Roman Corinth: An Alternative Model for the Classical City

149 Pages·1990·19.17 MB·English

by  Donald Engels

ROMAN CORINTH
An Alternative Model for the Classical City
Donald Engels
In the second century A.D., Corinth was the largest
city in Roman Greece. A center' of leaming, cul
ture, and commerce, it served as the capital of the
senatorial province of Achaea and was the focus of
apostle Paul 's missionary activity. Donald Engels 's
important revisionist study of this ancient urban
area is at once a detailed history of the Roman
colony and a provocative socioeconomic analysis.
With Corinth as an exemplar, Engels challenges
the widely held view that large classical cities
were consumer cities, innocent of the market
forces that shape modem economies. Instead, he
presents an alternative model- the "service city."
Examining a wealth of archaeological and literary
evidence in light of central place theory, and using
sound statistical techniques, Engels reconstructs
the human geography of the Corinthia, including an
estimate of the population. He shows that- given
the amount of cultivatable land- rents and taxes
levied on the countryside could not have supported
a highly populated city like Corinth. Neither could
its inhabitants have supported themselves directly
by fanning.
Rather, the city constituted a thriving market for
domestic, regional, and overseas raw materials,
agricultural products, and manufactured goods, at
the same time satisfying the needs of those who
plied the various land and sea routes that con
verged there. Corinth provided key governmental
and judicial services to the province of Achaea,
and its religious festivals, temples, and monu
ments attracted numerous visitors from all corners
of the Roman world. In accounting for the large
portion of residents who participated in these
(Continued on back ftap)
Jacket illustratioll: Detail of a restoration of the Corinthian
Forum as it appeared in the second century
A.D. Courtesy, Charles K. Williams, 11.
various arenas outside of the tradition al consumer
model, Engels reveals the depth and sophistication
of the economies of ancient cities.
Roman Corinth is a much-needed critique of the
currently dominant approach of ancient urbanism.
It will be of crucial interest to scholars and students
in c1assics, ancient history, and urban studies.
Donald Engels is associate professor of history
at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville.
He is the author of Alexander the Great and the
Logistics of the Macedonian Army.
For information on books of related interest or
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R·O·M·A·N
(:·O·R·I·N·1r·1I
AN ALTERNATIVE MODEL FOR
THE CLASSICAL CITY
Donald Engels
The University of Chicago
• Chicago and London •
1
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Donald Engels is associate professor of history at the University of Arkansas at Fayette What are you? A human being. If you see yourself as something separate,
ville. He is the author of Alexander the Great and the Logistics ofthe Macedonian Army. it is natural for you to want to live to old age, to be rich, and to enjoy
health. But if you regard yourself as human and as part of some whole,
The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637
for the sake of that whole you may have to suffer illness, make a voyage
The University of Chicago Press, Ltd., London
© 1990 by The University of Chicago and run risks, be in want, and even die before your time. Why then are
All rights reserved. Published 1990 you vexed? Do you not know that as the foot, if detached, will be longer
Printed in the Uni ted States of America
be a foot, so you too, if detached, will no longer be apart of humanity?
999897969594939291 90 5432 1 For what is a human being? Apart of a city; first that of the gods and men
and then, that city which is very elose to it, the city.that is a miniature of
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
the universal one.
Engels, Donald W. EPICTETUS, Discourses 2.5.25-26
Roman Corinth: an alternative model for the c1assical city /
Donald Engels.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
1. Corinth (Greece)-Economic conditions. 2. Corinth (Greece)
Social conditions. 3. Cities and towns, Ancient. 1. Title.
HC37.E54 1990 89-27004
307.76'0938'7-dc20 CIP
ISBN 0-226-20870-2 (alk. paper)
@ The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American
National Standard for Information Sciences-Permanence of Paper for Printed Library
Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1984.
Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction: The Study of Classical Cities 1
1 The City-State of Corinth 8
2 Agriculture and Manufacturies 22
3 The Service Economy 43
4 Society 66
5 Religion 92
Summary: The Service City 121
Conclusion: The Myth of the Consumer City 131
Maps, Plans, and Tables 143
•
Appendixes
1. Central Place Theory and the Marketing Network of the
Northeastem Peloponnese 173
2. Corinth 's Population and Water Supply 179
3. Urban Geography 182
4. The U se of Archaeological Surveys 186
5. Rents and Taxes 189
Abbreviations 193
Notes 195
Bibliography 247
Index 259
A gallery o[ photographs follows page 42
Acknowledgments
Many people have helped me during the research and writing of this work.
