Markets and fairs in Roman Italy : their social and economic importance from the second century BC to the third century AD

95 Pages·1993·17.805 MB·English

by  Joan M. Frayn

Markets and Fairs
in Roraan Italy
THEIR SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC IMl'ORTANCE
FROM THE SECOND CENTURY BC TO THE
THIRD CENTUKY AD
IOAN M. FRAYN
CLARENDON PRESS. OXFORD
1993
(\
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List of Illustrations vi
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List of Abbreviations vii
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Oxford is a trade mark of Oxford University Press
i. Introduction: From the Fora to the Mace77a i
Published in the United States 2. Markets in Rome and its Environs 12
by Oxford University Press. New York
3. Markets in Italy outside Rome 38
©J oan M. Frayn 1993 4. Commodities Soldi n the Markets 56
stoAr7e7d rnigi ha tsre rtersieervvaedl .s ysNteom p aortr toiaf nthsism ipttucbdl,ic iant iaonny m foarym b oe rr beyp iaondyuc meeda,ns, 5. Patterns of Trade in RomanI taly 74
electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without 6. Market Buildings and Equipment 101
the prior permission of Oxford University Press 7. Market Lawa nd Official Organization 117
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data 8. Fairs and Festivals 133
Data available 9. Livestock Markets 145
ISBN o-ict-814799-6
io. The Place of Markets in Local and
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Piiblication Data Long-DistanceT rade i S 8
Frayn, Joan M. t
Markets and fairs in Roman Italy: their social and economic
Bibliography 165
importance from the second century BC to the third century AD/Joan
j-
M. Fray n. Index of Inscriptions 175
Includes bibliogTaphicalr eferences and indexes. :" Indexo f References to Ancient Authors 176
I- Markets-Italy-History. 2. Maikets-Rome-History, j. Fails- y
Italy-History. 4. Fairs-Rome-History. .,. -Rome- Commerce- I Index of Latin Words i 80
History. I. Title. General Index 182
HFS474-I7F73 1993
}8i'.iS'og45-dc20
ISBN 0-19-814799-6:
Typeset by Hope Services (Abingdon) Ltd.
Printed in Great Britain by
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EX LI n R I S
U Ni'.'FRS ' T "aiS
MO" '.. -GfcNSIS
List of Illustrations List of Abbreviations
I Sectional drawing of the Emporium on the Tiber i6 AE L'Annee epigraphique
2 Suggested market buildings in Ferentinum AJA American Journal of Archeology
and Tibur 28 AJAH American journal of Ancient History
The Via Severiana and the surrounding area
3 31 Ant. Afr. Antiquites afncaines
4 Fragments 547 and 563 of the Forma Uibis 36 Arch. class. Archeologia classica
5. Map of Capua
45 Arch. Med. Aicheologia medievale
6. Map showing the position of Beneventum in
Bull. Comm. Bullettino della Commissione
relation to the road system
51 Archeologica Comunale di Roma
7. Diagram: areas of trade 77 CEHE Cambridge Economic History of Europe
8. Catchment areas for marketing around Capua 82 CIL Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum
9. Map of Chieti and its environs 95 CR Classical Review
10. Section from the Carta del Tratturi showing the ESAR Tenney Frank, An Economic Survey of
position of Chieti in relation to routes, mountain
Ancient Rome (Baltimore 1937-44)
ranges, and the coastline 97 Gloss. Glossaria Latina, ed. W. M. Lindsaye t al.
