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A Cost Analysis of the Republican Circuit Walls

This chapter analyzes the social and economic effects of the single largest construction project of pre-Imperial Rome, the circuit of walls built in the first half of the fourth century BCE. I employ an “energetics” approach (Abrams 1994), quantifying the labor-cost of the walls’ construction by means of comparative data and close study of the monument’s remains. The resulting model provides a better idea not only of the walls’ total cost, but of the workforce’s composition, the balance of skilled and unskilled labor, and the schedule of construction. The costs are then input into a general model of the Roman economy in order to assess the broader impact of the walls’ costs. Archaeological and textual evidence indicate the walls were built with compulsory labor. This further underscores the likelihood that the project widened economic inequality and worsened existing socioeconomic tensions.