homines qui ipsi sese venditant. "** It is 
possible that the "impious rabble" includes the fartor cum scurris. 
The term fartor was sometimes applied to special cooks who prepared 
sausages or various stuffed dainties;*^ it is usually so understood here, 
but the combination "cook with buffoons" is perplexing. The thought 
seems to require a meaning for fartor which is more consistent with 
scurra. Now Porph3Tio, commenting on verse 229, records the defini- 
tion nomenclator, and from Festus we may add the clause, "qui clam 
velut infercirent nomina salutatorum in aurem candidati. "^® We may 
also recall that the La,tm farcio is the source of the English word, "farce. " 
The application of this term to a dramatic composition, according to 
the New EngUsh Dictionary, probably developed through the medium 
of old-French /arce, which "occurs as the name for the extemporaneous 
amplification or 'gag,* or the interludes of impromptu buffoonery, which 
the actors in the religious dramas were accustomed to interpolate into 
their text." But these medieval French actors doubtless had some 
precedent for their use of the word in this way. It is not improbable, 
therefore, thsit fartor could be applied figuratively to any kind of "stuf- 
fer, and that the fartor whom Horace had in mind was not a "cook," 
but a "chief jester," or "farce actor," who, with his troop of buffoons, 
was engaged to amuse the host and his guests. 

Although the reputation of the Vicus Tuscus suffered from the 
presence of its turba impia, the street seems to have harbored some 

» Hor. Sat. 2.3.227-230. 
" Plaut. Cure. 467-485. 
" lb. 482. 

»» Plaut. True. 104; Ter. Eun. 257; Cic. Ojf. 1.150; sehol. on Hor. Sat. 2.3.229; 
Harcum 73 f . 
•« Fest. SS M. 



68 ROMAN CKAFTSHEN AND TRADESMEN OF THE EARLY EMPIRE 

shops of the better sort. In the passage which has just been under 
discussion, we find that Horace connects the unguentarius with this 
quarter; and it is possibly to the same street, as a place for the purchase 
of perfumes and spices, that the poet alludes in the verses: 

(Ne) cum scriptore meo, capsa porrectus operta, 
deferar in vicum vendentem tus et odores 
et piper et quidquid cfaartis amidtur ineptis.*^ 

These lines are as interesting for their inference as for their direct ref- 
erence. We have previously noted that there were probably bookshops 
in the Vicus Tuscus." Horace, seeing a gUnuner of humor in the situa- 
tion, utilizes it to obtain a characteristically merry siuprise at the end 
of his Epistle. He has been maMng one of his apologies to Augustus 
for failing to apply his humble genius to the composition of a work 
in the Emperor's honor, which would require epic powers. He concludes 
that he cannot risk a bad poem, for fear that his book will be carried 
into the Vicus Tuscus, not to be sold by the Sosii perchance, but to be 
used as conunon wrapping paper for pepper and incense, a fate to which 
worthless manuscripts were sometimes consigned.^ By Martial's day 
at least, the street also had shops where the finest imported silk was to 
be purchased.^ As the Vicus improved in character, it apparently 
changed its name, to rid itself, perhaps, of its old reputation. In the 
time of the scholiasts, it seems to have been called the Vicus Turarius;^ 
the fourth century regionary catalogue, the NaiUia, makes no record 
of a Vicus Tuscus in the eighth region, but it contains the item, vicum 
iugarium et unguentariumf^ 

The Velabnun, we have noticed, was mentioned by Horace as a 
special market center; to Martial^ Velabrensis recalled principally co^eifs 
futnosus, a very delicious cheese.*^- Its situation, as Platner remarks 
citing Macrobius,^^ made the district a locus ceUberrimus urbis, A 
great open mart near river and Forum, it formed an important medium 
of traffic, and (^ered for sale every variety of provisions andTtood sup- 

"Hor. Epist, 2.1.268-270. 
•« See p. 64. 

" Cp. Mart. 3.2.5: "Vel tuns piperisve sis cucuUus." See p. 26. 
•*Mart. 11.27.11, prima . . , de Tusco Serica vico. 

» Pseudo-Ascon. on Cic. Verr. 1.154; schol. on Hor. Sat. 2.3.228; Id. Epist. 1. 
20.1, 2.1.269; Jordan 1.2.469.40. 
•• Cp. Jordan 2.553. 
«Mart. 11.52.10; 13.32. 
-»• Macr. Sat. 1.10.15; Platner 394. 



ROMAN CRAFTSMEN AND TRADESMEN OF THE EARLY EMPIRE 69 

plies.** Other market centers (and the commercial prosperity of the 
Empire supported several of them^®) were doiibtles& less c o ng e st e d and 
more reputable and sanitary. Produce dealers received substantial 
encouragement from the emperors themselves; for the maceUum that 
had been built behind the Basilica Aemilia by M. Fulvius Nobilior in 
179 B. C.,^ had been supplemented by the MaceUum Liviae of Augustus 
on the Esquiline,'^ and by the MaceUum Magnum of Nero on the Cae- 
Uan.'^ Those who stocked them furnished the city not only with neces- 
sities but with every luxury of field, stream, and forest, but the majority 
of dealers demanded such high prices^* that Martial found excuse for 
forsaking Rome, because ''here it costs to go hungry and marketing 
is rioting. "« ^ - --" 

The quarter beyond the Tiber, to which were relegated aU industries 
likely to become a nuisance, such as tanneries and sulphur plants, has 
previously been discussed.^* Its formerly obnoxious features grew 
graduaUy less offensive, it seems, under what Juvenal deemed the slogan 
of the Empire: "Lucri bonus est odor ex re quaUbet."^^ 

Inscriptions give evidence that the Sacra Via was a fashionable 
shopping street in the days of the Empire. There are references to 
florists, fruitiers, and especiaUy cutters of precious stones, dealers in 
pearls, bronze-chasers, goldsmiths, and jeweUers.^* In Martial's time, 
an uptown district also was in favor with the "Four Hundred." This 
was the Saepta, the enclosure in the Campus Martins which had originaUy 
served as the voting place of the comitia centuriata; but later, with a 
succession of arcades flanking the Via Flaminia,^* it offered a veritable 
Rue de Rivoli, "where golden Rome displayed her riches."*" Martial 
peoples it for us with such vividness that shadowy forms assume definite 

if Cpi CILi 6.467,-0184, MS»;^96^,-9903» 
^•Hor. Sat. 2.3.229; Mart. 10.59.3; Juv. 11.64. "j^ 
^ JUiOiiii i.fl.lJia ti3ti | Cttl ie rt 3 . 307 309^ Plmuti ^7 ^460. 

" Gilbert 3.237 f.; Jordan 1.3.344 f.; Platner 274, 470. 

" GUbert 3.238; Jordan 1.3.237 f.; Platner 441. 

"Hor. Sat. 2.3.225 fif.; 2.4.76; Epist, 1.15.31; Mart. 10.37.19; 10.59.3; 12.62.9 £.; 
13.85.1; Juv. 5.95; 11.9-11. 

« Mart. 10.96.9. 

« See p. 19. 

"Juv. 14.204 f. Cp. Hor. Epist. 1.1.65 f.; Sen. Epist. 115.14; Juv. 14.205-207; 
Suet. Vesp. 23.2 f. 

»• CIL. 6.9207, 9212, 9221, 9214, 9239, 9283, 9418 f., 9545-9549, 9795, 9935; cp. 
NotUia (Jordan 2.553), Porticutn margaritarium; Platner 315 f. See p. 8. 

"GUbert 3.174 f.; Jordan 1.3.558-562; Platner 345 f., 384-386. 

"Mart. 9.59.2. 




70 ROMAN CRAFTSMEN AND TRADESMEN OF THE EARLY EMPIRE 

shape and the place becomes a reality of actual life. We see the obse- 
quious client pursuing the man of wealth,^^ and the foppish pretender 
promenading as a gay, yoimg knight, although his last cent has probably 
been spent on his attire and he has pawned his ring to buy a cheap 
dinner," Next we catch sight of an envious slave or freedman tearfully 
heaving a sigh from the bottom of his heart, because he cannot buy the 
whole Saepta and take it home with him." Finally, we note the familiar 
counterpart of an unscrupulous modem shopper: he inspects the fairest 
slaves, those that are not exposed for public sale but are shown in private 
only to the flite; he examines rare ivory omamentS; and fumittire-^- 
choicest wood inlaid with tortoise shell; he tests Corinthian bronzes, 
criticizes statues of Polycleitus, detects flaws in the finest crystal (yet 
sets aside a few specimens for future consideration); then he scrutinizes 
goblets of Mentor's chasing, seeks out the richest and most costly precious 
Stones, and finally after a whole day's fatiguing efforts, purchases a 
Couple of conmion cups for a two cent piece, and — carries them home 
himself !•* 

The tabernarius appearing most frequently in Martial's pages, due to 
the repeated reference to one individual, is the unguentarius. Although 
there were some perfumers whose names one might hesitate to reveal,^ 
they seem in general to have kept shops of the better kind, and to have 
suffered very little from disdain or disapproval." According to Trimal- 
chio's facetious exposition of astrology, they were bom under Libra.^^ 
Considering the lavish use of ointments and essences, not only for the 
person,** but for banquets** and for spraying at the theater,*® the demand 
for unguentarii must have been unusually great. Martial mentions 
Niceros as one who dealt in rich oils and scented unguents in his time.*^ 

«/rf. 2.14.5. 

« Id, 2.57. 

« Id. 10.80. 

•* Id. 9.59, 

■• Cp. Juv. 2.40-42. Petron. 74 mentions an ungueniarius who was a slave atten- 
dant of a wealthy woman. 

w Hor. Sat. 2.3.228, see pp. 67 f.; Juv. 14.203 f., see pp. 18 f. 

•^ Petron. 39. 

M/rf. 47, 77 f.; Mart. 1.87.2; 2.29.5; 3.12.4 f.; 3.55; 7.41; 11.49(50).6; 12.55.7; 
12.65.4; 14.59.146; Juv. 2.41. 

"Hor. Carm. 2.7.22 f. et passim] Sat, 2.3.228; Petron. 60, 6S, 70; Mart. 3.12; 
3.82.26-28; 11.15.6; Juv. 8.86. 

»o Mart. 5.25.7 f.; 8.33.3 f. 

•» Id, 6.55.3; 10.38.8; 12.65.4. 



