ECONOMIC LIFE OF ROME: II. THE INDUSTRIAL QUARTERS. THE GRAIN TRADE.
OSTIA. THE TRADE GUILDS
=210. Industrial Quarters by the Tiber.=--We have said that Rome
was not primarily an industrial or commercial city. A million and
a half people cannot, however, exist without a great deal of local
manufacturing and an elaborate organization for importing staples and
luxuries. If we go down the Vicus Tuscus or some other streets leading
near the Tiber and toward the southern part of the city, the fine
mansions grow fewer, the insulæ become more squalid, and even these
last are interspersed with dingy structures of concrete which by the
noise and smells proceeding thence are obviously factories.
These industrial plants are for the most part small according to the
standards of another age; there is also a marked absence of complicated
machinery and a conspicuous dependence simply on patient man-power; but
some establishments are really on a great scale. The noble House of
Afer, for example, has a practical monopoly of the brick industry.[129]
Its products are used all over the city, as may be proved by the name
stamped on almost every brick, and in the Afer yards and kilns are
employed several thousands of slaves and free workers.
=211. Conditions of Industrial Labor.=--Slave labor has crowded
free labor hard but has not actually destroyed it. You can never get
quite the same efficiency from a “speaking tool” as from a man to
whom life affords honest prospects. Furthermore, the supply of slaves
is unsteady. While the legions were overrunning helpless kingdoms, it
was easy enough to buy a hundred more hands for your pottery works or
metal factory; but now the campaigns of Trajan (the last period, it
will prove, of the great conquests) are over. There are barely enough
prisoners in the slave market at present to provide a fair supply of
servants.
There are other drawbacks to servile labor: though a slave worker
cannot “strike” against terms of employment, his employer cannot cease
to feed and clothe him during slack times, when he will gladly lay
off free labor. As a result the average industry employs slaves and
free men side by side; the latter are a little more self-sufficient,
but seemingly they do not object to having slaves as fellow workmen.
In any case the hours of labor are long and the conditions hard. A
denarius (16 cents) is apparently wages enough to provide an artisan
with a few rooms in a dingy insula and to keep his wife and children
from starvation--especially if they can get the government grain doles;
greater reward he dares seldom to demand.
=212. Great Trade through Ostia and the Campanian Ports.=--But
Rome, as stated, imports more articles than she manufactures. The
commerce from the interior of Italy, down the Tiber and along the
main roads from the north, the Via Cassia and the Via Flaminia, is
not of first importance--mostly garden produce, stone, and timber.
Not so that from Ostia, the harbor town, or that coming by the famous
southern highways, the Via Appia and the Via Latina. Navigation along
the Italian coast to Ostia has its dangerous features, and a great
many merchants try to unlade at such south-Latin ports as Antium or
preferably at the busy harbor of Puteoli in Campania. The result is
that the southern roads are often black with great trains of heavy
wagons bumping over the hard pavement all the hundred and fifty odd
miles from Puteoli to Rome. However, a very large fraction of the
entire commerce of Rome passes up the Tiber from Ostia, and is set down
on those long arrays of wharves southwest of the Aventine, known as the
Emporium.
=213. The Emporium and Its Wharves: the Tiber Barges.=--The
Emporium is not the most beautiful section of Rome, but it is one
of the most important. From its murk and bustle many a lordly eques
is swung away every night in his litter for the quiet, aristocratic
Quirinal or Esquiline; but it is the Emporium trade which makes
possible his great mansion with its hierarchy of soft-footed slaves. To
reach the Emporium we go down the Vicus Tuscus past the upper end of
the tall gray masses of the far-stretching Circus Maximus, then turn
down narrow lanes where the Aventine crowds closely toward the Tiber.
Immediately the river opens before us with a scene of teeming life.
We are now below all the regular bridges and at the head of deep-sea
navigation. In truth the Tiber is too shallow and uncertain a river
to be very practical for large ships, even of the Græco-Roman type.
