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OXFORD STUDIES ON THE ROMAN ECONOMY
General Editors
Alan Bowman Andrew Wilson
 OXFORD STUDIES ON THE ROMAN ECONOMY
This innovative monograph series reflects a vigorous revival of interest in the
ancient economy, focusing on the Mediterranean world under Roman rule (c.100
bc to ad 350). Carefully quantified archaeological and documentary data is
integrated to help ancient historians, economic historians, and archaeologists think
about economic behaviour collectively rather than from separate perspectives. The
volumes include a substantial comparative element and thus will be of interest to
historians of other periods and places.
 Capital, Investment, and
Innovation in the Roman World

Edited by
PAU L E R D K A M P, KO E N R A A D V E R B O V E N ,
A N D A R JA N Z U I D E R H O E K
 Great Clarendon Street, Oxford, OX2 6DP, United Kingdom
Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the
University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing
worldwide. Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University Press in the UK and in
certain other countries
© Oxford University Press 2020
The moral rights of the authors have been asserted
First Edition published in 2020
Impression: 1
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system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in
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You must not circulate this work in any other form and you must impose this same
condition on any acquirer
Published in the United States of America by Oxford University Press
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Data available
Library of Congress Control Number: 2019945704
ISBN 978–0–19–884184–5
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DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780198841845.003.0001
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Links to third party websites are provided by Oxford in good faith and for information only.
Oxford disclaims any responsibility for the materials contained in any third party website
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 Contents

List of Figures
List of Tables
List of Abbreviations
List of Contributors

1. Introduction
Paul Erdkamp, Koenraad Verboven, and Arjan Zuiderhoek

I. INVESTMENT AND INNOVATION

2. Population, Technology, and Economic Growth in
the Roman World
Paul Erdkamp

3. Innovations and Uses of Wealth in Archaic Rome

and Latium (Late Eighth to Early Fourth Century
bc)
Cristiano Viglietti

4. Capital Goods in the Roman Economy

Wim Broekaert and Arjan Zuiderhoek

5. Roman Water-Power: Chronological Trends and

Geographical Spread
Andrew Wilson
 6. The Archaeological Perception of Capital and its
Transformations in Urban Occupations
Nicolas Monteix

II. CAPITAL AND INVESTMENT IN THE RURAL

ECONOMY
7. Funding Irrigation: Between Individual and
Collective Investments
Marguerite Ronin

8. Impensae, operae, and the pastio villatica: The

Evaluation of New Venture Investments in the
Roman Agricultural Treatises
Mick Stringer

9. A Story of Land and Water: Control, Capital, and

Investment in Large-Scale Fishing and Fish-
Salting Operations
Annalisa Marzano

10. Invention, Tinkering, or Transfer? Innovation in

Oil and Wine Presses in the Roman Empire
Tamara Lewit

III. HUMAN CAPITAL, FINANCIAL CAPITAL, AND

CREDIT MARKETS
11. Labouring for God: The Clergy and Human
Capital in the Later Roman Empire
Norman Underwood
12. Capital Markets and Financial Entrepreneurs in
the Roman World
Koenraad Verboven

13. Capital and Investment in the Campanian

Tablets
Jean Andreau

14. Credit and Financial Capital in Roman Egypt

Merav Haklai

15. Temples and Traders in Palmyra

Leonardo Gregoratti

Index
 List of Figures

3.1. Map of Latium Vetus.

3.2. La Rustica, female pit grave n. 83 (c.725 bc).

3.3. Rome, Esquiline; Proto-Corinthian ovoid aryballos (c.650 bc).

3.4. Osteria dell’Osa, Tomb n. 161; Italo-geometric amphora in depurated clay

(c.750–725 bc).
3.5. Rome, N slope of the Palatine Hill; reconstructive plan of House 3 (3rd
quarter of 6th century bc).
3.6. Reconstructive plans of (left) the Acqua Acetosa Laurentina (120 m2) and
(right) the Torrino (130 m2) farms; S of Rome (2nd half of 6th century bc).

3.7. Rome, terracotta architectural frieze with panthers and the Minotaur,
attributed to the third phase of the Regia (c.540–530 bc).
3.8. Reconstructive plan of the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus.
3.9. Floor plan of the ‘Villa dell’Auditorium’, manor house with productive
facilities, (c.500–350/300 bc).
3.10. Three-dimensional reconstruction of the ‘Villa dell’Auditorium’; N the
manor house, S the servile quarter (c.500–350/300 bc).
3.11. Histogram of rural sites on NE ager Romanus.
5.1. Chart of the evidence for water-mills by century, until ad 700.
5.2. Distribution map of archaeological and written evidence for water-mills,
first century bc.
5.3. Distribution map of archaeological and written evidence for water-mills,
first century ad.
5.4. Distribution map of archaeological and written evidence for water-mills,
second century ad.
5.5. Distribution map of archaeological and written evidence for water-mills,
third century ad.
5.6. Distribution map of archaeological and written evidence for water-mills,
fourth century ad.
 5.7. Distribution map of archaeological and written evidence for water-mills,
fifth century ad.
5.8. Distribution map of archaeological and written evidence for water-mills,
sixth century ad.
5.9. Distribution map of archaeological and written evidence for water-mills,
seventh century ad.
5.10. Distribution map of archaeological and written evidence for water-mills,
first to third centuries ad and generically ‘Roman’.
5.11. Distribution map of archaeological and written evidence for water-mills,
fourth to seventh centuries ad and generically ‘Late Antique’.
5.12. Distribution map of archaeological finds of Roman water-mills and water-
powered millstones in Southern France, Rhône delta area.
5.13. Water-powered millstone types: (1) conical/domed type (‘Avenches type’),
with cramp holes on upper surface of runner stone; (2a) and (2b) discoidal
type (‘Saalburg type’), with rynd socket on underside of runner stone.
5.14. Reconstruction of a geared animal-driven mill.
5.15. Satellite image of Kastell Zugmantel, Germany, showing the relative
locations of the Roman fort, the source of the river Aar, and man-made
rectangular ponds along the course of the stream.
5.16. Distribution map of Roman powered millstones (excluding finds at known
water-mill sites).
5.17. Distribution of Roman water-mills and finds of powered millstones around
Avenches (Roman Aventicum, Switzerland).
5.18. Roman ore-crushing anvils rebuilt into enclosure around a medieval
sarcophagus at Tresminas, Portugal.
5.19. Drawing of a water-powered stamp mill for crushing ore.
5.20. Reconstruction of a Roman tanning mill at Saepinum, Italy.
5.21. Relief from the sarcophagus of M. Aurelios Ammianos, at Hierapolis,
Turkey, showing a water-powered saw-mill.
5.22. Plan of the installation of a Byzantine saw-mill at Jerash, Jordan.
5.23. Partly sawn limestone column drum from the saw-mill at Jerash, showing
the traces of a four-bladed frame-saw.
5.24. Byzantine saw-mill in Hanghaus II at Ephesos, Turkey.
6.1. General organization scheme of production based on the nature of raw
materials and the place of production.
6.2. View of the treading stalls of the fullery of Casa Bertone (Rome).
 6.3. Bakery equipment having had three ‘lives’: as a meta for flour, then a
kneading machine, then a basin.
6.4. Diagram showing the annual availability of some organic raw materials.
10.1. Some major types of presses, press parts, and crushing devices.
10.2. Lever-and-drum press, reconstructed according to Cato’s description in
1996 under the supervision of J.-P. Brun at Beaucaire (Gard).
10.3. Multiple presses at Bir Sgaoum, Tripolitania.
10.4. Probably Byzantine limestone weight from a lever-and-weights press.
10.5. Traditional lever-and-screw press, reconstructed of elements from different
sites.
10.6. Traditional direct-screw press, probably from western Galilee.
10.7. A nineteenth-century direct-screw press with metal screw and remains of
frails, preserved at Frantoio Gargiulo, Sorrento.
10.8. A twentieth-century oil press in current use at Frantoio Gargiulo, Sorrento.
10.9. Working the windlass and drum (reconstruction), Beaucaire (Gard), Le Mas
de Tourelles.
10.10. Village house, north Syria.
 List of Tables

4.1. Estimate of cost per tonnage range.

4.2. Tonnage of Nile ships based on Poll 1996.
4.3. Estimated crew size on ancient ships.
4.4. Victualling costs.
4.5. Capital investment and operating costs at ten and at twenty years’ lifetime.
10.1. Examples of different types of presses, ranked by estimates of pressure.
 List of Abbreviations

