Richard P Saller
Biographic Data
| ID | 280919 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Richard P Saller |
| GIVEN NAMES | Richard P |
| FAMILY NAME | Saller |
| SIGNATURE | SALLER R P |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 28 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 552 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 27 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1982 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2022 |
| H-INDEX | 8 |
Conclusion
This concluding chapter argues that Pliny's Natural History deserves more attention than it has received as a witness to Roman attitudes regarding innovation, investment, and what might be broadly labeled a culture of growth. The Natural History , taken as a whole, provides a window into the mindset of wealthy Romans regarding discovery and its implications for economic production. In some basic respects, Pliny's observations anticipated those of…
Proxies for Economic Performance in the Roman Empire
This chapter shows that the hopes that the precision of the hard sciences—whether archaeological, biological, or environmental—will provide solid proxies for datable trends in Roman economic performance have been continually frustrated. This is not only because there is a need for more data; the reasons for the repeated frustration are intrinsic. The empire was vast and varied with many unknowns. One of the most basic was identified by Paul Erdka…
Parens Natura and Smithian Growth
This chapter describes Pliny's attitude to Mother Nature as influenced by Stoic thought of his day. This attitude formed the basis for Pliny's moral thinking about useful knowledge of Nature, with major implications (at least in Pliny's view) for the economic consequences of empire. Pliny held profoundly ambivalent ideas about the economic benefits and vices of empire. The benefits came almost entirely from what could be described as an argument …
Pliny’s Economic Observations and Reasoning
This chapter analyzes Pliny's scattered comments in several sectors of the economy: primarily agriculture but also mining, urban crafts, and trade. It then turns to some general themes that draw the attention of the contemporary discipline of economics: labor, agency, and slavery; prices and currency; investment and consumption; finally, trust and fraud. Pliny's economic reasoning was inevitably bound up in a set of cultural values. These include…
“Utility” and the Afterlife of the Natural History
This chapter assesses whether Pliny's Natural History aimed to foster a culture nurturing increases in useful knowledge for succeeding generations to improve productivity. How did readers of the late antique and medieval eras make use of Pliny's work, which for many centuries was among the most frequently copied, quoted, and excerpted classical texts? The reception of the Natural History during this millennium provides insights into the limitatio…
Pliny’s Purpose, Audience, and Method
This chapter discusses the purpose, audience, method, and organization of Pliny's Natural History , pointing out both the economic implications and some internal inconsistencies. The Natural History obviously was not intended to be a work of economic history. Pliny intends it to serve the end of utilitas (usefulness). The “utility” of the monumental work lay in its serving as a repository for ancient knowledge, which was in danger of being forgot…
Innovation and Economic Growth in the Natural History
This chapter focuses on Pliny's ideas about invention and innovation, the foundations of sustained growth. It starts from David Hume's observation in 1742 that “it is more easy to account for the rise and progress of commerce in any kingdom, than for that of learning.” Pliny generalizes about increases in knowledge in a similar vein, and in addition he attests to inventions and discoveries throughout Greek and Roman history. The chapter then exam…
Pliny's Roman Economy: Natural History, Innovation, and Growth
The first comprehensive study of Pliny the Elder's economic thought-and its implications for understanding the Roman Empire's constrained innovation and economic growthThe elder Pliny's Natural History (77 CE), an astonishing compilation of 20,000 "things worth knowing," was avowedly intended to be a repository of ancient Mediterranean knowledge for the use of craftsmen and farmers, but this 37-book, 400,000-word work was too expensive, unwieldly…
Household and Gender
In the Greco-Roman world the household was the basic unit of production as well as consumption. This chapter begins with a methodological discussion of the difficulties with the data sources. Next, the chapter presents an account of the demography of household formation and organization. It analyses the patterns of property ownership and management by gender and age in classical Athens and Roman Italy, and then of women's and children's labor in …
The Cambridge Economic History of the Greco-Roman World
In this, the first comprehensive one-volume survey of the economies of classical antiquity, twenty-eight chapters summarise the current state of scholarship in their specialised fields and sketch new directions for research. The approach taken is both thematic, with chapters on the underlying determinants of economic performance, and chronological, with coverage of the whole of the Greek and Roman worlds extending from the Aegean Bronze Age to La…
Pater Familias, Mater Familias, and the Gendered Semantics of the Roman Household
Patriarchy, Property, and Death in the Roman Family
Patriarchy, Property and Death in the Roman Family
The figure of the Roman father has traditionally provided the pattern of patriarchy in European thought. This book shows how the social realities and cultural representations diverged from this paradigm. Demographic analysis and computer simulation demonstrate that before adulthood most Romans lost their fathers by death. Close reading of Latin texts reveals Roman fathers as devoted and loving and not harsh exploitative masters of slaves. The dem…