Only small vessels, mostly of the coasting variety, come up to Rome on
direct voyages. But the regular procedure is to unload the deep-sea
craft at Ostia and then bring up their lading along the twenty odd
miles of the crooked river, in light-draft barges. These barges--some
worked by long oars, some towed by their crews walking along the
shore--are constantly coming and going. To-day as every day the river
is alive with them, and many others are moored closely, prow following
stern, all along the magnificent stone embankments which serve as quays.
Approaching one of these ungainly flat-bottomed craft, we see it has a
little cabin on the poop, and its name, the “Isis of Geminus,”[130]
is marked in large red letters upon the black hull. The captain is
now standing by the mooring cable passed through a sculptured lion’s
mouth, directing a great gang of porters carrying sacks of grain
down a bank to the wharf, where Geminus, the owner himself, assisted
by a government clerk carefully checks off every sack upon their
bills of lading. A little scrutiny reveals that while all kinds of
commodities abound on the Emporium two take wide precedence over all
others--_grain_, from Egypt and provincial Africa; and _marble_, from
Numidia, Greece, and Asia Minor.
[Illustration: RIVER BOAT LOADED WITH HOGSHEADS OF
WINE.]
=214. The Marble and Grain Trades.=--The marble trade, indeed,
demands a special section of the wharves. For the government buildings
the imperial procurators in the marble-producing provinces are
constantly sending in valuable cargoes, and for monolithic columns and
extra large blocks specially constructed barges are used to bring them
from Ostia. Even now a great labor gang is painfully disembarking a
splendid column of Egyptian porphyry for the new Temple of Venus and
Rome.
Behind the Emporium stretches an ugly complex of offices, warehouses,
porters’ barracks, and the like, but most conspicuous and ugly of all
are the public _horrea_. These are tall gaunt storehouses for the
keeping of grain, enormous fabrics of dull gray concrete, “elevators”
in fact, carefully maintained by the government for the victualing of
the capital. There are said to be more than three hundred horrea, and
the largest are named for the emperors who built them--the Horreum of
Augustus, of Domitian, and the like. Thousands of men are employed
around them, and the state of their contents can give anxious nights to
the Imperial Council. Unlovely as they seem, they are vital to the life
of Rome.
It is no small task to provide grain for so huge a city, and that, too,
without the aid of railways or steamships. Even a top-lofty Emperor
like Domitian can fear the howls of the crowds in the circus if the
price of wheat becomes high and the customary free distributions are
not forthcoming. Hence these horrea must be large enough to supply
a large margin against possible delay in the annual arrival of the
“Alexandrian” or “African” fleets on which the provisioning of the
capital depends.
=215. The Public Grain Doles.=--All the world knows that one of
the most precious prerogatives of a plebeian in Rome is the right to
receive about 5 _modii_ (about 10 gallons dry measure) of grain
every month at government charges. Is it not only right that the
wearers of the toga should live on the bounty of the subject world?
In the past there have been, indeed, efforts to make the populace pay
_part_ of the price of their grain, with the government simply
discharging the balance. This half measure has broken down because of
unpopularity. All that the authorities can do now is to see that the
list of recipients is limited to genuine citizens, and that the alien
riffraff of the great city is strictly excluded.
[Illustration: DISTRIBUTING BREAD.]
There are now, as since the time of Augustus, about 200,000 citizens
upon the precious “Frumentary Lists.” The recipients are not paupers,
but include very many “small citizens” of the worthier kind. It is
an honor in many circles to win the precious _tessera_ (metal or
bone ticket) entitling one to stand in line at the numerous grain
dispensaries all over the city and get the monthly allowance.[131]
Every adult male Roman in the city receives this privilege, but under
some circumstances the tessera can be alienated. You hear of persons
selling theirs or even bequeathing them by will; and some of the
holders are thus not merely freedmen but even ex-criminals.
=216. Distribution of the Free Bread: Extraordinary Bonuses
(_Congiaria_ and _Donativa_).=--For a long time this food has simply
been portioned out unbaked at the numerous grain stations all over the
city; after which it has to be made into bread at home, or to be handed
over to private bakers who will return so many loaves per measure,
deducting a commission in kind. There is a growing tendency, however,
towards government bakeshops as a new means of pampering the “Sovereign
People” and towards passing out the food in the form of handsomely
baked bread.