II. Plans of macella- Italian and provincial 102 (1926- )
12. Roman mocliiis measure found at Carvoran i09 ILS Ins crip tiones Latinae Selectae, ed.
13. Balances from Pompeii "s H. Dessau
}RS Journal of Roman Studies
L CM. Liverpool Classical Monthly
MAAR Memoirs of the American Academy at
Rome
MEFRA Melanges de 1'Ecole Francaise de Rome:
Antiquite
Mon. ant. M.onumenti antichi (Accademia
Nazionale dei Lincei)
Not. sc. Notizie degli scavi di antichita
PBSR Papers of the British School at Rome
pp La parola del passato
RAAN Rendiconti dell'Accademia di Aicheo-
logia, Lettere e Belle Arti di Napoli
RE Pauly-Wissowa, Realencyclopddie der
klassischen Altertumswissenschaft
REL Revue des etudes latines
Rend. Ace. Line. Rendiconti dell'Accademia del Lincei
VI Vll
List of Abbreviations
TAPA
Transactions and Proceedings of the
American Philological Association
TLL Thesauius Linguae Latinae
Introduction
From the Fora to the Macella
MARKETS and fairs formed part of the infrastructure of
ancient commerce: an examination of their organization
should therefore reveal to some extent the relationship
between producer and consumer in the Roman period in
Italy and the types of transaction involved. Changes in the
siting and arrangement of the markets were only one feature
of the extensive urban development in Italy betweent he end
of the Punic Wars and the early years of the principate, but
the study of them may lead us to ask and attempt to answer
certain questions. What commodities were bought and sold
and whence did they come? What proportion of trade in an
Italian city passed through the markets and how much was
carried on elsewhere? What was the relation of aediles,
imperial officials, negotiatores, and mercatoies to the
market traders? Not only the livestock markets but those
selling other commodities were closely linked with the
farms and market gardens and this influenced their location
as well as the price of the produce on sale. It is possible to
find some continuity, particularly in the case of fairs, with
the pattern of trade existing in the medieval period in
certain regions of Italy; marked contrasts can also be
observed. The distinction to be made between a market and
a fair will also be discussed at a later stage, but the
terminology associated with the market in Latin and
definitions offered by ancient writers will form the starting-
point of this discussion.
There were three words in common use in classical Latin
for 'market', forum, nundinae, macellum, and each of these
must be considered and their usage defineda s far as possible.
The word forum is most commonly used in literature to
Vlll
I. Introduction: From the Fora to the Macella i. Introduction: From the Fora to the Macella
denote the central area of a town or city in which the main
force remained separate, and continued wherever there was
public buildings were situated. Hence in legal and political trade available in sheep, cattle, or pigs. That the livestock
material it has close associations with the administration of markets had their own approaches, which no doubt needed
law and with public debate. This, however, is not its only or constant repair, is indicated by the inscriptions referring to
even its earliest connotation. It has other very distinct this. CIL x. 5074, from Atina, refers to the making of a road
associations, such as appear in the phrase: 'scisti uti foro' to the forum pecuarium, and CIL x. 5850, recording the
('you knew how to take advantage of the market', Terence,
completion of a similar piece of work at Ferentinum, states
Phormio i. 2. 29). It can also be used as a virtual equivalent that the road had been so broken up that the slope was
of macellum in the senseo f a foodm arket. Thatf orum is the
almost impassable. The word macellum has sometimes
old term for a market or market site appears from its use in
been interpreted as meaning strictly a meat market, and the
connection with suarius, pecuarius, piscatorius, boarius, to noun macellaiius has been considered the equivalent of a
indicate the space set apart for the sale of these goods, and 'butcher', but although these translations may suit particular
this forms part of the definition provided by Varro, LL 5. passages in which the words occur, they are not essential:
145: 'market' and 'market trader' seem to be quite satisfactory
quo conferrent controversias et quae venderentur vellent quo renderings in most, if not all, instances, while the word
ferrent, forum appeilamnt. ubi quid generatim, additum ab eo lanius was available for a slaughterer of animals and a
cognomen, ut forum bovarium, forum olitorium: hoc erat anti- proprietor or operative in the wholesale or retail meat
quum macellum, ubi olemm copia . . . trade.3
The word nundinae by its derivation suggests the nine-
They called the place to which they took their disputes and to
whicht hey brought theg oods theyw ishedt o sell thefoium. Where day interval or nund inu m between market-days, counted
a particular kind of produce was sold, the wordf orum wasg iven an inclusively in the Roman manner, rather than describing
epithet accordingly, as for example forum bovarium, forum the place where the market was held or the nature of the
olitonum: the latter was the ancient macellum, where there was a merchandise. As it stands, this word, including a Roman
supply of vegetables . . . numeral, suggests that the nundinae came into existence in
the Roman period. However, the holding of a regular market
There were other specialized markets in Rome itself, such
as the forum cuppedinis, a name which many thought was in Italian communities may pre-date the use of this word for
derived from cupiditas (Varro, LL 5. 146). He goes on to say it. Alternatively, the use of the word and the institution
could have developed in Rome and Latium as a response to
that these fora selling food were later combined and became
the growth of the city as a centre of trade. Festus (ed.
