The Crisis of A.D. 33: past and present
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Colin P. Elliott
Abstract
Ancient accounts of a financial crisis in the city of Rome in A.D. 33 seem to indicate the existence of quasi-capitalistic financial markets in the early Roman Empire. It appears that a busted real estate and lending bubble led to a sudden crash in asset prices. Land prices were only stabilized when the emperor Tiberius implemented a state-directed rescue package in the form of interest-free loans through an apparently robust banking system. However, a careful study of the historiography of the crisis and the language used to describe it shows that this narrative, with its unmistakable echoes of recent economic woes, is merely the latest in a series of innovative appropriations of the ancient sources. In reality, the crisis was less about finance and more about status and the reinforcement of social hierarchy.
Acknowledgment
I would like to thank Tony Woodman, Kevin Crotty and the anonymous JAH referees for reading and commenting upon drafts of this article. Portions of this article also benefitted from comments by John Davies at the 2012 Classical Association Annual Meeting when I was still considering whether this topic was worthwhile. Neville Morley helped me to think through the incentives and motivations of Tiberius and the Senate back when I was his student at the University of Bristol. Finally, I am especially grateful to members of the Virginia Military Institute and Washington and Lee economics seminar, with special mention to Michael Anderson and Martin Davies, for inviting me to discuss the ideas in this article with them and for the helpful suggestions I received
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Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- Frontmatter
- Articles
- Ancient Near Eastern Omens and Prophecies as a Function of Cognitive Modes
- Stories told in lists: formulaic genealogies as intentional histories
- Emporoi kai nauklēroi: redefining commercial roles in Classical Greece
- Private Traders and the Food Supply of Classical Greek Armies
- Caesar at Play: Some Preparations for the Parthian Campaign, 44 BCE
- Cultivating the memory of Octavius Thurinus
- The Crisis of A.D. 33: past and present
- Roman Neapolis and the Landscape of Disaster
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- Frontmatter
- Articles
- Ancient Near Eastern Omens and Prophecies as a Function of Cognitive Modes
- Stories told in lists: formulaic genealogies as intentional histories
- Emporoi kai nauklēroi: redefining commercial roles in Classical Greece
- Private Traders and the Food Supply of Classical Greek Armies
- Caesar at Play: Some Preparations for the Parthian Campaign, 44 BCE
- Cultivating the memory of Octavius Thurinus
- The Crisis of A.D. 33: past and present
- Roman Neapolis and the Landscape of Disaster
