Advertising in the Roman Empire

Whole Earth Review, Spring, 1987 by John Rokicki

ADVERTISING IN THE ROMAN EMPIRE

THE TERM "ADVERTISING" has been defined through a commonly agreed-upon moderm explanation ("a paid form of promotion with an identifiable sponsor, intended to produce an action in the audience"). Throughout this article, advertising and other terms will be used to describe ancient Roman activities. I will also use the terms "public relations" (somewhat glibly defined as "doing good and telling others about it) and "marketing" ("that part of business concerned with price, product, promotion, and distribution").

Most research for this article centers on archaeological findings in the Italian cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum. The writings of Pliny the Younger indicate that Mt. Vesuvius erupted on August 24, 79 A.D., and buried these two cities.

The director of excavations at Pompeii in 1860, Giuseppe Fiorelli, is credited with the true preservation of Pompeii. Because of the careful excavations, instead of being left to the elements and treasure hunters, Pompeii and Herculaneum are a unique source of information, especially in terms of the written word.

Though the destruction of the two cities occurred more than 1900 years ago, this was far from a primitive society. It included a large population of middle-class workers, including fullers, tanners, bankers, dry cleaners, innkeepers, shipbuilders, merchant seamen, jewelers, mule drivers, potters, teachers, fruit sellers, goldsmiths, fishermen, actors, athletes, miners, glassblowers, civil servants, carpenters, blacksmiths, police, firefighters, candlemakers, oil merchants, barbers, butchers, tailors, and weavers.

Many of these people were clients in the advertising business -- people seeking assistance in promoting their goods and services. Just as today, the area with the greatest diversity of clients was consumer goods -- products for mass consumption such as food, clothing, and health and beauty aids. A considerable amount of activity went into the manufacturing, importing, and selling of such consumer goods. As part of that activity, a complex advertising business flourished. While we cannot say for sure, it is likely that the Roman Empire was the cradle of advertising and marketing, where many of the practices of advertising as we know them now were developed.

The traditional date of the founding of Rome by Romulus is the year 753 B.C. Around 117 B.C., during the reign of the Emperior Trajan, the Roman Empire stretched from what is now Portugal in the west to the border of Scotland in the north, to Egypt in the south and to Saudi Arabia in the east.

The literacy and expansion of the empire, along with the development of the Roman political system, triggered a move from small, self-supporting farm communities to cities, which meant competition and diversification in commerce.

From at least as far back as the third century B.C., leisure travel by ship and horseback was possible for Romans. That people could afford leisure travel and do it without great rsk helped create tourism both as an industry and as a booming import/export business. Money was another factor contributing to this commercial development. The coining of money occurred at least as early as the first half of the third century B.C. The reliance on currency instead of barter, and the establishment of stable wages and prices, had a tremendous impact on commerce.

OVer time, the Roman labor pool developed to include both skilled and unskilled workers in a wide variety of trades, including art. Just as today, artists of all types played a large part in ancient advertising -- including writers, painters, sculptors, mosaicitsts, actors, and poets.

PRODUCTS

While beer was available in the Roman Empire, wine was a more popular drink and was mrketed with techniques similar to those used to sell beer today. At least 200 different brands of wine have been found throughout the empire; more than 50 in the cities of Vesuvius alone.

Most vintages were branded -- given a name -- ranging from a simple description (Vinum rubrum meant red wine), origin (Creticum excellens meant excellent wine of Crete) age (Rubrum annorum quatuor Ampliato meant four-year-old red for Ampliatus), winery name (M. Fabi Eupori Cnidum meant wine of Marcus Fabius Euporus), or a characterization (such as frenzy wine).

Another popular product of the day was a fish sauce called garum. It was made by mixing the entrails of sprats or sardines with finely chopped portions of fish and roe -- pounedM crushed, and stirred. The mixture was literally beaten to a pulp and left in either a warm room or the sun to ferment. After about six weeks of evaporationM this liquamen was put into a basket. What filtered through the cracks and into the decanters was garum.

Garum was apparently in favor throughout the Roman Empire and was sold under a wide variety of brand names:

* Best liquamen, for Aulus Virnius Modestus, from Agathopus

* Quality strained sauce

* Scaurus' tunny jelly, blossom brand, put up by Eutyches, slave of Scaurus