the macellum. 1 Livy also mentions the specialized markets
in his earlier books, implying that they existed during the Lindsay, 176, s.v. nundinas) deBnes the word with due
Second Punic War and before.2 After the introduction of regard to this basic meaning:
permanent buildings on Hellenistic lines for food markets, feriatum diem esse voluemnt antiqui, ut rustici convenirent
under the Greek name macellum, the livestock fora per-
mercandi, vendendi causa, eum nefastum, ne si liceret cum populo
agi, interpellarentur nundinatores.
'It hasb een suggested by] . C. B. Lowe, 'Cooks in Plautus', Class. Ant. 4
(1985), 84, that the forum coquinum of Plautus, Pseud. 790, may not
necessarily have existed in Rome, but was perhaps coined to parallel the The translation of macellarius as 'butcher' in Lewis and Short's Latin
phrase fminum forum.
Dictionary has not been retained in OLD. The idea of the macellum as a
The forum holitorium, for example, is mentioned in Livy3 1. 6i. 2, 4;
meat market arises chiefly from the use of the word by Plautus, but when
m 26. 27. ihe records that the forum piscatorium was burnt down (210 Be). the passages are analysed the reason why it is meat which is being sought
The macelhim was built to replace this (Livy 40. 51. 4 (179 BC.) ) from the macellem is that they concern celebratory meals.
I. Introduction: From the Fora to the Macella i. Introduction: From the Fora to the Macella
The men of old wished this to be a holiday so that the country a time when buying habits as well as selling arrangements
people could meet to buy and sell, and they declared it a forbidden were changing and when agricultural changes were also
day, lest if political businessc ouldb ed oneo n that day, the market
taking place. But the word nundinae continues to be used
traders might be interrupted.
during the Empire, not only for the day itself but for the
He describes it in a similar way on p. 177. Dio Cassius refers actual market selling goods, and this usage is not confined
to the nundinae in the first century BC as 17 dyopa r, Sia rwv to villages or very small communities or private estates.
evvea &et rj^epwv ayo/jLevr] ('the market held every nine days', Pliny, NH 12. 80, refers to Carrhae in Asia Minor as an
40. 47; cf. 48. 33- 4 and 60. 24. 7). This careful distinction oppidum nundinarium, a 'market town'. The list of nun-
could imply that there were other markets at the time, or, as dinae on the parapegmata (Degrassi, Inscr. Ital. 13.2 300-
seems more likely, Dio Cassius was referring simply to the 11) includes Rome, Capua, Puteoli, Beneventum, and other
buying and selling which went on in various parts of the flourishing commercial centres. Moreover, the derivatives
town on the nundinae. of nundinae, such as nundinatio and nundinari, are used
There is some indication that the permanent buildings of during the Empire in literary and rhetorical contexts where
the macellum must have been in use every day, and not, as the market activities of the villages would be almost
in the case of the nundinae, once in eight days. The unknown. There is, however, a disparaging note about
distribution of the macellum buildings suggests that they nundinari, especially in the literature of the Christian era.
were only required or sustainable in the larger centres of So where were the nundinae held at this stage in the
population: the weekly market in temporary accommodation development of Italian commerce? It would seem that as the
would serve the villages or outlying estates.4 The establish- fundamental meaning of nundinae was 'market-day', rather
ment of macella implies a change in the buying habits of the than a place where a market was held, after the building of
populace. So long as the economy was rurally based, even if macella in towns the nundinae included all the temporary
many lived in villages or small towns, exchange or purchase structures used for buying and selling on that particular day.