ROMAN CRAPTSMEN AND TRADESMEN OF THE EARLY EMPIRE 71 

But the best known perfumer of that period appears to have been Cosmus, 
to whom allusion is made in about fifteen epigrams. Since Juvenal 
speaks of the same man,^ the appellative, although it suggests the 
business of its bearer, is probably not one of Martial's fabrications." 
Cosmus may have been a freedman who adopted an appropriate name 
when he set up in trade; of course the appropriateness may have been 
purely accidental — one of those amusing coincidences which are fre- 
quently found in every generation, such as Rose, the florist. Giese, 
who has made a special study de personis a Martiale commemoraHsy 
singles out only Cosme of 4.53 as imaginary,^ but it seems logical and 
legitimate to take this epigram in connection with the others, and thus 
obtain a strong contrast between the fastidious customers suggested 
in the lines and the slovenly Cynic "cur" described. Cosmus presiun- 
ably did not make a specialty of common glaucina^ and capiUare^^ 
or opobalsama, a favorite with men,*^ but carried a stock of choicest 
unguents, cinnamum,^^ pastilli,^^ and catered particularly to feminine 
tastes.^^ Certain specialties bore his name: Martial terms a rich 
perfume Cosmianus,^^^ and dubs spikenard folium Cosmi}^ Because 
of the lingering aroma, Martial suggests an amptMa Cosmiana as a 
welcome drinking flask for one who thirsts for nard wine.^^* 

Before leaving the subject of unguentariif we should note briefly 
two disputed passages which may have reference to specific individuals. 
The first is Martial 7.41 : 

Cosmicos esse tibi, Semproni Tucca, videris: 

cosmica, Semproni, tarn mala quam bona sunt. 

The question pertains to the initial word in each verse, for which Harper's 
lexicon gives the signification "cosmofK)Ute." This affords a plausible 

"Juv. 8.86. Nicolaus Perottus, Cornucopia 200.26 (Aldine ed., 1513), quotes 
this and also the following fragment from Petronius: "Affer nobis, inquit, aiabas- 
tnun Cosmiani." 

"Stephenson, on Mart. 3.55.1, inclines to the view that it is fictitious. 

•« Giese 12. 

» Mart. 9.26.2. 

"/rf. 3.82.28. 

•^/rf. 14.59. Cp.Juv. 2.41. 

••Mart. 3.55. Cp. 6.55.1. 

•»/rf. 1.87.2. 

^•o/rf. 11.49(50).6; 12.55.7; 12.65.4; 14.59.2. 

"» Id. 11.15.6; 12.55.7. See n. 92. 

>«Mart. 11.18.9; 14.146; cp. 11.27.9; 14.110.2. 

>"/(/. 14.110; cp. 3.82.26; Juv. 8.86; Marquardt 2.461,650. 



72 ROMAN CKAFTSMEN AND TRADESMEN OF THE EARLY EMPIRE 

rendering, but after considering the connotation of Cosmus and Cos- 
mianus in the epigrams, we are inclined to agree with those who find more 
point in the interpretation: "You think, Sempronius Tucca, that you 
are well scented. Scents, Sempronius, are bad as well as good!"^^ 
In the second dubious allusion, "cuius olet toto pinguis coma Marcel- 
liano,"** Giese finds reference to a MarceUuSy myropola}^ However, a 
glance at the opening line of the epigram, "Rufe, vides ilium subsellia 
prima terentem," and at such phrases as toia . . . Subura^^'^ urbe 
. . . Ma^^ and MarceUi Pompeianumque^^^ Pompeiano vda negata 
Noio,^^ and scaena Marcelliani theairiy^ leaves little doubt that the 
ablative is a locative with theatro to be supplied. 

In determining the reputation of tabernae and their managers in 
general, we must beware of specializations. For instance, Horace's 
advice to writers of saturae: 

Ne quicumque dens, quicumque adHbebitur heros, 
regali conspectus in auro nuper et ostro, 
migret in obscuras humili sermone tabemas,^" 

does not, we believe, contain a thrust at all shops. The adjective, 
obscuras, whch would be redundant if humili sermone were broad in its 
^yplication, possibly has a counterpart in arcana of a passage from 
Martial: 

Et blando male proditus fritilio, 
arcana modo raptus e popina, 
aedilem rogat udus aleator.^" 

It is doubtless descriptive therefore of such places as taverns^^ or especial- 
ly cookshops.^^ The epigrammatist would certainly disclaim humilis 
sermo as a disparaging generalization; for in prophesying the spread of 
fame and glory for a book of poems which he is sending to Cassius Sabi- 
nus, he remarks: 

>»*Cp. Mart. 1.87; 2.12. 

»» Mart. 2.29.5. 

>«• Giese 22. 

>w Mart. 7.31.12. 

>«*W. 1.2.5 f. 

»»W. 10.51.11. 

>"/rf. 11.21.6. 

>" Suet. Vesp. 19.1. 

»" Hor. EpisU 2.3.227-229. 

*" Mart. 5.84.3-5. 

*^ In Petron. 80, humilis tabema refers to a lodging house. See pp. 11-13. 

'« See pp. 15-18. 



ROMAN CRAFTSMEN AND TRADESMEN OF THE EARLY EMPIRE 73 

Te convivia, te forum sonabit, 
aedes, compita, porticus, tabemae."* 

The barbers', the perfumers', and the booksellers' were among the 
favorite gathering places in Rome.^^^ 

From a financial standpoint shops "paid." Juvenal cites the case 
of a freedman under Domitian, who had acquired a knight's fortune 
because "quinque tabemae quadringenta parant."^^* His prosperity- 
scandalized the aristocracy, but it gained him admittance at the doors 
of the mighty, and showed the trend of the times. Although the domes- 
tic life of the small tradesman was no doubt often confined to second 
floor lodgings^^^ which conmaunicated with the taberna, but which with 
it were separated from the rest of the house, this state of affairs appears 
not to have been so conmaon or so inevitable as Typaldo-Bassia would 
lead us to infer .^^° Tabernae at Pompeii, at least, permit some interest- 
ing conclusions. As Mau-Kelsey point out, they formed the outer parts 
of houses fronting on the principal thoroughfares.^^ A number of them 
had no connection with the private apartments and were doubtless 
rented; many, however* opened upon the fauces or inner rooms and were 
presumably the house-owner's or tenant's place of business. The latter 
conditions prevailed, not only in small and ordinary homes, but in 
some of the finest in the town. To note a few instances, it was the 
case in the House of the Tragic Poet, which Mau-Kelsey designate as 
"among the most attractive in the city";^ it was also true of the House 
of the Faun, accounted " among the largest and most elegant in Pompeii, " 
with mosaic floors which "are the most beautiful that have survived 
to modern times. "^® Such an environment for shops whether private 
or rented, in marked contrast to Cicero's declaration that tabernarii were 
rioters and the dregs of the populace,^ betokens their reputability and 

"« Mart. 7.97.11 f. Cp. Petron. 140. 

^^'' V\zMt. Amph. 1011-1013; Epid, 198 f.; Ter. Phorm. 89 ff.; Hor. Sat, 1.7.1-3; 
Gell. 18.4.1; q). Lysias Orat. 24.20; Demos, vs. Phorm. 13. See pp. 59, 90. 

"*Juv. 1.105 f. It is scarcely possible to say whether the tabernae in question 
were a property or business investment or both. 

"•Cp.CIL. 4.138, 1136. 

"0 TypaldQ-^assia 24. 

^^^au-KeJs€a:.276ff.. ^ 
^«W. 313 ff. 

^^ Id, 288 ff. Cp. the House of Pansa, a whole instda with shops both connected 

with the dwelling and otherwise (349 ff.). The House of the Vettii is well known for 

its Cupid and Psyche pictures; "prosaic daily toil has nowhere been more happily 

idealized" (331 ff.). ; : 

"* Cic. Dom, 13; Place. 18. ^ • 



« c. ". 



74 ROMAN CRAFTSMEN AND TRADESMEN OF THE EARLY EMPIRE 

orderliness, and makes possible the inference that under the Empire, 
in municipal towns at least, shopkeepers included men of means and 
position. At Rome they natiually did not move in exclusive circles, 
and were not always known personally to men of high degree; but they 
were apparently people of influence in their own communities. Under 
Augustus we find some of them wielding a political power not to be 
ignored. In fact, an aspiring candidate found it advisable to secure an 
informant's services and pay deference to the man '' behind the counter. " 
Says Horace, 

Mercemus servum qui dictet nomina, laevum 
qui fodicet latus et cogat trans pondera dextram 
ponigere: 'hie multum in Fabia valet, ille Velina; 
cui libet hie fascis dabit eripietque curule 
cui volet importunus ebur. *^ 

We can not but surmise that there may have been cases where continued 
political influence, added to financial success in business, brought social 
recognition even from the nobility without a nomenclator's aid. 

XXIV 
Textores 

Spinning and weaving^ were of course among the primitive occupa- 
tions at Rome, but they do not appear to have been represented in the 
early collegia listed by Plutarch.' This was doubtless because they 
constituted merely household tasks. By the time of Plautus, however, 
there were independent dealers in woollen goods and woven fabrics;' 
and the Andrian woman of Terence's play is said to have made her 
living at the loom when she first came to the Roman Capital.* Under 
the Empire there were public and private weaving-rooms, textrinae, 
which employed many hands.'^ Those who spun the thread were termed 

*2«Hor. EpisL 1.6.50-54. I have adopted what seems to me to be the most 
obvious interpretation of trans pondera (51), although this is contrary to Acron, who 
says that pondera means "stepping-stones." Other suggestions are "beyond our 
balance " and " over the weighted tassels of our gowns. " Cp. Wickham's and Wilkin's 
notes. 

*Cp. Ov. Met. 6.53-69; Marquardt 2.517-527; Blumner, Tech., 1.120-170. 

« See p. 1. 

» Plant. Aid. 508 S. 

* Ter. Andr. 74 f . 

' : » Typaldo-Bassia 8; Blumner, Tech., 1.166. 



ROMAN CRAFTSMEN AND TRADESMEN OF THE EARLY EMPIRE 75 

lanificaef weavers in linen were sometimes called linteones' or Hntearii^ 
to distinguish them from workers in wool, lanarii)^ and inscriptions 
record certain speciahsts such as carders, carminatoreSf^^ pedinarii}^ 
Among the papyri discovered at Oxyrhynchus is one of the time of 
Augustus containing a Latin accoimt of wages paid to textores, conductei, 
and a magister; according to this, the weavers received three and one 
half asses per day; the hirelings, four asses; and the overseer, six asses.^ 
Wages at Rome were possibly higher." 

The satirists do not throw much light upon the relations of spinners 
and weavers to society. In many homes garments were still woven by 
slaves under the direction of the domina, lanipendiay or vUica}^ Horace 
uses the noun textor quite impersonally as an ablative of means in the 
foUowing rhetorical question: 

Quid si quis vultu torvo fenis et pede nudo 
exiguaeque togae simulet textore Catonem, 
virtutemne repraesentet moresque Catonis?" 

The juxtaposition of textore and Catonem is noticeable; it is doubtless 
an intentional oxymoron. 

In denouncing the custom of osculatory greeting which had been 
prevalent at Rome since the beginning of the Empire,*® Martial warns 
the returned traveler that from the omnipresent throng, 

Hinc instat tibi textor, inde fuUo, 
hinc sutor modo pelle basiata." 

He groups these with some of the most loathsome and objectionable 
characters, but he apparently does not mean to place them on the same 
level. His purpose is to set forth the imiversality of the kissing habit; 
in order to include the whole mass of the people he names the rough, 

•Many references in the satirists to spinners designate the Parcae: Mart. 4.54. 
5-10; 6.58.7 f.; Juv. 12.64-66; cp. Mart. 4.73.3 f.; 6.3.5 f., on Julia, daughter of Titus, 
as spinner or one of the Fates; 7.96.3 f.; 9.76.6 f.; 10.44.5 f.; 10.53.3; Juv.3.27. 

