CONSTRUCTINGCOMMUNITIES IN THE LATE

ROMAN COUNTRYSIDE

CAM GREY

cambr idge univer s i ty pre s sCambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town,

Singapore, São Paulo, Delhi, Tokyo, Mexico City

Cambridge University PressThe Edinburgh Building, Cambridge cb2 8ru, UK

Published in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press, New York

www.cambridge.orgInformation on this title: www.cambridge.org/9781107011625

© Cam Grey 2011

This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exceptionand to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements,no reproduction of any part may take place without the written

permission of Cambridge University Press.

First published 2011

Printed in the United Kingdom at the University Press, Cambridge

A catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication dataGrey, Cam, 1972–

Constructing communities in the late Roman countryside / Cam Grey.p. cm.

isbn 978-1-107-01162-51. Rome – Rural conditions. 2. Country life – Rome – History. I. Title.

hn9.g74 2011307.720937–dc22

2011010569

isbn 978-1-107-01162-5 Hardback

Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence oraccuracy of URLs for external or third-party internet websites referred toin this publication, and does not guarantee that any content on such

websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate.

Contents

Preface page viiList of abbreviations xiMap xii

Introduction: Studying rural communities in the late Romanworld 1

1 Constituting communities: peasants, families, households 25

2 What really matters: risk, reciprocity, and reputation 58

3 Small politics: making decisions, managing tension, mediatingconflict 91

4 Power as a competitive exercise: potentates and communities 121

5 Resistance, negotiation, and indifference: communitiesand potentates 148

6 Creating communities: taxation and collective responsibility 178

7 Unintended consequences: taxation, power, andcommunal conflict 198

Conclusions 226

Bibliography 230Index 264

v