CC 302/347
INTRO TO ANCIENT ROME
Outline for
Lecture 21: Occupations
Senatorial Class
- military service, followed by cursus honorum
(quaestor, aedile, praetor, consul)
- legal work was crucial for entering into politics
- division between law and politics was often somewhat
blurred
- e.g. court case of Cicero's Pro Caelio speech (56 BCE
Atratinus charges Caelius)
- underlying political rivalry: Cicero vs Clodius
- Cicero turns charges against Clodius' sister Clodia,
the "Palatine Medea"
- the senatorial class was essentially an agricultural
class
Equestrians
- the businessmen of the Roman world (professions barred
to the senatorial class)
- undertook contracts for the state (e.g.
publicani or tax farmers)
- traders of all kinds (international &
inter-provincial trade)
- banking (money lending) very profitable since no limits
on interest rates
- Catiline Conspiracy of 64 shows even Romans could have
serious debt trouble
"Learned" Professions
- low status since schoolmasters, lecturers, professors
were generally Greek.
- many of these Greek professionals were slaves or
freedmen
Medical Profession
- low status profession; most doctors were Greeks or
Orientals.
The Trades
- a great many regulated and fairly lucrative
professions, e.g. praeco (crier and auctioneer) tonsor
(barber); caupones (inn-keepers), book-sellers
Working Women
- some business women (shopkeepers, tavern-owners,
workshop owners)
- prostitutes, courtesans and entertainers (all an
accepted part of Roman society)
- wet-nurses (nutrices) used extensively by upper
classes
- midwives also exceedingly common (2nd century manual by
Soranus)
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