James Wiseman first took me to Corinth as an archaeological trainee in
1970. I have benefited from discussions with Charles K. Williams at the
site in 1979. I am grateful to the American Philosophical Society for a
grant that helped pay for my trip to Corinth in that year.
Since then, I have received much help, advice, and encouragement from
numerous individuals, especially Ernst Badian, Michael Jameson, Kurt
Raaflaub, and Chester Starr. A special word of thanks to Allan Janik for
his encouragement, and help in c1arifying and focusing theoretical matters.
Special thanks are also due to Theodore F. Brunner of the Thesaurus Lin
guae Graecae for tracking down all Greek references to Corinth.
• Above all , I would like to express my gratitude to the two anonymous
readers for the University of Chicago Press. Many of their suggestions for
improvement have been encorporated into the text. The work is now much
stronger than it would have been without their help. I am also grateful to
the late Arnaldo Momigliano for his helpful comments, and to my col
leagues at the University of Arkansas for providing a rational and demo
cratic environment in which to complete the work.
Fayetteville, Arkansas
February 1989
Introduction:
.The Study of Classical Cities
For many modem readers, Corinth was one of the more interesting places
to be in the Roman world. After Rome itself, Athens, Jerusalem, and per
haps Antioch, we lmow more ofhuman interest that occurred there than for
almost any other Roman city. For this, we must thank our sources: Strabo,
Plutarch, Pausanias, Apuleius, and, above all, Saint Paul. In criticizing,
cajoling, exhorting, and in loving them, Paul's letters to his Corinthian
congregation have left a vivid impression of an ancient urban population
its values, beliefs, fears, and hopes-that is unmatched for any other city
except Rome.
This work began as a social and economic history of Roman Corinth.
While writing it, I began to tbink: about the relationship between classical
culture and classical cities. Specifically, I wondered how classical political
institutions and vaIue systems influenced the political economy of the city.
, It became apparent to me that the present model of the "constimer city" is
inadequate, not only for Corinth, but for virtually all classical eities. Ac
cording to tbis view, which dominates present thinking about .classical cit
ies ~ their economies were dependent on the rents and taxes collected from
peasants in the countryside belonging to the city. Also, according to the
recent revival of this idea, classical eities were partially agro-towns, sup
ported by the agricultural production of urban residents who co~ute.d
back and forth to their fields.
The related concept of primitivism has also dominated recent studies of
the ancient economy, and this has affected our understanding of classical
cities. According to this notion, the c1assical world was innocent of many
market values and i~stitutions. Classical peas~ts lived at the margin of
human existence and had Httle or nothing left over after they paid their
taxes, rents, and maintenance. Therefore, c1assical cities could not have
been supported by the voluntary exchange of 'peasant surplus for urban
goods and services, since the peasant had little or no surplus at his disposal
and no knowledge of a market.
In subsequent pages, I will try to demonstrate why the primitivist,
consumer-city paradigm is inadequate and develop a new model~the ser
., vice city-that was indeed supported by the voluntary exchange of pe asant
~.
2 The Study of Classical Cities The Study of Classical Cities 3
surpluses for urban goods and services. I will show that ancient peasants antiquity. With scarcely an exception, however, they lack a con
had approximately twice the surplus available to them fot such exchanges ceptual focus or scheme: everything known about the place under
than is now supposed. Large eities, such as Corinth, located on major trade examination appears to have equal claim-architecture, religion
routes were also supported by the goods and services they provided to trav and philosophy, trade and coinage, administration and "interna
elers, traders, and tourists . This alternative model is not o:ffered as a final tional relations." The city qua city is flooded out. The approach is
usually descriptive and positivistic, "collecting evidence and in
ans wer to the problem of the political economies of classical cities, but
terrogating it with an open mind"; the unexpressed assumptions
merely as a competing view.1 I hope that the present work will stimulate a
about the economy are usually "modernizing." ... If my evalua
debate about the two models that will lead to a fuller understanding of
tion of the currerit situation is a bleak one, that is not because I
classical cities.
