People, Plagues, and Prices in the Roman World: The ......803 People, Plagues, and Prices in the Roman World: The Evidence from Egypt KYLE HARPER 7KH SDS\UL RI 5RPDQ (J\SW SURYLGH

$Page 1: People, Plagues, and Prices in the Roman World: The ......803 People, Plagues, and Prices in the Roman World: The Evidence from Egypt KYLE HARPER 7KH SDS\UL RI 5RPDQ (J\SW SURYLGH$
803

People, Plagues, and Prices in the Roman World: The Evidence from Egypt

KYLE HARPER

T

The Journal of Economic History

readers of this JOURNAL

Harper

Roman Egypt provides a unique opportunity to deepen our understanding

extensive

3 The empire integrated different regions of

3

People Plagues, and Prices in the Roman World

Smithian

Schumpeterian

Harper

timing and direction

8

of Yersinia pestis

8


0

1000000

2000000

3000000

4000000

5000000

6000000

100 200 300 400 500 600

Year

FIGURE 1

Source

Harper808


denarius

Harper

solidus in the

Most papyri of the

sesterces and denarii antoninianus denarii


MAP 1

Harper


TABLE 1

Period Rents

3

30

Source

Harper

denarius

solidus

TABLE 2

Source


denariussolidus

artabai per solidus

expressed in Egyptian drachmai per artaba

artaba drachmaidrachmai artaba

drachmai artabadrachmai artaba

not

drachmai artaba drachmai artaba drachmaiartaba

drachmai artaba drachmai artaba

drachmai

drachmai

Harper

R2 = 0.06412

0.00

5.00

10.00

15.00

20.00

25.00

- 50 100 150 200 250 300 Year

Antonine Plague

Plague of Cyprian

R2=.00009

FIGURE 2DRACHMAI ARTABA

Source


drachmai artaba drachmaiartaba

denarii

denarii artaba

solidus

denariussolidi

100

1000

10000

100000

1000000

10000000

300 310 320 330 340 350 360 370Year

FIGURE 3 DENARII ARTABA

Source

drachmai artaba

Harper

solidusartaba

artabaisolidus

0.00

2.00

4.00

6.00

8.00

10.00

12.00

14.00

16.00

350 400 450 500 550 600 650Year

FIGURE 4

Source


Roman denarius denarius

drachma artaba

denarius

TABLE 3

n solidus

Source

even though

Harper

In

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

100 200 300 400 500 600 700Year

Antonine Plague

Plague of Cyprian

Justinianic Plague

FIGURE 5

Source


drachmai per aroura for the

denariidenarii aroura

denarii arouradenarii

solidi

drachmai arouradrachmai aroura

drachma

drachmai aroura

FIGURE 6

Source

Harper

before the

R = 0.02555

R = 0.05048

R = 0.84259

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

160

180

100 200 300 400 500 600 700Year

Antonine Plague Plague of Cyprian

Justinianic Plague

FIGURE 7

Source


unskilled

one

30

30

Harper

33

FIGURE 8

Source

Epistulae Vita Joannis Eleemosynarii episcopi AlexandriniLife of Abba Daniel of Scetis

33


drachmai

that these are daily

drachmai

Harper

metrematiaioi oiketai

Even though the metrema-tiaioi

Didymos Patron 1Patron 2

Patron 3

Gemellus

Titanianus AppianusHerakleides

Memphite

-5

5

15

25

35

45

55

50 100 150 200 250 300

Antonine Plague

Plague of Cyprian

FIGURE 9

Source

oiketaioiketai

metrematiaioi drachmai metrematiaioi

drachmai drachmaidrachmai


de facto

R = 0.22703

0.00

5.00

10.00

15.00

20.00

25.00

100 200 300 400 500 600 700

Daily

Monthly

Yearly

Antonine Plague

Plague of Cyprian

Justinianic Plague

FIGURE 10

Source

Harper

Novella

contractual not

artabai solidus


38

artaba per aroura

drachmai arouradrachmai aroura

artabai aroura

38

relative

Harper830

drachmai

only

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

100 200 300 400 500 600Year

Antonine Plague Justinianic Plague

FIGURE 11

Source


0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

100 200 300 400 500 600 700Year

Justinianic PlaguePlague of Cyprian

Antonine Plague

FIGURE 12

Source

Harper

both and

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

16

100 200 300 400 500 600 700Year

Antonine Plague Plague of Cyprian Justinianic Plague

FIGURE 13

Source

People Plagues, and Prices in the Roman World 833

Harper

Appendix 1: Note on Accessing the Primary Sources Used

Quantifying the Roman Economy: Methods and Problems

Debating Roman Demography

Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik

Egypt in Late AntiquityJournal of Roman Archaeology

Reading Papyri, Writing Ancient History


The Oxford Handbook of Papyrology

The Demography of Roman Egypt

The Kellis Agricultural Account Book: (P. Kell. IV Gr. 96)

