Greeks, Romans, and Barbarians: Spheres of Interaction 0416019919, 9780416019919

Citation preview

Barry Cunliffe

Greeks, Romans and Barbarians Spheres of Interaction

Methuen

·

New York

© Barry Cunliffe 1988. First published 1988.

All rights reserved. No par! of this ('Ublication

ma y be reproduced, in any form or by any means,

without permission from the Publisher Typeset by Opus, Oxford and printed in Great Britain Published in the United States of America by Methuen, Inc., 29 West 35 Street, New York, New York 10001 U.S. Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Cunliffe, Barry W. Greeks, Romans, and barbarians: spheres of interaction!Barry Cunliffe. p.

cm.

Bibliography: p. Includes index. ISBN o-416-o1991-9 1. Rome-Commerce-Europe-History. History.

I. Title

HF377-C86 306'.094-dc19

1988 87-34167 CIP

z. Europe-Commerce-Rome­

To the memory of Glyn Daniel who taught me that archaeology is fun

Contents

Preface 1

x1

Themes and approaches

1

2 The Greek adventure: 600-400

BC

12

Greek and Phoenician colonization i n the western Mediterranean The port of Massalia 1 9 The expansion of Etruscan influence 23 Massalia arid the barbarians of the north 24 Social transformation in barbarian Europe in the fifth century BC The Celtic migrations 3 6 3

The southern shores of Gaul

38

The native towns of southern Gaul 3 8 Inland trading centres of the Rhone axis The western trading axis 5 1 The Romans and southern Gaul 53 4

Roman estates and entrepreneurs

49

59

Social change in Italy 59 The Ager Cosanus 65 Roman trade with southern Gaul 7 1 Production and consumption in late Republican Italy Slaves 77 The dynamics of the late Republican economy 78 5 Gaul: continuity and change 125-59

BC

Gaul : historical outline 1 25 -59 BC 8o The western trading system 8 1 The northern trading system 86 Gaulish society 87 Social change in central Gaul 92 The Gaulish and British periphery 98 The Belgae of northern Gaul 1 04

8o

75

13

33

vizi 6

Contents

The battle for Gaul: 58-50

se

1 06

J uli us Caesar 1 06 Caesar's campaigns in Gaul I 08 Ethnic movements at the time of the conquest Allegiances 1 1 7 Gaulish leadership I 20 The fate of the conquered Gauls I23 7

The creation of the three Gauls

I 25

The organization of Gaul : 50- I 2 BC The German frontier 1 28 Social and economic change in Gaul Economic intensification I32 Long-distance trade I 3 7 8 Progress through Britain

I 25 I 29

I 45

Prehistoric trade patterns I 45 The re-invigoration of long distance trade Britain after Caesar I 49 The Roman conquest I 58 The early Romanization of the south-east Northern Britain I 6 I Into Scotland I 6 3 Across the Celtic Sea I69 9

Beyond the Rhine

I 14

1 47 I 59

I7I

The military situation and the German campaigns Germanic society I 7 4 Roman interaction with free Germany I77 Socio-economic zones in Germany I 84 The late second century I 86 Late Roman economic reformations I 89 The late third century and after I 9 I 10

Retrospect Notes

202

Bibliography Index

I93

232

2I 6

I7I

List of illustrations

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38

Core-periphery relationships in the Roman Empire 3 Diagram to illustrate gateway communities 6 The structure of western Europe 8 The Mediterranean world in the ninth-sixth centuries BC 14 The central Mediterranean : routes and cities 15 T he Straits of Gibraltar and adjacent territory 16 Greek colonization of southern Gaul 18 The geography of the Rhone delta 20 Massalia 21 . Hallstatt burials in western Europe 25 Distribution of Massaliot amphorae and Attic black figured ware 26 Distribution of Etruscan beaked flagons and Attic red figured ware 27 Distribution of chieftains' hillforts in western central Europe 29 Location maps of Heuneburg and Mont Lassois 30 Routes and folk movements 520- 400 BC 34 The tribes of southern Gaul 39 Cayla de Mailhac 41 Enserune 42 Nages and its region 44 Southern Gaul: selected settlements 46 Changes in ceramic assemblages from southern Gaulish sites 47 Entremont 48 The Rhone valley route 50 The Aude-Garonne route 52 The early development of Transalpina 54 Cosa and its region 66 Settefmestre: the overall plan of the estate buildings 67 Settefmestre : the wine and olive presses 68 Dressel 1 amphorae 70 Distribution of Sestius amphorae 72 Histogram of wrecks in southern Gaulish waters 74 Changing patterns of amphorae use in the Vaunage 75 Location of Narbo Martius 82 Distribution of .Dressel 1 amphorae in western Europe 84 The Aude-Garonne route : copper sources and amphorae 85 Markets in Gaul in the early first century BC 86 The cultural divisions of Gaul 93 S tate formation in barbarian Gaul 95