AE L’Année Epigraphique
AJA American Journal of Archaeology
Ann. (ESC) Annales. Economies, Sociétés, Civilisations
Ann. (HSS) Annales. Histoire, Sciences Sociales
BASP Bulletin of the American Society of Papyrologists
BGU Aegyptische Urkunden aus den Königlichen (later Staatlichen)
Museen zu Berlin, Griechische Urkunden (Berlin, 1919–)
CCG Cahiers du Centre Gustave Glotz
CCSL Corpus Christianorum Series Latina (Turnhout, 1953–)
ChLA Chartae Latinae Antiquiores
CIL Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum (Berlin, 1863–)
CILA Corpus de inscripciones latinas de Andalucía (Seville, 1989–)
CLE Carmina Latina Epigraphica (Leipzig, 1895–7)
CPR Corpus Papyrorum Raineri (Vienna, 1895–)
CQ Classical Quarterly
CRAI Comptes rendus de l’Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres
CSEL Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum (1866–)
FIRA Fontes iuris Romani anteiustiniani, ed. S. Riccobono, G. Baviera,
and C. Ferrini (Florence, 1908)
GRBS Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies
HEp Hispania Epigraphica (Madrid, 1989–)
I.Delos Inscriptions de Délos (Paris, 1926–72)
I.Eph. Die Inschriften von Ephesos (Bonn, 1974–89)
IG Inscriptiones Graecae (Berlin, 1903–)
IGLSyr. Inscriptions grecques et latines de la Syrie (Beirut & Paris,
1929–)
I.Histriae Inscriptiones Histriae et viciniae (Bucharest, 1983)
IK Inschriften griechisher Städte Kleinasiens (Bonn, 1972–)
ILAlg Inscriptions latines d’Algerie (Paris & Algiers, 1922–)
ILLRP Inscriptiones Latinae liberae rei publicae, ed. A. Degrassi
(Florence, 1957–63)
ILS Inscriptiones Latinae selectae, ed. H. Dessau (Berlin, 1892–
1916; re-edited 1954–5; 1962)
ILTG Inscriptions latines des Trois Gaules, ed. P. Wuilleumier (Paris,
1963)
InscrIt Inscriptiones Italiae
Inv. Inventaire des inscriptions de Palmyre
I.Parion Die Inschriften von Parion, ed. P. Frisch (Bonn, 1983)
ISCM Inscriptiones Scythiae Minoris Graecae et Latinae (Bucharest,
1980)
I.Tral Die Inschriften von Tralleis, ed. F. B. Poljakov (Bonn, 1989)
JESHO Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient
JHS Journal of Hellenic Studies
JRA Journal of Roman Archaeology
JRS Journal of Roman Studies
MAMA Monumenta Asiae Minoris Antiqua
M.Chr. L. Mitteis and U. Wilcken, Grundzüge und Chrestomathie der
Papyruskunde (Leipzig & Berlin, 1912)
MEFRA Mélanges de l’Ecole française de Rome: Antiquité
MGH Monumenta Germaniae Historica
OpRom Opuscula Romana
PAT Palmyrene Aramaic Texts, ed. D. R. Hillers and E. Cussini
(Baltimore, 1995)
P. Athen. Papyri Societatis Archaeologicae Atheniensis, ed. G. A.
Petropoulos (Athens, 1939)
P. Bingen Papyri in Honorem Johannis Bingen Octogenarii, ed. H. Melaerts
(Leuven 2000)
P. Brem. Die Bremer Papyri, ed. U. Wilcken (Berlin, 1936)
PBSR Papers of the British School at Rome
P. Cairo Masp. Papyrus grecs d’époque byzantine, Catalogue général des
antiquités égyptiennes du Musée du Caire, ed. J. Maspero
(Cairo, 1911–16)
P. Cairo Zen. Zenon Papyri, Catalogue général des antiquités égyptiennes du
Musée du Caire, ed. C. C. Edgar (Cairo, 1925–40)
P. Col. Columbia Papyri (New York, etc, 1929–)
P. Corn. Greek Papyri in the Library of Cornell University, ed. W. L.
Westermann and C. J. Kraemer Jr. (New York, 1926)
P. Dubl. Greek Papyri from Dublin, ed. B. C. McGing (Bonn, 1995)
P. Euphr. Documents d’archives romains inédits du Moyen Euphrates, ed.
D. Feissel and J. Gascou (1995–2000)
P. Flor. Papiri greco-egizii, Papiri Fiorentini (Milan, 1906–15)
P. Fouad Les Papyrus Fouad I (Cairo, 1939)
PG Patrologiae cursus completus. Series Graeca, ed. J. P. Migne
(Paris, 1857–66)
P. Giss. Griechische Papyri im Museum des oberhessischen
Geschichtsvereins zu Giessen, ed. O. Eger, E. Kornemann, and P.
M. Meyer (Leipzig & Berlin, 1910–12)
P. Harr. The Rendel Harris Papyri of Woodbrooke College (Cambridge,
1936; Zutphen, 1985)
P. Iand. Papyri Iandanae, ed. C. Kalbfleisch et al. (Leipzig, 1912–38)
PIR Prosographia Imperii Romani. Saec. I. II. III.
P. Köln Kölner Papyri (Opladen, etc, 1976–)
P. Kron. L’Archivio di Kronion, ed. D. Foraboschi (Milan, 1971)
PL Patrologiae cursus completus. Series Latina, ed. J. P. Migne
(Paris, 1841–55)
P. Laur. Dai Papiri della Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana (Florence, 1976–
84)
P. L. Bat. Papyrologica Lugduno-Batava (Leiden, 1941–)
P. Lille Papyrus grecs (Institut Papyrologique de l’Université de Lille)
(Lille, 1907–28)
P. Lips. Griechische Urkunden der Papyrussammlung zu Leipzig (Leipzig,
1906; 2002)
P. Lond. Greek Papyri in the British Museum (London, 1893–1974)
P. Mert. A Descriptive Catalogue of the Greek Papyri in the Collection of
Wilfred Merton (London & Dublin, 1948–67)
P. Mich. Michigan Papyri (Ann Arbor, MI, etc, 1931–)
P. Mil. Vogl. Papiri della R. Università di Milano, ed. A. Vogliano et al. (Milan,
1937–81)
P. NYU Greek Papyri in the Collection of New York University (Leiden,
1967; Wiesbaden 2010)
P. Oslo Papyri Osloenses, ed. S. Eitrem and L. Amundsen (Oslo, 1925–
36)
P. Oxy. The Oxyrhynchus Papyri (London, 1898–)
P. Prag. Papyri Graecae Wessely Pragenses (Florence, 1988–2011)
P. Rein. Papyrus grecs et démotiques recueillis en Égypte (Paris, 1905;
Cairo, 1940)
P. Ross. Georg. Papyri russischer und georgischer Sammlungen (Tbilisi, 1925–
35)
P. Select. Papyri Selectae, ed. E. Boswinkel, P. W. Pestman, and P. J.
Sijpesteijn (Leiden, 1965)
PSI Papiri greci e latini (Pubblicazioni della Società Italiana per la
ricerca dei papiri greci e latini in Egitto) (Florence, 1912–)
P. Stras. Griechische Papyrus der Kaiserlichen Universitäts- und Landes-
bibliothek zu Strassburg, ed. F. Preisigke et al. (Leipzig, 1912–)
P. Tebt. Wall New Texts in the Economy of Tebtunis, ed. E. W. Wall (Durham,
NC, 1983)
P. Turner Papyri Greek and Egyptian Edited by Various Hands in Honour of
Eric Gardner Turner, ed. P. J. Parsons, J. R. Rea, et al. (London,
1981)
P. Ups. Frid Ten Uppsala Papyri, ed, B. Frid (Bonn, 1981)
P. Vind. Worp Einige Wiener Papyri, ed. K. A. Worp (Amsterdam, 1972)
P. Warr. The Warren Papyri, ed. M. David, B. A. van Groningen, and J. C.
van Oven (Leiden, 1941)
RIB Roman Inscriptions of Britain, ed. R. G. Collingwood and R. P.
Wright (Oxford & Gloucester, 1965–95)
RIDA Revue internationale des droits de l’antiquité
RTP Recueil de tessères de Palmyre, ed. H. Ingholt, H. Seyrig, and J.
Starcky (Paris, 1955)
SB Sammelbuch griechischer Urkunden aus Aegypten (Berlin &
Wiesbaden, 1913–)
SC Senatus Consultum
SEG Supplementum Epigraphicum Graecum (Leiden & Amsterdam,
1923–)
Syll. Sylloge
TAM Tituli Asiae Minoris (Vienna, 1901–)
TH Tabulae Herculanenses
TPSulp. Tabulae Pompeianae Sulpiciorum, ed. G. Camodeca (Rome,
1999)
ZPE Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik
ZRG Zeitschrift der Savigny-Stiftung für Rechtsgeschichte: Römische
Abteilung
 List of Contributors

