DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61617#0442
PART III
TRADES AND OCCUPATIONS
CHAPTER XLVI
THE TRADES AT POMPEII.—THE BAKERS
In antiquity there was no such distinction between trades and
professions as exists to-day. In the Early Empire all activity
outside the field of public service, civil and military, or the
management of estates, was considered beneath the dignity of
a Roman ; the practice of law, which had received its impulse
largely from the obligation of patrons to protect their clients,
was included among public duties. The ordinary work of life
was left mainly to slaves and freedmen. Not only the trades,
as we understand the term, but architecture and engineering, —
in antiquity two branches of one occupation, — the practice of
medicine, and teaching, were looked upon as menial. A Roman
of literary or practical bent might manifest an interest in such
vocations, but it was considered hardly respectable actively to
engage in them.
This attitude of mind, especially toward the higher occupations,
is only explicable in the light of the social conditions then exist-
ing. Men who kept slaves of every degree of intelligence and
training, and were at all times accustomed to command, were
not disposed to hold themselves in readiness to do another’s
bidding, excepting in the service of the State alone; and work
committed to slaves and freedmen naturally came to be consid-
ered unworthy the employment of a gentleman. The freemen
of the same craft were often united in guilds or corporations,
for the administration of certain matters of mutual interest; but
nothing is known in regard to the activities of such organizations
at Pompeii.
375
TRADES AND OCCUPATIONS
CHAPTER XLVI
THE TRADES AT POMPEII.—THE BAKERS
In antiquity there was no such distinction between trades and
professions as exists to-day. In the Early Empire all activity
outside the field of public service, civil and military, or the
management of estates, was considered beneath the dignity of
a Roman ; the practice of law, which had received its impulse
largely from the obligation of patrons to protect their clients,
was included among public duties. The ordinary work of life
was left mainly to slaves and freedmen. Not only the trades,
as we understand the term, but architecture and engineering, —
in antiquity two branches of one occupation, — the practice of
medicine, and teaching, were looked upon as menial. A Roman
of literary or practical bent might manifest an interest in such
vocations, but it was considered hardly respectable actively to
engage in them.
This attitude of mind, especially toward the higher occupations,
is only explicable in the light of the social conditions then exist-
ing. Men who kept slaves of every degree of intelligence and
training, and were at all times accustomed to command, were
not disposed to hold themselves in readiness to do another’s
bidding, excepting in the service of the State alone; and work
committed to slaves and freedmen naturally came to be consid-
ered unworthy the employment of a gentleman. The freemen
of the same craft were often united in guilds or corporations,
for the administration of certain matters of mutual interest; but
nothing is known in regard to the activities of such organizations
at Pompeii.
375