This chapter considers the early stages of Roman slavery in Italy from a comparative perspective, drawing above all on the experience of slavery in the Sokoto caliphate in the nineteenth-century Sudan.

An underappreciated difference between fifth- and fourth-century Rome was the emergence of stipendium and tributum (military pay and the land tax to fund it). Encompassing every citizen landowner and soldier, stipendium and tributum likely involved more people than any other civic institution at Rome. Moreover, this fiscal system changed the way in which Rome operated. It created a set of tasks that needed to be completed; it then instituted a new set of roles to complete those tasks; then it elevated a set of people in order to fill those roles; and finally those people developed new tactics to derive maximum benefit from their new functions. The key stakeholders in all this were the tribuni aerarii, who operated the system in local areas across the countryside. Though poorly attested in the extant sources, these men had the ability to control the smooth operations of the war machine. They promptly realized that they could hold the fiscal system hostage to extract political concessions. The exclusive rule of Rome’s patrician leaders, now reliant on plebeians to pay and collect taxes, was doomed.

Various types of monasteries appear in the papyrological documentation, from small, local shrines only mentioned once to influential institutions that are still active today. Based on the unrivalled evidence from Aphrodito, the best documented village of Late Antiquity, this chapter defines in detail the role that monasteries played as landowners in the rural economy. It also traces how their situations evolved over the two centuries around the Islamic conquest, highlighting a multiplicity of scenarios that invites us to nuance our views of their economic power.

Papyrological evidence shows that, in the centuries preceding the Arab conquest of Egypt (fifth to seventh centuries), the monastery at Deir el-Naqlun was home to groups of monks who pursued non-religious activities, possessed private assets, and maintained contact with various ‘worldly’ figures. Among them, we find moneylenders, a creative monk-potter, and a bishop who maintained a network of contacts with officials and elite members. On the other hand, clues as to the overarching organisation of the Naqlun monastery are scant, and the relation of the monks’ individual activity to that of the community as a whole is thus difficult to establish. It is nevertheless clear that managerial structures of an economic character were among the first to emerge within the monastery. Overall, the Naqlun evidence testifies to a model of organisation in which elements of communal life harmoniously combined with a degree of social and economic independence of individual monks.

Fuel is one of the key daily commodities needed for heating, cooking, and also industries. It comes in different forms, such as wood/charcoal, plants, and plant wastes. However, above all, animal dung was the most common fuel in the ancient world, including Egypt. So far, an in-depth exploration of dung fuel in Egypt has been lacking. Coptic monastic texts do refer to brethren tasked with sourcing dung that may have been intended for fuel use. Archaeological evidence of actual dung discs has been recovered from the monastic settlements of Deir Anba Hadra, John the Little, and Kom el-Nana. The same sites have also revealed archaeobotanical material that also attests to the production and/or use of animal dung fuel. This chapter discusses methodological concerns in identifying the archaeological evidence of dung fuel, and reviews the history of animal dung fuel in Egypt, focusing on its production and use in Egyptian monasteries.

This chapter looks at the theme of travel in an early monastic setting and its impact on everyday monastic life. Surviving documentation acts as a witness for the economic activities of fourth- and fifth-century monks in Egypt and their roles as participants in the social and economic activities of the period. As we now know, fourth- and fifth-century monasticism was a phenomenon that expressed itself as vigorously within the towns and villages of Egypt as it did in the barren regions that bordered the fertile lands that lie alongside the length of the River Nile. Monks may have ideologically renounced the world, but they also had familial, economic, and social ties that required their attention. This necessitated travel both within and beyond the borders of Egypt. By examining the documentation that survives for a variety of monastic journeys, we can gain a deeper insight into the world of monasticism in its earliest phase.