Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

What were the worst jobs for poor Romans in Ancient Rome?

quora.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

61–70 of 86 posts

Re: What were the worst jobs for poor Romans in Ancient Rome?

#61

Post by Jedd »

NoZebra120vClip wrote: post #54
mustacheemperor wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not to disrupt some good humor with boring factual accuracy, but worth noting the "temple money changers" were not Romans or bankers. Historic academics is of course rarely conclusive, especially biblical exegesis, but it's generally accepted by scholars that the "money changers" were Jews, likely volunteers, who provided a service required by Jewish law: exchanging Roman coins for Tyrian shekels to purchase animals…

What's interesting is Matthew 22:19, where Jesus has asked someone to show Him a Roman coin, and his questioners manage to produce it, no problem. Well, the Jews were forbidden to possess those denarii, because it made the person ritually impure (Matthew the Apostle, aka Levi, would know). So whoever produced the coin on request was probably rather embarrassed about it.

AIUI, the Book of Matthew was not written by that Matthew, or indeed by anyone whose identity we know, right?

Re: What were the worst jobs for poor Romans in Ancient Rome?

#62

Post by Jedd »

tacker2000 wrote: post #13

Please dont post quora links. Whilst the questions and answers might be interesting, the whole site its just a minefield of ads, SEO spam, forced logins, etc…

It's terribly sad that whoever wrote these posts stopped a decade ago, but at least the links are still active - always relevant when someone complains about quora:

https://jesuschristsiliconvalley-blog.tumblr.com/post/489620...

I'm finding that in the past couple of years, more of my google searches are pointing me to quora (but also to reddit, so some swings and roundabouts there). I don't know if they're getting qualitatively better, or just more adept at SEO.

Even with good adblockers in place, the bait-and-switch just after landing is hugely frustrating (if you want to read more, you must sign up, etc).

Re: What were the worst jobs for poor Romans in Ancient Rome?

#63

Post by bacon_waffle »

htag wrote: post #7

One thing, it's ambiguous if they are speaking of only jobs inside the city, or any job in the republic/empire. It's also ambiguous if this is limited to jobs only performed by free individuals. Some things that didn't make the list. * Free individuals sometimes became Gladiators * While very clean for ancient standards, their sewage system required a lot of manual maintenance. * We know sailors we subject to scurvy,…

> * Prostitution was legal.

As it is in Aotearoa New Zealand, where lately we also have constant news about shortages of workers in hospitality, tourism, agriculture, etc.

https://thespinoff.co.nz/society/06-08-2018/its-as-legal-as-...

Re: What were the worst jobs for poor Romans in Ancient Rome?

#64

Post by jtolmar »

> "Great heavens, what poor specimens of humanity the men were! Their entire bodies formed a pattern of livid bruises. Their backs, which bore the marks of the whip, were not so much covered as shaded by torn shirts of patchwork cloth... They had letters branded on their foreheads, half-shaved heads, and chains round their ankles. Their faces were a ghastly yellow, and their eyes had contracted in the smoke-filled gloom of that steaming, dank atmosphere, making them half-blind. They resembled boxers who coat themselves with dust when they fight, for their bodies were a dirty white from the oven-baked flour."

> Apuleius, The Golden Ass

Being sent to become a mill slave was considered one of the worst punishments available for Roman slaves. Essentially a slow death sentence where you turn a millstone in an unlit chamber until your lungs give out from breathing flour and stone dust.

Mining held a similar status.

Re: What were the worst jobs for poor Romans in Ancient Rome?

#65

Post by BirAdam »

laverya wrote: post #57
BirAdam wrote: post #45

Mining and military service are definitely worse than groveling, especially since Rome did have the bread line. The military definitely had a pay advantage (and it got better over time in the imperial era, so much so that it began to bankrupt the state), but Rome was always killing people, either Romans or barbarians. The warfare was absolutely horrifying by modern standards, and I imagine that even the best warriors…

> The warfare was absolutely horrifying by modern standards, and I imagine that even the best warriors of Rome would have had severe PTSD. I'm not actually sure this was the case. We don't actually really hear of things like PTSD for anything before the Great War - and we do have veterans of prior wars saying something was different about WW1. It seems that the constant, unending chance of combat or death really migh…

Nah Herodotus wrote about it, as did Assyrian scholars. In the case of Assyrians this psychological problem was attributed to the spirits of slain enemies tormenting the sufferer. Given the extremely spiritual viewpoint of almost all ancient peoples, I have feeling that this is why it’s not heard of more frequently.

Re: What were the worst jobs for poor Romans in Ancient Rome?