dislike the questions that are being asked but because I usually fail
to discover any questions at all, other than antiquarian ones-how
The study of classical cities is beset by many conceptual problems, and big? how many? what monuments?5
these must be addressed before we begin our study of Corinth. In the fiefd
of aneient history, M. I. Finley has done more than anyone else to help The reasons for many of Finley's criticisms lie in the strong empirical
resolve the epistemological issues concerning Greek and Roman soeial and tradition that has dominated much of Anglo-Saxon scholarship in the clas
economic organization. The methodological problems confronting any at sics. This empiricism-the collecting of evidence with only a limited theo
tempt to understand classical cities are so profound that Finley had even retical framework-has informed the study of cla~sicalliterature, history,
suggested the abandonment of the study of individual towns: "In the end, I and archaeology. Although the scholarly traditions of France, Germany,
believe that the history of individual ancient towns is a cul de sac, given and ltaly have a more theoretical basis, they have somewhat uncritically
the limits of the available (and potential) documentation, [and] the unalter accepted the consumer-eity view, first expressed in its modem form by
able condition of the study of aneient history." 2 Max Weber and Werner Sombart in the 1920s.6
Despite the immense research concerning the nature of cities in other The recent concern with theory in ancient his tory owes most to Finley,
aneient cultures, studies about the nature of classical cities have been com who revived the consumer-city idea for classical cities in various works of
paratively rare. Since Gordon Childe discovered the "urban revolution" the 1970s. He also introduced the concept of primitivism. Finley's ideas
there has been a growing and sophisticated literature ab out the beginnings have had a widespread influence outside the Anglo-Saxon tradition as we
of urbanism in Mesoamerica, Mesopotamia, and aneient China.Since the will see in the conclusion of this volume.
early nineteenth century, another vast quantity of research has been devoted In my opinion, Finley probably suggested the primitivist, consumer-city
to "the rise of towns" in the Middle Ages. However, Finley believed, the paradigm to stimulate a debate about the nature of the classical political
intervening classical period appears as a vacuum or prohibited space: economy, but unfortunately, this has not occurred. This paradigm has be
come so dominant that it has inhibited the development of possible alter
There is considerable publication about what is sometimes gran
natives to an extent that probably would have annoyed Finley himself. His
diloquently called "aneient town planning," ... but a town is
preeminent position in our field has helped establish the idea as received
more than the mere arithmetical total of layout and drains and
inhabitants, and it is remarkable that the aneient city qua city has gospel, something to be accepted without question or analysis. The relative
aroused so little interest. Had it not "disappeared" at the end of lack of a theoretical perspective, especially in the Anglo-Saxon tradition,
antiquity, it would not have to "rise" again; that simple logic alone has insured that the paradigm would sweep all before it with little resist
should have forced attention on it.3 ance. Other reasons for the widespread acceptance of the idea will be dis
cussed in the conclusion. In this work I will confront these ideas with an
Finley thought that one of the reasons why little has been done to under
alternative model of the classical city.
stand the nature of classical eities since Max Weber wrote De Stadt over
We must take heart however from Greece itself, the homeland of the
sixty years ago, is that important questions have not been asked. Historians
concept of "idea" and "theory." We must also acknowledge, that unlike
and soeiologists have not established adequate criteria to differentiate an
empirical research, conceptual thought will never achieve exactness or per
eient cities from cities in other eras, and to differentiate among various
fection. Nevertheless, the lack of perfection has not prevented a vast con
types of ancient eities. 4
ceptualliterature from developing concerning ancient cities throughout the
There are, to be sure, a growing number of "histories" of individ Old and New Worlds; a literature in which the classical period has not been
ual towns, Greek and Roman, from the archaic age to the end of well represented.7
4 The Study of Classical Cities The Study of Classical Cities 5
In an often-quoted dictum about geology in the 1830s, Charles Darwin town and country in the cIassicaI era. These assumptions are not only po
wrote: litical and economie, but also moral.
