Ancient statistics and the rise of demography : A historiography of demographic debate on Roman Italy

At the 70th ‘anniversary’ of Münzer’s death, ancient history ‘celebrates’ a more than twice long history of debate on population matters in the Roman Republic and early Empire. More than 170 years of discussion have hitherto not led to any conclusive answer on the basic question against what background of demographic dynamics political, historical and economic developments in Roman Italy ought to be understood. Taking off in the 1840s, the start of demographic debate on Roman history coincided with the rise of statistics and interest in demography across Europe. This paper places the study of ancient population statistics into its wider historiographic context. It draws attention to contemporary thought on the relationship between population, nation and economy, and to the influence of this thought on key contributions to the debate on ancient Roman Italy. As perceptions of citizens as soldiers and of censuses as military devices were strengthened under late 19th century nationalism, the role of censuses as means to secure state finances was marginalized in academic debate. Comparative evidence on the nature and aims of censuses, however, reveals how central state needs or desires to generate tax income have been to the institution of censuses across time and place. A review of census taking throughout history thus adds to earlier arguments made to build a case for the eclipsed perspective that the Roman censuses may have counted citizens sui iuris – or those liable to taxation.