x

Lzsl of illuslralions

39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60

Distri b ution of Dressel r A amphorae in Armorica and Britain 98 Celtic markets in Armorica 100 Tribes of Armorica 101 Hengistbury Head 102 The exploitation of south-west Britain in the early first century BC 103 Tribes of Belgica 105 Gaul: principal tribes and oppida 108 The progress of the Gallic War sS-ss BC 109 The progress of the Gallic War 5 4- 5 1 BC 110 Alesia 113 Routes through Gaul in Augustan times 126 Mont Beuvray 134 Siting of Mont Beuvray and Autun 135 Siting of Pommiers, Villeneuve and Soissons 136 Villeneuve-St-Germain 138 Northern Gaul: routes, amphorae and elite burials 142 Distribution of Armorican axes and British ports-of-trade 146 Contact between Britain , Armorica and Belgica 148 Elite burials on the Chiltern fringes 151 La Tene Ill burials in south-eastern Britain 152 Socio-economic units in south-eastern Britain: early first century AD 154 The location of oppida: Canterbury , Verulamium and Dorchester-onThames 155 The organisation of south-eastern Britain c. AD 50 160 Northern Britain c. AD 70 and c. AD 1 3 0 164 The tribes of northern Britain 165 Traprain Law 168 Germania: natural features 172 Roman imports in free Germany 178 Roman imports in free Germany 179 Roman imports in free Germany 180 Bohemia 182 Liibsow burials 185 Socio-economic zones in Germany 187 B ornholm in the late Roman period 188 Model for c. soo BC 194 Model for c . roo BC 196 Model for c. ro BC 198 Model for c . AD roo 199

61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76

Preface

This book had its genesis a long time ago when I sat enraptured at the feet of Glyn Daniel in Cambridge, learning about the Celto-Ligurian art of southern France and absorbing his infectious enthusiasm for the country . More recently my excavations at Hengistbury Head and Mount Batten have caused me to look in detail at the western French material - providing a delightful excuse to visit different parts of the country for several weeks every year, in the guise of working holidays , meeting colleagues and exchanging ideas. I remember with particular pleasure and gratitude the kindness of Christian Goudineau and Andre Tchernia in Aix-en-Provence, the Taffenals at Maillhac and many friends in Brittany including Pierre-Roland Giot, Loic Langouet and Patrick Galliou . Gradually the stage widened . On one memorable trip to Italy Andre Carandini guided Martin Frederiksen, Molly Cotton and myself around Cosa and his remarkable excavation at Settefinestre, while frequent visits to Belgium and Holland have introduced me to the work and ideas of many colleagues there . These travels over the years have impressed on me, with increasing force , the geography of western Europe, with its routes and barriers which have controlled and channelled the movements of goods and people in the past . It is one thing to be theoretically aware of the Carcassonne Gap or the Rhone corridor bu t quite another to experience them in reality . A second impetus to the production of this book has been a growing sadness with the way in which archaeology has become compartmentalized and particularly with the unfortunate divide between 'classical' and 'prehistoric' archaeology . The cultural developments of mainland Europe and the Mediterranean Basin cannot be understood in isolation before AD 400 any more than they can after that date, but such is the pace of study that it is quite impossible for anyone to master the vast range of material now available. One way forward , however, is to explore a few of the themes which bind the two regions, within limited geographical constraints . It is in this context that the present book is offered . This book has grown in parallel with a course of lectures given at the Oxford Institute of Archaeology and has benefited enormously from discussions with colleagues and students . Without the incomparable facilities of the Ashmolean Library it would never have been fmished and without the skilled support of · Lynda Smithson , who prepared the typescript , and Christina Unwin, who drew the illustrations, my task would have been immeasurably more difficult . It would be easy to give the impression that the book was written in a worthy fit of missionary zeal - perhaps there is some element of this - but I

x1l

Preface

can't help remembering Glyn Daniel's advice, received in my impressionable years, 'After all, why does one write and lecture except to amuse oneself?'.