The custom nevertheless is not yet universal.[132] The private bakeries
continue to flourish, and since each baker must grind his own flour,
no sound is more common all over the city than the rasping of the
millstones worked either by long-suffering donkeys, blindfolded to
keep them from eating, or by the most recalcitrant and sodden class of
slaves.
These distributions of free grain are part of the normal life of Rome.
Inevitably they multiply the number of parasites, busybodies, and sheer
beggars. Ever since Gaius Gracchus started the evil system, thoughtful
men have groaned over its consequences, but all have been helpless, and
the demoralization increases when an Emperor, to insure popularity at
the beginning of his reign, or to confirm it later, orders a special
_congiarium_ to all the citizens.
[Illustration: OVEN AND GRIST MILL IN A BAKERY.
_After Von Falke._]
This gift can take the form of special distributions of oil, wine,
and meat to all the lucky holders of the tesseræ; but presents even
more lavish are possible. When Trajan died in 118 A.D. and Hadrian was
proclaimed, the latter, not quite certain of public favor, put all the
insulæ to roaring in his praise by proclaiming a gift of three aurei
(gold pieces of $4.00 each) to every “frumentary citizen” in Rome. What
wonder that later _donativa_ (bonuses) become necessary at dangerously
frequent intervals to prevent even the most loyal plebeians from
praying for a new reign![133]
=217. The Trade in Sculptures and Portrait Statues.=--But it
is time to return to the region about the Emporium. Near the marble
wharves are naturally the huge establishments where all the day long
the chip, chip of many mallets and chisels indicates that great masses
of sculptured stone are being turned out--magnificent capitals,
pediment groups, bas-reliefs that are splendid works of art, for all
the needs of the government buildings and the mansions of the wealthy.
Many large concerns devote themselves to manufacturing single statues,
life-size or miniature. Standing around in their courtyards are rows
of sculptured deities, mostly copies of good Greek masterpieces,
representing the whole host of Olympus from Jupiter down to the
inferior demigods; there are also numerous statues displaying orators
posing in their togas, magistrates in their official robes, and
generals in their armor, but with the features left in the rough--to be
finished up on order at short notice to adorn some atrium or small-town
forum.
A great array of statues of the Emperor are also kept in stock. These
are needed in every government building, and the demand is constant;
but it must be admitted that Hadrian’s handsome bearded features are
often outrageously distorted by the careless journeymen, so that loyal
folk protest even as does the governor of Pontus, Arrianus, who has
just written his master, “Your statue at Trapezus [on the Euxine] is
beautifully placed, but it is not the least like you. Please send on
another at once from Rome!”
Special markets and warehouses also exist for almost every other
major commodity. Near the Circus Maximus there is the noisy, fetid
cattle market where horses, kine, and asses change hands amid coarse
chaffering very much as in the trade for slaves. There are likewise
great repositories for oil, flax, lumber, wool, spices, etc.--some
private, some under government supervision; the clang from all kinds
of smithies and metal workshops is incessant, and the factories for
manufacturing bronze statues are almost as large as those for the stone
sculptures.
[Illustration: ENVIRONS OF ROME]
=218. The Tiber Trip to Ostia: the Merchant Shipping.=--If, however,
one would learn the real sum of Roman industry and commerce, it is
needful to charter a slim swiftly-pulling wherry and to glide down
the yellow Tiber to Ostia. All the way the craft has to dodge the
enormous barges, but the shores are covered with delightful villas,
small villages, or with prosperous farms raising poultry, flowers,
vegetables, and the like for the city trade. In the distance across the
level campagna can be seen the impressive array of the solemn arches of
the great aqueducts, reaching back into the hills and bringing their
supply of pure water to Rome. Ostia itself, however, is strictly a
harbor town, with an elaborate series of breakwaters, dredged basins,
naval docks, mercantile docks, and a perfect jumble of shipping.