^Plaut. Aul. 512; Serv. on Virg. Am. 7.14. 

• CIL. 6.9526. 

•Plaut. Aul. 508; CIL. 5.4501; 6.9491; 11.1031. 

"CIL. 11.1031. 

" CIL. 5.4501. 

"Grenfell and Hunt, Oxyrhynchus Papryi, 6.233.737 (London, 1904). 

" Cp. West 294 f ., 304. West's discussion, 293 ff., is interesting as a caution 
against comparing ancient wages with modem without making all due allowances. 

"Juv. 2.57 and schol.; 6.476 and schol.; 11.69; Marquardt 1.156. 

»*Hor.£i>w/. 1.19.12-14. 

" See pp. 22, n. 13; 58. 

" Mart. 12.59.6 f. 



76 ROMAN CRAFTSMEN AND TRADESMEN OF THE EARLY EMPIRE 

unkempt, country peasant, the class engaged in trade, the dregs of the 
populace. He possibly gave no more thought to the selection which 
he made to represent the second division than is taken nowadays for 
the stock phrase, ''butcher, baker, and candlestickmaker. "^^ 

Juvenal presumably considered the carder of wool on a far lower 
plane than the grammalicus, and he deemed it quite unjust that the 
latter had to be at his desk at an early morning hour. 

Qua nemo faber, qua nemo sederet 
qui docet obliquo lanam deducere ferro.** 

Perhaps the second verse refers to the foreman of a textrina. Since 
the order is probably intended to secure a climax, we may concede that 
the poet would rank pectinarii below fabri. In his bitter attack against cer- 
tain hypocritical philosophers, Juvenal expresses utter scorn for men who 
were taking up the art of weaving, which he considers not only effeminate, 
but the task of a slave, "horrida quale facit residens in codice paelex. "*® 
In another Satire, he contrasts the glory of a lineage traced from royal 
blood to descent from one "quae ventoso conducta sub aggere texit."^ 
The antithesis may not be the satirist's own; for it is offered in stinging 
irony as the words of a worthless nobleman, who, as Juvenal intimates, 
might easily have been surpassed by one less highly connected. The 
verses therefore may from the poet's point of view merely signify humble 
rank. On the other hand, the agger mentioned is no doubt the TuUian 
Embankment that crossed the plateau between the Porta Collina and 
the Porta Esquilina," a quarter which does not seem to have been in 
good repute. The section near the Esquiline was possibly improved as 
a promenade" when the Horti Maecenatis** were laid out, but it had 
previously been in the vicinity of the Potter's Field.* At the CoUine 
Gate were the barracks of the Praetorian Camp.* Juvenal refers to 
the Rampart elsewhere as the resort of idlers and low characters who were 

*' The play on words that stdor offered may have tempted him to choose providers 
of wearing apparel, or he may have had personal motives, as is suggested on p. 22. 

"Juv. 7.223 f. Cp. CIL. 5.4501, lanam. pectinaii / sodales — ^from Brescia; 
11.1031, LANAMORVM / CASMiNATOR — ^from Brescello. 

*^ Juv. 2.54-57 and schol. Note the masculine endings of nouns in the inscriptions 
dted. 

. a Juv. 8.43. 

» See p. 12. 

»Hor. 5a/. 1.8.14-16. 

«* Gilbert 3.361 f.; Jordan 1.3.346 f.; Platner 464-466. 

» Hor. Sai. 1.8.6-13; Jordan 1.3.261, 265-270; Platner 445 f. 

"Jordan 1.3.385-393; cp. Juv. 16.26. 



ROMAN CRAFTSMEN AND TRADESMEN OF THE EARLY EMPIRE 77 

attracted by fortune tellers^^ and performing animals.** Weavers who 
lived or worked*® in this neighborhood, therefore, could scarcely have 
been much esteemed. 

It is logical to suppose that the standing of textares in general was 
lowered by the number of slaves both domestic and public that crowded 
their ranks. Moreover, since the Romans imported much woven 
material from Transalpine Gaul and Egypt,'^ we may infer that many 
foreigners of those nationahties emigrated to the Capital and engaged 
in the trade for which their countries were noted. Waltzing records 
no evidence for corporations of weavers at Rome, but inscriptions of 
collegia have been found at Brescia, Brescello, Thyateira, and Ephesus.'^ 

XXV 

TlGNARH 

Collegia Fabrum Centonariorum Dendrophorum 

Plutarch lists tignarii among the early corporations which he ascribes 
to Numa.^ They no doubt comprised originally all workers in wood, 
but as division of labor increased, they became subdivided into specialized 
groups such as subsdlarii, lectarii} It may have been one of the last 
named that made Horace's Arckiacis . . . lecHsf for according to 
Porphyrio, "Archias breves ^lectos fecit."* Some apparently did not 

" Juv. 6.588-591. Cp. the witches in Hor. Sat. 1.8.17 S. 

**It b to these presumably that Juv. has reference in 5.153-155. Cp. schol, 
and Mart. 14.128, 202.1. 

*• Wilson on Juv. 8.43 compares Shakesp., Twelfth Night, 2.4.44, "The spinsters 
and the knitters in the sun." It is hardly possible to decide whether the reference 
in Juv. is to women working in their own homes or as ''hands" in textrinae. Inscrip- 
tions locate weavers in the Subura, see nn. 8, 9, and pp. 65 f . 

»»Cp. Mart. 4.19; 14.128, 150, 159 f.; Juv. 7.221; 9.28-30; Blumner, ThiUigkeit, 
10 f ., 137 flF., 142 flF. 

«Waltzmg 2.153; 4.95. 

*Seep. 1. 

* Cp. Ktihn's register of inscriptions 37-39. 

*Hor. Epist. 1.5.1 and schol. 

*Cp. Hor. Sat. 2.7.95, Pausiaca . . . tabdla\ also "Windsor chairs." H. E. 
Eve, however, offers a different explanation in the Class. Rev. 19(1905) .59, which is 
very ingenious and tempting. He connects the phrase with Plutarch's story (Life 
of Pelop. 10) of Archias, Governor of Thebes, who, while banqueting, received from 
his namesake in Athens a letter containing details of the conspiracy of Pelopidas, 
but cast it aside with the words els attptov rd o-irouSaia which afterward became pro- 
verbial. 



78 ROMAN CRAFTSMEN AND TRADESMEN OF THE EARLY EMPIRE 

adopt a speciality but retaining their versatility, manufactured anything 
from a bench to a Priapus.' 

After the term tignarii had become restricted, it seems to have been 
applied regularly to carpenters and builders,^ and to have kept its signi- 
fication even after wood ceased to be the chief buOding material. Proof 
for this is offered by Gains, who says: ''Fabros tignarios dicimus non eos 
dumtazat, qui tigna dolarent, sed omnes, qui aedificarent."^ Wherever, 
therefore, faber is used without a distinguishing adjective, but in con- 
nection with building, it is evident that tignarius is to be supplied.^ 

Some authorities support the theory that the word fabri, when 
unmodified, was employed by writers to mean tignarii^ and that there 
was little difference, therefore, between the collegium fabrum tignariorum 
or Hgnuarwrum and the coUegium fabrum of municipal towns 
Fabri and colonies.* The reasoning appears illogical; for the con- 
text may be as restrictive as a limiting adjective, as for example 
in Horace's expression, marmoris aut eboris fabros aut aeris}^ The use 
of aedificare or kindred words, therefore, would particularize fabri, 
so that it could not accurately be said to be ''unmodified." On the 
other hand, where neither context nor adjective specifically distin- 
guishes the word, it seems to be collective in force, including, as the 
verse just quoted from Horace suggests, various workers in hard mater- 
ials. Varro, for instance, says that husbandmen used to call in neigh- 
boring medicos, fuUones, fabros rather than keep them on their farms ;^^ 
he surely means the makers of implements as well as builders. Again, 
Asconius, commenting upon the senatus consuUum against corporations, 
declares that collegia which were of advantage to the state, siadfabrorutn 
fictorumque, were allowed to remain;" and certainly others besides 
carpenters would be considered an utiliUis civitatis. Horace, too, in 
the clause tractatU fabrilia fabrf^ was in all probability thinking as much 

•Hor. 5a/. 1.8.1-3. 

• Cp. Cic. BfiU. 257: 

^ Dig. 50.16.235. 

•Cp. Cato Agr, 14.1; Cic. Verr, 5.48; EpisL 9.2.5; Hor. EpisL 1.1.83-87. 

•Waltzing 2.117 flF., 149; Komemann 4.1.394; 6.2.1906; Ktihn 27-28, 36. 

"Hor. £/>w/. 2.1.96. 

" Varro i2«^/. 1.16.4. 

" Ascon. Corn. 75.67 (Clark). 

"Hor. EpisL 2.1.116. Cp. Juv. 14.115 f.: "Egregium populus putat adquirendi 
/ artificem; quippe his crescunt patrimonia fabris." The lines refer metaphorically 
to a miser, and offer a play on the woidfabris in its broad meaning "artificers, " and 



ROMAN CRAFTSMEN AND TRADESMEN OF THE EARLY EMPIRE 79 

of the skill of aurifices, argentarii, and aerarii as of that of Hgnarii, Final- 
ly, there are Martial's phrases, faba fabrorum and fabrorum prandia^ 
betae^^ in vr\n.dcL fabrorum is evidently equivalent to plebeia as is indicated 
by Persius's corolary, plebeia . . . beta.^ The metonomy is more 
natural M fahri be a generic term; for as such it would doubtless have 
included a very large part of the industrial population, especially since 
faber was not always used accurately, but by an extention of meaning 
might be loosely applied to workers in soft materials, fictores,^ 

In the face of this it is somewhat inconsistent to interpret collegium 
fabrum as a body of one specific group of men. The organization, it 
appears, acted as a fire department in municipal towns and colonies 
and had its members specially appointed by the government.^^ Kiihn 
suggests that perhaps fabri Hgnarii in the municipia became volunteer 

firemen, and later in larger towns were publicly assigned 
Collegia this duty, being then distinguished from the strictly indus- 
Fabrum trial corporations by the simple term fabri}^ Now a 

priori it seems rather incongruous that of all people car- 
penters and builders should constitute a fire department. In the first 
place, considering the enthusiasm for building under the Empire, both 
on the part of the state and of individuals,^^ they must have been far 
too busy for burdensome outside duties, or too much in demand to permit 
their number to be considerably curtailed. In the second place, if a 
large portion of society was as base and dishonorable as the satirists 
would have us beUeve,^^ it might reasonably be suspected that a fire 
company composed exclusively of Hgnarii might be open to the tempta- 
tion of increasing business for its members along both lines! 

On the other hand, the evidence cited above suggests that a col- 
legium fabrum would consist of various kinds of artificers; PUny's Ian- 

its narrower sense of argentarii; q). App. Claud. Carm. frg. 36: "Est unus quisque 
faber ipse fortunae suae. " 

»*Mart. 10.48.16; 13.13.1. 

«^Pers. 3.114. 

