86- Wealth and Class

The Roman world was divided between slaves, freedmen, and free citizens of every economic class. Gross inequality though was the order of the day, with the Emperor himself controlling the lion's share of the Empire's wealth.

86- Wealth and Class

Comments

[FredBear]

Aaaahhh. The haves and the have nots. Some things never change, just the means and ways of oppression.

Do you intend to add 058 through 084 to the RSS feed Mike?

[Alex]

"Inequality that would make Ayn Rand blush..."

Now that's the sort of thing that keeps me listening every week. Great episode. I really appreciate the look at Empirical society after going through the important events from the fall of the Republic to the mid 2nd century. I always felt that the fall of the Republic was tragic for Roman society, despite the corruption and relative inequality of republican Rome. It seems like a depressing comment on how great wealth and power utlimately corrupt people's values.

[Detlef]

@FredBear,

Those episode are already in the feed. Only episode 28 is missing and 58 is in there twice.

[Hosung Jin]

Thanks for answering the question!!

[Adam]

Loved this episode, it was right to stop and look around, certainly makes a change.

I have to say you painted a pretty bleak picture of Imperial Rome, even for the relatively rich life seemed a real drag.

The Republic looks positively rosy now!

[Juanpablo7k]

Nice episode. Just when i was beginning to get annoyed by the unanswered questions about roman life on the daily basis. Thanks a lot, its a great show, beats television ten times haha. It really makes my day.

It's funny that you mention episode 28 in these episode because it is still missing from the itunes library. That one is important.Also, is there any way to make the episodes appear orderly in the library, it's a real rollercouster in there.

[gregorian]

Nice. I enjoyed this episode alot. It helps make sense of the characters being talked about in other episodes. And of course I'd like more like it. Keep on mixing in a the odd background material episode amongst the procession of Emperors.

[Matty B]

This was an awesome episode! I think we have starting to get bogged down in the Emperors and not enough of the surrounding Empire details.

[FredBear]

@Detlef
Yes, but my query is to whether Mike will continue to re-submit the episodes from 58 to 83 with a leading '0' as he has done with episodes 001 to 057 (minus episode 28). Of course I have all the episodes, but am waiting to see if I should rename the existing episodes from 58 to 83 with a leading 0, or whether Mike is going to resubmit them also.

[Andrew]

This was a much needed episode. Thanks! Your social history keeps things in perspective and the "romance of empire" grounded. Keep up the excellent work!

[jeroen]

nice finaly hear about roman society

[Mike G]

The Horror! For the first time in a couple of months, my iPod stopped dead after an episode of THOR. I've finally caught up.

This is really going to mess with my day. I've been listening to 1-6 episodes a day....I might go into withdrawal only getting one episode a week!

This is an absolutely awesome podcast. Thank you for all the effort to put it together.

[Antony]

Loved this episode. Got a question:

Mike refers to "educated slaves" who had a fairly good life and influence. How does a slave become educated, or how does an educated man become a slave?

[Alexa Laessig]

This is an amazing pod cast thank you so much for all the hard work. One can really tell that you poured your heart into this pod cast.I am kind of addicted and I go into a state of withdrawal when I have to go without for an extended time.
May the Force be with you

Alexa

[bingley]

@Antony If your slaves are intelligent or they have children who are intelligent, you could train them. Cato the Elder had a nice little business educating and training slaves and them selling them for a profit as doctors, secretaries, whatever.

If you have an education but are poor, you could sell yourself as a slave. Money goes to your family, and hopefully you get a master who has invested enough in you or needs your services enough to treat you well.

Also of course, being educated doesn't stop you from being on the wrong side in a war. You're a Parthian doctor who knows enough Greek to get by and the Romans capture your town. Hey presto, you're a slave but maybe you can treat your master's gout or whatever with a good diet.

[Gmanning]

"Inequality that would make Ayn Rand blush..."

It probably would have, she despised large government wealth transfers from poor to rich or rich to poor.

[JGallagher50]

"Inequality that would make Ayn Rand blush..."

It probably would have, she despised large government wealth transfers from poor to rich or rich to poor.

-Actually what she hated more was people who did not earn money taking it from those who did. She would have been appalled with the whole Roman system. No economic freedom, no real form of private property (except for the wealthy)and no social/economic mobility. She grew up in the Soviet Union, where the political elites kept all of the money that they did not earn. Was Rome really so different? Let's not pretend that Rome was in anyway a free market society.