The vessels have come from all parts of the Mediterranean, and there
is even a battered trader that has coasted all the way from Britain
with a cargo of tin ore. The smaller craft can trust sometimes to their
oars in a calm, but all the larger must depend on their unwieldy lateen
sails which swing from two or three long yards crossing as many masts.
By far the largest merchantmen are the Egyptian corn ships, and one
of these, that is just being moved to the quay by a gang of shouting
half-naked stevedores, is of somewhat unusual size. We are informed she
is fully 180 feet long and 45 feet in beam.[134] She is provided with
elaborate and decidedly comfortable cabins for many passengers, so that
it is easy to believe the story that when the Jew Paullus (previously
mentioned) on his compulsory trip to Rome was wrecked off Malta, 276
persons were rescued from the Alexandrian merchantman whereon he and
his guards had embarked.
=219. Imperial Naval Vessels.=--At Ostia, too, can be seen a few
triremes of the Imperial Navy. Enemies to the Roman dominion have
practically disappeared from the seas, but there is still a certain
danger of pirates or local insurrection; therefore, although the clumsy
four- and five-bankers of the Punic War periods disappeared soon after
the battle of Actium, small patrol squadrons of swift triremes, pulling
about 170 oars, or of smaller craft are maintained by the government.
These ships are extremely like the Athenian triremes of the golden age
of Greece and call for no special description here.[135] The Romans are
not naturally a seafaring people. Nearly all the larger merchant ships
are manned if not owned by Greeks or Levantines; and it has been with
real satisfaction that the Emperors have felt that they could allow
their navy to dwindle down to insignificance. With the army, as will be
seen, things are very different.[136]
=220. The Harbor Town of Ostia.=--Ostia has all the accompaniments
of a busy port: a great mass of squalid lodging-houses for sailors,
innumerable taverns overrun with dirty loiterers of both sexes, a
great many uncouth faces along the quays, ear-ringed Syrians, and even
quaintly jabbering negroes. There are, however, some good houses for
the rich merchants and directors of the shipping, and a forum flanked
with handsome temples and government buildings befitting the harbor
town of the Mistress of the World.
In the outskirts of Ostia one can quickly get out into delightful
country stretching all along the seashore. The villas of city magnates
look forth upon the blue Tyrrhenian Sea, or are bowered in lush
groves surrounded by rich gardens and fruitful orchards. The melons
raised around Ostia are in demand by every epicure in the capital.
Who can believe a prophecy that this active bustling port, with its
enormous shipping, and all these villas, groves, and gardens will
some day vanish like a dream, and that Ostia will lie in a desolate
fever-stricken country,--with hardly a house in sight along the
deserted shores, and with the harbor town of the Eternal City reduced
itself to a few miserable cabins?
=221. The Roman Guilds (_Collegia_).=--Ere turning one’s glance from
the economic life of Rome it is needful to regard the organization of
industry. Nearly all free workmen are members of “guilds” (_collegia_)
which nominally exist for the purpose of worshiping some patron deity;
thus the bakeries are the special votaries of Vesta the hearth goddess,
the fullers of Minerva the protectress of wool-working, the smiths of
Vulcan, and so with others.
These “colleges” are not labor unions for the protection of the
wage-earners against exploitation; they are more like the guilds that
are to be developed in the Middle Ages. The chief members are the
employing “masters,” and paid journeymen and apprentices have little
share in the control of the organization. However, most industries in
Rome are on so small a scale and the situation is so complicated by the
competition of slave labor that the friction between wage-earners and
their employers seldom becomes dangerously acute.
The trade guilds are carefully watched by the government lest they
become the hotbeds of sedition and disturbing intrigue,[137] on the
other hand their existence is often useful in helping to mobilize
industry in behalf of the army and to keep up the public works in
general.
They have a fairly tight organization, with their own officials,
“prætors” and “presidents,” and the like, and the election to such
a post by one’s fellow craftsmen is no slight honor. The guilds,
too, have their special corporate property; and many of them possess
elaborate guild halls for their feasts and meetings.