The Family in Italy from Antiquity to the Present
In this important new book original contributions from an international panel of experts offer historical and anthropological perspectives on the Western family, focusing on family life in Italy from ancient Rome to the present. Using methods ranging from symbolic to quantitative analysis, the authors discuss a wide variety of topics, from matchmaking, marriage, and divorce to childrearing, sexual mores, and death
The Family in Italy from Antiquity to the Present
The Family in Italy from antiquity to the present
Roman Corinth: An Alternative Model for the Classical City . Donald Engels
Men's Age at Marriage and Its Consequences in the Roman Family
Literature and Politics in the Age of Nero
Personal Patronage Under the Early Empire
Commerce and Social Standing in Ancient Rome
Roman Dowry and the Devolution of Property in the Principate
The rapid turnover of senatorial families during the Principate is a well-known phenomenon, but one which awaits satisfactory explanation. Comparative evidence shows the rate of turnover to have been unusually high. For example, the old aristocratic families of early modern Europe gave way to new at a much slower rate. Patterns of Roman property-holding and of the transmission of wealth from one generation to the next must have been closely assoc…
Tombstones and Roman Family Relations in the Principate: Civilians, Soldiers and Slaves
Tombstones furnish perhaps three-quarters of the entire corpus of Latin inscriptions. Many of these give no more than the name of the deceased, but tens of thousands also offer the historian a few additional details, such as age at death and the name and relationship of the commemorator. Previous studies of the tombstones en masse have focused on nomenclature and age at death. In this study we wish to ask what conclusions can be drawn from the da…
"Familia, Domus", and the Roman Conception of the Family
THE ENGLISH WORD has undergone a transformation of primary meaning in the modern period. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries it was used to signify (1) persons related by blood or marriage (kin in a wide sense), or (2) a or (i.e., those descended from the same stock or blood), or (3) all those living under the same roof including servants and other non-relatives. As Flandrin has shown, dictionaries of the period did not define family as fa…
Close-Kin Marriage in Roman Society
Personal Patronage under the Early Empire
Personal patronage was an accepted element in the functioning of Roman society. It is usually considered to be a particularly Republican phenomenon, which declined as other mechanisms developed with the growth of the imperial bureaucracy. Dr Saller's book, the first major study of patronage in the early Empire, shows that the patron-client relationship continued on much the same basis into the third century AD. Drawing on literary and epigraphic …
Tombstones and Roman Family Relations in the Principate: Civilians, Soldiers and Slaves
Tombstones furnish perhaps three-quarters of the entire corpus of Latin inscriptions. Many of these give no more than the name of the deceased, but tens of thousands also offer the historian a few additional details, such as age at death and the name and relationship of the commemorator. Previous studies of the tombstones en masse have focused on nomenclature and age at death. In this study we wish to ask what conclusions can be drawn from the da…
Men's Age at Marriage and Its Consequences in the Roman Family
Close-Kin Marriage in Roman Society
Pater Familias, Mater Familias, and the Gendered Semantics of the Roman Household
The Family in Italy from antiquity to the present
Roman Dowry and the Devolution of Property in the Principate
The rapid turnover of senatorial families during the Principate is a well-known phenomenon, but one which awaits satisfactory explanation. Comparative evidence shows the rate of turnover to have been unusually high. For example, the old aristocratic families of early modern Europe gave way to new at a much slower rate. Patterns of Roman property-holding and of the transmission of wealth from one generation to the next must have been closely assoc…
"Familia, Domus", and the Roman Conception of the Family
THE ENGLISH WORD has undergone a transformation of primary meaning in the modern period. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries it was used to signify (1) persons related by blood or marriage (kin in a wide sense), or (2) a or (i.e., those descended from the same stock or blood), or (3) all those living under the same roof including servants and other non-relatives. As Flandrin has shown, dictionaries of the period did not define family as fa…
Personal Patronage under the Early Empire
Personal Patronage under the Early Empire
Personal patronage was an accepted element in the functioning of Roman society. It is usually considered to be a particularly Republican phenomenon, which declined as other mechanisms developed with the growth of the imperial bureaucracy. Dr Saller's book, the first major study of patronage in the early Empire, shows that the patron-client relationship continued on much the same basis into the third century AD. Drawing on literary and epigraphic …
Economy and Society in Ancient Greece
Personal Patronage under the Early Empire
Commerce and Social Standing in Ancient Rome
Roman Dowry and the Devolution of Property in the Principate
The rapid turnover of senatorial families during the Principate is a well-known phenomenon, but one which awaits satisfactory explanation. Comparative evidence shows the rate of turnover to have been unusually high. For example, the old aristocratic families of early modern Europe gave way to new at a much slower rate. Patterns of Roman property-holding and of the transmission of wealth from one generation to the next must have been closely assoc…
Tombstones and Roman Family Relations in the Principate: Civilians, Soldiers and Slaves
