Roman Agriculture Research Paper

791 Words4 Pages
It is unanimous among ancient historians that agriculture was the most important economic activities to the success of the Roman Empire. When historians discuss Roman agriculture the first thought that comes to mind is Roman farming. “Agriculture in ancient Rome was not only a necessity, but was idealized among the social elite as a way of life,” (Roman Farming p.1). As the Roman culture became more advanced and complex so did their agriculture farming system. Much of Roman life was centered in cities, but majority of the people lived on the outskirts of the cities in the country. These individuals grew crops, tended vines, and took care of livestock. Farmers were essential to the Romans prosperous empire because they supported the cities…show more content…
In the Roman culture slaves were extremely prevalent and provided cheap labor for the Romans to take advantage of. It was extremely painful to farm and most of these slaves were women and children. The climate of Rome is described as semi-arid and the farmers had to make sure to take care of their soil by plowing it on a daily basis to keep the soil constantly ready for use. During the early stages of farming they used a “stick” that would be dragged by an ox to plow the fields in order to break up the soil. This was known as an ard-type plow. The staple crop of the romans was spelt (a type of wheat) and bread could be found at every Roman table. Grain was harvested by hand in these early years of farming until machine advancements were made after the first century A.D. Rome needed an extremely large amount of food to supply its large and increasing population, which put a ton of stress on these farmers. A lot of the grain that the Romans didn’t grow was imported from North Africa, specifically…show more content…
Many farms would grow special herbs that they would use for medicinal purposes to heal the sick. An example of one of these herbs was Rosemary, which was widely used to help heal the sick. There were three types of farms small, medium, and large and the city depended on all three of these types of farms to provide the necessities to live. Another major crop that the Romans used besides wheat was olives. Olives were usually squeezed in special mechanical type “presses” to produce olive oil. There were several uses for this oil like fuel for lamps and

More about Roman Agriculture Research Paper

Open Document