Title: Food Riots in the Roman World 

Presenter: Paul Erdkamp (Professor of Ancient History)
Department of History, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium

Date: April 2, 2024 Tue. 4-6 pm
Venue: Bldg. 7 Room 308, College of Humanities

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Paul Erdkamp is a Professor of Ancient History at Vrije Universiteit Brussel and chair of the Department of History, Archaeology, Art Studies, and Philosophy. He serves as the director of FOST, a research group focused on interdisciplinary historical food studies, and is the co-director of the Roman Society Research Centre (Ghent/Brussels).
Professor Erdkamp has extensively published on the social, economic, demographic, and military aspects of the Roman world. His works include monographs such as Hunger and the Sword: Warfare and Food Supply in the Roman Republic (Amsterdam, 1998) and The Grain Market in the Roman Empire: A Social, Political and Economic Study (Cambridge, 2005), alongside editorships of pivotal volumes like A Companion to the Roman Army (Oxford, 2007), The Cambridge Companion to Ancient Rome (Cambridge, 2013), and The Routledge Handbook to Diet and Nutrition in the Roman World (London, 2019), co-edited with Claire Holleran. He has also co-edited collections on the Roman economy for Oxford University Press, and a collection on climate change and ancient societies for Palgrave McMillan.

Abstract
Thompson’s concept of a ‘moral economy’ proves valuable as an analytical tool of behavior, ideas and communication in the Roman world. In their communication with the authorities of city and empire, rioters in Roman cities acted upon their notions of ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ regarding the urban food supply. These notions were shared and strengthened by the ruling elite, who publicly addressed the urban market as a moral issue that concerned the ‘common good’ of the community. However, the form these riots took was not solely determined by governmental regulation, in contrast to Thompson’s conclusions regarding eighteenth century English riots. While ancient magistrates sometimes requisitioned food stores during shortages, and thus may have legitimized plundering of civilian stocks by the urban mob, Roman authorities never encouraged local officials to be stoned to death or their houses burned. This feature makes food riots in Roman times unlike eighteenth century English food riots. The urban populace’s sense of outrage and their fear of hunger determined the violent nature of food riots in ancient cities. Food riots did not stem from a fundamental difference of opinion between the populace and ‘liberal’ statesmen, as was the case at the height of rioting in eighteenth century Europe. The literary spokesmen of the elite confirm a ‘moral economy’ that was not governed by profits, but by obligations. The attitudes of the elites of the ancient world were not only governed by economic considerations of profit, but at least as much by their aspiration of social eminence. The ruling class of wealthy landowners realized that their social and political status depended largely upon their ability to act as benefactors and protectors of their communities. Faced with the possibility of a food riot by a violent mob, it was often opportune to live up to one’s creed and to make sure that market supply was plentiful and the price ‘just’.