Society and Economy
Commerce and manufacturing enjoyed a considerable boom. Trade was conducted mainly within the borders of the empire, but the Silk Road and the Indian Ocean routes also extended it to India, Africa, and even China during the Han Dynasty (which closely paralleled the rise and fall of the Roman hegemony in Europe). This long distance trade was focused on luxuries and was conducted mainly through Greek and Asian intermediaries.
Italy became more and more dependent on imports from other parts of the empire—mainly from the East, where the levels of skills far exceeded those of the West. In the East lived the bulk of the population and the majority of the urbanites.
During Rome’s imperial age, the methods by which the ordinary man made a living had changed. Farming or herding animals remained the primary occupation.
In the towns, the number of people—both men and women—engaged in skilled or semiskilled labor steadily increased. But the real growth of urban population came from the influx of country people who had lost their land and their livelihood. They came to town hoping for a better life, but many ended up as beggars.
Another ominous trend in the empire was the increasing social stratification(расслоение) , particularly in the towns of Italy. The rich were more numerous than ever before, and the poor were both more numerous and more miserable. Wealth seems to have become the main qualification for public office.
Slave and Free
The number of slaves climbed sharply in the1st century BCE. Roman legions took over one province after another and made off with the human booty.
The alien slaves were often more educated and better skilled than the native Italians, and slaves from Greece, in particular, brought high prices in the market.
Roman slavery was harsher than had been the case earlier.
The extensive Roman mining industry also depended on slave labor, because this job was so dangerous that few freemen could be lured into it.
Slaves supposedly could own no property of their own; nor could they inherit or bequeath property. The children from a marriage of slaves were automatically the property of the parents’ owners. Despite such treatment, by the 3rd and 4th centuries CE, free persons were increasingly selling themselves into voluntary slavery, which promised them a better material life than freedom could. Sometimes, too, the selfsale was a dodge to avoid the tax, which a free person had to pay but a slave did not.
Gender Relations
The earmark of female status was the far-reaching authority of the father over his daughter and, indeed, over all his familia—defined as wife, children, grandchildren, and household slaves. This patria potestas (the “power of the father”) extended even to life and death.
For example, if a wife died without leaving a will, the property she left reverted not to her husband but to her father. A woman who passed from her father’s control and was not under that of a husband was termed sui iuris (“of his or her own law). Women who were neither married nor possessing sui iuris had to be under tutelage—that is, a male relative was legally responsible for her.
Divorce of wives by husbands was common among the upper classes. A man catching his
wife in adultery must divorce her or be considered her procurer and be punished himself.
Abortion was legal until the 1st century CE, and when it was then declared a crime, it was because the act affected the property of the father of the fetus—a typical Roman viewpoint.
Textile trades were still the most common occupation for women of all classes, slave and free.
Entertainers of all sorts—acrobats, clowns, actresses, musicians, dancers—
were in high demand.
They were often female and frequently combined their stage talents with a bit of prostitution
on the side.
Romans attempted to legislate morality. Rape and female adultery were two of the most serious offenses(were punishable by death).
Homosexuality was nor as widespread in Rome as it had been in Greece.
Prostitution(infamia) was not