of goods could be deferred until the nundinae, no one being It is reasonable to suppose that these were rather more
dependent on this for their daily sustenance. However, we numerous on the nundinaet han on other days, even though
note that in Varro and Columella the shepherds are bringing the macellum was open for the town population on other
the cheese to town daily (cf. Calpurnius, Ecl. 4. 25, 'lac days also. It would still have been worth while for country
venale per urbem'; Virgil, Georg. 3. 400-2). But'these people to come into Rome, for example, on the nundinae
examples belong to the late Republic or to the first century rather than on any other day, because any additional
AD, in which, presumably, a demand had grown up for the informal selling would have taken place on that day and
sale of surplus milk products daily in the macellum. The more wares would have been available (also more buyers if
period during which market buildings of a substantial they were bringing anything in to sell). It was not uncommon
character with permanent booths as well as more informal for temporary stalls to be erected in populated areas of
selling in the area were being erected in Italian towns towns, as for example the booths of which Della Corte
covered the end of the second century BC to the beginning of found traces in the neighbourhood of the amphitheatre at
the second century AD. The majority of those whose sites have Pompeii.5 There was also some open space within the
been excavated outside Rome itself were founded in the last macella themselves and on the streets approaching them.
century of the Republic or during the early Empire. This was
Case e abitanti a Pompeii (Naples 1965), 106. Inscriptions indicating
positions occupied by stall-holders near the amphitheatre in Pompeii are
4 As indicatedf or instancei n Livy7 . is. 13;C olumella 11. i. 23; Plii ClLiv. 1096, 10963, i097a, l097b, and 1115. Accordingt o 1096 they did so
Epist. 5. 4. I. ' ' "' ----. -.,, --.,, 'permissu aedilium'.
i. Introduction: From the Fora to the Macella i. Introduction: From the Fora to the Macella
The macellum at Pompeii opens on to the forum. The stalls also uses the word tabeina. The owner-occupier and
from the forum had in some towns been moved aside rather the one-man business lend themselves to this treatment. In
than taken down, when more elaborate public buildings the meaning of stall or booth we find tabeina discussed in
were erected. Justinian, Digest 18. i. 32., where it is declared that
The word tabeina seems at Hrst glance to have a wide 'tabernas argentarias vel ceteras quae in solo publico sunt'
variety of meanings: a wooden hut, a booth, a stall, a shop, ('bankers stalls or other booths erected on ground which is
or an inn, but further scrutiny suggests that all these items in public ownership'), when sold, involve not only the sale
must originally have borne considerable resemblance to of the ground on which they stand but also the ius, the right
each other. No doubt context or local usage determined the to use them in this way. This could not be a necessary
meaning of the word in common speech, but in writing its provision if these tabernae were a permanent part of a
precise significance was sometimes made clear by the public building in which their usage was already prescribed.
addition of an adjective: taberna argentaria, vinaiia, dever- Admittedly, the next clause seems to suggest this, as it
soria, and others. The word tabernai n fact denotedt he type reads: 'cum istae tabernae publicae sunt, quarum usus ad
of accommodation and not the use to which it was being privatos pertinet', but in the light of the preceding words
applied. The connection between the meanings 'stall' and these seem to mean 'when these booths (though leased to
'shop' is easily understood, especially in view of the private individuals) are used by the public'.
resemblance of even the permanent booths in markets and A question to be asked regarding all the sales outlets in
the simpler shop buildings to wooden stalls. For in the Italy during the Roman period is whether they were doing a
ancient world we are not dealing with spacious shop retail or wholesale trade. The answer to this is probably that
premises capable of welcoming all comers into their inner as a general rule by the time the goodsr eacheda market stall
recesses. Many of the shops revealed by excavation in or a shop, they were being offered for sale on a retail basis.
