A conversation with Kim Bowes about her recent book, Surviving Rome: The Economic Lives of the Ninety Percent, which presents a brilliant new model of the Roman imperial economy, specifically for how the majority of the population experienced it. We talk about the skeletal evidence, monetization, affluence and precariousness, and levels of consumption. This is only a taste of the many exciting new arguments made in the book, which all of you should go read.
Kim Bowes is professor of archaeology and ancient history at the University of Pennsylvania. Her new book, Surviving Rome: The Economic Lives of the Ninety Percent, is published through Princeton University Press.
Byzantium & Friends is hosted by Anthony Kaldellis, a Professor at the University of Chicago.
Her research and book sound really neat. I didn’t know we had detailed microeconomic records of households from ancient civilisations. Tracking that as a social history brings the period to life for me.
I found a YouTube link in your post. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:
