This is an interesting theory (one I would love to read more about) but this neglects that the vast majority of people in Rome would not have had access to many of these energy sources. About 75-90% of people lived in rural areas, never seeing the famous baths or mud-bricks. Many who would go into the army came from these areas, only every seeing the glory of Rome itself in a preceding triumph. But I think this theory might hold for energy efficiency in agriculture.
Rome went through many different systems throughout its history: first the small-scale farmers, then the Latifundia and slave-estates, then the local patronage system (circa 300AD), and then fully developed manor estates (sort of like medieval feudalism). One could trace the rise and fall of Rome with the changing of these different agricultural systems, so I wonder if later systems scarified efficiency for stability.
On the other hand, I shouldn’t mistake correlation for causation, and so it could be that these systems didn’t cause the rise and fall of Rome, but were merely a reaction to it.
Thanks! I definitely don’t want to imply that the average Roman lived in an awesome villa built out of bricks. But in regards to for example bathhouses:
Small bathhouses, called balneum (plural balnea), might be privately owned, while they were public in the sense that they were open to the populace for a fee. Larger baths called thermae were owned by the state and often covered several city blocks. The largest of these, the Baths of Diocletian, could hold up to 3,000 bathers. Fees for both types of baths were quite reasonable, within the budget of most free Roman males.
While the baths were enjoyed by almost every Roman, there were those who criticized them.
And the army, with its advanced equipment, was open to the average citizen as well. They would not have profited equally from all Roman luxuries, but it seems clear that the Roman civilization as a whole was more prosperous than the Early Medieval one, at least in a lot of material aspects.
This is an interesting theory (one I would love to read more about) but this neglects that the vast majority of people in Rome would not have had access to many of these energy sources. About 75-90% of people lived in rural areas, never seeing the famous baths or mud-bricks. Many who would go into the army came from these areas, only every seeing the glory of Rome itself in a preceding triumph. But I think this theory might hold for energy efficiency in agriculture.
Rome went through many different systems throughout its history: first the small-scale farmers, then the Latifundia and slave-estates, then the local patronage system (circa 300AD), and then fully developed manor estates (sort of like medieval feudalism). One could trace the rise and fall of Rome with the changing of these different agricultural systems, so I wonder if later systems scarified efficiency for stability.
On the other hand, I shouldn’t mistake correlation for causation, and so it could be that these systems didn’t cause the rise and fall of Rome, but were merely a reaction to it.
Thanks! I definitely don’t want to imply that the average Roman lived in an awesome villa built out of bricks. But in regards to for example bathhouses:
And the army, with its advanced equipment, was open to the average citizen as well. They would not have profited equally from all Roman luxuries, but it seems clear that the Roman civilization as a whole was more prosperous than the Early Medieval one, at least in a lot of material aspects.