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Document Details : Title: Libitina's Bitter Gains Subtitle: Seasonal Mortality and Endemic Disease in the Ancient City of Rome Author(s): SCHEIDEL, W. Journal: Ancient Society Volume: 25 Date: 1994 Pages: 151-175 DOI: 10.2143/AS.25.0.2005846 Abstract : While the size of the population of imperial Rome can at least be esti- mated very roughly, its demographic structure remains largely obscure. This is due above all to the lack of quantitative data only too familiar to students of the ancient world. Owing to the bias created by discriminative commemorative practices, epigraphic evidence from the large body of surviving funerary inscriptions does not normally permit one to calculate actual Roman mortality rates. Model life tables based on better-known populations are of limited utility in the particular context of large cities which would have experienced singular demographic conditions strongly affected by endemic infectious diseases and the impact of migration. Most evaluations of the demographic regime of ancient Rome are therefore necessarily confined to vague and unsubstantiated generalisations of an impressionist kind. |
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