"Cp. Petron. 51: "Fuit . . . faber qui fecit phialam vitream"; Juv. 1.54, 
fabrumque volantem^Icarum; Bltimner, Tech.f 2.166. 

"Plin. EpisL 10.33(42), 34(43); Paneg. 54; Hirschfeld 239 ff.; Liebenam 104 f.; 
Komemann 4. 1 .394 f. ; 6.2. 1905 f . 

" Ktihn 35 f . 

"Hor. EpisL 1.1.83-87; Mart. 9.22.16; 9.46; Juv. 1.94; 14.86-91; Suet. lul. 44; 
Aug. 29; Col. 21; Claud. 20; Nero 31; Vesp. 9.1; Dom. 5. 

*o Cp. Petron. 116, 119; Mart. 3.3S; 4.5; et passim; Juv. 3.21-57, 109-125; 13.23-30; 
14.123-178; et passim. 






80 SOMAN CRAFTSMEN AND TRADESMEN OF THE EARLY EMPIRE 

guage, "Ego attendam ne quis nisi faber recipiatur,"^ points in the 
same direction. Furthermore, although tignarii may well have played an 
important part in helping to extinguish fires, yet the construction, repair, 
and skilful manipulation of the siphones, hamae, rdiqua instrumenta ad 
incendia campescenda^ noted by Pliny were doubtless in the hands of 
several classes of specialists. Inscriptions make frequent reference to 
corporations of cerUanarii and dendrophari in connection with fabri?^ 
There appears to be little doubt therefore that collegia fabrum were 
heterogeneous organizations. 

The cenUmarii and dendrophari, of whom mention has just been 
made, present some difficulty. The former were presumably, as Kome- 

mann and others maintain, manufacturers and perhaps 
Centonarii merchants of coarse canvas doth which was pieced 

together to make cenkmes.^ This term seems to have 
signified primarily and specifically coverings made of pieces of canvas, 
which were employed in warfare as a protection against missiles. Caesar 
refers to their use for military engines,* and also tells of an occasion when 
"almost all of the soldiers made tunics or covers out of felt or canvas 
or leather" (ex coactis aid ex centonibus aid ex coriis).^ According to an 
anecdote related by Anmiianus MarceUinus, some parched soldiers made 
a rope out of strips of linen, and drew water from a well by attaching 
their improvised rope to a canvas cap (cenlonem), which one of their 
number had been wearing under his helmet.'^ Centones must also have 
been effective against fire; for they are mentioned among the requisites 
for fighting a fire;^ and in inscriptions, collegia centonariorum are 
found almost exclusively in connection with incorporated fabri and 
dendrophari.** Perhaps centones were employed in some way to smother 
flames; but judging from their use in warfare, they doubtless served as 
a protective covering both for apparatus and for the fire fighters them- 
selves. References given above, for instance, permit us in imagination 

a Plin. Epist, 10.33(42) .3. 

"J6. §2. Petron. 78 mentions secures , and the Digest, centones ^ siphones, per- 
ticaCf scalacj pharmioneSj spongiae, hamae^ scopae; see n. 49. 

» See a catalogue of them in Waltzing 4.50^72, 76-80; Komemann 6.2.1907-1911; 
Ktthn 33-35, 39. 

*« Waltzing 2.146; Komemann 4.1.395; Bltimner, Tech., 1.209. 

" Caes. Civ. 2.9. 

» lb. 3.44. 

" Amm. 19.8.8. 

» See n. 22. 

» Cp. register, Waltzing 4.76 f.; Komemann 6.2.1907-1911. 



ROMAN CRAFTSMEN AND TRADESMEN OF THE EARLY EMPIRE 81 

to equip the fire brigade in a special costume of canvas cap and tunic. 
Not only did the military custom which we have described pass into 
a public, civic institution, but as in the case of the sagum?^ it was also 
taken up in private life, especially by slaves, workmen, and the poorer 
classes. Consequently we find the term cento appUed to the cheap garb 
of conmaon people, to patchwork curtains, and to bed coverlets.'^ It 
was no doubt loosely used for a number of things which had some simi- 
larity to miUtary cenlones in appearance or in structure, even if they 
were not made of canvas; like vestisy the word appears to have been 
apphcable to any cover, whether a garment or a spread. It is easy to 
see how the meaning "patchwork" developed; but the rendering "rag- 
covering" seems sometimes to be carried a step too far, especially when 
it is taken to lay special emphasis upon the age or warthlessness of a 
thing, instead of upon the fact of its being pieced together. A "patch- 
work quilt, " for instance is made not of rags, but of good pieces. Encol- 
pius in Petronius admits that an old timic which he and Ascyltos were 
claiming was a bunch of rags not fit for good centones.^ In Plautus 
the word appears as a colloquialism for the "patched up tale" of a 
boastful soldier." In late Latin it was assigned to a poem which was 
a compilation of various verses and parts of verses from another poem;" 
it was a classic, however, not a worthless work, that was usually chosen 
to be cut up and pieced together accorcHng to the mos centonarius; and 
so there were HomerocenUmes and VergiliocenUmes.^ The thirteenth 
Idyll of Ausonius, for instance, known as the Cento Nuptialis, was based 
upon Virgil.* The phrase vestiarius centonariiis is found in Orelli 
4296 and is cited by the lexica and some authors, but Orelli's inscription 
is classed among the Falsaey CIL.S.30. There is apparently no good 
reason, therefore, why Echion centonarius in Petronius 45 f. should be 
considered a "rag dealer" or an "old clothes dealer," as he is generally 
regarded.*^ Had Echion originally been such a lowly personage, he 
would doubtless have changed his occupation to accord with his higher 

»« Cp. Blumner, Miiller's Handbuch 4.2.216 f . 

« Cato i4^r. 2.3; 10.5; Ludl. in Non. 176.1 M; Petron. 7, 14; Juv. 6.121 and 
schol.; Fest. 237 M. 

"Petron. 14. 

» Plant. Epid. 455. 

** TeuflFel-Schwabe-Warr 1. § 26. 

*Tert. Praescr. 39; Hieron. Epist, 103.7; laid. Orig, 1.39.25. 

» Teuflfel-Schwabe-Warr 2. p. 367. 

•^ Cp. Peck 107 (New York 1898) and Lowe 61 (London 1905), trans, of the 
Cena Trimalckionis, and Heseltine 75 (London, 1913), ed. and trans, of Petron. 



Ik 



82 ROMAN CRAFTSMEN AND TRADESMEN OF THE EARLY EMPIRE 

Station, foUowing the example of Phileros, who had once been a peddler 
with things to sell on his back,'^ but had later become an advocate, and 
a match for the best of them. Note the chatter of Echion: he criticises 
past shows, gives advance information about those that are to come, and 
indulges in personalities about their doners. His children, he prophesies, 
are destined for "careers"; one, who is not especially interested in books, 
is to learn the business of a barber, an auctioneer, or an advocate; but 
the other is a student of Latin and Greek and is in a fair way to become 
a gramnuUicus, Surely the father is more than a "rag dealer"; inter- 
preted as a prosperous canvas manufacturer, perchance even a member 
of the local fire department, this character assumes grander proportions, 
and we can well understand his optimism, his pride in his country and 
his boys, and his effervescent sense of importance. 

For the identification of the dendrophori no satisfactory explanation 
has as yet been advanced. It is perfectly clear from inscriptions that 

there was a religious brotherhood of this name, con- 
Dendrophori cemed with the cult of Cybele and Attis, at whose 

festivals they carried branches of trees in procession.'® 
They seem also to have venerated Silvanus,*® and to have been connected 
with the cult of the emperors.*^ Godefroy believed that there were 
two distinct colleges, one a religious body of priests consecrated to the 
worship of Cybele, the other a civil and industrial corporation composed 
perhaps of carpenters or negoHatores in timber.*^ Waltzing considers 
the two institutions one and the same, and is inclined to the belief that 
their personnel consisted of limaber merchants, who originally under a 
native Latin name, perhaps lignarii, had supplied lumber for public 
use and had therefore been detailed by Claudius, when he instituted the 
great April festival in honor of Magna Mater, to secure the sacred pines 
for the celebration. They had subsequently dedicated themselves to 
the worship of the goddess and had been appointed by the state to look 
after her rites. Gradual.y the name dendrophori, which had at first 
indicated only their religious function** in a cult in which all nomen- 

»» Cp. Petron. 38. 

'•Cumont, Oriental Religions in Roman Paganism^ 56-58 (Chicago, 1911); 
Taylor, Cults of Ostia, 64 f. (Bryn Mawr Dissertation, 1912). 

*"Von Domaszewski, Silvanus auf lateinischen Inschriflen, Philol. 61 (1902). 15; 
Cumont, Real-Encycl. 5.1.218; Taylor, op. cU., 40. 

" CIL. 5.3312, 5275; 9.3938; 13.5153; Cumont, /. c. 

« Godefroy on Cod. Theod. 14.8.1; 16.10.20. 

** Cp. cannophori of Cybele, cistophori of Bellona, pastophori of Isis: Darem.- 
Saglio 1.686; Cumont, Oriental Religions y 56, 94. 



ROMAN CRAFTSMEN AND TRADESMEN OF THE EARLY EMPIRE 83 

clature was Greek, was extended to their trade and caused their Latin 
name to fall into disuse.** 

There are at least two strong objections to this theory. In the 
first place, as Waltzing himself confesses, it would show the college to 
have been a rare exception, in that, though of private character itself, 
it maintained a public cult;*^ in the second place, it does not sufficiently 
explain its relation to fabri and centonarii. Possibly the association 
arose in this fashion: Early in the Empire on the analogy of the cohartes 
vigiluniy established at Rome by Augustus in 6. A. D. as a fire and police 
department,*® collegia fabrum were appointed by the government in 
municipal towns and colonies. It is natural that their membership 
should have been made up from these particular ranks of the industrial 
orders, since it was from them, no doubt, that volunteers had previously 
rushed to conflagrations, taking whatever implements they had to offer. 
It is quite possible, too, that in forming the new state departments, 
men were chosen in some cases who already belonged to special guilds;*^ 
for instance, a certain T. Flavins Hilario is seen to have been decvr. 

COLL.FABR. . . MAG.QVINQ.COLL.FABR.TIGNARIOR.** NoW mechanics 

would naturally know and avail themselves of the military device of 
using centanes to protect engines. It was doubtless found that these 
were also advantageous for smothering flames, or as we have previously 
suggested, that they could be converted into serviceable apparel for 
firemen; and so, to increase the efficiency of fire companies, centonarii y 
who were possibly already largely engaged in the service of the state 
as the manufacturers of a commodity of warfare, were annexed to the 
collegia fabrum or associated with them. 

«* Waltzing 1.249-251; 2.123 f., 148. Cp. Paris in Darem.-Saglio 2.101, and 
fig. 2330; Komemann 4.1.396; Cumont, Real-EncycL 5.1.216. In his Oriental- Reli- 
gions, 58, Ciunont suggests that the dendrophori were wood cutters and carpenters^ 
able to fell the divine tree of Attis, and also to cut down the timbers of burning; 
buildings. 