Jean Andreau is a former member of the École Française de Rome. He was

awarded the Silver medal of the C.N.R.S. (1990), and is Directeur d’Études Émerite
of the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, Paris.
Wim Broekaert obtained a PhD on Roman trade and the individuals involved. His
research focuses on the nature of commerce, occupational associations, slave and
freedman agency, and the role of the Roman family in the organization of trade.
He is also interested in the contribution social network analysis can offer to the
study of ancient economies. In 2013, he published Navicularii et negotiantes: A
Prosopographical Study of Roman Merchants and Shippers. In 2017 he began a
new career in investment banking.
Paul Erdkamp has been Professor of Ancient History at the Vrije Universiteit
Brussel since 2007. He previously taught history at the universities of Utrecht and
Nijmegen and was a research fellow at Leiden University. He is co-director with
Koenraad Verboven of the Roman Society Research Centre (Ghent/Brussels) and
general editor of the Palgrave Studies in Ancient Economies. He has published on
the Roman economy, the Roman army, and Roman Republican historiography, and
is the author of The Grain Market in the Roman Empire. A Social, Political and
Economic Study (Cambridge, 2005) and editor of A Companion to the Roman
Army (Oxford, 2007) and The Cambridge Companion to Ancient Rome
(Cambridge, 2013). He is co-editor of Structure and Performance in the Roman
Economy. Models, Methods and Case Studies (Brussels, 2015), Ownership and
Exploitation of Land and Natural Resources in the Roman World (Oxford, 2015),
and The Routledge Handbook of Diet and Nutrition in the Roman World (London,
2019).

Leonardo Gregoratti was educated at the Universities of Udine (Italy) and Trier
(Germany). He has conducted research in Udine, Trier, Kiel, and Bergen. In 2013
he began his collaboration with the Department of Classics and Ancient History of
Durham University as IAS Fellow. His research interests include Roman History and
Epigraphy and the history of Western Asia, in particular the Roman Near East,
Palmyra, long-distance trade, and the Parthian kingdom. He collaborated as
classical historian with the archaeological missions conducted by Udine University
in Syria.
Merav Haklai is a lecturer in Roman history in the Department of History at Ben-
Gurion University of the Negev, Israel. Her main research focus lies with the legal,
economic, and monetary history of the Roman Empire. She has published on
aspects of Roman monetary history and public trust, analysing general patterns in
Roman economic history, and the interaction between legal traditions in operation
within the Roman regime.
Tamara Lewit is Honorary Fellow in the School of Historical and Philosophical
Studies at the University of Melbourne. Her main area of research is the
archaeology of the late antique economy, particularly rural production and trade,
land-use and animal husbandry, and agricultural technology. Publications include:
‘Pliny’s Presses: the true story of the 1st century wine press’ (with P. Burton), Klio
101 (2019); ‘Wine and oil presses in the Roman to Late Antique Near East and
Mediterranean: Balancing textual and archaeological evidence’ (with P. Burton), in
A. Squitieri and D. Eitam (eds), Stone Tools in the Ancient Near East and Egypt
(Oxford, 2018), 97–110; ‘Settlement, Land Use and Society in the Late Antique
Mediterranean, 4th–7th c. An Overview’ (with A. Chavarría and A. Izdebski), in A.
Izdebski and M. Mulryan (eds) Environment and Society in the Long Late Antiquity
(LAA 12; Leiden, 2018), 135–51; ‘Pigs, presses and pastoralism: Farming in the
fifth to sixth centuries AD’, Early Medieval Europe 17 (2009), 77–91.

Annalisa Marzano is Professor of Ancient History at the University of Reading.

She has published widely on the socio-economic history of the Roman world,
including the monographs Roman Villas in Central Italy: A Social and Economic
History (2007) and Harvesting the Sea: the Exploitation of Marine Resources in the
Roman Mediterranean (2013), and the co-edited volume The Roman Villa in the
Mediterranean Basin: Late Republic to Late Antiquity (with G. P. R. Métraux, 2018).
She is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, of the Society of Antiquaries of
London, and recipient of a Leverhulme Major Research Fellowship.
Nicolas Monteix defended a thesis on ‘Shops and workshops Herculaneum’ in
2006 (published in 2010) and was then awarded a post-doctoral fellowship at the
École française de Rome (2007–10). Since 2010, he has held the position of
associate professor in Roman history and archaeology at the Université de Rouen
– Normandie. He has been awarded a Junior fellowship at the Institut Universitaire
de France (2015–20). After initial works which had a strong focus on Vesuvian
sites, he is now heading towards a true archaeology of techniques in the long
term, trying to exploit all attested forms of production, to perceive their evolutions,
and to understand the social and economic transformations induced thereof.
Marguerite Ronin (PhD Nantes and ULaval) is currently a Marie Curie fellow at
the Faculty of Classics, Oxford. Her research focuses on the management of
natural resources in the Roman Empire and on the means developed to control
and exploit them. Amongst more traditional sources, she is specifically keen on
using the legal documentation, and is also interested in the spread and
dissemination of Roman law.
Mick Stringer is a research associate in the Classics Department of the University
of Reading. He has degrees in Psychology and Classics and his doctoral thesis
explored the linguistic and cognitive differences between the accounting concepts
of the Roman agronomists and modern businesspeople. A Chartered Management
Accountant, he has served as Chief Financial Officer on the boards of international
companies and has provided reporting and governance consultancy services to a
wide range of businesses. He still does treasury work in the charity sector.

Norman Underwood holds a joint-PhD in Ancient History and Medieval Studies

from UC Berkeley. He has taught at New York University in the Department of
History since 2017. His research focuses on the social and economic history of the
later Roman Empire. He has published on various topics including the employment
of barbarian troops, the cost of healthcare in antiquity, and patterns of manuscript
exchange. His current book project investigates the occupational backgrounds of
the late Roman clergy and the influence that ordained professionals (lawyers,
bureaucrats, physicians, merchants, artisans, etc.) had on the development of
ecclesiastical institutions. He is also in the early stages of a project on the Roman
importation and consumption of Asian goods during the High and Late Empire with
a particular focus on underutilized papyrus evidence.
Koenraad Verboven has been Professor of Ancient History at Ghent University
since 2007. He specializes in ancient social and economic history, particularly of
the Roman world, and has a special interest in monetary history and numismatics,
friendship- and patronage-based networks, guilds (collegia), (neo-)institutional
analysis, and complexity economics. He is the author of The Economy of Friends.
Economic aspects of Amicitia and Patronage in the Late Republic (Brussels, 2002),
for which he was awarded the ‘Prix Joseph Gantrelle’ of the Belgian Royal
Academy. He has co-edited four scholarly monographs: Pistoi dia tèn technèn.
Bankers, Loans and Archives in the Ancient World (Leuven, 2008), Structure and
Performance in the Roman Economy. Models, Methods and Case Studies (Brussels,
2015), Ownership and Exploitation of Land and Natural Resources in the Roman
World (Oxford, 2015), and Work, Labour, and Professions in the Roman World
(Leiden & Boston, 2016), and has published more than eighty papers in scholarly
journals and books.
Cristiano Viglietti is Associate Professor of Roman History at the University of
Siena, Italy, and former Marie Curie Experienced Fellow at the University of
Cambridge in the Faculty of Classics. He is author of the monograph Il limite del
bisogno. Antropologia economica di Roma arcaica (Bologna, 2011), which explores
the economy of the first four centuries of Rome combining historical,
archaeological, and anthropological approaches. Among his recent publications in
English are a chapter on ‘Economy’ in M. Bettini and W. M. Short (eds), The World
through Roman Eyes. Anthropological Approaches to Ancient Culture (Cambridge,
2018), and ‘Tarquinius Superbus and the purchase of Sibylline books: conflicting
models of price formation in archaic Rome’, in P. S. Lulof and C. J. Smith (eds),
The Age of Tarquinius Superbus. Central Italy in the Late Sixth Century bc (Leuven,
2017).
Andrew Wilson is Professor of the Archaeology of the Roman Empire at the
University of Oxford. His research interests include the economy of the Roman
Empire, ancient technology, ancient water supply and usage, Roman North Africa,
and archaeological field survey. Recent publications include: The Roman
Agricultural Economy: Organization, Investment, and Production (ed. with Alan
Bowman, Oxford, 2013); Urban Craftsmen and Traders in the Roman World (ed.
with Miko Flohr, Oxford, 2016); The Economy of Pompeii (ed. with Miko Flohr,
Oxford, 2017); and Trade, Commerce, and the State in the Roman World (ed. with
Alan Bowman, Oxford, 2018).

