Roman Village Life

[Ludovicus]

All of my grandparents and their ancestors (as far as we know) were born in Italian villages. Until recently, the values of this way of life have been at the heart of Italian culture. (Italy's population decline has left many villages half empty or even worse. )

 

As a Latin major in college and now as a reader in Roman history I can't remember ever hearing of a Roman village. One gets the impression that the Romani either lived in cities and towns of marble or in villas.

 

What do we know about Roman village life?

[PerfectimusPrime]

I doubt it was that much different from what you'd expect village life to be. Farming, wooden houses ETC

 

IRC word "Village" comes from lating word "villa". During the decline of the Roman empire population began moving away from the cities, because society could no longer support urban life. When trade was disrupted, agricultural products no longer reached the urban areas, in addition, taxation was too heavy. So, people moved outside the cities, to live in self-suffiecent villas (villages), thus the seeds of European feudalism were laid.

[Sextus Roscius]

Villages in Italy its self after the introduction of the Latifunda system were not as common as one might think, the closest thing in most cases is a collection of Villas around a similar point.

[FLavius Valerius Constantinus]

As far as I know, the Romans lived in either towns or cities. Many towns were village-sized, so that might be the substitute for the village. But there are two types of towns in Roman terms. First you have the villa, which can mean countryhouse/farmhouse, but it also easily is used to refer to an "unfortified town" with the sole purpose of only living/working/economy. The second type is the "oppidum." which is the "fortified town," whose actual purpose is to serve as the safest place for common ppl to dwell against the enemy in hostile areas(eg. Camulogdunum), a lot like the medieval system, but really not at all.

Edited April 8, 2006 by FLavius Valerius Constantinus

[caldrail]

Unlike the towns, villages were simply places for local population to live together as they always had done, so village life depended on locality. In Italy it would have been essentially roman of course, and the presence of country villas would have meant that villages were less independent than at other times. But ancient brits in mud huts were still ancient brits in mud huts even with romans next door. The only difference was that they now had easy access to roman goods and services - and thats a big bonus.

Edited April 8, 2006 by caldrail

[sullafelix]

There is an interesting archaeological debate raging about this at the moment. Most of the archaeological evidence we have for Italy as a whole has come from the surveying that has been done in the post-war period. The are a few drawbacks to surveying though. One of the major ones is that it is very difficult to tell from the scatter of artifacts surveyed on the surface of sites if they are the buildings of a villa or perhaps some other kind of settlement like a village. Villages did exist and they grew up in the same places one would imagine them to be, crossroads, near rivers lakes etc.

 

Village life was probably pretty much as you would imagine it, small, and a hard grind mainly consisting of subsistence level farming.

 

After the advent of the latifundia there was either widespread depopulation or at least a period of great economic depression for these smaller farmers.

 

I haven't yet looked through these in detail myself yet but it might be worth looking at Virgil's Georgics and Eclogues and the Odes of Horace. Both are to an extent idealised but on the other hand they are quite accurate too. I know they are a good source on farming in general but they may contain some gems on village life. Another thing to look at would be the Biferno River Valley Survey undertaken by Graeme Barker which I think is published under the title A Mediterranean Valley or some such. It goes right from the prehistoric through into Medieval. Its very good reading actually, especially if you have an interest in archaeology.