«WalUing 1.253. 

^Mommsen, Staaisverw.y 2.484-487 (Leipzig, 1887); Abbott, Roman Political 
InstUutianSy 281 (Boston, 1911). 

" Cp. Waltzing 1.351 ff., "Nous rencontrons beaucoup d'hommes affili^s k deux 
ou plusieurs colleges k la fois, " etc. 

*• CIL. 14.2630. Cp. 9.5450, where mag.colueg / pabr. is also mag.et.q.sodal 
/ fvllonvm; this inscription permits the inference that in ^poall towns at least, col- 
legia fabrum admitted others than fabri. 



84 ROMAN CKAFTSMEN AND TRADESMEN OF THE EARLY EMPIRE 

Meanwhile the need of special fire-fighting implements would be 
increasing. Long poles, perticaef* were found to be ej£cacious in an 
emergency; and ladders, scalaef"^ became essential to cope with the situa- 
tion in the case of high buildings. As methods improved and inven- 
tions increased, mechanical devices probably became larger and heavier, 
and there was need of a greater force of men to transport them. It 
would also be expedient to have special workers to remove furniture 
from burning buildings and carry it away to safety. There was need, 
then, of a Company of Porters to render the fire department thoroughly 
efficient, and there were state collegia ready at hand to provide them; 
for, as we have noted, since the time of Claudius at least, first at Rome 
and afterwards in municipal towns, there had been colleges of dendra- 
pkori appointed by the government to look after the cult of Cybele. 
Their name does not imply that they were anything more than ''porters" ; 
we have observed that it seems to have been their chief function to secure 
the sacred pine and carry it in religious processions; surely that would 
not necessitate their being lumber merchants or carpenters. To their 
religious service they could easily add the civil one suggested above: 
their name would still be particularly appropriate; for the most natural 
way for them to transport heavy burdens would be by means of poles 
carried by several of them from hand to hand or shoulder to shoulder. 
In this way, then, dendrophori also may have become united with the 
coUegium fabrum et cefUonariarum. Apparently some collegia dendro- 
pharum sustained an independent existence, no doubt as religious priest- 
hoods. This was probably unusual, however, for the alliance of the three 
associations was still the rule as late as the fourth century, when Con- 
stantine passed an edict directing: ''In quibuscumque oppidis dendro- 
phori fuerint, centonariorum atque fabrorum collegiis annectantur. "*^** 
At times the three are referred to as distinct colleges closely related; 
at others, they seem to be three divisions of one organization. Again, 
one or even two of the groups may not appear, but this need not neces- 
sarily mean that the bodies mentioned did not contain any of the other 
one or two; for the name may have been adopted from the majority 
membership.*^ 

There is every reasod to believe that this collective body took the 
place in municipia of the cohortes vigilum at Rome; we may note its 
omnipresence, its public character, and especially the fact that at Rome, 

« Dig. 33.7.12.18. 

•« Cod, Theod. 14.8.1. 

" Cp. Waltzing 1.341-346; 4.51-72, 76-80. 



ROMAN CRAFTSMEN AND TRADESMEN OP THE EARLY EMPIRE 85 

where the vigiles were originally established, and at Ostia and Puteoli, 
where according to Suetonius, Claudius later appointed a similar organi- 
zation,^^ there appears to have been no collegium fabrum.^ At Nimes 
a praefectus vigilum was apparently at the head of a collegium fabrum.^ 
Now if there was this connection between the two bodies, the municipal 
Guilds, like the city Watch, would doubtless be entrusted not only with 
extinguishing fires, but with maintaining law and order. In this case, 
the policing of the town possibly devolved upon the dendrophori particu- 
larly; as the bearers of heavy burdens, they would be especially stalwart 
men; then too, their connection with a religious cult may have assured 
them greater respect. The dendrophori^ therefore, may have had 
some relation to the hastiferi foimd at Vienna, Cologne, and Cassel, 
to whom Monunsen assigns the duties of municipal police.* 

This whole theory in regard to the dendtapborif which. Jbas been set 
forth in the preceding pages, finds very strong support in certain cus- ^^ 
toms existing in Constantinople at the present day. These are described j 
by H. G. Dwight in an article entitled "Life in Constantinople.''* In /y 
that city, according to Mr. Dwight, the porters have manifold duties. ■ 
and are consequently very important. Divided into guilds and sub- 
guilds, they are located in every quarter of the town, and do all the 
fetching and hauling, carrying by hand or back, or by poles from shoulder 
to shoulder, any kind of burden from hand luggage to a piano. Some ' 
of them also serve as night waichmenj and report fires. Most interesting 
of all is a special guild of firemen; they are called botdoumbajis, that is, 
"pimapmen"; for they carry a handpump on a wooden box which has 
two poles at each end to rest on the men's shoulders. It is their duty also 
to remove furniture from burning buildings; and as a direct result of 
this, they consider it their peculiar right to act as furniture movers, even 
if a family has not been burned out, but wishes, for normal reasons, to 
make a change of residence. Mr. Dwight particularly notes that some 
of these customs go back to time inmiemorial. They may very con- 
ceivably, therefore, be a relic that has been handed down from the days 

" Suet. Claud. 25.2. 

" Liebenam 104; Kiihn 28. It is not surprising, however, to find inscriptions of 
centonani in the Capital; they would be needed of course to supply the army. Den- 
drophori arc recorded at all three places, they were apparently religious bodies for the 
most part. Cp. Waltzing 4.11, 15, 17 f., 77. 

»* Liebenam 104; Waltzing 2.204. 

"Mommsen, Die rdmischen Provinzialmilizienj Hermes 22(1887) .557 f.; cp. 
Darem.-Saglio 3.1.43; Waltzing 2.152. 

•• Nat. Geog. Mag. 26(1914). 521-545, espedaUy 533-539. 



86 ROMAN CRAFTSMEN AND TRADESMEN OP THE EARLY EMPIRE 

of the dendropharif when Constantinople was the Graeco-Roman city 
of Byzantium or ConstafUinopdis, 

The colUgiufn fabrum with its adjuncts, then, appears to have been 
a well-equipped and highly organized Department of Public Safety, 
charged with guarding against fires and upholding the peace. Pre- 
sumably, thefabri made and manipulated the apparatus; the cerUonartp 
manufactured canvas, piecing it together to make either protective 
coverings for implements, or cap and timic imiforms which may have 
been for the firemen in general, or for the cenUmarii themselves, that they 
might form a special brigade to fight nearest the flames; the dendrophoriy 
a company of porters, attended to all carrying and hauling required 
by the duties of the department, and probably looked after the policing 
of the town. At the head of the united or aUied bodies was a praefectus 
fabrum^ who in this municipal position is to be distinguished from the 
military aid of the same name that served in the field. However, since 
there are indications that the colleges to whom the protection of the 
town was entrusted were under miUtary formation and discipline,*'' 
the municipal prefect may possibly have been a military officer like the 
praefectus vigUum. Considering his title and his duties, he was doubtless 
appointed by the government; that is, by the emperor or by one of his 
functionaries.'* 

There has been a long digression from our discussion of Hgnariiy but 
since the writer holds a strong conviction against the current belief 
that these made up the ranks of the collegia fabrum municipalia, the 
foregoing argument in all its detail was deemed necessary in order to 
disprove the allegation, and to distribute more broadly the prestige 
previously held by tignarii alone. It is true that Kuhn's study of 
inscriptions points to the fact that carpenters and builders as an indivi- 
dual group were probably the most prominent of all opifices; the epi- 
graphic evidence which he has collected concerning them tends to show 
that the greater number were freemen and members of corporations 
which admitted no slaves and had patrons of high position.*^ Fabri 
in general, however, must have enjoyed the respect and esteem of their 
fellow men. From their ranks, no doubt, were descended those respect- 
able, even distinguished, Roman families who held the names Fdbricius. 

»^Mau6 60 f.; Liebenam 210; Waltzing 2.351-356. 
»» Cp. Mau6 72-82. 
»» Ktihn 27-31. 



ROMAN CRAFTSMEN AND TRADESMEN OF THE EARLY EMPIRE 87 

or Faber^^ and who doubtless felt as little disgraced by their inherited 
namina as the bearers of Smith and Smithson at the present day. 
According to Livy, fabri were the first of the industrial orders to be 
admitted to the army, and they were at once assigned to the first class 
in the Servian revision.®^ Again, Martial did not disdain to serve 
faba fabrorum^ on his table but rather enjoyed their unpretentiousness 
even for a dinner party; to Persius, too, simple plebeia prandia were 
desirable; he believed only a gourmand would scorn them.®* Even 
Juvenal's ironic clause, "His crescimt patrimonia fabris,"** casts no 
slur upon/o^w; for it is his (=avidis) that holds the emphatic position 
in his verse and catches the force of his satire. Finally, we perceive 
that there was recruited from the orders oi fabri a municipal organization 
of great importance, which Waltzing beUeves to have existed in prac- 
tically every city of the western Empire.* Kiihn observes from epi- 
graphic sources that this collegium consisted chiefly of freemen, evidently 
admitted no slaves, and was apparently held in the greatest esteem, 
as is evidenced by the high rank of its patrons." The existence of 
such a corporation, oflFering fabri no mean share in civic life, shows that 
trust and responsibility could be placed in them; and membership in 
the college must have been considered a worthy honor. 

XXVI 

TONSORES 

The Romans applied the. term tonsor to both shearers^ and barbers, 
so that Varro found it not inconsistent to discuss the latter in his treatise 
on farming, in the midst of an exposition on shearing sheep! He states 
that the tonsorial art was not practiced in Italy imtil 300 B. C, when 
P. Ticinius Menas introduced barbers from Sicily; in support of his 

•''In such inscriptions as CIL. 11.2067, cpetronivs / sex.p.paber, Komemann 
6.2.1892 interprets /o^er as designating a freeman member of a colleg. fabr, Momm- 
sen, CIL. 5, p. 1199, and Kiihn 24 f. more naturally consider it a cognomen which 
implies no necessary indication of occupation. But after all it no doubt registers 
the fact that the first members of the family to bear the name were fabri. 

"Liv. 1.43.3; Cic. Rep, 2.39. Dionjrs. Hal. 7.59 consigns them to the second 
rank. 

.« Mart. 10.48.16. 

•'Pers. 5.17 f., this may contain an allegory as well as a metaphor; cp. 8.111-114. 

•*Juv. 14.116. 

•Waltzing 2.199 f. 

« Kiihn 34-36. 

» Mart. 7.95.12 f.; 8.50(51).ll; cp. 11.84.17 f. 



88 ROMAN CRAFTSMEN AND TRADESMEN OF THE EARLY EMPIRE 

assertion, he bids us observe that the statues of the ancients usually 
have long hair and beards.' The elder Pliny furnishes this same infor- 
mation in a context even more curious than that of his authority. After 
maintaining that at a very early period there was a tacit consent among 
all nations to adopt the letters used by the lonians, he continues with 
the declaration that the next point upon which humankind agreed was 
the emplo)anent of barbers, but that the Romans were somewhat slow 
to join the gentium consensus! He adds several interesting items to 
the effect that Scipio Africanus was the first Roman to shave daily, 
and that Divus Augustus was always smooth shaven.' 