Arjan Zuiderhoek has been Professor of Ancient History at the Department of

History of Ghent University since 2008. He studied Greek and Roman history at the
University of Groningen and the University of Cambridge and obtained his PhD at
the University of Groningen in 2006. Before his current position, he was Junior
Research Fellow and Director of Studies in Classics at Homerton College, University
of Cambridge and, subsequently, Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Ghent University.
He is the author of The Politics of Munificence in the Roman Empire: Citizens,
Elites and Benefactors in Asia Minor (Cambridge, 2009) and The Ancient City
(Cambridge, 2017) and co-editor (with Paul Erdkamp and Koenraad Verboven) of
Ownership and Exploitation of Land and Natural Resources in the Roman World
(Oxford, 2015) and (with Wouter Vanacker) of Imperial Identities in the Roman
World (London & New York, 2017).
 1

Introduction

Paul Erdkamp, Koenraad Verboven, and Arjan

Zuiderhoek

CONCEPTS AND QUESTIONS

At some unknown date in the (early) empire, the chief magistrates
(duoviri) of the Roman colony of Telesia in Samnium, central Italy,
used some of their private resources (sua pecunia) to have
workshops for wool-working (lanariae) constructed in their city.1 The
shops were provided with all the necessary equipment, and were to
be rented out, probably by the city to the appropriate craftsmen,
that is, wool-workers, although the inscription recording the
donation does not specify this. It could be argued that here, we do
indeed have an ancient example of the provisioning of workers with
what in modern economists’ parlance would be called ‘capital goods’,
that is, the workshops, and the tools and equipment associated with
them. While the document thus provides a crucial data point for the
modern economic historian of Rome desperately searching for
evidence of ‘productive investment’ in the Roman economy, such
economic considerations were clearly not foremost (if at all) on the
minds of the duoviri, or of whoever set up the inscription. The gift of
the workshops was an investment of sorts alright, but far from being
little Keynesians avant la lettre, the two chief magistrates wished not
so much to stimulate the economy of their city (if they could even
have conceived of such an idea) but to use the workshops as
‘capital’ for a further and probably, from their perspective, more
important benefaction to the community: an annual distribution, on
the emperor’s birthday, of pastry and honeyed wine (crustum et
mulsum), to all their fellow-citizens, paid for by the rent (vectigal)
earned through leasing out the workshops. Thus, this document
provides a key not just to economic life in Roman cities, but also and
perhaps primarily to the realm of Graeco-Roman civic and imperial
political culture, in which elites were supposed to provide their
fellow-citizens with lavish benefactions in exchange for public
honours (statues, commemorative honorific inscriptions), and where
such benefactions—public buildings, festivals, public banquets, and
distributions—commonly contained at least a reference to, or were
closely connected with, Roman imperial ideology and the imperial
cult.2 To put it differently, what we learn, or at least might infer, from
this inscription is that cities could own real property that was used
for productive purposes (i.e. ‘capital goods’—see the following
section of this chapter for a discussion of terminology), that there
probably was a rental market for workspaces in Telesia, that there
were wool-workers present and active in the city, but also, and
perhaps primarily, that the allocation and exploitation of what we call
capital, whether capital goods or financial capital, i.e. credit (to be
discussed still later in this chapter) was often strongly determined by
the specific character of Roman social, political, and cultural norms,
practices, and institutions.
‘Capital’, ‘investment’, and ‘innovation’ are of course very modern
and specifically Western analytical concepts, which, if applied
uncritically to a premodern, non-Western situation, might easily, in
M. I. Finley’s words, ‘draw us into a false account’.3 This is not a
banal observation: many if not most of the textual sources upon
which we base our reconstructions of ancient economic behaviour
are much like the inscription just cited, i.e. essentially ‘non-
economic’ documents that, sometimes buried deep within them,
happen to preserve some nuggets of information that we consider
economically relevant.4 Nor was Finley the first to make it: in
addition to the writings of an impressive genealogy of economic
anthropologists, he may have drawn inspiration from Karl Marx’s
acerbic comment on the practices of the classical economists in the
first volume of Capital:
The materials and means of labour, a proportion of which consists of the
products of previous work, play their part in every labour process in every
age and in all circumstances. If, therefore, I label them ‘capital’ in the
confident knowledge that ‘semper aliquid haeret’, then I have proved that
the existence of capital is an eternal law of nature of human production and
that the Xinghiz who cuts down rushes with a knife he has stolen from a
Russian so as to weave them together to make a canoe is just as true a
capitalist as Herr von Rothschild. I could prove with equal facility that the
Greeks and Romans celebrated communion because they drank wine and
ate bread.5

