ACOUP Senate Open Thread V

The annona civilis (the bread dole) would be easy enough to do. Woodworking is on the to-do list, but will require a bit more legwork; don't expect it this year (but do expect it some time, probably also with discussions of bronze, glass and pottery).

Naldiin

Longtime reader, new Conscript Mother. I have two major things on my "ACOUP Post Wishlist," and this looks like the place to share them. First, a "How Did They Make It" for something made of wood. Boats or wagons might be especially relevant (logistics!), but I'll take any pretext to read about pre-modern foresters, loggers, sawyers, and assorted woodworkers. Second, the Roman Bread Dole (broadly construed to include grain subsidies etc). I once had a (cough) memorable conversation with someone who blamed "the dole" for the Fall of Rome. After a quick check of Wikipedia I suspect some basic and familiar chronology problems with this, but it might be a good topic to explore. How, when, and why did it start? How did it work (and for whom, where)? How did it develop over time and how long did it last (e.g. did a version continue under the Byzantines)? How did it contribute to successes and failures of the Roman state? What was Juvenal on about with that whole "bread and circuses" thing and how much should we respect his judgment about it?

Laura Fox

Wars often have attritional phases - sometimes quite long ones - where neither side can make progress until the other weakens. For an ancient example, the late stages of the First Punic War come to mind (e.g. Polyb. 1.56-57). Of course the modern example everyone jumps to is the First World War on the Western Front, but that's hardly the only example.

Naldiin

(Sorry for being late to the party, Patreon doesn’t email me updates even though I told it to) The conflict in Ukraine is top of mind for a lot of people these days. Thanks to drones it has seemed to reach a state of “active standstill” where lots of movement and activity is happening but the new technology slows it all down to almost no progress. Are there any ancient warfare examples that could be drawn from? And if so what might they teach us about today? Thanks.

David Machaj

Answered here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/november-2023-94003424?cid=123722344

Michael Cohen

I posted this on your November Research Update, but it seems to me it might fit better here: In The Lord of the Rings, whose author Tolkien is a devoted Christian and a scholar of ancient history, we find very little *religion*. Although the Valar are known on Middle Earth, it does not appear that Gondor, Rohan, or The Shire, have any significant religious practice. Am I missing something? For a scholar of a period where religiosity is central, and who appears to be trying to recreate realistic ancient cultures in a fictional setting - where did all the religion go?

Michael Cohen

How did Finance work in Rome? In what form did banks exist and what was their role in the economy? I suppose some bureaucrats kept records on bread prices and the like; were there musings on things like inflation, economic growth and their causes & effects? I suppose some people had opinions about inequality, but was there anything that might be called evidence-based economic policy? What did wage laborers do with their spare money? Could I open a bank account in Rome, and if so, under what circumstances?

I feel like you've touched on this in multiple places, but I'm not sure if there was ever a direct comparison. What do you have in a modern city in terms of convenience, governance, infrastructure, and how did that look like in both Rome and a smaller city in the provinces? I was thinking like police, fire fighting, banking, trash collection, dining, running water, obviously you didn't have electricity, but what was night life like. What does a day, a week, a year in the life of a citizen look like today compared to then?

Aaron