Throughout the first century of the Empire/ barbers were apparently 
an essential to every community however small and retired,' for as a com- 
mon custom, except in token of mourning or calamity,* none but philoso- 
phers wore beards, and only eccentric poets allowed their hair to grow 
long.' Much attention was paid to the care- of the head; for an uneven 
tonsure was a cause of riducule,' and hapless indeed was he whose bald- 
ness made a barber's services unnecessary! According to Martial, 
various tricks were tried to conceal the defect, even to painting hair on 
the bare scalp! To quote his own words: 

Mentiris fictos unguento, Phoebe^ capilloB 

et tegitur pictis sordida calva comb, 
tonsorem capiti non est adhibere necesse: 

radere te meUus spongea, Phoebe, potest.* 

Domitian was so sensitive about his baldness, says his biographer Sue- 
tonius, that he considered it a personal insult for anyone else to be 
twitted about this defect in jest or in earnest. He published and dedi- 
cated to a friend a book "On the Care of the Hair. "^^ 

There was doubtless a barber and manicure — the tonsar served as 
both^'^ — ^in practically every household that possessed slaves.^ Martial 

^Vam Rust, 2.11.10. 

* Plin. Nat. 7.210 f.; cp. Suet. Aug. 79.1. 

* Hadrian, we are told, brought beards again into vogue, cp. Dio 68.15. 

* Mart. 2.48.2. 

•Sen. Dial. 11.17.5; Mart. 2.36.3; 2.74.3; Suet. Aug. 23.2; Dio 48.34. 

'Hor. Sat. 2.3.16 f.; Epist. 2.3.299-301; Mart. 11.84.7. 

•Hor. Epist. 1.1.94 f.; cp. Sat. 1.3.31. 

•Mart. 6.57; cp. 3.74; Suet. Otho 12.1. 

" Suet. Dom. 18.2. 

" Plant. Aul. 312; Mart. 3.74.3; 14.36; cp. Hor. Epist. 1.7.50 f. 

» Cp. Mart- 6.52; 8.52; 11.58. 



ROMAN CRAFTSMEN AND TRADESMEN OF THE EARLY EMPIRE 89 

suggests tonsorial implements as a suitable gift at the Saturnalia, and 
offers the following inscription to be appended: 

Tondendis haec anna tibi sunt apta capillis; 
unguibus hie Icmgis utilis, ilia genis.^ 

Specimens of these instruments^* that have been unearthed, especially 
razors, present such a formidable appearance, that Uttle wonder need 
be expressed at their being termed arma^ and barbara tda}^ and yet 
in all fairness be it added that the same words, with their clever pun, 
seem even more applicable to similar implements of the present day. 

The epigrammatist lets his wit flow unrestrained upon the wielders 
of these weapons. Although he duly recognizes and praises the skil- 
ful slave,^^ he more often finds cause for ridicule in the barber with the 
brigand's nature,^® the reckless Umsor to whom any torture is preferable,^' 
and the dawdler whom he sarcastically names "Nimble."^ 

Besides the barbers who were slaves in personal service,'^ there 
were others who conducted an independent business in shops, tanstrp- 
nae.^ They must have been fairly numerous to admit the possible 
truth of Horace's statement that the restless tendency of his time asserted 
itself even in the paupereSy forcing them to change constantly their 
cenacula, lectos, balnea, tonsares,^ Business was not always confined 
indoors; for according to Martial, barbers blindly plied their razors 
amid the crowds of the open street and sidewalk, until Domitian's 
law restrained shopkeepers behind their thresholds.** It was seldom, 
we may suppose, that tanstrinae were quiet and deserted, unless it 

» Id. 14.36. 

"Hor. Episi. 1.7.51; Petron. 94, 103, 108; Plin. Nat, 7.21; Mart. 7.61.7; 7.95.12; 
8.52.7; 9.76.5; 11.58.5; 11.84.3 mention knives, cultri, culieUi] shears, forfices; razors, 
navactdae; mirrors, specula; razor-cases, thecae; tweezers, volsellae. Cp. Nicolson 51; 
Bltimner, MuUer's Handbuch 4.2.2. 267-269. 

"Mart. 14.36.1; cp. Petron. 108. 

"Mart. 11.84.12. 

"Mart. 6.52; 8.52, cp. CIL. 6.11931. 

^•Mart. 11.58.5-10; cp. Petron. 94. 

"Mart. 11.84. 

"/.«., Eutrapelus <efirpdTcXos, Mart. 7.83. 

^ Eumolpus, in Petron. 94, 103, 108, had a barber who was a hired servant, 
mercennarius. 

« Plaut. Amph. 1013; Epid. 198; Ter. Phorm. 89; Petron. 64. Hor. EpisL 1.7.50 
speaks poetically of a barber's booth as an umbra ionsoris. 

^HoT.Epist. 1.1.91 f. 

« Mart. 7.61.7, 9. See p. 61 . 



90 ROMAN CRAFTSMEN AND TRADESMEN OF THE EARLY EMPIRE 

was in the early part of the afternoon.' Their patrons, however, were 
not alwa3rs on serious purpose bent; for ''tonsorial parlors" in both 
Athens and Rome, like their modem counterparts in most communities, 
were popular places to meet one's friends and gossip.' So it is that 
Horace with no little hiunor remarks: 

Proscripti Regis Rupili pus atque venenum 
hybrida quo pacto sit Persius ultus, opinor 
omnibus et lippis notiun et tonsoribus esse.^ 

And one of Trimalchio's friends boasts that in his racing days, before 
he had the gout, he could sing, dance, recite, and act the down in general 
in imitation of the chatter in a barber shop.' Tonstrinae must of course 
have been located in all parts of the town. A locality in the vicinity 
of the Temple of Flora, on or near the Quirinal, seems to have been known 
as ad Umsares,^ Horace mentions a barber's booth in or near the Forum, 
which the lawyer Philippus passed on his way from the law courts to 
his home on the Carinae.'® Interesting in connection with this is the 
following epigram from Martial: 

Tonstrix Suburae faucibus sedet primis, 

cruenta pendent qua flageila tortonun 

Argique letum multus obsidet sutor. 

sed ista tonstrix, Ammiane, non tondet, 

non tondet, inquam. Quid igitiir fadt? Radit.'^ 

Since the Argiletmn and Subura were probably the main thorough- 
fares of communication between the Esquiline and the central part of 
the dty,'^ it may be that both Horace and Martial had in mind the same 
general district. The allusion to a woman barber here is noticeable;' 
if she is a true example of her kind, we must infer that they were of low 
character and enjoyed little respect.^ 

» Cp. Hor. Epist. 1.7.47-50. 

"Lysias Orat. 24.20; Demos, vs. Phorm. 13; Plant. Amph. 1013; Epid. 198; Ter. 
Phorm, 89 fiF. See p. 73. 

" Hor. Sat. 1.7.1-3. 

*• Petron. 64. 

«• CIL. 15.7172; Platner 486, 489. 

"Hor. £i^. 1.7.46-51. 

"Mart. 2.17. See pp. 59 f. 

« Gilbert 1.162-164; Jordan 1.3.262-265; Platner 40,444,446. 

» Cp. Plant. True. 405, 772, 856. Abbott, Society and PclUics, 98, on "Roman 
Women in the Trades and Professions," says: "Women of the lower classes entered 
freely into the medical profession and the trades. " 

^ On the ill repute of women in the Subura, see pp. 65 f . 



\ 



ROlfAN CRAFTSMEN AND TRADESMEN OF THE EARLY EMPIRE 91 

The question arises as to whether Umsores in general were as dis- 
reputable as the tonstrix of Martial's verses. If we turn to the satirists 
for reply, we find references to several barbers who prospered very much 
in a material way, but apparently not at all socially. Horace, for in- 
stance, speaks of a certain Alfenus who, having laid aside his instruments 
and shut up shop, tinned lawyer perhaps, or usurer, at all events, one 
to be characterized by the adjective vafer,^ Some may note an added 
thrust in the poet's declaration that once a barber meant alwa3rs a bar- 
ber, but this would be rather overstepping the mark; for the special 
XX>int that he wishes to make is that a man may be actively engaged in 
one pursuit yet remain potentially the master of another.* Horace also 
takes passing note of Licinus,'^ who was presumably a popular barber 
of his day. Because of similarity of name, possibly, and of analogy to 
other Umsores recorded in the verses of Martial and Juvenal,'® Acron 
identified this Lidnus with the freedman of Caesar and Augustus,'* 
who was appointed by the latter as procurator of Gaul, amassed a great 
fortune comparable to that of Crassus, and left a marble tomb to recall 
his memory to many generations of noble Romans.^ The identifica- 
tion is highly improbable; for we should expect to find a hint of this early 
occupation in references which are clearly to the procurator Licinus, 
as we do in the case of Nero's freedman, VcUinius, stUor Beneventinus}^ 

Juvenal goes so far as to exclaim that he was forced to write satire, 
when in addition to other unendurable conditions, he observed one man 
in possession of countless viOas and vying in wealth with all the nobility, 
although he had once been one "quo tondente gravis iuveni mihi barba 
sonabat. " This scornful verse occurs verbatim in two Satires.^ Some 
editors^ suggest, although it seems a matter of very broad conjecture, 
that Juvenal is referring to the same man whose character Martial tears 

»Hor.5fl/. 1.3.130-132. 

"This passage may refer to a shoemaker. The original reading of V for v. 132 
is kmsor; other MSS. have sutor or a corruption. Modern editors in the main have 
adopted the first; the scholiasts, however, read stdor and treated the lines as a specific 
allusion to Alfenus Varus, a shoemaker of Cremona, who became a senator at Rome; 
see p. 58, n. 27. 

" Hor. Epist. 2.3.301. 

•• See nn. 42, 45. 

*• Schol. on Hor. l.c 

"Pers. 2.36; Sen. Epist. 120.19; Mart. 8.3.6; Juv. 1.108 f.; 14.305-308; Dio 54.21. 

** See pp. 58 f . 

«Juv. 1.25; 10.226. 

* Cp. Duff, on Juv. 1.24; Bridge and Lake, on Mart. 7.64.4. 



92 ROHAN CRAFTSMEN AND TRADESMEN OF THE EARLY EMPIRE 

to shreds under the name of Cinnamus.^ This fellow, formerly a slave, 
well known as a barber all over town, had actually become a knight. 
He had probably acquired much of his fortune by acting as one of the 
Emperor's deUUores; for he later fled to Sicily to avoid trial at Rome. 
Martial directs a stinging epigram against him; he recalls his past, 
assures him that he can hope to find no joy in the unhappy leisure of a 
fugitive, but reminds him that since he is without education and is too 
far away from the Capital to rely upon his knavish flattery, he is fit 
to become nothing but a barber again.^ He is apparently the target 
also of the two-edged shaft of 6.17, where the epigrammatist comments 
adroitly upon his attempt to obliterate all traces of his former station, 
proclaiming: 

Cinnam, Cinname, te iubes vocari, 

non est hie, rogo, Cinna, barbarismus? 

tu si Furius ante dictus esses, 

Fur ista ratione dicereris.^ 

Although it may be argued that the foregoing satire is aimed pri- 
marily at avarice and deception, or is possibly intended for specific 
individuals, still we must admit that it appears to attack the occupation 
as well as the man. It would seem, therefore, that tansores had a some- 
what toilsome and precarious struggle for social existence. We recall 
at once that barbers were not to be foimd at Rome in the infancy of 
the state, when as Wezel claims, very many of the artisans and trades- 
men were freebom,-^^ they had, therefore, no guild of long standing to 
grant them a certain degree of prestige and special privilege.^® On 
the contrary, their trade had been introduced as a slave's employment 
and had doubtless continued to draw largely from this source. It is 

^ Giese 11 considers this a fictitious appellative. 