Certainly, this should give pause to any economic historian or

archaeologist in an analytical hurry. However, in retrospect Finley
was wrong to draw from such considerations the conclusion that
modern theoretical economic concepts can and should play no role
in the analysis of Greek and Roman economies. As Willem Jongman
has argued, ‘the choice to apply modern economic theory implies in
itself no substantive statement about the ancient economy’.6 For
instance, neoclassical economic theory as an analytical framework
does not in and of itself require the existence of (physical) markets,
economic growth, or the presence of a universal desire to maximize
material profits in the society under analysis: in its barest form, it is
simply a model for analysing human behaviour, as is, for example,
Marxism, albeit more at the aggregate level of social groups
(classes) than at the level of the individual.7 More importantly still,
however, economic theory in a broad sense has moved on
considerably since the early 1970s, when Finley published his
Ancient Economy: under the banners of e.g. New Institutional
Economics and Behavioural Economics (to mention only the more
prominent schools of thought), economists have, over the past few
decades, belatedly come to follow the example of economic
anthropologists and sociologists and have developed theoretical
approaches that allow one to take into account the possible
economic impact of a particular society’s social, political, and cultural
structures and the effects these have on people’s decisions and
actions (thus, in effect, accommodating the traditional substantivist
critique of modern economics).8 Specifically, in the field of New
Institutional Economics, the later work of Douglass North, with its
focus on the interaction between world views or ‘shared mental
models’ and the institutional and organizational structures within a
given society, provides economic historians and archaeologists with a
potent toolbox to analyse the specific economic trajectories of past
societies.9
Starting from such a neo-institutionalist perspective, over the past
decade the participants in the research programme ‘Factors of
production in the Roman world’ have set out to investigate how the
Romans exploited the production factors available to them, with a
particular emphasis on how their choices and actions were shaped
and determined by the institutional and organizational framework of
their society.10 A first volume on Ownership and Exploitation of Land
and Natural Resources in the Roman World appeared in 2015, and a
second volume on Work, Labour, and Professions in the Roman
World was published in 2017.11 In the present volume, we wish to
study capital, investment, and innovation in the Roman world from a
similar angle. How did Romans go about producing, allocating,
storing, and using the goods and resources (in the sense of wealth)
they needed to produce and allocate other, mostly consumer goods
and services? How did Roman world views, institutions and
organizational structures impact upon the ways they went about
producing, allocating, storing, and using such goods and resources?
Were these mainly allocated and acquired via (the) market(s) or
also, or even primarily, via other channels or allocative mechanisms?
Did Romans, over time, get better at producing, allocating, storing,
and using these goods and resources? And did this, over time, allow
them to improve the quality and quantity of the consumer goods and
services they produced? Implicitly, in these questions, the reader can
already detect a definition of the terms ‘capital’ and ‘investment’, and
we shall return to this in more detail shortly.
The aim of this investigation is, of course, not to produce some
variation on the argument, rightly derided by Marx, ‘that the
existence of capital is an eternal law of nature of human production’,
i.e. that there existed some sort of ‘capitalism’ in antiquity, but to
use modern models and methods to ask questions the Romans did
not think to ask (not because they were unintelligent but because
their conceptual apparatus was so very different from ours), to trace
(longer-term) developments in their society and economy of which
they may have been unaware themselves, and to tease out answers
from the sources (written or material) that are not immediately
obvious at first glance.12 Ultimately, the goal would be to learn
whether, and how precisely, their institutional and organizational
framework allowed Romans to exploit capital (both capital goods and
financial resources) in ways that were conducive to an increase in
productivity: in other words (as in the previous two volumes), to
investigate if the Roman economy indeed possessed the structures,
in terms of factor endowments and the exploitation thereof, that
would lead to the modest but sustained per capita growth that is
often postulated for the late Republic and early Empire in recent
historical and archaeological publications.13 Our aim is thus not to
come to some kind of estimate of rates of growth over time, by
means of, say, the study of proxy data, but to investigate whether
the Romans indeed possessed the kinds of institutional structures
that might make per capita economic growth possible in the first
place. In the remainder of this introductory chapter, we shall offer a
broader discussion of the volume’s main topics, starting with a more
detailed definition of ‘capital’, then moving on to capital goods,
investment, and finally, innovation in the Roman world, while we
briefly highlight the contribution made to debates on these topics by
the authors of the various chapters in this book.
 CAPITAL AND CAPITAL GOODS
What is capital? In conventional neoclassical economics (we leave
aside the very specific Marxian definition of the term), capital is
usually defined as taking two forms: on the one hand, durable, man-
made goods used as inputs to produce further goods or services,
and on the other hand financial assets, which can be used to invest
in the production of goods and services.14 Financial capital
comprises monetary wealth in every possible form, i.e. stocks of
currency, bullion, transferable credit bonds, and so on, that is
available to buy whatever is needed or used to realize production
(supplies, tools, equipment, labour, licences, information, …). Capital
goods or real or physical capital consist of all material resources
such as tools, workshops and factories, warehouses, and so on, that
are needed or used to realize production. This is the definition of
capital that is employed in this volume. Both forms of capital may be
privately or publicly owned, yet in the current volume we mostly
focus on privately provided capital (but see the subsection ‘Public
Capital Goods’ later in this chapter). This is not because publicly
provided capital goods were unimportant (far from it!), but simply
because the precise role played by the central government and
provincial and civic public authorities in the provision of
infrastructure and other types of public goods is a topic of such
complexity that it deserves its own volume.
Since capital goods are inevitably also discussed in the sections in
this chapter on investment (given that they are what financial capital
is invested in) and innovation, this section will be somewhat brief.
Nonetheless, some initial discussion is necessary, chiefly because in
the existing literature on ancient economic history capital goods are
rarely if ever discussed as such. That is to say, various types of
capital goods have most commonly been discussed in debates that
ultimately had a different focus. To provide some examples, a great
deal of research has focused on possible elite investment in non-
agricultural property, provoked by the debates surrounding the
consumer city model. The study of elite investment in urban
property, in houses and workshops, has been one particular focus of
attention here.15 More recently there have been a number of studies
concentrating on the material structure and sociology of workspaces,
among which in particular Miko Flohr’s work on the fullonicae stands
out.16 Current debate on the role of the professional collegia in the
urban economy has included research into the nature of their
meeting-houses and on their renting of workspaces.17 Antiquarian
interest in Roman agricultural practices as indicated by
archaeological finds, descriptions in Roman agricultural manuals, and
pictorial representations have led to studies of Roman farming tools
and implements, while the heated debates on the supposed demise
of the Roman peasant-farmer and the rise of the latifundia in Late
Republican Italy on the one hand, and concerning the now largely
discredited notions of a first-century ad Italian ‘agricultural crisis’ and
a ‘decline of the slave mode of production’ on the other have
produced a great deal of research into Roman villa-agriculture and
peasant farming over the past half century, much of it sparked by a
constant stream of new archaeological data.18 Similarly, much of the
modern discussion of Roman ships and shipbuilding has been
occasioned by the continuing debates on the level of economic
growth in the Roman world and the degree of commercialization of
the Roman economy, on the precise nature of the financial
involvement of elites, and in particular on the mechanisms behind
the food supply of the imperial city of Rome.19 Yet, as noted, there
has been very little discussion of Roman capital goods per se, and
how they were produced and allocated. In this volume, Broekaert
and Zuiderhoek offer a broad overview, briefly taking in agriculture,
shipping, and urban workshops, with a particular focus on the social
and institutional context. Among other recent work on physical
capital, in particular the research of Bowman and Wilson and
Marzano should be noted; see also the chapters in this volume on
water-power (Wilson) and fish-salting operations (Marzano).20 Lewit
focuses on wine and olive presses, while Monteix offers a detailed
study of equipment in urban craft production. With these
contributions in particular, the present volume offers a clean break
with the trend of relatively scattered discussion of capital goods,
mostly as part of other debates, and we of course hope that such
direct focus on physical capital will provide inspiration to future
research along similar lines.

