Occupations: The Non-Elite

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Occupations: The Non-Elite

Working Lives. The elite senatorial and equestrian orders, and later the imperial court, added up to a relatively small proportion of the whole population of Rome and the Roman Empire. Most of the population worked in the growing, building, moving, service, and military operations required to make the Roman world function on a daily basis. They worked at their jobs, receiving wages or barter as compensation. They formed unions, groups, and clubs. They went to religious services and to entertaining spectacles. The quality of life for them and for their families varied as much as it does in any modern country.

Slaves. Although barred from the elite orders, political office, and the military, slaves could otherwise hold nearly any occupation. Because many slaves came as prisoners of war, they often would take on jobs comparable to what they had done before the Roman conquest. The Romans were perfectly willing to use huge amounts of slave labor in brutal conditions, but fortunate, skilled, and educated slaves could hold fairly powerful managerial and authoritative jobs. Tutors were generally slaves. Property managers and accountants were often slaves. Because many free citizens also did such jobs, slaves and free persons could work side by side, even under the authority of another slave.

Manual Labor and Craftsmanship. Elite Romans expressed disdain for many types of professions. While they idealized the rustic farming life, they mostly scorned jobs requiring manual labor. Even labor involving considerable skill and intelligence could still be viewed as demeaning. Painters and sculptors, for example, were lower-class occupations. Wealthy Romans would willingly praise a painting, sculpture, or mosaic, but give the credit to the patron who commissioned and paid for it, rather than the artist who created it. This attitude does not mean, of course, that the artists and workers themselves shared this attitude toward themselves and their work. Evidence suggests that they took pride in their own work and in themselves despite the condescension of snobbish Romans. Artists and craftsmen often signed their works, partly as advertising for their skills but also as a mark of pride.

Labor Unions and Clubs. People who worked in the same occupation in the same community naturally associated together and organized, though one cannot always know now just how formal or organized such groups were. The clearest evidence for labor groups are the election notices at places such as Pompeii. Many inscriptions and remains of painted signs saying that a certain group of workers supports a particular candidate for a given office have been found. “All the carpenters ask you to elect Cuspius Pansa as aedile,” says one, while

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another says, “All the fisherman say ‘Elect Popidius Rufus as aedile.’” No one knows know how a group of workers agreed to such endorsements nor exactly what a candidate might have done to secure it. No one has evidence that such groups used collective bargaining to negotiate contracts, as modern labor unions do. Working-class people might also belong to a funeral-club (funeraticum collegium). Funerals could be expensive, so a club would form. Members would pay a fee and regular dues. The club then paid for, and attended, the member’s funeral. Funeral-clubs also met at monthly dinners to pay dues, which provided a regular social occasion as well. In places or times of civil unrest, Roman governors would be suspicious of clubs and unions, fearing they would support revolution. Even a group of firefighters might be seen a potential source of danger!

Soldiers. Military service in the early days of Rome fell to those wealthy enough to supply their own provisions, weapons, armor, and anything else required (for example, a horse, if the soldier was in the cavalry). Military service was required for advanced command or for high political office. Gradually, as conquests and expansion continued, the army grew and the Romans recruited from a broader spectrum of the population. In the first century B.C.E., Gaius Marius finally removed entirely the property requirement for enlisting. Henceforth, military pay and provisions for retired veterans became crucial economic issues, for a discontented army could wreak havoc in the political realm. The army provided huge economic boons when it captured and returned booty from conquests. An army also became an economic asset during times of peace, when they could be used on construction projects.