5 of the Most Common Ancient Roman Jobs
It’s easy to picture life in ancient Rome as being dominated by gladiators in the arena or rich and powerful Roman senators lounging around their fancy villas. But somebody had to grow the food, make the bread, wash the clothes, and serve the wine in this ancient empire.
While there’s no surviving Roman employment census to tell us exactly what percentage of people worked different occupations, inscriptions and archaeological discoveries — many of them from Pompeii, which was remarkably well preserved under volcanic ash after Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79 CE — give us a surprisingly detailed picture of the jobs that kept Roman society running. Here are five of the most common jobs that offer a glimpse into what working life actually looked like for ordinary citizens of Rome.
Grain Farmer
Agriculture was fundamental to the Roman economy, and the vast majority — about 80% — of the population worked on the land in some capacity. Grain, grapes, and olives were the three major crops, with wheat among the most important grains. Being a wheat farmer took much more work than simply throwing seeds in the dirt and waiting for something to grow. Roman agricultural writers have provided great detail about the process of choosing soil, preparing fields, selecting seeds, and timing the planting and harvest.
Farmers plowed, spread manure, sowed grain, cleared weeds, and tended to animals — in addition to maintaining those famous sophisticated Roman irrigation systems. The work was far from over once the crop was ready: Grain had to be cut and threshed, then winnowed to quite literally separate the wheat from the chaff.
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Baker
Once the grain was harvested, somebody had to turn it into bread. Roman bakers, known as pistores, traditionally handled much of the process themselves, from milling grain into flour to preparing the dough and, of course, baking the bread. These were hardly small operations. At Pompeii, archaeologists have identified around 35 bakeries, including the Bakery of Popidius Priscus, complete with four large millstones and a large oven. Grain was often ground using the labor of animals or enslaved workers, while the bakery’s other workers handled the dough and baking.
Not every bakery sold its bread directly to customers. Some did have street-facing counters, but others supplied shops and taverns. Bread was a major part of the Roman diet, making up around 70% of daily food intake, and it was often eaten alongside vegetables, legumes, cheese, and olives.
Fuller
Before washing machines and laundry detergent, Romans could take their clothes to a professional fuller, which was essentially a combination of a clothes cleaner and finisher. Known as fullones, these workers cleaned and prepped wool cloth, whether it was well worn or fresh from the loom. The work involved washing, rinsing, drying, brushing, and smoothing the fabric to make it comfortable; workers would literally tread the cloth underfoot in large basins, acting as primitive washing machine agitators.
The trade was a regular part of urban life; Pompeii alone had at least 13 known fulleries. And then there was the urine, which produced ammonia that was useful in removing grease and dirt from wool. It was valuable enough that Emperor Vespasian even taxed the stuff for commercial use.
Food Vendor
For many urban Romans, cooking at home was impractical. Apartment dwellers often did not have proper kitchens and typically spent much of the day working away from the home, making it easier to buy a ready-made meal from what was known as a thermopolium — an ancient fast-food vendor of sorts.
These shops were generally right on the street. The counters had large ceramic jars called dolia sunk into them to hold drinks, such as wine, and food. Archaeologists have found evidence of prepared foods including beans, fish, pork, goat, duck, and snails in Pompeian thermopolia. More than 80 of these takeout counters have been identified in Pompeii alone, giving an idea of how common these businesses were.
Potter
Romans used pottery for nearly everything: cooking, eating, storing food, carrying goods, and drinking. That meant plenty of work for potters, who turned raw clay into utilitarian vessels that filled Roman homes. Excavations of a pottery workshop at Pompeii, that was still active when Mount Vesuvius erupted, found separate spaces for shaping and firing, along with remnants of raw clay, finished pottery, and damaged and overfired pieces.
One of the biggest known production centers, La Graufesenque in what is now southern France, is estimated to have produced around 15 million terra sigillata vessels — that famous, polished-red pottery — each year at its peak. Archaeologists find pottery almost everywhere Romans lived and worked, highlighting its ubiquity and importance in Roman work and everyday life.