INVESTMENT
Investment Attitudes and Behaviour

In contrast to capital goods, the topic of financial capital has

engendered considerable and often strongly polemical discussion
among Roman economic historians. ‘[A] model of economic choices,
an investment model, in antiquity would give considerable weight to
[the] factor of status’, argued Moses Finley in a well-known
passage.21 There is truth in this. Slave attendants, sumptuous
dinners, fine clothes and jewellery, expensive dowries, hand-outs to
fellow citizens, gifts, and public munificence were important items on
any self-respecting Roman nobleman (or -woman)’s budget or of
that of any ambitious social climber. The benefits of landed property
included status enhancement over and above economic income.22
But this observation applies to most stratified societies that typically
rely on symbolic capital to preserve a social status quo which
structurally disadvantages large swathes of the population. Elites
need to distinguish themselves and affirm and legitimize their
elevated position. There is nothing specifically Greek or Roman
about this.
The divide between status expenditure and ‘economic’
investments, furthermore, is not clear-cut. Status expenditures are a
part of elite social culture and a condition for participation in elite
social networks, which in turn provide access to lucrative offices,
wealthy marriages, inside information, and various other profitable
opportunities. Many of the most status-enhancing items, moreover—
such as objects in precious metals, luxurious clothes, or suburban
Another random document with
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to await the dawn to fly home, for owls fly in the early twilight, and
hawks come later, and I wished to have a safe path through the air.
Now I am at home—I am hungry and thirsty."
The first thing I did with my new pigeons was to give them food and
fresh water. I never let them drink the water they bathed in. Since
Gay-Neck's wing smelled of fish, I gave him separate quarters from
the other pigeons. It took three days longer and three good baths
before Gay-Neck was fit for decent society. In passing, let me remark
that my father made me return the money to the man who had
bought Gay-Neck with such deplorable results. To tell you the truth, I
did not wish to then. But now I feel I did right in obeying my parent.
After a fortnight and before unbinding the wings of my newly
acquired pigeons, I bribed them to love me. Every morning I would
put some millet seed and peanuts in ghee (clarified butter). After
they had been soaked in butter all day, I gave a dozen each to every
one of my pets. They were so fond of those delicacies that in two
days' time they had formed the habit of coming to me before five in
the afternoon, begging for buttered seeds. In three more days I freed
their wings, in a subtle way, undoing them about fifteen minutes
before five. They all flew off the moment they felt their liberty. But lo,
after the first exhilaration of finding their freedom had passed, they
flew down to the roof again for their meal of buttered peanuts and
millet seeds! It is a pity that we have to win our pigeons' confidence
by feeding their stomachs, but alas! I have noticed that there are
many men and women who resemble pigeons in this respect!
CHAPTER II
 WAR TRAINING (Continued)
he new pigeons gradually learnt to fly further and
further away from the house as day followed day.
At the end of a month they were taken a distance
of fifty miles and more and uncaged, and with the
exception of two who apparently fled home to their
previous owner, all returned to me under Gay-
Neck's leadership.
The question of an undisputed leadership was not an easy one to
settle. In fact a serious battle had to be fought out between Gay-
Neck and two new males, Hira and Jahore. The last named was a
pure black tumbler. His feathers shone like panther's fur. He was
gentle and not fierce, yet he refused to submit to Gay-Neck's
leadership of the entire flock. You know how quarrelsome and full of
display carriers generally are. On my roof all the carrier males used
to strut, coo and talk as if each one of them was the monarch of all
he surveyed. If Gay-Neck thought himself Napoleon, Hira (Diamond),
the white carrier,—(as white "as the core of sunlight," to express it
poetically)—considered himself Alexander the Great, while Jahore
(Black Diamond), though not a carrier, let it be known that he was
Julius Cæsar and Marshal Foch rolled in one. Besides those three,
there were other conceited males, but they had already been beaten
in battle by one or the other of the above three. Now it was
necessary to fight out the question of absolute leadership of the
entire flock.
One day Hira was seen preening his wings and talking nonsense in
the presence of Mrs. Jahore, a beautiful jet black creature with eyes
red as bloodstone. Matters had hardly gone any distance when from
nowhere came Jahore and fell up on Hira. The latter was so
infuriated that he fought like a fiend. Beak against beak, feet against
feet, and wings pitted against wings. All the other pigeons fled from
the ring where the two males were engaged in trouncing each other.
Gay-Neck stood over them, calm as an umpire over a tennis match.
At last, after half a dozen set-tos, Hira won. Puffing himself to the
uttermost limits of his conceit, he went over to Mrs. Jahore as much
as to say: "Madame, your husband is a coward. Behold what a fine
fellow I am, Buk, bukoom, kumkum." She gave him one crushing
look of contempt, and flapping her wings withdrew to her husband in
their home. Hira looked crestfallen and sulky in turn, then in a
sudden paroxysm of anger he fell upon Gay-Neck tooth and nail.
The latter, taken unaware, was very nearly knocked out at the first
fury of the attack. Hira pecked and slapped him till he felt too dizzy to
stand up, so Gay-Neck ran away pursued by the mad fellow. They
ran in a circle, spinning like two tops, I could hardly see which was
pursuer, and which pursued. They went at such high speed that I
could not see when they stopped and started to peck and slap each
other. The explosive sound of wing hitting wing filled the air with an
ominous clamour. Now feathers began to fly in every direction.
Suddenly, beak to beak and claw in claw they wrestled and spun on
the floor—two birds become one single incarnation of fury. Seeing
that they could not reach any decision that way, Gay-Neck extricated
himself from his rival's grip and flew up in the air. Hira followed
flapping his wings tremendously fast. About three feet above the
ground Gay-Neck put his claws like talons around Hira's windpipe,
and set to squeezing it more and more tightly, and at the same time
kept up a terrific cannonade of wing-beats, that like flails of steel
threshed out a shower of snowy feathers from his opponent's body.
Now, hid in that falling blizzard of feathers, the two rolled on the
ground, pecking one another with the virulence of two maddened
serpents. At last Hira let go and wilted like a torn white flower on the
floor. One of his legs had been dislocated. As for Gay-Neck his
throat and neck had hardly any feathers left. But he was glad that the
struggle had been settled one way or another. And he knew full well
that had Hira not first expended half his strength fighting Jahore he,
Gay-Neck, might not have won the battle. However, all is well that
ends well. I bandaged and did all that was necessary to Hira's leg. In
another thirty minutes all the pigeons were eating their last meal of
the day utterly oblivious of what had happened so recently. No
sulking and bearing of grudges in their blood—no doubt they all
came from a fine set of ancestors! Good breeding prevailed even
amongst the smallest of them, and needless to add Hira took his
defeat like a gentleman.
By now January had come, with cool weather and clear skies and
the competition for pigeon prizes began. Each man's flock was
tested on three points: namely, team-work, long distance flight, and
flight under danger. We won the first prize on the first point, but I am
sorry to say that owing to a sad mishap which you shall learn of in its
proper place, my pigeons could not compete for the other two.
This is the nature of the team-work competition. The various flocks of
pigeons fly away up from their respective homes. Once they are
beyond the reach of whistling and other sounds that indicate their
master's voice, the diverse flocks coalesce. Then spontaneously
they agree to fly under the leadership of a pigeon whom they
consider fit. All that happens up in the air where pigeon-wit and
pigeon instinct prevail, and the bird who flies forward and is allowed
to lead, does so without ever realizing the nature and the reason of
the honour that has been bestowed on him.
The temperature dropped to forty-five. It was a fine cold morning for
our part of India, in fact the coldest day of the year. The sky above,
as usual in the winter, was cloudless and remote, a sapphire
intangibility. The city houses—rose, blue, white, and yellow—looked
like an army of giants rising from the many-coloured abyss of dawn.
Far off the horizons burnt in a haze of dun and purple. Men and
women in robes of amber and amethyst, after having said their
morning prayers to God, were raising their arms from the house-tops
in gestures of benediction to the rising sun. City noises and odours
were unleashed from their kennels of the night. Kites and crows
were filling the air with their cries. Over the din and clamour one
could yet hear the song of the flute players. At that moment the
signal whistle blew that the contest had begun, and each pigeon
fancier waved from his roof a white flag. Instantly from nowhere
innumerable flocks of pigeons rose into the sky. Flock upon flock,
colour upon colour, their fluttering wings bore them above the city.
Crows and kites—the latter of two species, red and brown—fled from
the sky before the thundering onrush of tens of thousands of carriers
and tumblers. Soon all the flocks—each flying in the shape of a fan
—circled in the sky like so many clouds caught in large whirlpools of
air. Though each moment they ascended higher, for a long time each
owner of a flock knew his own from the others, and even when at
last the separate flocks merged into one single unit and flew like a
solid wall of wings, I could pick out by the way they flew, Gay-Neck,
Hira, Jahore and half a dozen others. Each bird had personal
characteristics that marked him as he flew. When any owner wished
to call the attention of any one of his pigeons, he blew a shrill whistle
with certain stops as a signal. That attracted the bird's attention
provided he was within reach of the sound.
At last the whole flock reached such a height that not even the blast
of a trumpet from any pigeon fancier could reach it. Now they
stopped circling in the air and began to move horizontally. The
competition for leadership had begun. As they manoeuvred from one
direction of the heavens to another we, the owners below, had to
