Poverty in ancient Rome
Roman society was largely agrarian and afflictions such as low literacy rates, high infant mortality, and poor diets were widespread throughout the populace.
John Chrysostom, a 4th-century Christian theologian, argued that if the rich redistributed their wealth amongst the populace "you would have difficulty in finding one poor person for every fifty or even every hundred of the others.
"[2] Seneca promoted genuine charity in his writings, declaring that the "wise man" will "stretch out his hand to the shipwrecked mariner, will offer hospitality to the exile, and alms to the needy.
The conditions of most people in the Roman world resembled modern ideas of poverty; ancient Rome was a largely agrarian, rural society afflicted with high rates of infant mortality, poor diets, and low literacy.
[8] Roman writers typically do not differentiate between different social strata amongst the poorer plebeian classes, instead dividing society into the wealthy upper-class patricians or equestrians and the lower-class masses.
[10] In the 2nd century CE, the Roman jurist Gaius argued that "The principal division of the law of persons is as follows, namely, that all men are either free or slaves.
"[11][12] According to the classicist Dr. Peter Garnsey and the legal historian Dr. Caroline Humfress, the significance of the distinction between the free poor and slaves declined over the course of Roman history.
[13] Callistratus—a jurist who lived during the reign of Emperor Septimius Severus (r. 145–211)—claimed that the penalty of immolation, although once exclusive to slaves, became a punishment for plebeians and "men of low rank" (humilis personae).
[21] However, the Roman census tracked numerous different social strata, implying that there were likely more middling classes consisting of people who maintained sizeable amounts of wealth without qualifying as rich.
Urbanized settings contained populations of landless, yet not necessarily impoverished, people; artisans and laborers in towns or cities could enrich themselves through their work, or at least benefit from food security.
Although incomes were certainly lower in the provinces, potentially around half the wages in Italy,[29] archaeological evidence of urban development suggests that the population was growing during the early empire.
[33] British classicist Alan Bowman analyzed a register documenting Hermopolis in Roman Egypt; he found an extremely high Gini coefficient of 0.815.
[46] Julius Paulus, a Roman jurist of the 2nd and 3rd centuries, commented upon a legal prohibition on gifts between a husband and wife, arguing that the law exclusively applied to scenarios in which the partners were hostile towards each other; he claims that it does not concern instances where the gift-givers are "merely afraid of poverty.
The 1st-century jurist Publius Juventius Celsus describes a poor man who is forced to relinquish his ancestral tombs and household gods, indicating that this individual had some wealth as they could lose these luxuries.
[96] An ancient inscription from Acmonia recounts a legislative proposal by an individual named Titus Flavius Praxias to, in 85 CE, to allocate the funds earned from select pieces of property for an annual banquet.
[103] Latin terms such as obligatus, nexus, and damnatus all were used in the context of punishment for debts, although they initially referred to the recipients of a gift who therefore owed a return on the favor.
"[107] Philanthropic acts were important for presenting oneself as a generous and virtuous member of society; if a wealthy Roman did not partake in philanthropy, they would bring infamia—a loss of social standing—onto themselves.
One inscription from Gytheum dated to 161–169 CE describes the conditions attached to a philanthropic donation; the donor recorded the gift upon three marble stones, which they asked to be publicly displayed in the local market, the Temple of Caesar, and the gymnasium.
[118] In Pro Plancio, a legal defense of Gnaeus Placius [nl] in 54 BCE, Cicero asks "Who ever can have, or who ever had such resources in himself as to be able to stand without many acts of kindness on the part of many friends?
"[126] These views of Seneca likely reflect the ideas of Graeco-Roman philosophy; Aristotle believed that pity partially stemmed from fear that similar misfortunes might befall oneself.
[129][130] Similarly, John Chrysostom alleged some to have blinded their own children, chewed old shoes, attached sharp nails to their heads, dwelled in frozen pools with bare stomachs, and "different things yet more horrid than these" to make them more sympathetic.
[133] However, the kindness of these philosophers did not necessarily extend to all the impoverished of ancient Rome; instead, they believed that all of the beneficiaries of this aid should be respectable members of the population with good moral character.
[143] Insulae were often constructed using low-quality materials,[144] creating structurally unstable buildings vulnerable to fire or collapse; they were plagued with thin walls unable to support their height.
[157][158] However, Dr. Peter Garnsey concluded that the amount of wheat necessary to fulfill the energy requirements for survival would also provide sufficient protein to avoid protein-energy malnutrition.
Skeletons in Herculaneum were found to be unusually tall for ancient Romans, possibly due to easier access to protein through fish because of the coastal location of the city.
"[182][183] However, the 2nd-century theologian Origen warns that the impious poor may still face divine punishment, asking "how many, because they bore poverty ignobly, with behavior more servile and base than was seemly in Saints, have fallen away from their heavenly hope?
[185] Clement opted for a nonliteral interpretation of a scene from the Gospel of Mark in which Jesus advises a rich man to sell his possessions and provide for the poor,[186] proposing that men need not surrender their wealth entirely but must instead act philanthropically.
[187] Ambrosiaster, an unidentified author of a 4th-century commentary on the epistles of St Paul, weighed the virtues and vices of the rich and poor alike; he analyzed the respective spiritual merit of each social strata.
However, Ambrosiaster claimed that the limited resources of poor people may hinder their ability to satisfy their desires, possibly motivating them to commit crimes to satiate their lust.
"[189][190] Proba, a 4th-century Christian poet and Roman aristocrat, argued for acts of charity amongst close family members and made little mention of the poor.
