Carving a Professional Identity: The Occupational Epigraphy of the Roman Latin West

Varga, Rada

doi:10.2307/j.ctv1bjc38h

Cited by 4 publications

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“…The HISCO groups are well suited to capture the vertical stratification of a society, with individual categories referring to specific types of work activities, group 0 representing the jobs requiring specialized training and high skill set level, while group 9 represents mostly manual low- and unskilled labor [ 57 ]. Although the HISCO categories were originally designed to capture occupations from the Early Modern period, they were applied in a synchronic study of occupations in the Roman world, despite some category incongruencies [ 58 – 60 ]. On the other hand, Harris’ categories [ 32 ] focus on individual industry types, such as Metal-Working, Food-Production or Clothing, which makes them more suitable to capture relative specialization and diversity of cities ( sensu [ 9 ]).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Division of labor, specialization and diversity in the ancient Roman cities: A quantitative approach to Latin epigraphy

2022

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Recent empirical studies on the division of labor in modern cities indicate a complex web of relationships between sectoral specialization of cities and their productivity on one hand and sectoral diversification and resilience on the other. Emerging scholarly consensus suggests that ancient urbanism has more in common with modern urban development than previously thought. We explore whether modern trends in urban division of labor apply to the cities of the Western Roman Empire from the first century BCE to the fourth century CE. We analyze occupational data extracted from a large body of Latin epigraphic evidence by computer-assisted text-mining, subsequently mapped onto a dataset of ancient Roman cities. We detect a higher frequency of occupation terms on inscriptions from cities led by Rome than from rural areas and identify an accumulation of tertiary sector occupations in large cities. The temporal dimension of epigraphic data allows us to study aspects of the division of labor diachronically and to detect trends in the data in a four centuries-long period of Roman imperial history. Our analyses reveal an overall decrease in the frequency of occupational terms between the first half and second half of the third century CE; the maximum frequency of occupational terms shifts over time from large cities to medium and small towns, and finally, rural areas. Our results regarding the specialization and diversity of cities and their respective impact on productivity and resilience remain inconclusive, possibly as a result of the socio-economic bias of Latin inscriptions and insufficient representativeness of the data. Yet, we believe that our formalized approach to the research problem opens up new avenues for research, both in respect to the economic history of the Roman Empire and to the current trends in the science of cities.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Division of labor, specialization and diversity in the ancient Roman cities: A quantitative approach to Latin epigraphy

2022

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“…Two recent studies of occupations in ancient Roman cities (Varga, 2020;Kaše et al, 2022) rely primarily on large epigraphical databases such as the Epigraphik-Datenbank Clauss/Slaby (which now covers more than 500,000 Latin inscriptions) and Epigraphic Database Heidelberg. Note that there are additionally perhaps 100,000 inscriptions from Roman times in Greek and other local languages in the eastern Mediterranean area (Beltr an Lloris, 2015), many of which can be accessed through the Packard Humanities Institute Greek Inscriptions database (more than 200,000 inscriptions).…”

Section: The Service Sectormentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Table 1 indicates for classical Athens about 146 service occupations, more than half of all occupations that were identified in the Consolidated Brief List prepared by Lewis (2020). Service occupations weigh even more heavily in Varga's (2020) Roman list of 213 occupations, where no less than 70% (149 occupations) appear to have a services character. Comparing employment percentages to the number of ISCO-08 Unit Groups within each of its six Major Groups that contain service occupations, it can be seen that there is greater division of occupations within the two Major Groups of Managers and of Technicians and Associate Professionals than in the other four groups.…”

Section: Comparing Occupational Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

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The service sector in the classical world: focus on entertainment and well-being

Bröchner

2023

IJQSS

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Purpose Predicting effects of artificial intelligence on service occupations can be supported by a long historical perspective. Historical databases and archaeology help reconstructing the service sector in ancient societies. Here, the purpose of this paper is to analyse occupational specialization within services in cities of ancient Greece and the Roman Empire, as well as how the service sector is reflected in architectural remains, to identify differences and similarities with today’s Europe. Design/methodology/approach Occupational titles are traced in epigraphical and literary sources, sorted according to ISCO-08. Secondary sources are used for the architectural evidence of service activities, as well as for the role of contests and entertainment in antiquity. Findings Compared to current European service employment, professionals were fewer in classical Athens and imperial Rome, which had a greater proportion of specialized salespersons. There were few office buildings and no civic hospitals, but heavy investment in facilities for entertainment and well-being. Quality assessments for goods were little developed; contests for cultural and sports activities assessed entertainment service quality. Research limitations/implications This study covers two periods in classical antiquity and is restricted to Mediterranean cultures, although findings may help understanding the service sector in poor countries with informal employment. Originality/value While particular services provided in ancient cities have been studied, there has been no broad comparative overview of their service occupations. Services in earlier societies with primitive information and communication technologies can provide clues for current developments.

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“…The HISCO groups are well suited to capture the vertical stratification of a society, with individual categories referring to specific types of work activities, group 0 representing the jobs requiring specialized training and high skill set level, while group 9 represents mostly manual low-and unskilled labor [57]. Although the HISCO categories were originally designed to capture occupations from the Early Modern period, they were applied in a synchronic study of occupations in the Roman world, despite some category incongruencies [58][59][60]. On the other hand, Harris'…”

Section: Occupations and Occupational Categoriesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Division of labor, specialization and diversity in the ancient Roman cities: A quantitative approach to Latin epigraphy

Heřmánková¹,

Kaše²

2022

Preprint

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Recent empirical studies on the division of labor in modern cities indicate a complex web of relationships between sectoral specialization of cities and their productivity on one hand and sectoral diversification and resilience on the other. Emerging scholarly consensus suggests that ancient urbanism has more in common with modern urban development than previously thought. We explore whether modern trends in urban division of labor apply to the cities of the Western Roman Empire from the first century BCE to the fourth century CE. We introduce analyses based on occupational data extracted from a large body of Latin epigraphic evidence by computer-assisted text-mining, subsequently mapped onto a dataset of ancient Roman cities. We detect a higher frequency of occupation terms on inscriptions from cities than from rural areas and identify an accumulation of tertiary sector occupations in large cities. The temporal dimension of epigraphic data allows us to study aspects of the division of labor diachronically and to detect trends in the data in a four centuries-long period of Roman imperial history. Our analyses reveal an overall decrease in the frequency of occupational terms between the first half and second half of the third century CE; the maximum frequency of occupational terms shifts over time from large cities to medium and small towns, and finally, rural areas. Our results regarding the specialization and diversity of cities and their respective impact on productivity and resilience remain inconclusive, possibly as a result of the socio-economic bias of Latin inscriptions and insufficient representativeness of the data. Yet, we believe that our formalized approach to the research problem opens up new avenues for research, both in respect to the economic history of the Roman Empire and to the current trends in the science of cities.

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Carving a Professional Identity: The Occupational Epigraphy of the Roman Latin West

Cited by 4 publications

References 0 publications

Division of labor, specialization and diversity in the ancient Roman cities: A quantitative approach to Latin epigraphy

Division of labor, specialization and diversity in the ancient Roman cities: A quantitative approach to Latin epigraphy

The service sector in the classical world: focus on entertainment and well-being

Division of labor, specialization and diversity in the ancient Roman cities: A quantitative approach to Latin epigraphy

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