Roman Arms factories

[Timotheus]

Do we know when the majority of roman arms for the legions were manufactured factory style by large groups of slaves?

Was this a practice as old as Rome itself or was it a facet of the later Republic after the Marius reform and the creation of the professional military force?

[Tarbicus]

Do we know when the majority of roman arms for the legions were manufactured factory style by large groups of slaves?

Was this a practice as old as Rome itself or was it a facet of the later Republic after the Marius reform and the creation of the professional military force?

How do we know they used slaves?

[Dan Howard]

They must have. Just look at the plumata

[Tarbicus]

They had big families in those days :wink:

I accept it's likely they had slaves helping out. Can anyone point to a source text to confirm, or any research on the subject?

Otherwise, this is how theories become regurgitated as facts.

[Matthew Amt]

Avete!

As I understand it, centralized factories only developed in the 3rd century AD, along with official state issue of equipment. But I don't know anything about those factories, how big they were or how they were staffed.

Before that, most gear was probably made by small shops, essentially contractors, each with a craftsman (maybe more than one) and a few assistants. Some might have been made in the forts by the soldiers themselves, but again I don't know how much evidence there is about that.

Valete,

Matthew

[jvrjenivs]

Johan Nicolay writes an interesting piece on who (and where) roman arms (where) made in his book 'Armed Batavians' ISBN 9789053562536, which is very nice, overall.

[jkaler48]

I have heard that there is evidence for manufacture and repair found in various Roman Fort contexts but I have not seen anything reference
found evidence of factory locations. It is possible that like modern practice
some Roman contractors were co located with military installations. This would be a logical way of providing security to weapons stores that might otherwise be vulnerable to being seized by enemies of the Roman state.
Even in Rome itself there were riots revolts and civil wars where control
of weapons manufacture and stores would be an important security issue.

[jvrjenivs]

We know of gravestones from people called themselves 'gladiarius', most probably a swordvendor living in the canabae, near a military fortress.


Of course every fortress had his own 'repair-crew' but we don't know if they made new stuff also. We also know of local 'shops' up north from halfway the first century onwards. But these all were probably individual artisians, doing custom jobs. It seems that most gear from earlier periods was mostly made in the south (modern northern italy region).


The Notitia Dignitatum mention 35 fabricae, if I'm right, but that's in the 5th century.

[Timotheus]

What about the large logistical facilties that supported the legions throughout the Empire?

Were they slave run state owned affairs? Or were they private businesses most likely owned by Equestrians or Senators through Equestrians?

[Robert Vermaat]

As I understand it, centralized factories only developed in the 3rd century AD, along with official state issue of equipment. But I don't know anything about those factories, how big they were or how they were staffed.

I think that AHM Jones wrote about them as state-run, with workers who were not exactly slaves but otherwise tied to the poroduction of whatever goods were specific to that fabrica.

What about the large logistical facilties that supported the legions throughout the Empire?

That depends on what period you are looking for?

[Quintius Clavus]

Just because the Romans were a slave-owning society does not mean that most jobs were done by slaves, even in "production lines". Vespasian turned down a labor-saving invention (for construction work) because he wanted to have jobs available for the urban plebians.
In the later empire, more and more, people were increasingly required to follow in their parents' or fathers craft/occupation. If a man's family was involved in the production of military equipment, he could very well not be able to take another career path but have to also do the same work.
Mike Bishop in "Lorica Segmentata, Vol I" shows that it was entirely possible and likely that the fortresses and forts had the facilities to manufacture equipment on site. A lorica segmentata could be made from iron billet and brass sheet through to a finished and assembled armor by an assembly-line-like process, which made use of both unskilled and skilled labor provided by the soldiers themselves. I think he makes the same or similar point in his "Roman Military Equipment".
Dr. Sara E. Phang, in "Roman Military Service" Cambridge, 2008 discusses pay deductions for equipment and the supply of that equipment. Deductions were made for armor and equipment among other things during the 1st C. AD, but virtually disappear in the 2nd C, with the soldiers getting almost all of their pay disbursed to them. The deductions had been quite large and included at least the first issue of armor and weapons. Hadrian is credited with ending the deductions (M. A. Speidel 2000, pg 76). That, in combination with the "evidence" we have through the correspondence by soldiers in the 2nd C can lead to the conclusion that the soldiers were purchasing their armor/equipment personally and it was no longer issued to them. (Wesch-Klein 1998, pg 60; Roth 1999, pg262-3, 275). Soldiers were writing home to "Mom" or "Dad" for basic items like a sword, tunics, a dolabra, etc. In the 3rd C. soldiers were increasing payed "in kind" the annona militaris. By the end of the 3rd C the emperors attempted the state fabrica system.

[mcbishop]

They had big families in those days :wink:

I accept it's likely they had slaves helping out. Can anyone point to a source text to confirm, or any research on the subject?

Otherwise, this is how theories become regurgitated as facts.

P. Berlin inv.6765 specifically mentions legionaries, immunes, cohortales, and galliarii, as well as civilians (B&C2 p.236) and lists what they made. There is no evidence I know of that just slaves made stuff.

Mike Bishop

[Sean Manning]

Quinton, could I have longer forms of any of those citations which are in English? I can find Phang's book. One of my side projects is researching the cost of arms.

Is Roth "The Logistics of the Roman Army at War" (1999)?

[jespah2000]

There's also Simon James' article on fabricae which came out in the late 1980s...

James, S. (1988) 'The Fabricae; State arms factories of the Later Roman Empire', ed. J. Coulston, Proceedings of the Fourth Roman Military Equipment Conference, British Archaeological Reports, International Series 394, 1988, 257-331.

[Theodosius the Great]

According to AHM Jones, Lactantius speaks of Diocletian instituting a number of fabricae. Of course, that doesn't necessarily mean that he was first to do so but it sounds like something Diocletian would come up with.

Jones does claim that Diocletian started the state-run dyeing workshops (baphia).

How do we know they used slaves?

I think that AHM Jones wrote about them as state-run, with workers who were not exactly slaves but otherwise tied to the poroduction of whatever goods were specific to that fabrica.

Slaves were used in the weaving and dye works as well as at the imperial mints, according to Jones, but not the arms factories.

Jones says that the workers in the fabricae (arms factories) ranked as soldiers. They received rations (annonae) and were hereditarily tied to their profession like soldiers. They were branded to make them easier to identify if they escaped, as were recruits. "Each factory was equated with a regiment, being commanded by a tribune or praepostitus. The workers held the normal military grades...The service was evidently held in good esteem ; volunteers who offered themselves had to prove that they were not of curial status." Landlords liked to employ these workers - which was illegal to do - as procuratores for their estates.

"According to a constitution dated to 374, it was the rule at [the fabrica in] Antioch that each worker should in every thirty days make six bronze helmets with cheek pieces, and in the same period decorate eight with silver and gold, whereas at Constantinople the corresponding figures were six and three : the emperor ordered work at Constantiople to be speeded up to Antiochene standards."

~Theo