A People's History of the World: From the Stone Age to the New Millennium (87 page)

87
According to A H M Jones,
The Roman Economy
, p124.

88
A H M Jones,
The Roman Economy
, p127.

89
A H M Jones,
The Roman Economy
, p127.

90
A H M Jones,
The Roman Economy
, p24.

91
E Gibbon,
Decline and Fall
, vol 1, p89.

92
Apuleius,
The Golden Ass
, translated by Jack Lindsay (London, 1960), p192.

93
Apuleius,
The Golden Ass
, pp206-208.

94
A H M Jones,
The Roman Economy
, p36.

95
A H M Jones,
The Roman Economy
, p39.

96
See L A Moritz,
Grain Mills and Flour in Classical Antiquity
(Oxford, 1958), for a full discussion on these matters, especially pp131, 136, 138 and 143.

97
Estimates given in A H M Jones,
The Roman Economy
, p83.

98
A H M Jones,
The Roman Economy
, p129.

99
See G Bois,
The Transformation of the Year 1000
(Manchester, 1992).

100
There is no reference in the earliest extant versions of his text. For a translation, see Josephus,
The Jewish War
(London, 1981). A Slavonic translation of a lost medieval text does contain a reference, but there is little reason to doubt this was an ‘interpolation’ by monks embarrassed by the lack of any reference to Jesus in a manuscript they were copying. It certainly does not justify the way Christian writers use Josephus’s writings to back their own versions of history.

101
Luke 18.19-26

102
Matthew 16.24

103
Luke 6.20-25

104
Matthew 5.1 and 5.6

105
Matthew 25.14-30

106
Matthew 21.20

107
His use of the word ‘proletariat’ to describe the masses of 1 st century Judaea is itself confusing. They were very different to a modern working class, despite being poor. Many would have been self employed craftspeople (‘artisans’) and shopkeepers, others beggars and very few wage workers. What is more, the gospels have Jesus preaching to and associating with ‘publicans’ (tax collectors)—a despised, but not necessarily poor, group. Kautsky quotes in his favour a passage in St Paul’s First Epistle to the Corinthians in which Paul says ‘not many mighty, not many noble, are called’. Kautsky says this means ‘property’ was not ‘represented’ in the early church. In fact, the passage actually says there were a few ‘mighty’ and a few ‘noble’, but that the great majority did not belong to these groups. This suggests the religion had some cross-class appeal and certainly was not purely ‘proletarian’ even at that early stage.

108
M Goodman, ‘Judea’, in J A Cook and others (eds),
Cambridge Ancient History
, vol IX, p768.

109
For the detail of these, see the earlier chapters of Josephus,
The Jewish War
.

110
Josephus,
Antiquities
, quoted in K Kautsky,
Foundations of Christianity
(New York, no date), p300.

111
Josephus,
The Jewish War
. The translation here is that to be found in K Kautsky,
Foundations
, but it differs only slightly from the Penguin edition of
The Jewish War
(London, 1981), pp126, 147.

112
Josephus,
The Jewish War
, (London, 1981), p148.

113
According to M Goodman, ‘Judea’, p771.

114
According to Josephus,
The Jewish War
.

115
W A Meeks,
The First Urban Christians
(New Haven, 1983), p34.

116
Quoted in K Kautsky,
Foundations
, p261; on the degree of proselytisation, see also M Goodman, ‘Judea’, p779.

117
Strictly speaking Buddhism is not ‘monotheistic’ because it does not in its earliest forms involve belief in a personal god of any sort. But it does stress a single
principle
underlying all reality, and so fits in the same category as the other religions.

118
W A Meeks suggests a figure of ‘some five to six million Jews…in the diaspora’ in the 1 st century (see W A Meeks,
The First Urban Christians
(New Haven, 1983), p34). This figure seems to be excessive, given that the total population of the empire at the time was only about 50 million, and only a small proportion of those lived in the towns.

119
Luke 14.26

120
Indeed, there must be more than a suspicion that the gospels are hearsay accounts written years afterwards, lumping together quite different events, including some of those mentioned by Josephus. If that is so, a figure called Jesus (the Greek form of Joshua, a very common Jewish name at the time) might have been involved in such incidents as one participant among many—and later reports might easily have vastly exaggerated his role. Anyone who has ever listened to participants recall events even a decade ago, such as the poll tax riot of March 1990 or the miners’ strike six years earlier, will know how divergent are the accounts of who did what.

121
This version of the prayer is to be found in Apuleius,
The Golden Ass.

122
The estimate is by A J Malherbe,
Social Aspects of Early Christianity
(Baton Rouge, 1977), p86.

123
The study is Judge’s, but is here quoted from A J Malherbe,
Social Aspects
, p46.

124
See A J Malherbe,
Social Aspects
, p61.

125
A J Malherbe,
Social Aspects
, p77.

126
This is the argument of W A Meeks,
The First Urban Christians
, pp70-71, 191, although he uses the sociological jargon of ‘status inconsistency’.

127
This was certainly the interpretation given to me at Sunday School!

128
I Corinthians 11.2

129
H Chadwick,
The Early Church
(London, 1993), p46.

130
Paul’s epistles to the Corinthians and the Colossians both take up issues raised by the Gnostics.

131
P Brown,
The World of Late Antiquity
(London, 1971), p66.

132
P Brown,
The World
, p67.

133
For details, see H Chadwick,
Early
, pp135-136. Gibbon’s
Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
gives lurid details of imperial interventions and the scale of repression throughout this period.