Pompeii, Herculaneum, and Ostia provided little more than Wholesale transactions took place between negotiatores,
a counter open to the street. The distinction between this mercatores, producers, ship-owners, or perhaps in some
and a market stall would be twofold: there was living-spacc cases, such as the textile or clothing trades, among the
and perhaps storage behind or above the shop, and the shop members of a craft association.8 Provisioning of the army
was a more permanent enterprise than the stall. The only would also have involved wholesale transactions. There
reason why tabeina without qualification was able to may be exceptions to this general rule in certain trades,
signify a drinking-shop must be that this became the most where specialized markets were used. The relation between
common form of shop in the towns, or that the adjectives various types of market or shop in Rome itself will be
formerly applied to it for other types of establishment considered separately, because owing to the scale of com-
gradually came to be used as substantives. Kleberg6 was of merce there and the role of the capital city, the customary
the opinion that taberna was increasingly used for an inn arrangements for the buying and selling of goods may have
after the time of Cicero. It is possible that the usual way to differed considerably from those found in the smaller urban
refer to a shop then was by the name of the shopkeeper or centres in other parts of Italy.
the type of establishment. Examples of this with reference Not every community had a macellum, and the achieve-
to bookshops are to be found in Martial, who has made the ment of such an amenity was evidently of great significance.
booksellers Tryphon and Atrectus in Rome famous, but he This was no doubt attributable to some extent to the change
Martial, Epigr. i. 117. 10-14, 13. 3. 4; cf. 1. 2. s-8.
T. Kleberg, Hotels, restaurants et cabarets dans 1'antiquite icimainis See e.g. Cicero, De Officiis i. 42. 150, a passage which mentions
(Uppsala 1957), 19, ao. various trades and also defines the occupation of the mercatoi.
6
i. Introduction: From the Fora to the Macella
i. Introduction: From the Fora to the Macella
from temporary stalls placed on the bare earth to stone
at a convenient route centre on the journey. It is for this
paving and omamenta. The paving impressed those who
reason that in France there have been annual or bi-annual
placed the inscription found near Cagli in Umbria, where L.
sheep fairs at which animals can be bought and sold.
Fuficius (? Mamlius), a local official, had paid for the paving
There is not much evidence for this kind of arrangement in
of a road and the 'aream macelli' with selce (Latin: silice,
the Roman period, though, as we shall see (Ch. 9) Campi
'flint'). Public buildings such as theatres, fora, colonnadcs,
Macri may be an example of it. The local foium pecuaiium
temples, basilicas, were the hallmark of success for a town
must originally have functioned on the nundinae when the
or colonia whether in Italy or in the provinces. To put it
country people were in the town.
into Greek terms, they made the difference between the
In addition to the seasonal aspect of the fairs, arising from
Kw/irj and the TTO'AI?; and the Romans and Italians were not
the requirements of the farming schedule, there was some-
unaware of or unaffected by Hellenistic standards in this
times also a religious connection. This can be traced in the
respect.9 If they had been, writers such as Strabo would have
early Republic and was still operative in the Christian era,
spelt it out for their public. In 5. i. 6, he says that
though with certain modifications. Specific examples, both
Mediolanum was once only a KW^T]b ut now it is an a'^oAoyos
pagan and Christian, can be given, but the question also
TO'At? ('an important city'). In 5. 4. 2, rd iuer ow aAAa Kw^-qSov
arises as to how far the other pre-Christian sanctuaries, with
i.wuw ... ('In general they live in villages . . . ') Strabo's
which our evidence does not associate fairs or markets, were
descriptions are not necessarily accurate in relation to
the focus of similar activities on festivals or formed a regular
particular towns, but they show clearly the criteria he was
meeting-place for traders.