look up intently in order to make sure of the characteristics of the
one whom the pigeons had trusted to lead their flight. For a moment
it looked as if my Jahore would lead. But hardly had he gone to the
head of the flock when they all turned to the right. That brought
about a confusion in the ranks, and, like horses on a race course, all
kinds of unknown pigeons pushed forward. But in time each one of
them was pushed back by the rest of the flock. This happened so
often that we began to lose interest in the contest. It looked as
though some nondescript pigeon would win the coveted leadership
prize.
Now suddenly rose the cry from many house-tops: "Gay-Neck, Gay-
Neck, Gay-Neck!" Yes, many of the pigeon fanciers were shouting
that name. Now I could see—without the slightest shadow of error—
my own bird at the head of that vast flock—a leader amongst leaders
—directing their manoeuvres. Oh! what a glorious moment. He led
them from horizon to horizon, each time rising a few feet higher till by
eight in the morning not a pigeon could be seen in any corner of the
sky. Now we furled our flags and went downstairs to study our
lessons. At midday, when again we went above, each man could see
the entire wall of pigeons descending. Lo! Gay-Neck was still
leading. Again rose the shout "Gay-Neck, Gay-Neck!" Yes, he had
won the palm, for he had remained in leadership for more than four
hours, and was coming down as he had gone up—a master!
Now came the most dangerous part of the flight. The Commander of
the vast concourse gave the order to disband, and flock after flock
split from the main body, each separate flock flying away to its home.
But not too quickly. Some must guard the sky above them while the
others flew homeward. Gay-Neck held my little flock in a kind of
umbrella formation to protect the rear of the receding pigeons
belonging to other contestants. Such is the price of leadership—the
other name of self-sacrifice.
But now began a horrible climax. In India during the winter the
buzzards called Baz, come south. They do not eat carrion; like the
eagle and the hawk the Baz generally eats what he kills with his own
talons. They are mean and cunning—I think they are a class of low-
born eagles—but they resemble kites, although their wings are not
frayed at the ends. They fly in pairs slightly above a flock of kites and
are hidden by them from their prey, which however they can see in
this way without ever being seen themselves.
On that particular day just when Gay-Neck had won the leader's
laurels, I perceived a pair of Baz flying with a flock of kites. Instantly I
put my fingers in my mouth and blew a shrill whistle. Gay-Neck
understood my signal. He redistributed his followers, he himself
leading the centre, while Jahore and Hira he ordered to cover the
two ends of the crescent, in which shape the flock was flying. The
entire group held together as though it were one vast bird. They then
began to dip down faster and faster. By now the task for which they
tarried in the heavens was done. All the other flocks that they had
played with in the morning had gone home.
Seeing them dip down so fast, a Baz fell in front of them like a stone
dropping from a Himalayan cliff. Just when he had descended to the
level of my birds, he opened his wings and faced them. This was no
new tactic, for it has been used in the past by every Baz in order to
strike terror into a flock of pigeons. That it succeeds in ten cases out
of eleven is undeniable for when it happens the terror-struck pigeons
lose their sense of solidarity and fly pell mell in every direction. No
doubt that was what the Baz hoped for now, but our wily Gay-Neck
beating his wings flew without a tremor under the enemy about five
feet, drawing the whole flock after him. He did it, knowing that the
enemy never pounces upon a solidly unified group. But hardly had
he gone a hundred yards forward when the second, probably Mrs.
Baz, fell in front of the pigeons and opened her wings as her
husband had done. But Gay-Neck paid no attention. He led the
whole flock straight toward her. It was inconceivable. No pigeon had
dared do that before, and she fled from their attack. Hardly had her
back been turned when Gay-Neck and the rest of the pigeons dipped
and swooped as fast as they could go. By now they were hardly six
hundred feet from our roof, and then as fate would have it, Mr. Baz,
like a shell full of high explosives, fell again, this time right in the
middle of the crescent and opened his wings and beak like forks of
fire, crying and shrieking with fury. That produced its effect. Instead
of one solid wall of pigeons, the flock was cut in two, of which one
half followed Gay-Neck, while the other, smitten with abject fear, flew
none knew whither. Gay-Neck did what a true leader does in great
crises. He followed that panic-stricken flock until his section overtook
it, and in no time, lo, they had merged into a single group once more.
Hardly had that taken place when Mrs. Baz in her turn descended
like a thunderbolt between him and the other pigeons. She almost
fell on his tail, and cut him off from the rest, who now, deprived of
their mentor, sought safety in flight, paying no heed to anything. That
isolated Gay-Neck completely, and exposed him to attacks from
every side. Still undaunted he tried to fly down to his retreating
followers. Ere he had descended a dozen feet, down before him
swooped Mr. Baz. Now that Gay-Neck saw the enemy so near, he
grew more audacious and tumbled. It was a fortunate action. Had he
not done so, Mrs. Baz, who had shot out her talons from behind,
would have captured him then and there.
In the meantime the rest of my pigeons were beating on and had
almost reached home. They were falling on the roof as ripe fruits fall
from a tree. But one among them was not a coward. On the contrary
he was of the very essence of bravery. It was Jahore, the black
diamond. As the whole crowd settled down on our roof, he tumbled
and flew higher. There was no mistake about his intentions. He was
going to stand by Gay-Neck. Seeing him tumble again, Mr. Baz
changed his mind. He gave up pursuing Gay-Neck and swooped
down after Jahore. Well, you know Gay-Neck—he dipped to the
rescue of Jahore—circling and curving swiftly as a coil of lightning,
leading Mrs. Baz panting after him. She could not make as many
curves as Gay-Neck, no, not nearly so many. But Mr. Baz, who was
a veteran, had flown up and up to take aim; this put Jahore in
danger. One more wrong turn and Mr. Baz would have him. Alas!
poor bird; he did the thing he should not have done. He flew in a
straight line below Mr. Baz who at once shut his wings and fell like a
thunderclap of Silence. No noise could be heard, not even "the
shadow of a sound." Down, down, down, he fell, the very image of
death. Then the most terrible thing happened. Between him and
Jahore slipped, none knew how, Gay-Neck, in order to save the
latter and frustrate the enemy. Alas! instead of giving up the attack,
the Baz shot out his talons, catching a somewhat insecure hold of
the intruder. A shower of feathers covered the air. One could almost
see Gay-Neck's body writhing in the enemy's grip. As if a hot iron
had gone through me I shrieked with pain for my bird! But nothing
availed. Round and round, higher and higher that Baz carried him
trying to get a more secure hold with his talons. I must admit
something most humiliating here. I had been so intent on saving
Gay-Neck that I did not notice when Mrs. Baz fell and captured
Jahore. It must have happened very swiftly right after Gay-Neck was
caught. Now the air was filled with Jahore's feathers. The enemy
held him fast in her talons, and he made no movement to free
himself. But not so Gay-Neck; he was still writhing in the grip of Mr.
Baz. As if to help her husband to grasp his prey more securely, Mrs.
Baz flew very close to her lord. Just then Jahore struggled to get
free. That swung her so near that her wing collided with her
husband's. The fellow lost his balance. As he was almost over-
turned in the air with another shower of feathers Gay-Neck wrenched
himself free from his grip. Now he dropped down, down, down.... In
another thirty seconds a panting, bleeding bird lay on our roof. I lifted
him up in order to examine his wound. His two sides were torn, but
not grievously. At once I took him to the pigeon doctor who dressed
his wounds. It took about half an hour, and when I returned home
and put Gay-Neck in his nest, I could not find Jahore anywhere. His
nest, alas, was empty. And when I went up to the roof there I found
Jahore's wife sitting on the parapet scanning every direction of the
sky for a sign of her husband. Not only did she spend that day, but
two or three more in the same manner. I wonder if she found any
consolation in the fact that her husband sacrificed himself for the
sake of a brave comrade.
CHAPTER III
 MATING OF GAY-NECK
ay-Neck's wounds healed very slowly. Until
about the middle of February he could not be made
to fly more than ten yards above the roof. The
duration of his flight too was very short. No matter
how frequently I chased him off the roof, I could not
keep him in the air more than a quarter of an hour.
At first I thought that it was his lungs that were out
of order. When, after investigation, they proved sound, I ascribed his
disinclination to fly to his heart that might have been injured by his
latest mishap. That assumption also proved erroneous after a
second investigation.
So, utterly exasperated by Gay-Neck's behaviour, I wrote a long
letter to Ghond describing everything that had happened. It turned
out that he had gone on a hunting trip with some Englishmen.
Receiving no help from that quarter, I decided to examine my pigeon
most closely. Day after day I put him on our house-top and watched,
but no clue was vouchsafed me as to the nature of his trouble. So I
gave up all hope of seeing Gay-Neck fly again.
About the end of February I received a cryptic note from Ghond from
the deeps of the jungle. It read: "Your pigeon is frightened. Cure him
of his fear. Make him fly." But he did not say how. Nor could I devise
anything that would make Gay-Neck wing his way into the higher
spaces. It was no use chasing him off the roof, for if I chased him off
one corner, he flew across to another and perched there. And what
was most disconcerting was that if the shadow of a cloud or a flock
of birds flying in the sky fell on him on our roof, he would tremble
with terror. Doubtless every shadow that fell filled his mind with the
feeling that it was a Baz or a falcon swooping down on him. That
gave me an idea of how badly shaken Gay-Neck was. How to cure
him of his disease of fear proved most baffling. Had we been in the
Himalayas I would have taken him to the holy man who once healed
him of a similar ailment, but here in the city there was no Lama. I
was forced to wait.
March had ushered in Spring and Gay-Neck, who had gone through
an unusual moulting, looked like the very heart of a deep and large