134
See H Chadwick,
Early
, p179.

Part three: The ‘Middle Ages’

1
According to J C Russell, ‘Population in Europe 500-1500’, in C M Cipolla (ed),
Fontana Economic History of Europe: The Middle Ages
, p25.

2
According to P Anderson,
Passages from Antiquity to Feudalism
(London, 1978), p126.

3
See the excellent account of the literate culture of the period in H Waddell,
The Wandering Scholars
(Harmondsworth, 1954).

4
See the summaries of the changes in J Gernet,
A History
, p180, and D Twitchett, ‘Introduction’, in D Twitchett (ed),
Cambridge History of China
, vol 3 (Cambridge, 1979), p5.

5
J Gernet,
A History
, p197.

6
J Gernet,
A History
, p236.

7
There is some dispute among historians as to how widespread and effective this system of taxation was. N E McKnight argues that widespread exemptions from the system left only 17 percent of the population paying the tax, while the nobility and officials received much more land than the ordinary peasant. The system would then have shifted land from the old aristocracy to the rising layer of officials, not to the mass of people. See, N E McKnight, ‘Fiscal Privileges and Social Order’, in J W Haeger (ed),
Crisis and Prosperity in Sung China
(Tucson, 1975).

8
R M Somers, ‘The End of the T’ang’, in D Twitchett (ed),
Cambridge History of China
, vol 3, p723.

9
R M Somers, ‘The End’, p723.

10
For accounts of the rebellion, see R M Somers, ‘The End’, pp733-747, and J Gernet,
A History
, p267. The account in the next two paragraphs is taken from Somers.

11
There is some debate among scholars over the character of the landed estates. Some see them as similar to the manors of western feudalism, others as essentially capitalist. For a brief account of the discussion, see D Twitchett, ‘Introduction’, p27.

12
E A Kracke, ‘Sung K’ai-feng’, in J W Haeger (ed),
Crisis
, pp65-66.

13
Y Shiba, ‘Urbanisation and Development of Markets’, in J W Haeger (ed),
Crisis
, p22.

14
E A Kracke, ‘Sung’, pp51-52.

15
J Gernet,
A History
, p320.

16
J Gernet,
A History
, pp310-311.

17
J Gernet,
A History
, pp334-335.

18
According to J Gernet,
A History
, p333.

19
Fang Ta-tsung, quoted in Y Shiba, ‘Urbanisation’.

20
D Twitchett (ed),
Cambridge History of China
, vol 3, p30.

21
L C J Mo,
Commercial Development and Urban Change in Sung China
(Ann Arbor, 1971), pp124-125.

22
Hsia Sung, quoted in Y Shiba, ‘Urbanisation’, p42.

23
N E McKnight, ‘Fiscal Privileges’, p98. For a full account of the development and content of the examination system, see J F Chaffee,
The Thorny Gates of Learning in Sung China
(Cambridge, 1985).

24
J F Chaffee,
The Thorny Gates
, p3.

25
N E McKnight, ‘Fiscal Privileges’, p98 footnote.

26
This is the tone of the best known of Karl Wittfogel’s later works,
Oriental Despotism,
written after he had abandoned Marxism. The theme is also present at some points in the writings of Etienne Balazs—for instance when he says that ‘it was the state which killed technological progress in China’ (
Chinese Civilisation and Bureaucracy
(Yale, 1964), p11)—although at other points he recognises both the diversity of intellectual standpoints and the reality of technological change. Finally, the argument occurs in David Landes recent book,
The Wealth and Poverty of Nations
(London, 1998). But upholding it means downplaying the very real economic dynamism shown in the Sung period.

27
P B Ebrey, ‘Introduction’, in P B Ebrey,
Family and Property in Sung China: Yüan Ts’ai’s Precepts for Social Life
(Princeton, 1984), p129.

28
This is a point made very well by Etienne Balazs,
Chinese Civilisation
, pp8-9.

29
As Etienne Balazs, who admitted his approach was influenced by Marx as well as Max Weber, put it, ‘the scholar-officials and the merchants formed two hostile but interdependent classes.’, E Balazs,
Chinese Civilisation
, p32.

30
L C J Mo,
Commercial Development
, pp140-141.

31
Quoted in L C J Mo,
Commercial Development
, p20.

32
Passage translated in P B Ebrey,
Family
, p293

33
J W Haegar, Introduction to
Crisis
, p8.

34
For an attempted Marxist analysis of the Mongols, see R Fox,
Genghis Khan
(Castle Hedingham, 1962).

35
S Runciman, ‘The Place of Byzantium in the Medieval World’, in J M Hussey,
Cambridge Medieval History
, vol IV, part II, p358.

36
The Greek name literally means ‘holy wisdom’, but St Sophia is usually used in English.

37
A Grabor, ‘Byzantine Architecture and Art’,
Cambridge Medieval History
, vol IV, part II (Cambridge, 1967), p330.

38
G Dölger, ‘Byzantine Literature’, in
Cambridge Medieval History
, vol IV, part II, p208.