Classical Numismatics Discussion
  Welcome Guest. Please login or register. 10% Off Store-Wide Sale Until 2 April!!! Explore Our Website And Find Joy In The History, Numismatics, Art, Mythology, And Geography Of Coins!!! Expert Authentication - Accurate Descriptions - Reasonable Prices - Coins From Under $10 To Museum Quality Rarities Welcome Guest. Please login or register. 10% Off Store-Wide Sale Until 2 April!!! Explore Our Website And Find Joy In The History, Numismatics, Art, Mythology, And Geography Of Coins!!! Support Our Efforts To Serve The Classical Numismatics Community - Shop At Forum Ancient Coins

New & Reduced


Author Topic: Population of Roman Empire cities  (Read 27352 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline David Atherton

  • IMPERATOR
  • Caesar
  • *****
  • Posts: 4704
  • The meaning of life can be found in a coin.
    • Flavian Fanatic Blog
Population of Roman Empire cities
« on: May 18, 2004, 03:31:06 am »
Hello all,

I've read that Rome had a Population around 1 million and Alexandria around 500,000....but what about the other major cities of the Roman Empire? Has anyone read or heard anything about them ( Ostia, Antioch, Carthage, Ephesus, Lugdunum, ect...). I would really like to know how big these cities actually were. I guess it would really depend on the time period, so lets narrow it down to the mid 1st to mid 2nd century A.D. ( before the plagues of Marcus Aurelius).

Any info would be much appreciated!

Offline Jochen

  • Tribunus Plebis Perpetuus
  • Procurator Monetae
  • Caesar
  • *****
  • Posts: 12278
  • Omnes vulnerant, ultima necat.
Re:Population of Roman Empire cities
« Reply #1 on: May 18, 2004, 08:29:48 am »
Hi David!

That's an interesting problem! Here I have some information found in 'Der kleine Pauly, Lexikon der Antike, 1979' (translation by me):

'The ancient or modern trials to calculate the population of ancient territories are by criterias of scientific statistics insufficient.
...
The problem of the population of Rome first was cleared since 1940 by v.Gerkan by reference to the archaeologic-topographic basis claimed already by H.G.Wells. According to him Rome could have in the time of the Late Republic never more than 624.000 inhabitants, the Imperial Rome never more than 698.000 inhabitants. The hellenistic-roman towns of the East were smaller, with exception of Alexandria perhaps. The population of the Imperium Romanum is estimated to be 50 to 70 Millions. In the late antiquity the population of Rome goes down to 15.000 in the 6.century. Constantinopolis rised at the same time to ca.600.000 under Justinian I, reaching 1 Million never before 1453.'

I've read literature about calculating the population of Rome. It starts with the building of the 'insulae' (the houses, in which most of the Roman people live!), how high they are, howmany qm surface area they have, how many  persons could have inhabitant such 'insula', how great was the area of the ancient Rome, how big was the built-up area of Rome, how great was the building density, how was the distribution of  the building density of this area and so on. You have to take into account knowledge of the infrastructure, f.e. you have to calculate the quantity of water coming through the aquaducts to Rome and so on and so on.
There are so many unknown quantities in this calculation that each quantifying should be seen cum grano salis.

Regards,
Jochen

Offline Robert_Brenchley

  • Procurator Caesaris
  • Caesar
  • ****
  • Posts: 7307
  • Honi soit qui mal y pense.
    • My gallery
Re:Population of Roman Empire cities
« Reply #2 on: May 18, 2004, 12:57:36 pm »
You'd have to estimate every one, and any sort of error could easily be magnified when you're dealing with so many unknowns, and so few definite quantities. I'd take the results with an ocean of salt; no way can you work it out as accurately as the figures might suggest, and unless its been lost in transmission, Wells doesn't seem to give any estimate of the accuracy of his figures.
Robert Brenchley

My gallery: https://www.forumancientcoins.com/gallery/index.php?cat=10405
Fiat justitia ruat caelum

Offline David Atherton

  • IMPERATOR
  • Caesar
  • *****
  • Posts: 4704
  • The meaning of life can be found in a coin.
    • Flavian Fanatic Blog
Re:Population of Roman Empire cities
« Reply #3 on: May 18, 2004, 11:03:54 pm »
I guess I'm looking for "ballpark" stats. I've made my own list of major cities of the empire with around about population figures( that I've compiled from various sources) and was wondering if they were even close.

Rome-1,000,000
Alexandria-500,000
Antioch-400,000
Carthage-300,000
Pergamum-300,000
Ephesus-200,000
Athens-100,000
Jerusalem-100,000
Lepitus Magna-80,000
Lugdunum-80,000+
Miletus-100,000
Smyrna-80,000
Tarraco-70,000
Mediolanum-70,000
Ostia-50,000

The above stats probably lean towards the high end figures. Any comments or suggestions would be welcomed. :)  Remember these are rough guesses and not factual population numbers.
Are there any other major cities I've left out?