using. While, however, the macellum added to the status of
The vocabulary associated with the fairs is different from
a community, it woulda ppeart hat the possessiono fa fonnn that applied to the regular markets. It appears from the
pecuaiium did nothing to enhance it, at any rate from the
usage of the words that mercatus was the term for a fair held
period of the late Republic onwards into the Empire. There
annually in the town or city, and sometimes conventus may
do not seem to have been permanent structures associated suggesta similarg atheringi n the countryside.10T hen otable
with this, in fact the implication of calling the voting-pens
feature of the conventus was the coming together in one
m the Campus Martius saepta (Servius, commenting on
place of people who were usually scattered throughout the
Virgil, Ed. i. 33) may have been that it recalled the kind of
countryside; it can also refer to gatherings which were not
equipment used in the livestock market not far away. The
held for the purpose of buying and selling. The important
use of this forum could only have been seasonal-it
feature of the mercatus was not the unaccustomed gathering
certainly would not, like the macella, have been a daily
of the participants, for they probably all came from well-
occurrence. Valerius Maximus, 2. 4. j, tells us that the first populated areas in or around urban centres. It was the
gladiatorial contest was held in the Forum Boarium at
amount and variety of the merchandise available. However,
Rome, and if the open space could be used for events of this
in the time of Plautus the word mercatus was probably
kind, it is unlikely to have been in daily use as a market as
applied to the daily provision market or macellum, or to the
well. In some regions the sale of livestock might take place
nundinae, as in Mostellaria 4. z. 55: 'postquam pater ad
during only half the year, for in the other months trans-
mercatum hinc abiit. . .'. In Poenulus 339, it is applied to a
humant animals would be on their way to distant pastures
sale of prostitutes, mercatus meretricius, held in front of the
or already there. In other cases, sales might have taken place
10 It is used with nundinae in this sense in Columella, Preface 18:
9^ It is noticeable in PIiny NH 3, that he emphasizes continually the
'Nundinarum etiam conventus mamfestum est propterea usurpatos, ut
between an oppidum and an urbs, and he also refers to many
nonis tantummodo diebus urbanae res agerentur, reliquis admimstrarentur
town-dwellers only by the names of gentes.
rusticae.'
i. Introduction: From the Fora to the Macella
i. Introduction: From the Fora to the Macclla
temple of Venus on a specific day. Agorastocles makes a
These are some of the aspects of ancient markets and fairs
general remark on this which may have been proverbial
which will be discussed in the succeeding chapters. An
(341-a):
attempt will also be made to relate the subject to modern
Invendibili merci oportet ultro emptorem adducere: theories concerning the growth and catchment areas of
Proba mers facile emptorem repent, tametsi in abstmso sitast. markets and their viability in relation to particular physical
If the goods are unsaleable, one must make an effort to attract a and social environments. This may well throw light upon
buyer.M erchandiseo fg oodq ualitye asilyf indsa buyer, eveni f it is the origins and early history of commercial activity in
situated in an obscure place. certain communities, but by the end of the second century
A particular development to be considered is the growth AO this market system was highly developed and the main
of markets in seaport towns, such as Ostia, Puteoli, and features of it were familiar throughout the Roman Empire.
Genoa. These ports, because of their position, have only We must not let the continuity of vocabukry blind us to the
about half the catchment area of inland towns, yet both changes which were taking place in the precision of
Ostia and Puteoli had large markets. Does the importance of measuring and pricing, in the variety of goods available, and
the market at Puteoli imply the lesser growth of marketing in the commercial and political structures which supported
in nearby Naples, or the collapse of trading in the localagora and controlled the retail trade.
at Cumae? Was this where purchases were made for the
provisioning of the luxury villas around the north coast of
the bay of Naples? In this respect we must differentiate
between the emporium and the localized markets. The
Greek term k^-nopwv denotes a market centre, mainly on the
coast, importing and exporting goods to and from distant
places, either in the same country or in foreign parts. To
what extent do these goods pass through the urban markets,
of, for example, Genoa? It seems probable that they often by-
passed them, the goods (such as wool and wine) being
purchasedw holesale from the producer in the hinterland or
shippedb y the agent of the producer himself. This seems to
be implied by the markings on the wine jars, when whole
cargoes can be shown to have originated on the same estate.
On the other hand, to use a Greek example, Demosthenes in
TTpof (pop^Cwva 9, gives the impression that the goods which
Phormio loaded on to the ship were bought in Athens and
Byzantium respectively, that is, they were bought in those
cities, and not obtained by scouring the countryside for
them They may or may not have originated in a market,
though it seems likely to have been a trader of that kind who
would supply what Demosthenes {^pw 't'opp. iwva 9) c.ills
o PWTTO';, cheap goods.