=222. Very Ancient Guilds: the Flute-Blowers.=--Some of the colleges
are of decidedly recent origin, but eight of them boast that their
history goes back to the very early days of Rome. These are the
fullers, cobblers, carpenters, goldsmiths, coppersmiths, dyers,
potters, and last but not least, the flute-blowers, so important at
funerals and all public festivals.
From the “good old times” come many quaint stories about these
guilds, and everybody remembers especially the tale concerning the
flute-blowers. About 314 B.C. the censors saw fit to forbid these
somewhat riotous and irregular gentry from joining in the sacred
banquets to Jupiter in which they had formerly participated. In anger
the whole college struck and retired in dudgeon to the friendly city
of Tibur. Soon the Senate found it difficult to conduct the religious
rites properly without the aid of the flute-players, and endeavored to
cajole them home, but the strikers had found their fare and quarters
in Tibur very pleasant and refused any reasonable terms. The people of
Tibur, however, wearied of their guests and to get rid of them gave
the whole corporation a generous banquet, during which all the members
became so drunk that they could be loaded into wagons, trundled back
to Rome and then laid down in a helpless stupor in the very Forum. The
next morning the entire guild awoke, rubbed its collective eyes and
found a vast crowd of jeering friends pressing around. The result was
an honorable compromise. The censors relented, and the flute-players,
in return for giving solemn attention to their religious duties, were
awarded the right to three days of high carnival, with songs, dances,
and every kind of coarse gayety.
=223. Importance of the Guilds.=--The complete list of the guilds
is very long. Besides those mentioned, among the more prominent are the
barbers, perfumers, fruit sellers, garment cutters, pack carriers, mule
drivers, gig drivers, and fishermen, not to mention the great guild
of the bakers. There is as yet no formal compulsion upon a craftsman
to join a college, but in fact any “non-union” workman is subject
to discrimination and sabotage which make his life unhappy. Cases
are known of funerals being halted amid an unseemly scuffle when a
non-member of the guild of bier-carriers has been discovered helping to
carry the litter for the dead.
Certain crafts have perforce to be distributed all over the city but
inevitably fellow guildsmen like to flock together. In the industrial
quarters each craft tries to concentrate upon a certain street which is
then called by its name. Well known is the case of how Catiline’s gang
had its rendezvous at Marcus Læcas’s house on Scythemaker’s Street.
There is no annual “labor day” when all the guild members of the city
hold festival together. On the contrary each college has its own
separate festival, when the united craft is entitled to parade through
Rome with horns, pipes, cymbals, and gaudy banners; its officers
appearing in the guise of magistrates. The whole company with their
families ordinarily head for the outskirts, where, beside convenient
temples and hospitable taverns, the good people can spread themselves
for picnics under the trees, join in vulgar dances, and very often
spend the night under improvised tents of leaves--everybody sleeping
the sounder because of much strong wine.
=224. Multitude of Beggars.=--To these honest plebeians must be
added another less noble multitude. Rome literally swarms with beggars.
The parasitical habits taught by slavery and by the grain doles go
far to make begging somewhat respectable. At every turn you can run
on whining wretches often repulsively mutilated in order to excite
sympathy. They have their regular stand, however, upon the bridges,
where they crouch on dirty mats shouting their “_da! da!_” “Give!
Give!” and at the gates where travelers take or leave their carriages
they are thicker than the flies. Near Ostia and along the Emporium
may also be seen real or pretended sailors escaped from shipwreck,
identifiable by their heads, which are shaven because of vows made in
peril, and who hold out their caps for coppers while “delighting in
garrulous ease to tell the story of their perils.”
Downright thieves, professional robbers, and petty pilferers are held
in reasonable restraint by the active police, but the absence of street
lights makes it risky business to go about after dark without torches
and a good escort. Serious burglaries are often reported, and every
now and then the body is found of some wayfarer who was stabbed while
resisting a hold-up. As for certain districts going down the river
toward Ostia, or along the Via Appia toward the Pomptine Marshes, their
reputation is so bad that even in daylight a company of armed slaves is
desirable.