Aceording to this notion, cities exploit and oppress the eountry dwellers
There was once much talk that Geologists ought only to observ~ through exeessive taxation and rents, leaving them almost nothing for
and not theorize; and weIl I remember someone saying that at this
a themselves.1o On this view, the eity dwellers were basically evil, domi
rate man might as well go into a gravel-pit and count the pebbles
nated by greed and the desire to expand their power as far as possible over
and describe their colors. How odd it is that anyone should not see
their rural compatiiots. One remarkable feature of the consumer-city
that all observation must be for or against some view if it is to be .
theory is that it seems to ignore the evidence of what the classical world
öf any service. 8
wrote about its cities. Plato, Aristotle, Cicero, and numerous others made
. many shrewd observations conceming c1assical city-states. In these and
That the eollection of evidence should oecur not for its own sake, but to other authors, there is no sharp politieal, eeonomic,or religious division
answer problems, has been the hallmark of the Western intelleetual tradi between town and eountry. 11 In c1assical Greek and Republiean Roman cit
tion sinee Thales. ies, eountry dwellers had fuH political and judicial equality with urban
Astronomers believe that only 5 to 10 pereent of the known universe is dwellers, and although the latter may have· called the former "bumpkins"
eapable of being measured and studied. The remainmg 90 to 95 percent of or "hayseeds," all regarded the city as the foeus of their culture. Only under
the matter of the u~iverse may' never be analyzed, regardless of the future tyrannies , when the tyrant lived in the aeropolis, surrounded by his armed
development of instrumentation.9 Nevertheless; this lack of perfeetion has . .b odyguard, oppressing the peasantry with arbitrary rule and land taxes,
not put an end to intellectual progress in astronomy. Furthermore, paleon ean the city be said to have oppressed the country. Nevertheless, tyrannies
tologists have only the tiniest fraction of the fossil evidence at their dis were a temporary phenomenon and imparted no lasting stigma of evil on
posal, and the fossil evidence represents only the smallest part of past liv the city.
ing maUer on the planet. Yet, this has not prevented the development of The c1assical city was firmly based upon the classical coneeption of
many fruitful theories conceming evolutionary biology. mankind. Since Homer, man was thought to be kin to the gods and to share
On the other hand, it needs to be stressed that the type of analysis envi reason with them. The culmination of this classical view is perhaps best
sioned by Finley requires that a massive amount of empirie al research be seen in the principles of stoicism.
eonducted first. The present work would have· been quite impossible with This system of philosophy dominated the thought and action of mueh of
out the patient and dedicated labors of generations of archaeologists' and the Roman aristoeracy during the Empire, and is therefore vital for the
historians working on Corinth. Furthermore, it seems neeessary that indi understanding of eities during this era. Stoieism perceived the world as
vidual cities be studied before ideal types can be discovered. govemed by a universal God who is also Reason (Logos). All mankind
. A further obstacle to understanding the nature of cIassicalcities hasbeen shares reason, and, therefore, we all share God: "Do you know that you
. the separation between social and religious values and economic analysis. are God's temple and that God's spirit dweIls in you?" This is a Stoic
12
This has led to a sharp dichotomy in some recent interpretations that em coneept that Paul used to help his Corinthian eongregation understand the
ploy the primitivist, consumer-city paradigm. We find superimposed on . new Christian God. God 's aetivities in the world are governed by reason
broadly based, and even democratie poHticaI values and institutions a and Qperate through naturallaws. It was the stoie's duty-taken very seri
eonsumer-city type of political economy that was more characteristic of the ously by the Roman elite-to make the laws of his eommunity eorrespond
despotie late Empire and earIy Dark Ages (ca. A.D. 285-600) than the as closely as possible to the laws of nature, which were God's laws. Stoics
classical era (ea. 500 B.C.-A.D. 200). Before we begin our study of Cor therefore took an aetive role in the public, communal affairs. The fruits of
inth, it is necessary to ex amine some cIassical ideas coneeming the city. their labors ean be found, .n ot only in the eorpus of Roman law, but also in
the goveming policies of cities during the Roman Empire.
The principles of stoicism were perhaps best expressed by Cicero in his
The Classical Concept or. the City
DeLegibus .;
To understand our assumptions about eities, we must first understand the
attitudes towards mankind implicit in them. The notion of the· eonsumer But what is more divine, I will not say in man only, but in all
city makes many assumptions about the nature of the relationships between heaven and earth, than reason? And reason, when it is full grown