Includes bibliographical references and indexes.

Preliminary Material -- 1 Work, Labour, Professions. What’s in a Name? / Koenraad Verboven and Christian Laes -- 2 Sorting Out Labour in the Roman Provinces: Some Reflections on Labour and Institutions in Asia Minor / Arjan Zuiderhoek -- 3 Contracts, Coercion, and the Boundaries of the Roman Artisanal Firm / Cameron Hawkins -- 4 Workers in the Roman Imperial Building Industry / Seth G. Bernard -- 5 Getting a Job: Finding Work in the City of Rome / Claire Holleran -- 6 The Value of Labour: Diocletian’s Prices Edict / Miriam J. Groen-Vallinga and Laurens E. Tacoma -- 7 Roman Workers and Their Workplaces: Some Archaeological Thoughts on the Organization of Workshop Labour in Ceramic Production / Elizabeth A. Murphy -- 8 Constructing Occupational Identities in the Roman World / Miko Flohr -- 9 Guilds and the Organisation of Urban Populations During the Principate / Koenraad Verboven -- 10 Group Membership, Trust Networks, and Social Capital: A Critical Analysis / Jinyu Liu -- 11 Currency and Control: Mint Workers in the Later Roman Empire / Sarah Bond -- 12 Ars and Doctrina: The Socioeconomic Identity of Roman Skilled Workers (First Century bc–Third Century ad) / Nicolas Tran -- 13 Work, Identity and Self-Representation in the Roman Empire and the West-European Middle Ages: Different Interplays between the Social and the Cultural / Catharina Lis and Hugo Soly -- Bibliography -- Index of Subjects -- Index of Places and Geographical Names -- Index of Personal Names.

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The economic success of the Roman Empire was unparalleled in the West until the early modern period. While favourable natural conditions, capital accumulation, technology and political stability all contributed to this, economic performance ultimately depended on the ability to mobilize, train and co-ordinate human work efforts. In Work, Labour, and Professions in the Roman World , the authors discuss new insights, ideas and interpretations on the role of labour and human resources in the Roman economy. They study the various ways in which work was mobilised and organised and how these processes were regulated. Work as a production factor, however, is not the exclusive focus of this volume. Throughout the chapters, the contributors also provide an analysis of work as a social and cultural phenomenon in Ancient Rome.