aquamarine. He was beautiful beyond description. One day, I know
not how, I found him talking to Jahore's widow. She looked very
bright with the advent of Spring. In the sunlight her black opal
complexion glowed like a tropical night shot with stars. Of course I
knew that marriage between her and Gay-Neck, though not the best
thing for their offspring, might win him from his fear and her from the
morose temper which had grown upon her ever since Jahore died.
In order to encourage their friendship, I took the two together in a
cage to my friend Radja who lived on the edge of the jungle about
two hundred miles away. The name of his village was Ghatsila. It
stood on the bank of a river across which lay high hills densely
forested and full of all kinds of animals. Radja, being the priest of the
village, which office his ancestors had held for ten centuries, and his
parents, were housed in a large building of concrete. The village
temple, also of concrete, was adjacent to the house. In the courtyard
of the temple surrounded by high walls Radja every night performed
the duty of reading the Scriptures and explaining them to the
peasantry that assembled there. While he would read aloud inside,
outside would come from far off the yell of a tiger or the trumpeting of
wild elephants across the narrow river. It was a beautiful and sinister
place. Nothing dangerous happened in the village of Ghatsila, but
you did not have to go very far to encounter any beast of prey that
you cared to seek.
The train that brought me there reached Ghatsila at night. Radja and
two servants of his house greeted me at the station. One of the
servants took my bundle on his shoulder and the other carried the
cage with the two pigeons. Each of us had to carry a hurricane-proof
lantern, an extra one having been brought for me. In single file, one
servant leading and another in the rear, we walked for an hour. My
suspicions were aroused and I asked, "Why do we go round-about?"
Radja said: "In the spring wild animals pass through here going
north. We can't take short cuts through the woods."
"Nonsense!" I exclaimed. "I have done it many times before. When
do we reach home?"
"In half an hour——"
Then, as if the very ground had opened at our feet and belched out a
volcano with a terrific noise, arose the cry "Hoa—ho—ho—ho—hoa!"
The pigeons fluttered their wings in panic in their cage. I gripped
Radja's shoulder with my disengaged hand, but instead of sharing
my feelings he laughed out loud. And like master like servant—the
two servants laughed too.
After their mirth had subsided Radja explained: "You have done this
many times, have you? Then why did the cry of monkeys frightened
by lanterns scare you?"
"Monkeys?" I questioned.
"Yes, lots of them," my friend reminded me, "go north this time of the
year. We frightened a whole flock in the trees overhead. That's all. In
the future don't take every monkey yell for the roar of a tiger."
Fortunately we reached home shortly without any other incident to
upset my complacency.
The next morning Radja went to his duties at his ancestral temple
while I sought the roof and uncaged my birds. At first they were
bewildered, but seeing me near them with my hands full of buttered
seeds, they settled down to breakfast without any ado. Pretty nearly
all of that day we spent on the roof. I dared not leave them by
themselves very long lest the strangeness of their surroundings
upset them.
In the course of the week that followed the two birds made
themselves at home in Ghatsila, and moreover became extremely
intimate with each other. There was no doubt now that I had acted
wisely in isolating them from the rest of the flock. About the eighth
day of our stay, Radja and I were surprised to see Gay-Neck fly in
pursuit of his mate. She flew on, but at a low altitude. He followed.
Seeing him catch up to her, she rose and turned back. He too did the
same and followed after. Again she rose. But this time he balked and
began to circle the air beneath her. However, I felt that he was
regaining his confidence. At last Gay-Neck, the paragon of pigeons,
was healing himself of his fear and of his horror of the heavens; he
was once more at home in the sky.
The next morning the birds flew higher and played with each other.
Gay-Neck again refused to go all the way and he began to come
down hastily instead of circling in the air below her. That puzzled me,
but Radja, who was a keen person, explained. "A cloud, large as a
fan, has come over the sun. Its shadow fell so suddenly that Gay-
Neck thought it was his enemy. Wait until the cloud passes and then
——"
Radja was right. In a few more seconds the sun came out and its
light dripped from Gay-Neck's wings once more. At once he stopped
coming downwards and began to make circles in the air. His mate
too, who had been coming down to keep him company, waited for
him a hundred feet or so above. Now Gay-Neck rose, beating his
wings like an eagle freed from his cage. The sunlight made pools of
colour about him as he swerved and swung up and up. Soon instead
of following, he led his mate. Thus they ascended the sky—he
healed of fear completely, and she ravished by his agility and power.
The next morning both of them made an early start. They flew far
and very long. For a while they were lost beyond the mountains as if
they slid over their peaks and down the other side. They were gone
at least an hour.
At last they returned about eleven o'clock bearing each in his beak a
large straw. They were going to build a nest for the laying of eggs. I
thought I would take them home, but Radja insisted that we should
stay at least a week longer.
During that week every day we spent some hours in the more
dangerous jungle across the river, taking the two pigeons with us in
order to release them in the dense forest hardly five miles from
Radja's house. Gay-Neck forgot everything save testing his sense of
direction and making higher flights. In other words, love for his mate
and the change of place and climate healed him of fear, that most fell
disease.
Here let it be inscribed in no equivocal language that almost all our
troubles come from fear, worry, and hate. If any man catches one of
the three, the other two are added unto it. No beast of prey can kill
his victim without frightening him first. In fact no animal perishes until
its destroyer strikes terror into its heart. To put it succinctly, an
animal's fear kills it before its enemy gives it the final blow.
CHAPTER IV
 WAR CALLS GAY-NECK
y the first week of August, just after the children
were born, Hira and Gay-Neck had gone from
Calcutta to Bombay, setting sail with Ghond to
serve in the world-war. I sent that bachelor bird Hira
with Gay-Neck because the army had need of both.
I was very glad that Gay-Neck had some knowledge
of his little ones before he sailed for the battle-field
of Flanders and France. The chief reason of this happiness was
because I knew that a pigeon whose wife and new-born children are
waiting at home rarely fails to return. That bond of love between Gay-
Neck and his family assured me that he would do his work of carrying
messages very well. No sound of gun-fire, nor bullets, as long as he
lived, could keep him from returning home at the end.
But here one may raise the question that home was in Calcutta and
the war was thousands of miles away. That is true. But all the same,
because he had left his wife and children at home, he would do his
utmost to fly back to his temporary nest with Ghond.
It is said that Gay-Neck carried several important messages between
the front and general headquarters where the Commander-in-chief
and Ghond waited for him. Of course Gay-Neck was attached to
Ghond first. But in the course of the following months he became very
fond of the Chief.
Ghond and not I went to the front with the two pigeons for I was under
age and ineligible for any kind of service, so the old fellow had to take
them. During the voyage out from India to Marseilles, Hira and Gay-
Neck and the old hunter became fast friends. I have yet to see any
strange animal resist Ghond's friendship long, and since my pigeons
had known him before, it was easy for them to respond to him.
During the stay of the Indian Army in Flanders from September 1914
till the following spring, Ghond remained near General Headquarters
with his cage, while Hira or Gay-Neck was taken by different units to
the front. There from time to time messages were written on thin
paper weighing no more than an ounce and were tied to his feet; then
he was released. He, Gay-Neck, invariably flew to Ghond at the
general headquarters of the Army. There the message was
deciphered and answered by the Commander-in-Chief himself. It is
rumoured that the latter personage loved Gay-Neck and valued his
services highly.
But it is better to listen to Gay-Neck's own story. As the experiences
of a dream cannot be told except by the dreamer, so some of the
adventures of Gay-Neck he should recount in person.
"After we crossed the black water—the Indian ocean and the
Mediterranean—we travelled by rail through a very strange country.
Though it was September, yet that country—France—was cold as
Southern India in the winter. I expected to see snow-capped
mountains and giant trees, for I thought I was nearing the Himalayas.
But no hills higher than our tallest bamboo trees could I perceive on
the horizon. I do not see why a land has to be cold when it is not high.
"At last we reached the battle front. It turned out to be the rear end of
it, but even there you could hear the boom, boom, boom of the fire-
spitters. And, as a normal pigeon, I hate all fire-spitters no matter of
what size and shape. Those metal dogs barking and belching out
death were not to my liking. After I had been there a couple of days
our trial flight began. There were only four pigeons of our own city
besides Hira and myself. You know how rash Hira could be. No
sooner had we flown up above the houses of a large village than Hira
flew towards the direction of the boom, boom, boom. He wanted to
investigate. Well, in an hour's time we were there. Oh, what a noise!
Big balls of fire, spat out like thunderbolts by the metal dogs hidden
under trees, hissed and exploded below us. I was frightened, so I
rose higher and higher. But no peace there in the highest heavens
could I find. From nowhere came vast eagles roaring and growling
like trumpeting elephants. At such a terrific sight, we flew towards
where Ghond was waiting for us. But the eagles, two of them
followed! We went faster and faster. Fortunately they could not
overtake us. Just as we had expected, those eagles came down
where we lived. I felt death was at hand. Those eagles were going to
devour us in our cages like weasels. But no! They stopped trumpeting
soon and lay down on the field—dead. Two men each jumped out of
the stomachs of those two birds and walked away. I wondered how
eagles could devour human beings. And how could the fellows come
out alive?

No beast of prey can kill his victim without frightening him first.