Tombstones furnish perhaps three-quarters of the entire corpus of Latin inscriptions. Many of these give no more than the name of the deceased, but tens of thousands also offer the historian a few additional details, such as age at death and the name and relationship of the commemorator. Previous studies of the tombstones en masse have focused on nomenclature and age at death. In this study we wish to ask what conclusions can be drawn from the da…
"Familia, Domus", and the Roman Conception of the Family
THE ENGLISH WORD has undergone a transformation of primary meaning in the modern period. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries it was used to signify (1) persons related by blood or marriage (kin in a wide sense), or (2) a or (i.e., those descended from the same stock or blood), or (3) all those living under the same roof including servants and other non-relatives. As Flandrin has shown, dictionaries of the period did not define family as fa…
Close-Kin Marriage in Roman Society
Personal Patronage Under the Early Empire
Literature and Politics in the Age of Nero
Men's Age at Marriage and Its Consequences in the Roman Family
The Family in Italy from antiquity to the present
Roman Corinth: An Alternative Model for the Classical City . Donald Engels
The Family in Italy from Antiquity to the Present
Patriarchy, Property and Death in the Roman Family
The figure of the Roman father has traditionally provided the pattern of patriarchy in European thought. This book shows how the social realities and cultural representations diverged from this paradigm. Demographic analysis and computer simulation demonstrate that before adulthood most Romans lost their fathers by death. Close reading of Latin texts reveals Roman fathers as devoted and loving and not harsh exploitative masters of slaves. The dem…
The Family in Italy from Antiquity to the Present
In this important new book original contributions from an international panel of experts offer historical and anthropological perspectives on the Western family, focusing on family life in Italy from ancient Rome to the present. Using methods ranging from symbolic to quantitative analysis, the authors discuss a wide variety of topics, from matchmaking, marriage, and divorce to childrearing, sexual mores, and death
Patriarchy, Property, and Death in the Roman Family
Pater Familias, Mater Familias, and the Gendered Semantics of the Roman Household
Household and Gender
In the Greco-Roman world the household was the basic unit of production as well as consumption. This chapter begins with a methodological discussion of the difficulties with the data sources. Next, the chapter presents an account of the demography of household formation and organization. It analyses the patterns of property ownership and management by gender and age in classical Athens and Roman Italy, and then of women's and children's labor in …
The Cambridge Economic History of the Greco-Roman World
In this, the first comprehensive one-volume survey of the economies of classical antiquity, twenty-eight chapters summarise the current state of scholarship in their specialised fields and sketch new directions for research. The approach taken is both thematic, with chapters on the underlying determinants of economic performance, and chronological, with coverage of the whole of the Greek and Roman worlds extending from the Aegean Bronze Age to La…
Conclusion
This concluding chapter argues that Pliny's Natural History deserves more attention than it has received as a witness to Roman attitudes regarding innovation, investment, and what might be broadly labeled a culture of growth. The Natural History , taken as a whole, provides a window into the mindset of wealthy Romans regarding discovery and its implications for economic production. In some basic respects, Pliny's observations anticipated those of…
Proxies for Economic Performance in the Roman Empire
This chapter shows that the hopes that the precision of the hard sciences—whether archaeological, biological, or environmental—will provide solid proxies for datable trends in Roman economic performance have been continually frustrated. This is not only because there is a need for more data; the reasons for the repeated frustration are intrinsic. The empire was vast and varied with many unknowns. One of the most basic was identified by Paul Erdka…
Parens Natura and Smithian Growth
This chapter describes Pliny's attitude to Mother Nature as influenced by Stoic thought of his day. This attitude formed the basis for Pliny's moral thinking about useful knowledge of Nature, with major implications (at least in Pliny's view) for the economic consequences of empire. Pliny held profoundly ambivalent ideas about the economic benefits and vices of empire. The benefits came almost entirely from what could be described as an argument …
Pliny’s Economic Observations and Reasoning
This chapter analyzes Pliny's scattered comments in several sectors of the economy: primarily agriculture but also mining, urban crafts, and trade. It then turns to some general themes that draw the attention of the contemporary discipline of economics: labor, agency, and slavery; prices and currency; investment and consumption; finally, trust and fraud. Pliny's economic reasoning was inevitably bound up in a set of cultural values. These include…
“Utility” and the Afterlife of the Natural History
This chapter assesses whether Pliny's Natural History aimed to foster a culture nurturing increases in useful knowledge for succeeding generations to improve productivity. How did readers of the late antique and medieval eras make use of Pliny's work, which for many centuries was among the most frequently copied, quoted, and excerpted classical texts? The reception of the Natural History during this millennium provides insights into the limitatio…
History (23 works) · Classical Antiquity Studies (17 works) · Political science (14 works) · Law (12 works) · History (11 works) · Ancient history (10 works) · Archaeology (9 works) · Art (9 works) · Classics (8 works) · Philosophy (8 works)