Atti dell’Accademia romanistica costantiniana: XII Convegno Internazionale sotto l’alto patronato del presidente della repubblica: in onore Di Manilo Sargenti

The Black Death, 1346–1353: A Complete History

Arab ConquestQuantifying the Roman Economy: Methods and

Problems

Journal of Roman Archaeology

Crises and the Roman Empire

L’impatto della ‘peste antonina’

dell’incontro di studio, Roma 1988

Economie

par ses crises

The Periplus Maris Erythraei: Text with Introduction, Translation, and Commentary

Economic History Review

Journal of Economic History

Harper

Tyche. Beiträge zur Alten Geschichte, Papyrologie und Epigraphik

Ancient SocietyThe Cambridge Ancient

History. Vol. 12, The Crisis of Empire, A.D. 193–337

The Cambridge Ancient History. Vol. 12, The Crisis of Empire, A.D. 193–337

OpusPreise, Mieten/Pachten, Kosten und Löhne im römischen

Ägypten bis zum Regierungsantritt Diokletians

The Economy of the Roman Empire: Quantitative Studies

Structure and Scale in the Roman Economy


The Grain Market in the Roman Empire: A Social, Political and Economic Study

The Ancient EconomyThe Cambridge Ancient History. Vol. 11, The High

Empire, A.D. 70–192

In Debating Roman Demography

Journal of World History

Economic History Review

Money of the Incipient Byzantine Empire: (Anastastius I - Justinian I, 491-565)

ChironSlavery in the Late Roman World, AD 275–425



and the Coming of the Dark Ages

Wine, Wealth, and the State in Late Antique Egypt: The House of Apion at Oxyrhynchus

The Demography of Roman Italy: Population Dynamics in an Ancient Conquest Society (201 BCE–14 CE)

Oxford Roman Economy Project: Working Papers,

Byzantine Egypt: Economic Studies

The Later Roman Empire, 284–602: A Social, Economic, and Administrative Survey

Journal of Roman ArchaeologyThe Cambridge

Economic History of the Greco-Roman World

Law and the Rural Economy in the Roman Empire

Crises and the Roman Empire

Plague and the End of Antiquity: The Pandemic of 541–750

secolo d.C.: Atti dell’incontro di studio, Roma 1988

Crescita e declino: studi di storia dell’economia romana

L’impatto della ‘peste antonina’

Rivista di storia economica

Nomisma und Nomismatia: Beiträge zur Geldgeschichte Ägyptens im 6. Jahrhundert n. Chr.

Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik

Settimane di studio - Centro Italiano di studi alto medioevo

Harper838

Journal of Interdisciplinary History

Journal of Interdisciplinary HistoryJournal of

Ancient History and Archaeology Olio e retribuzioni nell’Egitto tardo: (V-VIII d.C.)

Why the West Rules—for Now: The Patterns of History, and What They

NationsHommes et

richesse dans l’empire byzantin (IVe–VIIe Siècle)

Byzantinische Zeitschrift

Journal of Economic History

The Making of Roman India

The Cambridge Classical Journal

Economic Rationalism and Rural Society in Third-Century A.D. Egypt: The Heroninos Archive and the Appianus Estate

Coin

on Coinage and Monetary History, 25.-27.3.1993: A NATO Advanced Research Workshop

Economie antique: prix

The Cambridge Economic History of the Greco-Roman World

Modern World

The Oxford Handbook of Roman Egypt

Landowners and Tenants in Roman Egypt the Social Relations of Agriculture in the Oxyrhynchite Nome



Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient

The Cambridge Companion to the Roman Economy

In L’impatto della peste antonina

The Cambridge Economic History of the Greco-Roman World

Byzantine Empire: A Systematic Survey of Subsistence Crises and Epidemics

The Roman Market Economy

Witness to Holiness: Abba Daniel of Scetis

Journal of Roman Studies

Krise, Rezession, Stagnation?: Der Westen des Römischen Reiches im 3. Jahrhundert N. Chr.

(525/526)

Documents

People, Plagues, and Prices in the Roman World: The ......803 People, Plagues, and Prices in the Roman World: The Evidence from Egypt KYLE HARPER 7KH SDS\UL RI 5RPDQ (J\SW SURYLGH