Their power had been forged by “secession,” a form of
strike by plebeians, particularly soldiers, who would
withdraw to a hill outside the city and refuse to cooperate
with the magistrates until their complaints were dealt with.
This threat was of course particularly important during a
time of war. It was supposedly during such a secession in
the fifth century BC that citizens gained the right to elect their
tribune and enact laws that would govern their community.
Their political and legal protection, even if limited by our
current standards, created economic opportunities for
citizens and some degree of inclusivity in economic
institutions. As a result, trade throughout the Mediterranean
flourished under the Roman Republic. Archaeological
evidence suggests that while the majority of both citizens
and slaves lived not much above subsistence level, many
Romans, including some common citizens, achieved high
incomes, with access to public services such as a city
sewage system and street lighting.
Moreover, there is evidence that there was also some
economic growth under the Roman Republic. We can track
the economic fortunes of the Romans from shipwrecks. The
empire the Romans built was in a sense a web of port
cities—from Athens, Antioch, and Alexandria in the east;
via Rome, Carthage, and Cadiz; all the way to London in
the far west. As Roman territories expanded, so did trade
and shipping, which can be traced from shipwrecks found
by archaeologists on the floor of the Mediterranean. These
wrecks can be dated in many ways. Often the ships carried
amphorae full of wine or olive oil, being transported from
Italy to Gaul, or Spanish olive oil to be sold or distributed for
free in Rome. Amphorae, sealed vessels made of clay,
often contained information on who had made them and
when. Just near the river Tiber in Rome is a small hill,
Monte Testaccio, also known as Monte dei Cocci (“Pottery
Mountain”), made up of approximately fifty-three million
amphorae. When the amphorae were unloaded from ships,
they were discarded, over the centuries creating a huge hill.
Other goods on the ships and the ship itself can
sometimes be dated using radiocarbon dating, a powerful
technique used by archaeologists to date the age of
organic remains. Plants create energy by photosynthesis,
which uses the energy from the sun to convert carbon