Oxford June 1987

1

Themes and approaches

For far too long the study of the classical world of the Mediterranean and of the barbarian communities of temperate and northern Europe have remained very separate disciplines . The dichotomy began in the eighteenth century and , as the academic structure of archaeology crystallized in the late nineteenth and first half of the twentieth centuries , the divide became formalized, manifesting itself in the specific titles of lecturership and professorship . But this is not to say that all scholars were prepared to be compartmentalized . The great art historian Paul Jacobstahl, studying the art of the barbari�n Celts , ranged wide across the classical world in searching for the threads of inspiration which helped to generate the new art, and in defming by what mechanisms the barbarian and the Mediterranean communities interacted. Others like Sir Mortimer Wheeler, though classicists by training , actively researched the indigenous cultures of the areas they were studying. Yet still the divide persisted and, even today, is all too evident. 1 The differences between prehistoric and classical archaeology were far more than simply differences in chosen period or place: the two branches evolved fundamentally opposed methodologies and research strategies , so much so that communication became difficult and data-sets were impossible to compare . This is entirely understandable. The archaeologist working in classical countries is usually embarrassed by a profusion of riches - tons of pottery and other artefacts, ample structural evidence and , frequently , a range of relevant documentary material . It is hardly surprising therefore that classical archaeology has tended to emphasize art historical, architectural and historical approaches . The prehistorian, on the other hand , has to search far harder for his data : it is fugitive, unspectacular and labour-intensive to extract . Without historical constraints to act as a guide, the prehistorian has had to develop his own methods of analysis, relying heavily on anthropologi­ cal models to provide an interpretative framework. The two camps viewed each other with some disdain. To the classical archaeologist the prehistorian was a person infatuated by technique, wallowing in a sea of trivia, intent upon learning more and more about less and less . To the prehistorian, classical archaeology was static , and without a developing methodology - a mildly exotic form of stamp collecting. Stark characterizations of this kind do, of course, underestimate the middle ground , yet they have a validity . 2 Since the 1 960s the situation has begun to change and at many points there is now a heartening rapprochement. This has been brought about largely by

2

Themes and approaches

two developments . In the first place, archaeologists have become more and more interested by the systems at work in society - themes such as economic strategies, the nature of exchange and trade, the relationships between a civilized core and its periphery - and, more importantly, by the changing trajectories of the socio-economic systems. With the development of these concerns has come an increasing awareness of the potential of studying Mediterranean and barbarian Europe together as part of one system , given the high quality of the historical data and the scholarship that is making it available, as well as the meticulously studied archaeological record of temperate and northern Europe . The second development has been the emergence of a school of ancient historians concerned with the ancient economy , who approach their study not anecdotally, as was the tradition in the past, but in terms of model-building, using a wide range of analogies and supporting their arguments with quantified data susceptible to statistical testing . 3 The convergence of interests between the archaeologists reared in the prehistoric cradle, and the economic ancient historians, is a most exciting development . Both groups share aims, methodology and , quite often, data-sets . The divide that has been with us for so long is at last beginning to break down . The result is that archaeologists working on classical sites in the Mediterranean are at last beginning to employ the techniques of extraction and analysis developed by prehistorians , while archaeologists studying the barbarian fringes are paying far greater attention to contemporary devel­ opments in the classical world. A new and creative dialogue is underway . Europe and the Mediterranean together provide an ideal study area . The Mediterranean, by virtue of its favourable climate, wide range of resources and ease of communications has for much of the last 5000 years been an area of innovation and power . The earliest European civilizations began to emerge c. 3000 BC in the Aegean, centred on Crete, and after a period of development the focus of power spread to the Greek mainland . This Minoan-Mycenaean cycle lasted until the twelfth century BC , by which time complex networks of exchange extended from the coasts of Asia Minor in the east to Sicily and southern Italy in the west and penetrated deep into barbarian Europe . Although the extent and degree of Mycenaean influence in Europe is still hotly debated, few would deny that the requirements of the Mycenaean socio-economic system bound many of the communities of central Europe to the east Mediterranean in systems of exchange which can be recognized only dimly in the archaeological record . The collapse of the Mycenaean system was accompanied by rapid culture changes among the communities of central Europe . To what extent this was direct cause-and-effect is highly debatable , not least because other complex folk movements were in progress at the time. Nonetheless, the collapse of the Mycenaean core - a core consuming raw materials - cannot have failed to have had some effect on the central European periphery where many of the consumables were produced . Core-periphery relationships of this kind pervade the rest of history. The emergence of the Greek city-states around the fringes of the Aegean in the eighth century once more created a central core to which raw materials and

