Innovation and Society in the Roman World

Abstract

and KeywordsThis article assesses the impact of innovation on Roman society. It starts from a critical engagement with past debate about technological progress, which over the past decades has been too strongly focused on economic growth, and a re-appreciation of the literary evidence for innovation, which points to a culture in which technological knowledge and invention were thought to matter. Then, it highlights two areas where the uptake of technology had a direct impact on everyday life: material culture, where the emergence of glass-blowing, a proliferation of metal-working, and innovation in pottery-production changed the nature and amount of artefacts by which people surrounded themselves, and construction, where building techniques using opus caementicium, arches and standardized building materials revolutionized urban and rural landscapes. A concluding discussion highlights the role of integration of the Mediterranean under Roman rule in making innovation possible, and the role of consumer demand in bringing it about.

Anchoring: a historical perspective on frugal innovation

“…If we compare this bird's eye view of innovation and technology in ancient Rome (see Greene, 2000;Wilson, 2002;and Flohr, 2016, for more depth, examples and bibliography) with the example of frugal innovation through skeuomorphism in Tongeren discussed earlier in this paper, it becomes clear that the period saw both: real frugality and the modern-type innovation with entrepreneurs and the imperial administration both functioning as corporations in a way and able to scale things up (for the quantification of the Roman economy and its innovation see Bowman and Wilson, 2009; for scale in the Roman world, see Duncan-Jones, 1990). Both types of innovation, however, were largely inclusive practices in which processes of anchoring played a key role.…”

Calpurnius Siculus in the Flavian Poets

“…2, 2 (C.2); Ghini (1999); Davies (2000) 31;Fagan (2002) 11-112, 123;Moormann (2003) 378. 43 The advancement in engineering technologies, for instance in the construction of vaults, made monumental enterprises such as Nero's baths more affordable, thus prompting a booming of thermae and large-scale buildings in the Neronian period: Wulf-Rheidt (2012c); Flohr (2016) 22. 44 Fagan (2002) 112.…”

Size Matters - Understanding Monumentality Across Ancient Civilizations

“…This solution is based on technological innovation with the goal of lowering the drudgery curve (similar to Figure 3). Current studies of ancient innovations show attempts at technological change in many facets of life (Flohr 2016; Burmeister/Bernbeck 2017), but also reveal a striking lack of interest in improving labor conditions. While we find some instances in ancient times where such a strategy was followed, for example in the invention of windmills in eastern Iran (e. g. Mishmastnehi/Bernbeck 2015), this mechanism came into full force only with modernity and the invention of the steam machine.…”