This study offers a prosopographical catalogue that embraces more than one thousand people who in different ways participated in commercial exchanges in the western half of the Roman Empire. All those listed in this catalogue are found both in monumental and so-called ‘minor’ epigraphy: tituli picti and amphora lids, stamps on anchors etc. In fact, this sort of epigraphic evidence (ironically labelled by Heinrich Dressel as ‘minuzie epigrafiche’) is gradually becoming the most important source for understanding the true magnitude of Roman trade.
According to Broekaert, the aim of this catalogue is to prepare the ground for prospective researchers who are intending to develop further studies on business and trade. For this reason, those listed in this catalogue are only those directly involved with commercial activities and explicitly mentioned in inscriptions. As a result, no analytical attempt is made either to examine the structure of trade or its institutional framework, and trade routes in the Roman Empire are also ignored.
Following this pattern, the book is divided into fourteen chapters, each including a catalogue (even though inventory numbers are consecutive): ch. 1 ‘negotiatores and negociantes’; ch. 2 ‘mercatores’; ch. 3 ‘nautae’; ch. 4 ‘utriclarii’; ch. 5 ‘navicularii and naucleri’; ch. 6 ‘propolae and poletai’; ch. 7 ‘emporoi and kapeloi’; ch. 8 ‘vinarii’; ch. 9 ‘frumentarii’; ch. 10 ‘olearii and diffusores olearii’; ch. 11 ‘merchants mentioned in tituli picti’; ch. 12 ‘merchants mentioned on amphorae stoppers’; ch. 13 ‘ship-owners mentioned on anchors’; ch. 14 ‘miscellaneous merchants and shippers’. Each chapter consists of an introduction where the etymological and semantic meaning of each profession is briefly discussed. Each catalogue entry includes the following items: text with the inscription in which the person is mentioned, literature, chronology, site and commentaries. The volume also includes an extensive bibliography and one index, of merchants.
This work is systematic, innovative and meticulous, demonstrating a great mastery of the epigraphic sources and the relevant literature. However, it is precisely due to this very innovative use of a rather complicated type of evidence, that some methodological observations need to be made.
The segmentation of the catalogue into fourteen chapters makes it necessary for the author to duplicate some prosopographical entries (as, for instance, the well-known ‘Aulus Herennuleius Cestus, negotiator vinarius … idem mercator omnis generis mercium …’ (CIL IX.4680), who appears in ch. 1 (negotiatores), no. 83, and reappears in ch. 2 (mercatores), no. 292). Consequently, we cannot be certain about the number of merchants that are represented in the 1,320 entries, distributed across the fourteen chapters, since the number of repetitions cannot easily be determined. This difficulty, amongst others, might suggest that a single catalogue, accompanied by a group of indexes arranged according to different criteria, may have been a more convenient option — for example: site; chronology; positions and rôles occupied in public life and in associations; social and judicial status; profession (this is the only criterion adopted by the author); merchandise and, as a highlighted field, the terminology used to describe the economic activity carried out by the merchant (diffusor olearius, mercator etc.). The creation of a single catalogue would facilitate a more appropriate organization of the inscriptions in which the same person can be found. As for example, Decimus Caecilius Hospitalis, a member of the family of the Decimi Caecilii, from Astigis, who is listed both in the catalogue of negotatiores (no. 40) and that of tituli picti (no. 620).
In my opinion, the listing of people in this catalogue does not seem the most appropriate. B. uses the standard form for senators and equites: nomen + cognomen + praenomen. However, since this is a catalogue of merchants, and most of them were freedmen or of freedman origin, I believe that they should have been listed more conveniently according to the names received from their former patron: nomen + praenomen + cognomen. In this way, one could easily list all those individuals who shared the same patron in familial groups: for example, the extensive ‘family’ of the Decimi Caecilii from Astigis: Abascantus, Calliphitus, Chrysogonus, Dafnus, Evelpistus, Hospitalis, Maternus, Montanus, Nicephorus, Onesimus, Victor and, finally, Onesimus' daughter, Caecilia Charitosa.
On a related note, the criteria used by B. to dismiss or include some merchants seem to me too restrictive. Only those professionals are included whose monumental inscription specified their rôle as negotiatores/negotiantes, mercatores, nautae, utriclarii, navicularii/naucleri, propolae/poletai, emporoi/kapeloi, vinarii, frumentarii or olearii/diffusores olearii. Besides these, B. also considers all the merchants whose name is reproduced in a titulus pictus on amphorae (as their association with the distribution of goods is quite obvious), with the exception of most of those found in Pompeii where the amphora typology is not known. This results in a catalogue of merchants who mainly specialized in oil and salted fish.
All things considered, this study by B. is highly recommended, since it offers a new research tool in order to study trade in the Roman Empire. This work also shows the benefits and potential of epigraphic and prosopographical studies in order to approach the ancient economy — especially if one draws on ‘minuzie epigrafiche’.