Themes and approaches

3

manpower flowed from the barbarian periphery . As the Greek colonial settlements spread out , north-eastwards into the Black Sea and westwards, first to southern Italy and Sicily and later to southern France and Spain, so areas once peripheral soon became engulfed in the expanding core. This is the point at which the main theme of this book begins. With the rise of Rome came a major change of scale both geographically and volumetrically . By the second century AD the core - the Roman empire - had grown so quickly that it had engulfed its periphery without fully integrating it. In the vast region under Roman domination it is possible to defme three distinct zones . In the centre was the inner core , Rome and Italy, consuming raw materials, manpower and cash in enormous quantities, far above its own productive capacity, in order to maintain a high urban population and the full apparatus of the state. In simple terms, the inner core was a tax-importing zone . Around it lay an inner periphery of rich provinces - Spain, Gaul , Asia, Africa - producing far in excess of the local needs. That is, they were tax-exporting, part of their product going to maintain the inner core and part to the third zone, the outer periphery of the frontier

X

INNER PERIPHERY X �/ �NNERCORE \ �"(

)

tax importing

tax importing

procurement zone

1 Model to show the relationship of the principal economic zones into which the Roman world can be divided

4

Themes and approaches

regions, where the fighting forces had to be supplied and paid . 4 Outside all this lay the barbarian periphery, a zone from which , by processes of exchange and trade , a further range of manpower and raw materials, some unobtaina­ ble elsewhere (like spices , ivory and exotic animals for beast shows), were drawn into the empire . This model is over- simplified but it helps to focus on the complexities inherent in the Roman system (fig 1 ). The breakdown of the Roman system brought to an end the Greco-Roman cycle . Out of its remnants emerged , for a time , a more disparate network of small cores with their own peripheries . This development culminated , in the fifteenth century, in the emergence of western Europe as a single dominating economic force . From this new, but politically divided core, by a series of remarkable overseas adventures , a new periphery was created in America , Africa and the east . The three European-centred cycles , Minoan-Mycenaean , Greco-Roman and West European , provide ample scope for studying core-periphery relationships . But sufficient will have been said in the brief outline given above to show that variations in scale can be enormous . One of the themes of this book is to explore aspects of these relationships in one sector of the Greco-Roman cycle . Core-periphery relationships can work at a variety of levels . At the lower end of the scale , a Greek colony planted on a barbarian shore is a core to its barbarian periphery, but to the world of the Greek Aegean the colony itself is part of the periphery . On the mega-scale, we have already seen, in the case of the Roman empire, that the core itself can be broken down into a series of interdependent peripheries . The problem is even further complicated by the fact that no single relationship is static, and each set of relationships develops along different trajectories at different rates . The best way to appreciate the range of complexities inherent in a real situation is to explore a defined territory over a given period of time , as we will do in Chapters 2-9. Only then will we be in a position to offer a few generalizations (Chapter 1 0). Relationships between core and periphery are dominated by economic exchanges administered under a variety of political systems . Let us consider briefly the two aspects of this contention . Any consideration of economic exchanges must begin with Karl Polanyi's famous definition of the three processes involved in the movement of commodities between one cultural group and another: Reciprocity denotes movements between correlative points of symme trical groupings : redis tribution designates appropriational movements towards the centre and out again : exchange refers to vice-versa movements taking place between 'hands' under a market system . 5

Some years later, in exploring the two-sidedness of organized trade (as opposed to one-sided pre-trade- hunt, expedition and raid) he formalized a view of the three main types of trade : gift trade, administered or trea 01 trade and market trade: . The organization of trading is usually ceremonial , involving mutual presentations, embassies , or

Gift trade links the partners in relationsh ips of reciprocity

.

