The book, based on a large material of sources, comprehensively explores the little-studied history of the ancient Roman peasantry as a special estate and class category of society. The time period of the study is significant - from the Early Republic (VI-V centuries BC) to the era of the establishment and heyday of the Roman Empire (I-IV centuries AD). The problems raised in the book are global - the genesis and flourishing of the peasant system as the core of the ancient Roman civitas (polis) and the basis of the power of the Roman state; origin and change in the social composition of the peasantry, its place and leading role in Roman civilization! peasant ideology and religious cults; the decomposition of the peasantry during the Empire - Roman "farming" and colony. These and many other problems are saturated with the colors of living history and reveal the entire diversity of the material and spiritual world of the Roman peasantry, and in essence the entire ancient Roman society and state.

Contents: PrefaceIntroductionSome problems in the history of the Roman peasantry of the era of the RepublicGenesis and flourishing of the peasant systemCrisis of the peasantry communitiesRoman peasantry in the era of the empirepeasantry in the 1st century. n. BC: the struggle between small and large landowners; organization of peasant farming under the Antonines. Peasantry and colonistsConclusionElena Mikhailova Shtaerman (1914 - 1991)List of printed works by E. M. ShtaermanIndex of names