11: The Roman Economy Before the Fall
The Fall of Rome Podcast
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The Origins of Villas in the Roman Empire
Villas became progressively more important, more central to the economy over the Roman centuries. Villas could be huge and palatial, covering tens of thousands of square feet with all the amenities a super rich aristocrat could desire. The land concentrated around a single villa might support a wide variety of agricultural practices. Pliny the Elder for example famously stated in his natural history that all wealth, period, derived from land.
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