a comparative study of a Roman frontier province. - Historia Antigua

-448-
8: 2/8: 3
22. For further examples of models dealing with the special position of
the gasr (or large farm) see Barker and Jones 1981,33-42.
23. Marichal 1979,448; Rebuffat and Marichal 1973,186.
24. See further below 8: 4.
25. Marichal 1979,448. Macargus is also recorded among the grain trans-
porters (24 modii), though his main surplus was clearly in oil.
26.1 Selesua -1 Sbitualis -1 Siddipia s1 Aggatui -4 Isidarim
a 12 modii - 105 litres. Another unit whose exact name is not known
was equal to 3 Zsidarim or 9 modii. The base unit of this system is
equivalent to 3 modii or 26.25 litres, the rest are multiplications of
this. The same system also applied to olive oil, Marichal 1979,448.
27. Fentress 1979,175, has estimated that the combined spending power
of the Third Legion and auxiliaries in Numidia and Tripolitania was
HS 10,000,000 per year. A fair proportion of this will have been
spent in the locality of the main garrison posts. The military market
was, therefore, likely to have been a lucrative one and offered
incentives for increased sedentary agriculture, Trousset 1981a;
Rebuffat 1977,395-415; 1979,232-35; 1982a, 505-06.
28. See now Jones and Walker 1983,189-91, who argue that where vicus
development was slow, it could be given official encouragement by
the granting of tax exemptions and other privileges. The converse
of this is that within its "dependency zone" a fort could exert
considerable influence on local production patterns by restricting
the choice of markets open to farmers.
29. See above the discussion in 7: 4.
30. Buck, Burns and Mattingly 1983,54. The processes are little under-
stood as yet, but the work of the ULVP can suggest some of the
possible alternatives. Prebble 1969, gives a graphic account of
how sweeping socio-economic changes can be carried through by an
elite following their subjugation in battle (in this case in the
Scottish highlands in the eighteenth century).
31. Cf Garnsey 1978,235: "In rewarding the African elite with land and
other material benefits, the Romans were following their traditional
policy of building up a network of families, groups and communities
with vested interests in the prolongation of Roman rule. What emerged
in Africa, as elsewhere, was a highly stratified society, reflecting
the unequal distribution of land". It also involved the coercions
exploitation and extortion of a much larger peasant class, whose
docility was a key factor in the prosperity, Picard 1975,98-111.
8: 3 The decline of Tripolitanian agriculture
1. As was evident from the discussion of a paper by D. Roques at the Cam-
bridge Cyrenaican colloquium in April 1983. The consensus opposed his
view that the Cyrenaican agricultural economy was still flourishing in
the fifth century in spite of the raids of the Austuriani.
2. Duncan-Jones 1962,47-115; 1963,159-78. The recent excavations at
Sidi Khrebish (Berenice) show that that town's economy declined after
the third century A. D. see Lloyd 1977, passim.
3. Courtois et al 1952 passim.
See also Courtois 1955,312-23;
Whittaker 1978,360-61; Bourgeois 1980,213-228, on rural continuity
into the Vandal period.