ABSTRACT
This chapter considers Roman farmers and the economy relationship by first asking what levels of dependency various kinds of farmers had and then what the implications of that dependency might be. It considers the general situation faced by four rough categories of free farmers: the elite, the moderately wealthy, smallholders, and landless agricultural workers. It must be emphasized that, although many elites profited from agriculture, there were strong non-economic incentives for them to invest in land and potentially much more lucrative non-agricultural moneymaking strategies available. If smallholders were highly dependent on the market, then changes in market could have a serious effect on them. The chapter offers the following sketch of developments across three periods: the second century bce, the first century bce prior to the reign of Augustusn and the early Empire from Augustus to the late second century ce.
