On the probable age structure of the Roman population

Abstract

The average expectation of life has often been calculated from ages given on the many thousands of surviving Roman tombstones. But the distribution of these ages at death is demographically most improbable. However, this can be easily explained once attention is paid to the patterns of commemoration between relatives, for in some inscriptions the age at death is given, in others a relationship (e.g. marriage) is commemorated, in yet others both are recorded. But the distortions cannot be corrected; these ages at death must be discarded as useful evidence for estimating life expectation.

Does the longevity of the Sardinian population date back to Roman times? A comprehensive review of the available evidence

“…Presumably, the Sardinian population in the Roman era overall exhibited characteristics similar to that of the rest of the empire, and comparable to other pre-industrial populations characterised by high mortality and high birth rates. In such conditions, life expectancy at birth likely ranged from approximately 20 to 30 years [12], though the possibility cannot be ruled out that both values, depending on local circumstances, were lower or higher [21]. Although the hypothesis that young people represented an important portion of the inhabitants of the Empire appears acceptable, the same cannot be affirmed for older people.…”

“…The impressive catalogue of ages at death in the Roman era composed by János Szilágiy between 1961 and 1967 further highlights the interest in this material [31][32][33][34][35][36]. However, in 1966, Keith Hopkins claimed the inadequacy of funeral inscriptions as sources for demographic research: 'we cannot tell how much the longevity recorded in African inscriptions is the product of commemoration or of actual longevity' [12]. Epigraphic data would be PLOS ONE influenced, indeed, by uncontrollable socio-cultural and economic confounders [21], related to factors such as age, sex, location and living conditions.…”

“…Accordingly, scholars applied to the Roman Empire sets of demographic tables developed for more recent societies with a demographic structure assumed to be comparable to the Roman. In the 1960s, Keith Hopkins used the U.N. Model Life Tables [12] while afterwards, and up to the present day, the Regional Model Life Tables developed in Princeton since the 1960s by Ansley Coale and Paul Demeny were mostly adopted [13]. Even if specific Model Life Tables are sometimes used (e.g.…”

'The Roman Family' in Recent Research: State of the Question

“…It also provided the basis for a re-examination of age at marriage for both males and females (Saller 1987;Shaw 1987), thus contributing to a better understanding of the relationships between spouses and between parents and children. These studies took our understanding well beyond that of Hopkins (1965), with its more restricted social class focus and more diffuse geographical scope.…”

Untitled

“…Modern demographic research on Antiquity owes much to the analyses conducted by Karl Julius Beloch towards the end of the 19 th century [11], and by Keith Hopkins since the 1960s [12,13]. Current developments in this field have proceeded, roughly, since 1980 and have been animated by lively discussions on methodology and the use of sources [14][15][16][17][18][19].…”