Cf. Strabo 8. 6. 16, where ^wiros is also used. Cheap Wares were
sometimes known as Alyivaia e/x-n-oArj.
10
II
2. Markets in Rome and its Environs
that the tholos of this macellum was preserved in the
structure of the church of S. Stefano Rotondo. , but the
latest theories concerning its position place it between
the Via Celimontana and the Via Claudia.4 No traces of such
Markets in Rome and
a building are visible today, but some pieces of masonry
its Environs have been discovered in the vicinity which may have^
belonged to it. The Macellum Magnum is represented on
some dupondii issued in the reign of Nero: it appears on
THERE has been more study of the markets in Rome itself these as a two-storey building which has a tholos with a
than of those in any other part of Italy, ;ind their position. conical roof and a portico.6 Other clues as to the where-
and structure have been very fully discussed. Their im- abouts of this market and its design have been obtained
portance, however, in the social and economic life of the from the study of the Forma Urbis, where it appears with
city and its environs has received less attention, and that is 'macellum' written beside it.
the aspect which will be emphasized here. After a brief The Macellum Liviae is thought to have been situated on
resume of what is known about the development of-'m arkets the Esquiline Hill, where a large market building was
in Rome and their position, we shall turn to a discussion of excavated by Lanciani in 1874. This site has been built over
the part they played in the life and commerce of the capital since that time and the structure is no longer visible, but it
city. Comments on the livestock markets in Rome "will has been identified as the Macellum Liviae, which is
appear in Chapter 9. described in sources of the fourth century AD9 as well as in
As we have seen (Ch i) the earliest tradition of marketing later works from the tenth century to the sixteenth.
in Rome centred on the Forum, and when such activities Recently, F. Magi has seen a likeness to a macellum in a
were banishedf rom there, they were transferred to a market large, porticoed area found under the church of S. Maria
in the same area of the city, which Livy (26. 27. [-4) tells us Maggiore." This Roman building includes masonry dating
was burned down in 210 BC and rebuilt (40. si. 4-6) in 179 from the Augustan period to the fourth century AD. The
BC. Coarelli regards this as an important stage in the portico is decorated with a calendar and paintings depicting
development of Roman architecture, when both the hiisilica seasonal activities in the countryside, and these murals can
and the macellum originated. 1 The position of this market be dated to the Hrst half of the fourth century. Magi
is described by Varro [LL 5. 152) as being 'ad Corncta' ('near considered that this building might be the Macellum Liviae,
the Corneta'), a street running parallel to the Via Sncra,
between the Forum and the Subura. The entrance to the
3 For example, S. B. Plainer, TheT opography and Monuments of Ancient
market building is called 'fauces' by Cicero (//) Vcrrcm 3.
Rome (Boston 1911), 441; K. Schneider, 'Macellum', RE 14 [1928).
145; Pro Quinctio 25), which may imply that it was a F. Magi, II calendano depinto sotto S. Maria Maggiore (Vatican 1972),
60 n. 7; De Ruyt, Macellum, 175-80.
narrow passage. Varro refers to this market as a macellwn.
De Ruyt, Macellum, 180-1.
Some have supposed that this building was superseded by 6 H. Mattingly, Coins of the Roman Empire in the British Museum
the Macellum Liviae, but it may have continued in use until (London 1923), i. 236-7 (Rome), 266-7 (Lugdunum); J. Sampson, 'A Note on
the reign of Nero, when in AD 59 the Maccllum Magnum Nero's Macellum August! Type', PBSR 39 (1971) 45-6.
E. Rodriguez-Almeida, Forma Urbis Maimoiea, 1971) 45-6.
was built on the Caelian Hill.2 It was thought until recently 8 R. Lanciani, Forma Urbis Romae IV (Milan 1896), pl. 23.
CILv i. 1178 mentions the restoration of this building by Valentinian,
' F. Coarelli 11f oro romano, ii (Rome lyHs!, isi.
2 C. de Ruyt, Macellum (Louvain 1983!, 162-1. Valens, and Gratian between 364 and 378.
10 De Ruyt, Macellum, 168-9.
Magi, 11 calendario, 59 ff.
II i3