The associative order: status and ethos among Roman businessmen in late republic and early empire

The associative order: status and ethos among Roman businessmen in late republic and early empire

Published 2007 · Koenraad Verboven

Athenaeum-studi Periodici Di Letteratura E Storia Dell Antichita

UNKNOWN SJR score

32

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Abstract

Status differentiation in Roman business circles is mostly treated as a common fact. Some traders or financiers were rich, others poor, some were freedmen, others freeborn, some belonged to the aristocracy and operated through mi ddlemen, others sailed the seas and remained the archetypal outsiders looked upon with distrust by urban communities across the empire. Many have stressed that the ambitions o f wealthy businessmen to enter the aristocracy lead to a process of anticipatory socia lisation by which upstart businessmen strove to adopt the behavioural codes and values of the aristocracy to be more readily accepted in the ranks of the latter. 1 Beyond this basic and undoubtedly correct observation, however, analysis of the ways in which differ ences in sub-aristocratic status were construed and expressed or of how they influenced d ecision making by businessmen remains rudimentary. The debate has in stead focused on the economic relevance of the aristocracy’s behavioural codes and value systems.

Study Snapshot

Key takeawayRoman businessmen in late republic and early empire exhibited a range of status differentiation, but the ways in which these status differences influenced decision-making remain largely unexplored.

PopulationOlder adults (50-71 years)

Sample size24

MethodsObservational

OutcomesBody Mass Index projections

ResultsSocial networks mitigate obesity in older groups.

The associative order: status and ethos among Roman businessmen in late republic and early empire

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