• humble_boatsman@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    4·
    15 days ago

    Non history duck here, could we consider these models roofs? Where they so uniform as pictured? Was the supply and manufacture of its materials as uniform as represented in this example? The building and construction was it socially shared or more capitalism based as today, with different suppliers and builders…non political question if thats a thing

    • PugJesus@piefed.socialOPMEnglish
      5·
      15 days ago

      No worries! Luckily, Rome is my area of interest!

      The uniformity in reality may not have been perfectly as here, but it would likely be close. One of the major factors of the Roman economy (which I love talking about) is that much of it was organized along the lines of an early market economy. We have evidence of large-scale firms for everything from pots to figurines to… well, clay tiles for roofing. Some even have manufacturer’s marks! Firms for construction could be contracted in the same way as the modern day. And like the modern day, sometimes concerning lowest-bid contracts were put out… or the contract given to someone’s relative regardless of how much they actually know about the 30 construction workers they just hired yesterday.

      Not only that, but municipalities often imposed building codes for various reasons - most often safety, but sometimes for sanitation, efficiency, or aesthetics, all of which bend your ‘average’ building in the city more towards a common design. These coloniae were also built to ‘impress’/impose upon the local barbarian tribes across the border, in case they felt like doubting the might or capabilities of Rome the next time they came to sell their goats at the market, so it was important that it not be a total slum. And on top of that, Romans believed very strongly in the ability of one’s environment - physical and cultural - to shape’s one’s character. Therefore, when building a Roman colony, it would be very important for it to all look and feel very Roman! You wouldn’t want the children being born here growing up into little barbarians, would you?

      Since this is on the German frontier, they may also have been made by the local legion(s). Idle hands are devils’ work; at peacetime, the Legions were used as a kind of semiskilled labor force when they weren’t being drilled. In addition to building things directly, they would manufacture (and often mark with their legion or commander) simple building materials, like bricks and tiles.

      While this is doubtlessly a bit idealized, the uniformity is more than just stylistic; it was, at least to some degree, a reality in Roman colonies.