The weekly miner. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1878-1881, 1880-10-12

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Some curious facts in regard to business
life in ancient Rome are contained in the lit
tie "Half Hour volume by Professor q. G.
Herberman, lately published by the Harpers.
| The Roman had many of the attributes of the
Yankee. He never pretended, as do many OF
| his modern descendants do that birth or
wealth placed HIM above his trade. Even en-
perors had a keen eye for business, and were
always on the alert tor good speculations. The
population of Rome during the first centuries
| of imperial rule was a mite larger than That
| of New York-about a million and a half,
but fully 100000 of these were slaves. 1t did
not cost much to keep a man then, the yearly
| allowance for a slave being $27.5O, and a free
laborer lived for $44 a year. Corn was the
main stay, Is, OOO 700 bushels being consumed
annually, and oil and honey were used in
large quantities. Among the rich, epicures
! were more common and more extravagant
| than in the modern world. Nero, Verus and
| Heliogabulus spent fortunes on a single ban
quet, but they had the disease of profigacy
in an aggravated form. Still we hear of a
play-writer named Esopus who gave $4,000
for a single dish of singing birds. The prof
its of tragedies must have been immense to
warrant such an outlay. Seneca relates that
M. Guvius Apicius, after sinking $4,O0O,OOO
in the flesh pots of this world, poisoned him.
self because he had only the sum of $780,
600 left, and feared starvation on this pittance.
And yet everything was ridiculously cheap
even in this extravagant city. The market
reports show that lamb and fish were only
six cents per pound, beef four cents, a pair of
quails thirty cents, eggs six cents per dozen,
wheat sixteen cents per peck, four pounds of
large grapes two cents; chickens, per pair,
thirty cents; five to ten heads of lettuce W
cents.
The Romans were not very fond of any
meat, save pork, and this they consumed spar
lngly. Beef was not popular, being used
mostly for sacrifices. Game n fish
were favorite articles, and many choice i'm
ported fish brought large prices. The thrifty
Tiberius once received a present OF a fine
mullet, which he sent to market and sold to a
leading gourmand for $500. The pay of a
journeyman mechanic was from sos to 1925
and board. Food cost $40 and clothing Sis
per year. From the account of FOrbiger 1t
seems that goods were very low. A pair of
shoes cost 80 cents, one felt hat 81, one tunic
SIG to $36, one toga $40 to $2s. A man
could get a shave for two cents. The Ro-
mans spent large amounts on other luxuIies
besides those Of the table. The imports of
flowers, perfumes, ointments aud dresses from
India in one year amounted to 100000
LII G1Cy q CASh "p
crazes, the citrus-wood tables being tayorite
articles for ~squandering money upon. In
Cicero's time it was not unusual to spend
$4,000 for one of these tales, band Seneca,
the stole, who prated of the virtues of abstln-
ence and the vice of luxury, owned 800 of
these tables. after Pompey's return from the
war against Mithridates there arose a great
mania for vases of murrha, supposed to be
either Chinese porcelaine, agate or huor-spar.
The ex-consul, T. Patronius, in Nero's reign,
paid 100000 for a wine ladle of this rare
substance, and on his death bed he broke it
into fragments in order that it might fall into
the tyrant's hands.
While Rome imported provisions and arti-
cles of use and luxury from all quarters of
the known world, her exports were confined
wholly, aside from wine and Oil, to books and
bankers. Her literature was found in the
most romantic regions, and with letters went
the Roman merchant, who controlled the
business of the world. They had no stock
market, but the farming of revenues gave a
chance for the peculiar abilities OF heir
Goulds, Vanderbilts and Floods. Fortunes
of SIP, 900, 900 were not unusual, and a mill
ion in those days meant far more than now.
The capitalists who farmed the revenues were
called publicans, and the same name was ap-
piled to their officers who ground the faces of
the people of the provinces and who gained
the d~istlnctinction of serving as the biblical
type of the case-hardened sinner. The capt.
talists and contractors were so wealthy that
under the republic they had things all their
own way, buying up ~consuls, senators and
judges to carry out their schemes. Usury was
common, and the two famous usurers of the
latter days of the republic were c. Verres,
whom Cicero pilloried in exquisite latin, and
that Brutus who gave the finishing touch to
Caesar. Brutus, though a high-minded patriot,
drove very hard bargains, and was an adept
in all the devices of the usurer. Seneca also
turns out to have loaned large sums at high
rates, and to have had no bowels for his debt
itors. The most repulsive feature of Roman
business life was the traffic in slaves. Ordi-
nary bondmen could be bought for SIS to
$l0O, while accomplished mechanics brought
$500 to $500. At the Stepta Julia the higher
class of slaves were brought for inspection
and sale. A beautiful ladies' maid sold for
ST, 800, and men who were adopts in the learn
ing of the Greeks, and would serve as COM
panions OF wealthy men or as tutors for their
sons, were valued sometimes as high as $780,
900. The owners control over them was alb
solute, even to the power of putting them to
death.
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