Gabriele Cifani - The Origins of the Roman Economy: From the Iron Age to the Early Republic in a Mediterranean Perspective

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Valentinae

This book represents an expanded version of the six lectures that I had the pleasure and privilege of giving as visiting professor at the cole normale suprieure in Paris in the autumn of 2016.

In conception, however, the book started much earlier, during an Alexander von Humboldt Fellowship at the Freie Universitt of Berlin in 2005, while I was preparing a monograph on archaic Roman architecture.

At that time I found the majority of the explanations for the rise of Rome between the eighth and fourth centuries BC unsatisfactory, out of date, stereotypical and highly speculative, based as they were on simple agriculture and pastoralism or the need to plunder nearby communities or to respond to social struggles within the civic body, with very little attention paid to long-term transformations or evidence of production and trade in the Roman community itself.

Further material was collected in 2006 and 2007 during a Marie Curie Fellowship in the Department of Archaeology at the University of Cambridge, where I also discussed many issues with Simon Stoddart and Graeme Barker.

In the following years, I examined aspects of this research in many seminars and lectures, thanks also to rising interest in the topic, perhaps not unrelated to the economic crisis which has affected the western world in the last decade.

In April 2010, a joint seminar on the economy of early Rome with Professor Tim Cornell at the Institute of Classical Archaeology in London was a great opportunity to review some of the problematic evidence of the research period, particularly with Professors David Ridgway and Michael Crawford.

In May 2012, a workshop at the British School of Rome provided an occasion for debate with Carmine Ampolo (Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa), Christopher Smith (University of St Andrews), Luigi Capogrossi Colognesi (University of Rome La Sapienza), Fiorenzo Catalli (Ministero dei Beni Culturali), Maurizio Bettini (University di Siena) and Cristiano Viglietti (University of Siena) on many issues related to archaic economies.

Thereafter, in May 2015, two seminars on archaic Rome organised at Warsaw University presented a rare opportunity to discuss matters with Professors Adam Zikowski and Benedetto Bravo, whose criticisms on archaic Mediterranean history and society were an invaluable source of stimuli for reflection.

In addition, it would be unfair not to recall the instructive dialogue on the history and archaeology of the archaic Mediterranean which I have enjoyed with a large number of friends and colleagues over many years.

I am, therefore, particularly pleased to be able to thank the following for both criticism and information: Andrea Carandini (University of Rome La Sapienza), Giovanni Colonna (Accademia dei Lincei), Mario Torelli (Accademia dei Lincei), Mario Mazza (Accademia dei Lincei), Michel Gras (Centre national de la recherche scientifique, CNRS), Martin Bentz (University of Bonn), Adolf Borbein (Freie Universitt Berlin), Christopher Pare (University of Mainz), Paolo Carafa (University of Rome La Sapienza), Marijke Gnade (University of Amsterdam), Clementina Panella (University of Rome La Sapienza), Alessandro Naso (University of Napoli Federico II), Piero Alfredo Gianfrotta (University of Tuscia, Viterbo), Fernando Gilotta (University of Campania Luigi Vanvitelli), Andrea Zifferero (University of Siena), Ramsay MacMullen (Yale University), Nicola Terrenato (University of Michigan), Marco Maiuro (University of Rome La Sapienza), Luca Alessandri (University of Groningen), Francesca Romana Fiano (Rome), Antonio Ferrandes (University of Rome La Sapienza), Andrea Babbi (Romano-Germanic Central Museum, Mainz), Enrico Benelli (Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, CNR), Francesca Boitani (Ministero dei Beni Culturali), Alessandro Corretti (Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa), Lucio Fiorini (University of Perugia), Helga Di Giuseppe (Rome), Geoffrey Kron (University of Victoria), Eero Jarva (University of Oulu), Alexandra Villing (British Museum, London), Francesco di Gennaro (Ministero dei Beni Culturali), Anna De Santis (Ministero dei Beni Culturali), Alessandro Guidi (Roma Tre University), Alessandro Bettelli (CNR), Marco Pacciarelli (University of Napoli Federico II), Massimo Botto (CNR), Vincenzo Bellelli (CNR), Francesca Mermati (Ministero dei Beni Culturali), Joachim Weidig (Albert-Ludwigs-Universitt Freiburg), Joachim Heiden (Deutsche Archologische Institut, Abteilung Athen), Nicolas L. J. Meunier (Universit Saint-Louis Bruxelles), Jacopo De Grossi Mazzorin (University of Salento), Claudia Minniti (University of Salento), Eugenio Cerilli (Roma), Letizia Ceccarelli (Polytechnic University of Milano), Angelo Amoroso (Roma), Alessandro Delfino (Rome) and Tersilio Leggio (Rieti).