« Mart. 7.64. 

^Cp. Mart. 6.64.26: ''Stigmata nee vafra delebit Cinnamus arte.** This is 
explained by Friedl&nder in his ed. as a reference to a physician. It seems quite con- 
sistent, however, to refer it to the Umsor of 7.64 and 6.17. In 6.17, quoted above, 
note the excellent, triple pun in barbarismus: "& barbarism," ''a barbarous act," 
"a barber's act" (/. e. cutting out undesirable features). Nicholson 43 maintains 
that barbers cut corns and removed warts and other corporeal disfigurements. The 
art of tansores in Rome was doubtless as expansive as it was formerly in England, 
for instance, where, according to the New English Dictionary 1.666, ''the barber was 
also a regular practitioner in surgery and dentistry"; in 1461 a company of Barber- 
Suigeons was incorporated by Edward IV; the barber's pole is a reminiscence of his 
surgical activities, cp. Encyclopaedia Britannica. 

« Cp. Wezel 31 f. 

*• Cp. Typaldo-Bassia 52-58, "De Touvrier libre incorpor6." 



ROMAN CRAFTSMEN AND TRADESMEN OF THE EARLY EMPIRE 93 

altogether probable that independent barbers were ahnost exclusively 
liberti at best,** and as there must have been every type from the inaequa- 
Us tonsor, who was to be eschewed for his uneven work and tempera- 
ment,**® to the Master Barber, tonsar tnagister, who might be sought 
upon special occasions,^^ many of them were doubtless subject to the same 
ridicule which Martial directs against barber slaves.^^ It may be, there- 
fore, that the calling of Umsores was hampered by its servile origin and 
associations, and that for this reason the eiSorts of barbers for social 
recognition met with greater resistance. Some, however, evidently 
attained a goal sufficient to yield a fair competence and bring content- 
ment and satisfaction; one of Petronius's parvenus, who had acquired 
success himself and entertained aspirations for his son, determined to 
have him take up the vocation of barber, auctioneer, or advocate at 
least, if he should shrink from the profession of jursiconsult;^ and 
Umsores at Pompeii took an active interest in municipal elections.** 

^*It happens that Kiihn's register of Tansores, 66, contains no inscriptions for 
ingenuij but this may be mere chance, for none are recorded for slaves either. 

"Hor. £/»w/. 1.1.94. 

** Juv. 6.26. Friedlander, in his ed. of Juv., takes this phrase as evidence that 
there was a school where the art of hair dressing was taiight just as there was one for 
meat carving (Juv. 11.136-144). This is very possible; for Petron. 94, recounting 
an attempt -at siiidde on the part of Giton and Encolpius, says that the razor which 
they seized for the purpose, proved to be one that was not sharp, but had been espe- 
cially blunted in order to give young pupils (ptieris discerUibus) a barber's boldness, 
and had been enclosed in a case. It seems quite as natural, however, and a little 
simpler to interpret magister in our passage as one who had thoroughly "mastered" 
his art and was therefore considered "head" or "chief" of all the tonsores in town or 
among the household slaves. Perhaps the term was suggested because of its regular 
technical use for the "head" of aii industrial corporation or a body of specialized 
slaves. Cp. Waltzing 1.588-405; 4.341-349. 

"See p. 89. Mart. 7.83 and 11.84 probably refer toi ndependent barbers. 

» Petron. 46. 

" CIL. 4.743. 



94 ROHAN CRAFTSMEN AND TRADESMEN OF THE EARLY EMPIRE 



CONCLUSION 

As a result of the foregoing investigation, we are led to believe that 
Rome's indiistrial population played a significant part in the life of the 
early Empire and received no inconsiderable recognition. It is true 
that the favorite occupations were still agriculture, law, and war.^ 
The satirists natiirally pleaded also the cause of literature;^ and Martial, 
idiose indolent tendencies inspired in him an admiration for Saturn's 
reign, "sub quo pigra quies nee labor ullus erat,"' numbered a client's 
attentions among the most honorable and desirable means of liveli- 
hood.^ But the growing power of wealth and the conunercializing of 
the old aristocratic pursuits^ were extending their influence broadcast, 
so that the Ciceronian attitude toward paid labor^ could no longer be 
rigidly sustained. Even the Republic had seen the domination of the 
knights, Rome's financiers and business men; but the Empire was 
characterized by the rise of a much lower order, when wealthy freedmen 
mounted to high positions of influence.^ With the manifold opportuni- 
ties open to these liberH in the government,® and the lessening compe- 
tition of slave labor, due to extended periods of peace which diminished 
the supply of slaves but increased the call for workers,* the incentive, 
indeed the necessity, for freemen to enter the industrial ranks was very 
great. 

And certainly the outlook for trade and industry had never been 
brighter. The craze for building that caught the Roman world, from 
the emperors down to men of private station,^® must have furnished 
steady employment to hundreds of fabri whose efforts were directed 
to construction or adornment. Extravagance and lavish expenditure,^^ 

»Hor. Sat. 1.1.4-12; Eplst. 2.3.314 f.; Mart. 2.64.1; 3.38.3-6; 10.15(14).6; 12. 
16.1; 14.34; Juv. 8.47-52, 79, 87-89; 14.70-72; 16.1 f. 
*Hor. Carm. 1.1.29-36; Mart. 3.33.7-10; Juv. 7. 
•Mart. 12.62.2. 
*Id,3.3S.n. 
•Hor. Sat. 1.1.28-35; Petron. 46, 83; Juv. 14.189-198. Cp. Cauer 698. 

• Cp. Cic. Of. 1.150; Miller 12-15. 

'Petron. 38: "Liberti scelerati . . . omnia ad se fecenlnt"; cp. Cunningham 173. 

• Friedlander-Magnus 1.33-56. 

» Duniy 6.289; Typaldo-Bassia 58-59; Cauer 699; Tucker 8-15. 

" See p. 79, n. 19. 

" Friedlander-Freese 2.131-230; Davis 152-193. 



ROMAN CRAFTSMEN AND TRADESMEN OF THE EARLY EMPIRE 95 

too, proved the harvest of many, no doubt, besides the contractor and 
buflder. The importer of foreign materials and commodities would 
reap rich profits; cabinet makers and workers in metal would have 
much to do to meet the demand for furniture, decorative ornaments, 
gold and silver plate, and jewelry." Juvenal even suggests the dismal 
fear that the constant call upon the ferrarius for iron chains and shackles 
from every forge and »anvil would cause the supply of ploughshares, 
mattocks, and hoes to fail!^ Again, there must have been urgent need 
of fulling and d3dng estabUshments to dye the cloth and to attend to the 
scouring, cleaning, pleating, and pressing required for the togas, syn- 
theses, and lacemae of many people who would find it too inconvenient 
or expensive to employ their own fidlones and infectores}^ For shop- 
keepers the opportimities seem to have been especially good: the desire 
for luxuries of every description brought fine shops to the Sacra Via, 
the Saepta,^ and the porticoes;" and the spendthrift prodigals, who 
wasted a patrimony, or two, in riotous living, were a source of great 
blessing to the fish and poultry man, the fruitier, the delicatessen dealer, 
and all the tradesmen of the Vicus Tuscus and the Velabnmi.^^ Then 
too, a city so full of apartment houses that even in Cicero's time it 
could be described as cenaculis sublcUam atque suspensam^^ must have 
contained many persons of moderate means who could afiFord only two 
or three slaves, or none, and who would therefore give ample patronage 
to the ordinary butcher, baker, and dealer in general utilities. 

We may concede, then, that under the early Roman emperors industry 
prospered, and with it those who were engaged therein. So it was that 
another factor was added to help overcome the aversion to entering the 
trades and professions. It was apparently not uncommon for even the 
himiblest tradesmen and craftsmen to acquire a fortune and retire from 
active business, or change their former pursuit for a more leisurely occu- 
pation. Martial, as we have noted, admitted that there was an argu- 
ment for vocational training versus a Uberal education in the success 
of the praeco^^ and the sidor?^ Had not a shoemaker at Bonom'a ex- 

" Cp. Petron. 32 f., 19 f., et passim; Mart. 3.62; 8.6; 14.89 flF. 

»Juv. 3.309-311. 

** Cp. Marquardt 2.504-516; 527-530. See p. 21. 

« See pp. 69 f. 

" Mart. 10.87.9 f.; Juv. 6.153-157. See pp. Z^, n. 29; 38. 

" Hor. Sat. 2.3.226-238. See pp. 66 flF. 

" Cic. Ug. Agr, 2.96. 

" Mart. 5.56. See p. 52. 

*o Mart. 9.73. See p. 58. 



96 ROMAN CKAFTSHEN AND TRADESMEN OF THE EARLY EMPIRE 

hibited gladiatorial shows,^ and Vatinius, the influential favorite of 
Nero, been a sukfr of Beneventiun?" And was it not possible for an 
auctioneer to win a wife though he had as his rivals two praetors, four 
tribunes, seven advocates, and ten poets?" Trimalchio's friend Echion, 
with all his aspirations for his sons, considered that one of them had 
become steeped quite enough in literature, and determined to make of 
him a barber, an auctioneer, or ''at least" an advocate.^ Juvenal, 
too, vouches for the possibilities open to the tonsor; for he had seen 
the one to whom he had gone when a young man become the possessor 
of many villas;' and Martial records a barber who had come into a 
knight's fortune." We have seen also that SifuUo exhibited gladiatorial 
shows at Mutina;^and that Crispinus, the favorite of Domitian, was 
made princeps equUum^ although according to report, he had once 
been a dealer in salt meat and fish." 

Indeed, as Petronius affirms, men rose from nothing: one who, 
but a short time ago, used to carry wood on his back, soon counted his 
eight hundred thousand sesterces;" another, starting with a copper, 
left a solid hundred thousand sesterces and all in cash.^ Trimalchio's 
progress, as portrayed by his chronicler, was thoroughly miraculous. 
He began as a slave from Asia; he became his master's accountant and 
steward, and after his emancipation, entered into mercantile pursuits. 
Under the sure guidance of Mercury and Minerva, he climbed to a 
lofty pinade of wealth and influence. As a seoir Augusti, one of the 
six officials who were appointed annually in mimicipal towns to be re- 
sponsible for the cult of the emperor, he was privileged to wear a gold 
ring and the toga praekxta, to have two lictors, and to sit on a throne.^^ 

» Mart. 3.59; q>. 3.16, 99. See pp. 57 f. 