William J Bligh

  • Guest
Re:Population of Roman Empire cities
« Reply #4 on: May 19, 2004, 02:18:19 am »
Londinium would've been fairly large, too, I believe. Having its own mint, ant all, I would've expected it to have 50k or so

Offline Robert_Brenchley

  • Procurator Caesaris
  • Caesar
  • ****
  • Posts: 7307
  • Honi soit qui mal y pense.
    • My gallery
Re:Population of Roman Empire cities
« Reply #5 on: May 19, 2004, 02:22:09 am »
I'm not sure; it was a very small mint, only one officina. The info must be available somewhere, since the size of the town is known.
Robert Brenchley

My gallery: https://www.forumancientcoins.com/gallery/index.php?cat=10405
Fiat justitia ruat caelum

Offline David Atherton

  • IMPERATOR
  • Caesar
  • *****
  • Posts: 4704
  • The meaning of life can be found in a coin.
    • Flavian Fanatic Blog
Re:Population of Roman Empire cities
« Reply #6 on: May 19, 2004, 02:35:21 am »
I've seen figures on Londinium's population in the late 2nd and early 3rd centuries at 45,000. I'm assuming that around 100 A.D. the population might have been 20,000 or so (keeping in mind Pompeii was a minor Italian town and it had a pop. around 10,000-20,000).

Offline Robert_Brenchley

  • Procurator Caesaris
  • Caesar
  • ****
  • Posts: 7307
  • Honi soit qui mal y pense.
    • My gallery
Re:Population of Roman Empire cities
« Reply #7 on: May 19, 2004, 12:23:46 pm »
The mint wasn't established till the reign of Carausius, and probably only because the British Empire didn't have one; its a rather different case from most Roman mints.
Robert Brenchley

My gallery: https://www.forumancientcoins.com/gallery/index.php?cat=10405
Fiat justitia ruat caelum

Offline Britannicus

  • Caesar
  • ****
  • Posts: 539
    • Eros on Roman Provincial Coinage
Re:Population of Roman Empire cities
« Reply #8 on: November 26, 2004, 08:49:27 am »
Quote from: Vespasian70 on May 18, 2004, 11:03:54 pm
I guess I'm looking for "ballpark" stats. I've made my own list of major cities of the empire with around about population figures( that I've compiled from various sources) and was wondering if they were even close.
Rome-1,000,000
Alexandria-500,000
Antioch-400,000
Carthage-300,000
Pergamum-300,000
Ephesus-200,000
Athens-100,000
Jerusalem-100,000
Lepitus Magna-80,000
Lugdunum-80,000+
Miletus-100,000
Smyrna-80,000
Tarraco-70,000
Mediolanum-70,000
Ostia-50,000
The above stats probably lean towards the high end figures. Any comments or suggestions would be welcomed. :)  Remember these are rough guesses and not factual population numbers.
Are there any other major cities I've left out?
I collect info like this as well! For the First Century AD I've got the following (from different sources, so hugely unreliable):
Rome 800,00-1,000,000 +
Alexandreia 300,000-600,000
Antiocheia ad Orontem 200,000 +
Ephesus 200,000-225,000
Smyrna 200,000
Pergamum 200,000
Miletus 100,000
Sardes 100,000
Also big: Seleuceia ad Tigrim, the Greek "twin city" to Parthian Ctesiphon; Aquileia, which some sources claim reached 500,000 a bit later on; and Trier and Nicomedia (very important places in the later Empire).
Going by their importance, I'd guess that places like Tarsus, Caesareia in Cappadocia, Marcianopolis, and so on, weren't small.

Offline David Atherton

  • IMPERATOR
  • Caesar
  • *****
  • Posts: 4704
  • The meaning of life can be found in a coin.
    • Flavian Fanatic Blog
Re:Population of Roman Empire cities
« Reply #9 on: December 05, 2004, 04:36:52 pm »
Wow. Thanks for your list Britannicus.

Nice to see our figures are kinda similar.  :)

Since compiling that list in May i haven't seen anymore info on the subject....

Offline Britannicus

  • Caesar
  • ****
  • Posts: 539
    • Eros on Roman Provincial Coinage
Re:Population of Roman Empire cities
« Reply #10 on: December 05, 2004, 05:08:31 pm »
Quote from: Vespasian70 on May 18, 2004, 11:03:54 pm
Ostia-50,000
I was in Ostia Antica last year and spent a whole long day wandering around the ruins with a good map. OK, I took a break for lunch, but I didn't get to see every street, I was so tired. Ostia must have been a fairly big place. Allowing for much denser living conditions than we'd tolerate, I find a figure of 50,000 quite plausible.

 

All coins are guaranteed for eternity