Hired labourers on Late Antique estates

During the last decade, interesting perspectives have been developed regarding the rural labour force in Late Antiquity. Notably, Jairus Banaji, in his book Agrarian Change in Late Antiquity. Gold, Labour, and Aristocratic Dominance (Oxford, 2001), insisted upon the importance of salaried people on late Antiquity estates. This article provides additional information on this type of employment, comparing law, papyri and texts. While the legal setting indicates that the labour contract was one type of employment on estates, other sources underscore the limited importance of salaried workers, who were principally employed for a limited number of specific tasks: tending cattle; in specialized agriculture such as viticulture; and on irrigation works. It does not appear that the majority of tenants on these estates were in fact wage earners.