Why Rome didn’t need the Garrick

What fun to mock the elite in the Garrick! But there were no Garricks in Rome: clubs were for those lower down the scale.

They were called collegia and consisted of citizens, freedmen (ex-slaves) and in some cases slaves. All usually had some religious connection and were properly organised with presidents, treasurers and so on. Some were dedicated to maintaining ancient cults; others served the locality; then there were burial clubs, dedicated to appropriate gods, providing (for a regular fee) monthly group dinners and a guaranteed urn for their ashes in their private facilities (for their slaves and freedmen Augustus and his wife Livia provided buildings with 6,000 urns). The rules of one club include: ‘Any member abusing another or becoming obstreperous shall be fined 12ss, any member insolent to the club president, 20ss.’

Then there were guilds, associations of workers. At Rome’s port Ostia, we hear of shipbuilders, dock hands, warehouse guards, grain measurers, caulkers, ropemakers and urinatores (‘divers’, rescuing cargo lost overboard).