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ancient roman jobs

Ancient Roman Religion and Beliefs - A sacrificial ceremony in front of the Pantheon

We look at the wide variety of Ancient Roman jobs, which were pretty much those you expect today, possibly with the exception of computing (I jest).

If you wish to discuss feel free to enter our Ancient Roman jobs Forum alternatively cut straight to our table list of Roman jobs.

Everyone had a specific role in ancient roman society and as such you could say they had a "job". A basic understanding of ancient roman jobs requires an understanding of the breakdown of the strict class system of Roman society.

Venus in bed with Mars  - even the gods had a role

The class system itself changed over the course of Rome's long history and as a consequence so too did the roles of the members of society. For example, in the earliest days of the city the job of priests and priestesses was both religious and legal in nature (the gods dictated what was right or wrong). Later in time their work was increasingly confined to the spiritual domain, as spiritual as practical Romans could be. A similar trend can be seen with the Senators. In the mean time, the Emperors powers were increasingly concentrated on a single person. 

The rich nobility, called Patricians, traditionally focused their wealth on land ownership and farming. Where the Patricians really made their initial family wealth was from the funding of military enterprises from which they then reaped a share of the loot. This share they would then invest into purchasing further agricultural land for their estates.

The estates were managed by ruthless middle class farm managers who lorded life and death over small armies of slaves. This caused an enormous social division in land ownership and greatly limited the plebeians' access to wealth. Social struggle was an inevitable consequence and not surprisingly resulted in the murder of the Gracchi brothers who nevertheless managed to introduce important land reforms, later upheld and promoted by the likes of Julius Caesar.

Mercantile trade was seen as being below the status of the Patricians and was therefore carried out through middle class intermediaries referred to as "clients". At various times of the empire different laws were made regulating the  ownership of mercantile sea vessels.

So if the Patricians were limited to governing and enjoying the benefits of war plunder who did the everyday work? And what was the nature of this work? In order to answer these questions it is useful to take a broad look at Roman history:

The ancient Romans of the early days were first and foremost austere warriors descended from sheep farmer settlements which appropriated themselves of their neighbors' salt trade. As the military and political strength of Rome grew it took over the trades and markets of its neighbors, such as the agriculture and metal trades of the Etruscans to the north and the Greek colonies to the south and in Sicily. Eventually Rome took over all the Mediterranean trade from the Carthaginians and pirates.

This expansionist attitude concentrated trade into Rome itself and as a consequence the various forums were built to keep step with the different trades. The roman forum gradually became institutional and shops moved into other forums: you might get meat at the forum Boarium, oil at the forum Olitarium and so on. The Forum Boarium is an interesting example because it started as a meat and cattle market, by the shipping area on the Tiber. In the early days meat and cattle was an important trading good. Surprise surprise the Forum Boarium later became an area for money lenders and banking. Testimony of this is found in the Argentari arch: the arch of the money lenders, built by the Cattle and the Banking guilds together in honour of the emperor and his family.

Together with the increased concentration of wealth and trade the expansion of Rome's dominions brought a huge number of slaves into the city. Slaves were literally traded in lots of several hundreds or thousands!

The result of this was that it was far cheaper to purchase and maintain a slave than it was to pay a plebeian a wage. Consequently many plebeians were jobless and heavily depended on the social well-fare which the Gracchi brothers had first introduced.

This generally took the form of cheap grain and bread but in some occasions also took the form of monetary donations. Nero was a lover of these monetary gifts to the people although it didn't help him much in the end.

Slaves on the other hand could at least aspire to something better. Many were extremely well educated or able in the greatest variety of tasks which they had undertaken in their homelands. A good cook or medic was without price. It wasn't long before they took over the looking after of children, running of homes, shops, banks, schools and so on.

Obviously it wasn't a bed of roses and slaves were frequently mistreated or left to die if ill. As an example of their hardships, evidence from Pompeii blatantly demonstrates how normal it would be for a Patrician villa to have a back entrance from which one or more of their female slaves might be offered as prostitutes. Fancy that as a cottage business! 

It was only later in time that laws were written to safeguard the well-being of slaves partly for moral reasons but mostly because of the realisation that they were of structural importance to the empire's economy

Given that slaves, particularly city slaves, could aspire to some education, putting money aside, winning back their freedom and even climbing the social ladder, it wasn't unheard of for poor plebeians to sell themselves or their children into slavery so that they might have a chance in (future) life.

So what of ancient roman jobs? Frescos, paintings and sculptural reliefs as well as archeological findings tell us much about their breadth and variety. Construction tools, architects instruments for measurement and planning, chisels, axes, cranes and bridges, money lenders, shops, fast food restaurants, mercantile trades across continents and gambling all went on with a steady pace.

Then there were the many jobs in public offices. Whole office blocks were created in the basilicas of the forums and filled with lawyers and bureaucrats to run services such as the road networks. Last but not least we shouldn't forget those jobs many dreamt of but few managed to do well: acting, chariot racing and even fighting as gladiators. Women, knights and commoners in need of money all had a tussle with the criminals, slaves and  war prisoners in order to win rich sums of money and be admired by the public in perfect reflection of life out of the arena. A champion charioteer could become a millionaire.

A picture of Roman CavalryPerhaps there is one job which should not be forgotten: that of the professional soldier. The growing need of good soldiers to fill the legions coupled with the social disorders created by the influx of slaves into the job market of ancient rome general Marius had a great brainwave: create a professional army and attract the plebs with a soldiers' pay.

So there we have it, priests and priestesses, bakers, architects, engineers, builders, medics, bureaucrats, lawyers and judges, shop keepers, bankers and oriental carpet sellers. They were all there and traded pretty much as you would today. But without a computer.

Roman Jobs List

This list of Roman jobs is by no means exhaustive, but it's a start. Feel free to write to our Roman jobs Forum with any queries or ideas you may have!

Given the strong accent on class structure in Roman society we have chosen to take a first somplified approach by subdividing Roman jobs by class, perhaps a further improvement would be to subdivid further by sex and age also. The jobs shown in the table are in themselves general classes of job, for example "trade" or "politics". Each of these classes can be further subdivided, and we will endeavour to do so with time:

Slaves Plebeians/Liberti Patricians Clients
Household jobs Farming Politics Banking and money lending
Farming Military Prostitution Commerce and trading
Medicine Trading Writing, literature and arts  
Teaching Prostitution Gladiator  
Shopkeeping and trading Politics Very large scale animal rearing or land tenancy  
Prostitution Arts Construction (as investors)  
Arts Gladiator/Charioteer Military  
Gladiator/Charioteer Fireman Religion  
Fireman Fishing Law  
Fishing Management    
Construction Construction    
Religion Religion    

A number of these Roman jobs carried a variety of social stigmas, for example here are a few curiosities:

Roman Jobs Forum

Roman jobs forum: feel free to share your thoughts. If you need a personal response then please include your email address - personal addresses won't be published as the entries are checked by mediators.

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Ancient Roman Jobs Forum



This is an open Forum in which to raise ideas, questions and opinions regarding ancient Roman jobs. It also drives further work and research on our behalf to continuously improve the information in these pages for your benefit and for others with an active interest in ancient Roman jobs.

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"ancient roman jobs" was written by Giovanni Milani-Santarpia for www.mariamilani.com - Rome apartments