Humanities Forum — Kim Bowes: The Economic Lives of Rome’s Ninety Percent

Humanities Forum Lecture with Kim Bowes The Economic Lives of Rome’s Ninety Percent This Ancient Studies Week Lecture is part of the Fall 2026 Humanities Forum How did the majority of Romans get by? What were their strategies for survival? This talk describes how the Roman world created a set of bitter challenges and opportunistic hustles for everyone from farmers and craftspeople to day laborers and slaves. Working people co-produced a consumer revolution, making and buying everything from fine pottery to children’s toys. Many of the poorest working people lived with — but not on — wages. And Romans’ most daunting challenge was the struggle to save. These economies of survival were shared by a wide swath of people, blurring the lines between genders, ages, and legal status. Kim Bowes is BFC Presidential Professor of Classical Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. Author of Surviving Rome: The Economic Lives of the Ninety Percent (Princeton), her research and field projects address the economic lives of working people. Her work has been supported by the National Science Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Guggenheim Foundation. Admission is free. This annual lecture is organized by the Department of Ancient Studies and part of the Dresher Center’ s Humanities Forum. UMBC is committed to creating an accessible and inclusive environment for all faculty, staff, students, and visitors. To request additional accessibility accommodations, please contact us at least five business days in advance at [email protected] .