#66

Post by nonethewiser »

laverya wrote: post #57
BirAdam wrote: post #45

Mining and military service are definitely worse than groveling, especially since Rome did have the bread line. The military definitely had a pay advantage (and it got better over time in the imperial era, so much so that it began to bankrupt the state), but Rome was always killing people, either Romans or barbarians. The warfare was absolutely horrifying by modern standards, and I imagine that even the best warriors…

> The warfare was absolutely horrifying by modern standards, and I imagine that even the best warriors of Rome would have had severe PTSD. I'm not actually sure this was the case. We don't actually really hear of things like PTSD for anything before the Great War - and we do have veterans of prior wars saying something was different about WW1. It seems that the constant, unending chance of combat or death really migh…

There is definitely something going on. Its hard to imagine there is no record of PTSD during countless wars over the course of history leading up to WWI.

Re: What were the worst jobs for poor Romans in Ancient Rome?

#67

Post by defrost »

rurp wrote: post #21
explaininjs wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Was arable land easy to come by for a poor Roman or would you be more likely to have a landlord requiring some cut?

In general no, it wasn't easy for poor folks to get their own farm land, and it became harder as time went on. A plot of land was a common millitary pension; soldiers would retire there and work the land after putting in enough service time. This worked well while there was plenty of decent land in Italy, but became a worse deal over time. Once the prime land was taken up soldiers had to settle for plots of varying q…

> soldiers had to settle for plots of varying quality far from their homeland

So .. Mesopotamian soldiers might have to settle for land in Italy after serving at Arbeia [1], the Roman fort in England rather than return to their homeland?

Or are you perhaps thinking that the Roman Army was mostly made up of soldiers from provinces of what is now modern day Italy?

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arbeia

Re: What were the worst jobs for poor Romans in Ancient Rome?

#68

Post by nonethewiser »

Kye wrote: post #46
markwkw wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To me it became unbearable after it became flooded with people trying to add content without bringing any actual insight. They'd largely reuse existing materials or top google/wikipedia results and used certain style that became annoying to me (I wonder if others also started noticing the 'quora-style' answers)

I remember asking for the scientific basis for the EPA's recommendations on UV exposure. I had this idea an actual scientist or someone who's done relevant research might answer. All I got were spun versions of the citeless blurb on the EPA's website. That was when I knew Quora was dead. (kind of an aside after this point) Meanwhile, ChatGPT (via Phind) just keeps giving me answers on the efficacy of sunscreen at blo…

Thats a great question because recently I searched similar things when trying to learn about the risk of UV with kids. All sources basically concludes any direct exposure to the sun is bad for you (not just kids) because UV is inherently harmful and vitamin D can be gotten other ways.

Either this is overstated or everyone is behaving very recklessly. Maybe a mix of both. But more details on these levels would be good. I also wonder if they assume direct sunlight or if actual cloudiness is baked into the daily index values.

Re: What were the worst jobs for poor Romans in Ancient Rome?

#69

Post by mr_toad »

defrost wrote: post #67
rurp wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In general no, it wasn't easy for poor folks to get their own farm land, and it became harder as time went on. A plot of land was a common millitary pension; soldiers would retire there and work the land after putting in enough service time. This worked well while there was plenty of decent land in Italy, but became a worse deal over time. Once the prime land was taken up soldiers had to settle for plots of varying q…

> soldiers had to settle for plots of varying quality far from their homeland So .. Mesopotamian soldiers might have to settle for land in Italy after serving at Arbeia [1], the Roman fort in England rather than return to their homeland? Or are you perhaps thinking that the Roman Army was mostly made up of soldiers from provinces of what is now modern day Italy? [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arbeia

Things changed after the transition from Republic to an Empire. One of the factors in that transition was the shortage of land to provide to soldiers, who at that time were mostly Roman citizens.

Re: What were the worst jobs for poor Romans in Ancient Rome?

#70

Post by rgoulter »

Aperocky wrote: post #15
tacker2000 wrote: post #13

Please dont post quora links. Whilst the questions and answers might be interesting, the whole site its just a minefield of ads, SEO spam, forced logins, etc…

The complete downfall of quora is surprising tbh. Trying to cash out before they reached critical point? At one point about a decade ago through my spotty memory they are pretty on par with reddit in terms of adoption and reputation.

> At one point about a decade ago through my spotty memory they are pretty on par with reddit in terms of adoption and reputation

Considering Google Trends for "quora" vs "reddit", it was never even close, generally. https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=2008-04-18%202...

Post reply on HN