Silent poverty and loud luxury - living in poverty and wealth in ancient Carnuntum
By Nisa Iduna Kirchengast - Editors: Daniel Kunc, Thomas MauerhoferAnyone strolling through the extensive ruins of Carnuntum today will encounter traces of a Roman city at every turn, which was once one of the most important urban centers along the Danube Limes. Monumental buildings, magnificent homes and the finest luxury goods bear witness to its splendor and prosperity - but they only tell half the story.
Carnuntum was not only a place of military power and economic strength, but also a city of contrasts. Behind the prestigious facades lay a multi-layered society in which wealth and poverty, abundance and scarcity, visibility and invisibility met in a very confined space. Merchants, craftsmen, beggars, soldiers, landowners and imperial officials lived in a thoroughly hierarchical world - a social structure that was also deeply inscribed in the material culture.
The taste of poverty
For the majority of Carnuntum's population - craftsmen, day labourers, small traders - everyday life was characterized by economic insecurity. Absolute poverty, i.e. the inability to permanently secure basic needs such as food, clothing or a roof over one's head, was an omnipresent phenomenon in the pre-industrial world - also in Carnuntum, even if it often remains difficult to grasp archaeologically.
Roman cooking in the so-called House of Lucius - © Römerstadt Carnuntum
The daily diet of this social class was simple and low in nutrients: flatbread, millet, pulses and onions characterized the diet of the common people. Ancient authors made these ingredients a symbol of social hardship in their works. In Artemidoros' interpretation of dreams, millet was even seen as a harbinger of future poverty - an impressive insight into ancient perceptions of social realities. Dried figs, today prized as a delicacy, were often simple emergency provisions in ancient times.
Even those who had a small workshop or a piece of land did not live a carefree life: Weather conditions, tax burdens or market crises could upset the economic balance at any time. However, those who had no means of production - i.e. no land, no tools, no crafts - were completely dependent and socially almost invisible: the dispossessed, beggars and slaves formed the lowest end of the social order.
Wealth and its signs
Life was very different for Carnuntum's privileged upper class. High-ranking military officers, wealthy merchants, local elites and imperial officials not only had land and real estate at their disposal, but above all one thing: power of representation. Wealth was made visible - through clothing, houses, as impressively demonstrated by the villa urbana in the Roman Quarter, and their furnishings, but above all through food and drink.
Apsidal hall of the villa urbana in the Roman quarter - © Römerstadt Carnuntum
A look at the finds shows that luxury was omnipresent - at least in the relevant circles. Terra Sigillata, the finest table pottery of its time, with its bright red sheen and figurative relief decoration, was just as much a part of the household as precious glassware, ornately decorated bronze vessels or even marble drinking bowls. Amphora finds prove the wide origins of culinary specialties: Garum from Hispania, wines from Campania, oysters from the Atlantic coast - in some cases luxury goods, which were also found in Carnuntum.
The banquets of the rich became theatrical productions of social status. Apicius, the most famous gourmet of his time, mentions dishes such as flamingo tongues or pork liver fattened with figs and honey wine. The general Lucullus, notorious for his excesses, was regarded by ancient authors as the epitome of decadent luxury. His culinary orgies were as legendary as they were controversial - and became the moral projection screen of a society in transition.
The consumption of maris poma - seafood - played a prominent role in sophisticated Roman cuisine. - © NÖ Landessammlungen
Caring for the poor and self-expression
In the Roman world, wealth meant not only consumption, but also obligation. Those who had a lot were generous - at least to the outside world. The voluntary endowment of public buildings, games or grain donations by wealthy citizens was less about genuine charity than about gaining social prestige. In Carnuntum too, building inscriptions, votive offerings and funerary monuments bore the names of their donors - often linked to their social or political office. Some businessmen who also donated public buildings also became particularly wealthy - an outstanding example for Carnuntum is Gaius Domitius Zmaragdus from Antioch, who financed the Amphitheatre III, which is no longer visible today.
Architectural inscription of the amphitheater III - © Landessammlungen NÖ
In this context, poor relief was less an expression of social responsibility than an instrument of control. It was only with the rise of Christianity that the perception of poverty changed fundamentally. Almsgiving now became a religious duty, and poverty itself took on a moral dimension. In Carnuntum, too, Christian-influenced changes in the burial culture and social structure are recognizable in late antique contexts - but whether this actually led to an improvement in the reality of life for the poor can hardly be proven.
In addition to the furnishings of homes and luxury goods in the “world of the living”, social inequality is also evident in burials. Burial objects and structures are often a major indicator of the social status of the deceased. This changed significantly with the prevalence of Christianity, as burial objects in the graves were mostly absent or greatly reduced. Bioarchaeological evidence of social status can also be found, be it with regard to the better health care of the upper class or the hard-working lower social class.
Representation of the poorer population by Project Periphery - © Römerstadt Carnuntum
Social inequality from an archaeological perspective
Thanks to its exceptionally good preservation, Carnuntum makes it possible to trace social differences in a unique way. Differently furnished living quarters, the juxtaposition of simple craftsmen's quarters and magnificent villas, a wide variety of grave goods and the range between simple utilitarian ceramics and luxury tableware tell of a society that was strongly characterized by social inequality. Poverty often remains invisible - a gap that even in-depth studies cannot always close. Wealth can be better captured: in imported delicacies, in metal, marble and other luxury objects. The social contrasts of the Roman world were deeply inscribed in the material culture - also and especially in Carnuntum.
Depiction of a rich Roman woman in the civil city of Carnuntum - © Römerstadt Carnuntum
Carnuntum was a reflection of Roman society - with all its inequalities, power structures and social contrasts. While the wealth of the few manifested itself in the luxury of everyday life and representation, the reality of life for the many often remains recognizable only in faint traces. This is precisely why it is the task of archaeology to make these traces visible - and to tell the story of rich and poor not only from the perspective of the villas, but also from that of the simple houses.
Event tip
On the first weekend in July, the inhabitants of the ancient quarter come to life once again: Under the theme of “The life of rich and poor”, cultural mediators from the Roman town embody historical inhabitants of ancient Carnuntum and tell of the life of the various social classes in a Roman town.