Dimitri Van Limbergen (Academia Belgica/Ghent University): Oil and wine production in Roman Picenum. From intra-regional
consumption to extra-regional export
This presentation focuses on a research project that explores the
possible role of intra-regional urban consumption of locally produced wine and
olive oil in the agrarian economy of central Adriatic Italy (Picenum and the Ager Gallicus) in Late Republican and Early Imperial times (200 BC – AD 100). Intra-regional consumption remains an often underexposed topic in
Roman economic scholarship and little attention has been paid to the possible
role of the domestic Italian urban market in the transformations that occurred
in Italy between 200 BC and AD 100. Instead, such studies have long focused on
extra-regional export and provincial import replacement as driving forces
behind economic changes in the countryside. Therefore, in order to refine our
understanding of the balance between regional consumption and export of wine
and oil over time, this project aims at comparing potential agricultural
production with potential urban consumption of these two commodities.
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Michelle Borg (BSR Coleman-Hilton Scholar/ University of Sydney): 'Style as substance': Pliny the Younger on oratory as a reflection of morality in post-Domitianic Rome
Words as weapons, a familiar idiom in
literature, was an especially potent metaphor in the first century AD
Roman mind: as intrinsically value-neutral as words were, they could be
used by an orator for the benefit
of good or evil. Indeed, for Quintilian the title orator itself could
not be ascribed to the immoral man, regardless of his skill at speaking.
In the wake of Domitian’s reign, and in particular the consequential
rise of the delatores, the conjunction of ethics
with rhetorical theory and practice attained especial significance for
men, like Pliny, who wished retrospectively to align themselves with the
group of those hostile to Domitian. This paper will explore Pliny’s
attempt retrospectively to underline his affinity
with the anti-Flavians through a discussion of oratorical style and
delivery, which he asserted was indicative of one’s ethical allegiances.