.

.

Themes and approaches

5

political dealings between chiefs or kings . The goods are treasure, objects of elite circulation . . .. Administered or treaty trade has a firm foundation in treaty relationships of a more or less formal nature. On both sides the import interest is determinative, and for that reason the trade is organized through governmental or government­ controlled channels . . . . The mutually imported goods are standardized , according to quantity and package , weight or other easily accessible criteria . . . . M arket trade is the third typical form of trading. Exchange i s here in the form of integration that links partners to each other . . . . The range of tradable goods - the commodities - is practically unlimited . . . . The market mechanism is adaptable to the handling not only of the goods , but of every element of trade separately - storage, transportation , risk , credit , payments, and the like . 6 •

These concepts and defmitions are very useful in exploring and describing the various relationships encountered in Europe during the Greco-Roman period . The different types of trade were carried out at different locations . Gift trade coul� operate practically anywhere . Administered trade would normally be practised at a port-of-trade (or emporium) - a place set aside for commercial transactions giving protection to the foreign trader and usually situated at a route node such as a good harbour. Market trade could be enacted at external markets, like ports-of-trade, or internal markets to which foreign traders were admitted. It was through the internal markets that the products of long distance trade could most easily be integrated into the 'local' socio-economic system . Polanyi's concept of port-of-trade has been the subject of lively discuss­ ion . 7 Polanyi saw the port-of-trade in broad terms as a neutral place to which either buyers or sellers travelled to exchange goods with resident buyers or sellers. Other writers have tried to limit the definition, leading to some confusion . More recently Kenneth Hirth has developed the geographer's concept of the gateway community to serve archaeological needs : Gateway communities develop either as a response to increased trade or to the settling of sparsely pop ulated frontier areas . They generally are located along natural corridors of communication and at the critical passages between areas of high mineral , agri cultural , or craft productivi ty; dense pop ulation; high demand or supply of scarce resources; and at the interface of different technologies or levels of socio-political complexity . They often occur along economic shear lines where cost factors change and where there are economic discontinui ties in the free movement of merchandise . The function of these settlements is to satisfy demand for commodities through trade and the location of these communities reduces transportation costs involved in their movement . 8

Hirth's definition is of considerable relevance to the region and period to be considered below. The quality of its fit is a matter to which we will return in Chapter 10. Hirth goes on to make two further points of general significance to our discussion . First, he contrasts the central place - a hierarchically dominant

6

Themes and approaches

settlement which lies towards the centre of a symmetrical service, or distribution, zone and the gateway community, which is located on one edge of their hinterland. Individual communities throughout the hinterland are linked directly to the gateway community by a linear or dendritic market network which need not be circumscribed by political boundaries. Moreover, while the central place is characterized by an emphasis on retail economic activity, gateway communities are commercial middlemen indulging more in wholesale activity. The kind of model most applicable to the situation which concerns us can be characterized as the multiple gateway case (fig 2). Secondly, Hirth considers the potential effects of competition from hinterland central places. The gateway community may lose part of its hinterland and decline to an economic level similar to its competitors; it may take on an even greater central place activity itself; new areas may be brought under the gateway's control; or it may cause the development of more complex forms of socio-political authority. This last possibility could precipitate militarism, leading to the conquest of the hinterland. These possibilities are all of potential relevance to western Europe in the Greco-Roman period, where the pace of change was rapid. We have said that core-periphery relations concerned economic exchange administered under a variety of political systems, although the discussion so far has been concerned essentially with the mechanisms of exchange. The Greco-Roman world was characterized by two contrasting political systems, the city-state and the empire, and the passage of time from the sixth century BC to the second century AD saw the transformation of one into the other. The

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