«Mart. 10.3.4; 14.96; Juv. 5.46 and schol.; Tac. Ann. 15.34. See pp. 58 f. 

" Mart. 6.8. See p. 51. 

»• Petron. 46. See pp. 51, 81 f., 93. 

» Juv. 1.24 f.; 10.225 f. See p. 91. 

"Mart. 7.64; cp. Hot. StU, 1.3.130-132. See pp.91f. 

« Mart. 3.59. See p. 21. 

» Juv. 1.26-29; 4.28-33, 108 f. See p. 27. 

«» Petron. 38. See p. 25. 

w Petron. 43. 

•* Id. 29 f., 65, 71; cp. Dareni.-Saglio, Ruggiero's Dizionario Epigrafico, and Pauly- 
Wissowa under Augustales, and L. R. Taylor, Augustales, Seviri Augustales, Seviri, 
T. A. P. A. 45(1914).231 flF. 



ROMAN CRAFTSMEN AND TRADESMEN OF THE EARLY EMPIRE 97 

He owned so many slaves that scarcely a tenth part of them knew him 
by sight. His palatial residence at Ctmiae(?) had four dining-rooms, 
twenty bed-rooms, two marble colonades, and every convenience; 
and wherever the kite flew, there were other estates in his possession. 
In short, he lived like a prince in the midst of affluent luxury, so fabu- 
lously rich that he himself did not know the amount of his wealth; 
yet as he estimated it for his epitaph, he could count on leaving thirty 
million sesterces at his demise.*^ 

But strange rumors were in circulation about even the emperors 
themselves, and although these may have been mere idle tales, they 
must at least have been probable or they would have had no point. 
It was said that the paternal great-grandfather of Augustus was a 
ropemaker, and that his grandfather was a broker; while, on his mother's 
side, his great-grandfather had been at one time a perfumer, later a 
baker .^ One account had it that the great-great-grandfather of Vitel- 
lius had been not merely a jw/or, but a sidor veterametUarius; and that 
his great-grandfather had married the daughter of a baker; yet his 
grandfather became an eques Romanus, his father a senator, and he 
himself the ruler of the Roman world !^ Vespasian's relations with 
business were closer still: he was actually nicknamed "Muleteer," 
because he had once taken up dealing in mules in order to pay off his 
debts and "maintain his dignity;" and even when emperor, he openly 
engaged in trade.* 

Now although Suetonius's "gossip" is more or less colorless, it 
must be admitted that the satirists cite their examples with no little 
irony. But sarcasm does not alter the facts; we must recall the old 
adage, facta non verba. Just as Tacitus gloomily condemned sordidae 
merces^ two thousand years ago, so our theorists and moralists to-day 
discourse on "filthy lucre" and "tainted money" and an English editor 
writes of Trimalchio's friends at Cumae (?), that men became "mil- 
lionaires with American rapidity; "^^ yet not only business men, but 
tradesmen and craftsmen continue to prosper, and to hold positions 
of prominence in their commimities politically, economically and so- 
cially; and the families of American millionaires are presented at the 
English court. We have every reason to believe that similar condi- 

«Tetron. 29, 32 f., 37 f., 53, 71, 75 fin, S. 

» Suet. Aug. 2.3; 4.2. See p. 43. 

« Suet. VUel. 2.1 flf. 

»Id. Vesp.4.3; 16.1. 

"Tac. Ann. 4.13.4; q>. 4.62.2. 

*^ Heseltine, ed. of Petron., Introd. xi. 



98 ROMAN CRAFTSMEN AND TRADESMEN OF THE EARLY EMPIRE 

tions existed at Rome in the first centuries of the Empire, when the 
great leveling influence of imperialism was potent to raise the humble 
and weaken the haughty.'® We are too prone to jump at conclusions 
from the exaggerations of the satirists,'^ forgetting that their criticism 
is of excesses along various lines. It is not fair to assume that all who 
met with phenomenal success in business became ostentatious and vulgar 
like Trimalchio and his friends; but there would be no cause for satire 
in the case of the unpretentious, so why write of them? And after 
ally Petronius's effusion, for all its ridicule, may show just how possible 
it was for an upstart, even a former slave, to gain apparent, if not actual, 
recognition in society. If the author was, as is the commonly accepted 
view,^ the dashing Gains of Nero's court, and if his information was 
from first hand knowledge, he, the elegantiae arbiter,^ must have asso- 
ciated intimately with such people as he describes; if, on the other hand, 
he was writing merely as an observer from superior heights, his words 
must be discounted all the more. At best his novel is but a travesty. 

Upon the condition of that vast number of workers who did not 
aspire to higher position, but remained in the industrial ranks at home 
or abroad to supply the daily wants of the Roman Capital and mimci- 
palities, we feel that we need waste little commiseration. Many freemen 
no longer hesitated to make money by trade ;^ and the most conser- 
vative must gradually have been led to see, as Juvenal was, that a 
livelihood earned through honest business was more befitting a freebom 
man than that gained through obsequious sycophancy ,** in which even 
members of the higher orders indulged.** Inevitably the humblest 
pursuits were in the hands of the lower classes, but people of standing 
engaged in industries organized on a large scale; the brick business, for 
instance, as is seen from inscriptions, was in great measure controlled 
by women of leading families.** 

Of course the working classes still contained a large number of 
freedmen, but it is altogether probable that the line of distinction be- 
tween liberti and tngenuiy and their families, was not so closely marked 

•• Cp. FriedUlnder-Magnus 1.33. 

•» Cp. Duniy 6.302-308. 

« Teuffel-Schwabe-Warr 2.§ 305.4; Schanz 129 f. 

*^Ta,c, Ann. 16.18. 

** See lists in Ktihn passim; cp. Juv. 14.201 Q. 

« Id. 7.3-16; cp. Petron. 116. See p. 39, n. 65. 

**Mart. 12.29(26); Juv. 3.126-130. 

« See p. 20. 



\ 



\ 



ROMAN CRAFTSMEN AND TRADESMEN OF THE EARLY EMPIRE 99 

as we sometimes allow ourselves to imagine, especially since both ranks 
were often represented in a single household. The story of Horace, 
the freedman's son, attending school like any senator's child,^ is famil- 
iar to all. Then there is the amusing incident of Encolpius's discom- 
fiture at Trimalchio's dinner, when, thinking that the praetor had arrived, 
he would have sprung deferentially to his feet, had he not been told that 
the newcomer was only a friend of his host's, Habinnas, a pompous 
mason !^^ And Martial makes frequent allusion to the trials of the 
ushers at the theatre in reserving the first fourteen rows of seats for 
the equites] for freedmen, and even slaves, were able by some trick of 
dress or manner to pass off as knights and get in unnoticed.^^ One 
of Trimalchio's guests definitely asserts: "For forty years I was a slave, 
but no one knew whether I was bond or free. " Several other remarks 
of this man are highly interesting; from them we infer that yoimg pro- 
vincials sometimes became slaves voluntarily because of the prospect 
of future manumission and citizenship. "Of my own accord," says 
our informant, "I gave myself into slavery, preferring to be a Roman 
citizen rather than a provincial tax-payer. Now I hope my life is such 
that nobody can make sport of me. I am a man among men, I walk 
about with my head uncovered; I owe no one a copper ... I was 
a boy with long curls when I came to this town . . . but I made every 
effort to prove satisfactory to my master . . . and in spite of opposi- 
tion in the house, I stemmed the flood to the finish. Tliese are true 
victories; for to be bom free is as easy as saying 'Come here' ".*• Ap- 
parently freedmen were not infrequently the guests of freemen; for 
there seems to have been a special place at the table, which was assigned 
to them. Petronius for instance, speaks of someone who was "reclining in 
the freedman's place" (''qui libertini loco iacet").'® Furthermore, since 
We are not without encomiums on admired and respected freedmen, 
examples of which are Horace's tribute to his father,'^ and Persius's 
noble lines on his friend and teacher Comutus,^ we may justly suppose 






*»Hor.5a/. 1.6.71-82. 

^' Petron. 65. Habinnas was preceded by a lictor, because he was"ia itvir Angus- 
talis; see p. 96. 

*• Mart. 5.8, 14, 23, 25, 35, 41; 6.9. 

*» Petron. 57. 

"W.38. Cp. Miller 2-7, espedaUy 6. 

" Hor. Sat. 1.6.65-99. 

«Ters. 5 JO-51. 



100 ROBfAN CRAFTSMEN AND TRADESMEN OF THE EARLY EMPIRE 

that there were innumerable other liberti whose merits, though not 
immortalized, were none the less appreciated. 

Naturally, various types of individuals were included in the indus- 
trial orders then as now, the indigent and dishonest, the energetic 
and scrupulous. The former would be eschewed, and having little 
respect for themselves, could scarcely hope to receive it from others. 
The latter, typified, perhaps, by the praeco of Horace's well-known 
Epbtle, no doubt lived simply and contentedly, often in homes of their 
own, with congenial friends, and with sufficient opportunity not only 
for industry but for recreation in the Campus or at the games.^ Certain 
tradesmen and craftsmen, primarily perhaps because of the long asso- 
ciation of their occupations with slaves, appear to have met with little 
esteem; for example, caupones, cociy institores^ textoreSy mangoneSj and 
to a degree, Umsores. Others, however, especially those who enjoyed 
the privileges of corporations that dated from early times, undeniably 
received due consideration, as may be judged in many cases from the 
prominence of their patrons.^ It is interesting to note that the hostile 
legblation against collegia at the close of the Republic and at the be- 
ginning of the Empire^ spared the guilds ascribed to Niuna and similar 
early associations, whose very antiquity seems to have conferred upon 
th^m a certain prestige. Augustus, perceiving with his characteristic 
insight, that labor organizations supplied a hiunan need and were useful 
to the state as well, established a policy, not of annihilation, but of state 
supervision; he even granted special privileges to collegia which were 
incorporated for the public utility. His lead was followed quite imi- 
formly by subsequent emperors of the first century after Christ. Epi- 
graphic evidence shows the enormous scope of labor guilds at this 
period,** while Pompeian wall graffiti bear witness to the influence that 
they exerted upon mimicipal elections.*^^ The fact that in the second 
century the regulating hand of the emperors began to tighten upon them 
implies that they had been gaining too much power.*® AU working men 
of course wei^ not incorporated; but as T)rpaldo-Bassia remarks, in 
. ' • . . 

" Hor. JS^M/. "1.7.55 ff. Cp. Tucker 253-257. See pp. 52 f. 

"Cp. Waltzing 1.427. 

« Ascon. Corn. 75.67 (Clark); Suet. hd. 42.3; Aug. 32.1. 

*• Cp. Waltzing 4.1-128 for a collection of inscriptions of industrial collegia; also 
Dessau 2.2.737-760, and Kiihn's lists. \ >^ 

"Cp. Abbott, Society and Politics, 3-21, on "Municipal Politics in Pompeii." 

•• Industrial collegia are discus^d in brief compass by Typaldo-Bassia 52 ff. 
and by Abbot, Common People, 205-234: "Reflections on some Labor Corporations."