Population of Rome

[guidoLaMoto]

The first census of Romans wad conducted during the reign of Servius Tullius (6th century BC) and said to be 80,000 men of military age. Allowing for kids, wives and old folks, that would probably bump the total number up to 200,000 plus....

Given, for perspective,  that the area of the Palatine Hill is 80 acres, the forum < 20 ac, and the population density of Manhattan now 70,000/ sq mile (640 ac/sq mi) and nobody (except for maybe Oliver Wendal Douglas before he moved to Hooterville) grows grain or herds sheep in Manhattan, we have to wonder how accurate that census number was.

Even if we consider Romans to have lived in a wider area than just the seven hills neighborhood, arch-rival Fidenae is only 10 miles away, Rome's safe living area was probably no more than a circle of radius 5 mi-- ~30 sq mi..... 210,000/ 30 = 7,000/ sq mi-- pretty dense for a farming/sheparding community.

--just noticed error in arithmetic-- 5 mile radius is ~90 sq MI, so density would be ~2000/sq mi...still pretty dense for an agricultural society.

 

 

Edited 1 minute ago by guidoLaMoto

[guidoLaMoto]

Another estimation--

Most Romans lived in insulae.....average apartment was probably on the order of 400 sq ft (20x20).... with 2 apartments per floor, and 5 floors above the ground floor tabernae, that's a foot print of (rounding off for easy arithmetic) 1000 sq ft per insula....and let's say average family numbering 5, that gives us 50 inhabitants per insula. (Wikipedia claims 40)....

Rome is commonly quoted to have one million residents....if each insula is 1000 sq ft and holds 50 people, then 1,000,000/ 50 = 20,000 insulae and 20,000 x 1000 sq ft = 20,000,000 sq ft.....rounding off to 40,000 sq ft per acre and 600 ac per sq mile, we get insulae occupying about 90 sq miles (not including streets, piazzas, open spaces/gardens/villas etc)....

....for perspective, the Aurelian Wall encloses only 10 sq miles. That includes the seven hills, the Campus Martius and a sizeable chunk of the Trastevere area.....90sq MI would involve the area in a 5 mile radius of The Forum covered by nothing but insulae...no large villas, no Gardens of Sallust, no pastures or farm fields etc.

Modern Rome has 2.7M people in 500 sq MI = density of ~5,000/sq MI.....ancient Rome @ 1,000,000/90 = ~ 11,000/ sq MI....I gotta doubt that.