Capernaum: First-Century Fishing Village or Polis? Part II
The Millstone Capital
One of the leading industries in Capernaum was the manufacture of millstones for use as grinding grains, both for personal home use and for commercial use. The biblical account concerning the millstone around the neck was a part of the Capernaum ministry. The people would have well understood the significance of the millstone with the thriving business of grinding millstones in Capernaum. The closest town to Capernaum is two miles west. It is the village of Tabgha which was known both as a fishing port and for commercial milling for grinding grains. Millstones were also for the shipping industry and fishing industry as anchor stones for boats. Between the Franciscan side of Capernaum as well as in the "Anchor Museum" at Ein Giv (Israel), there are hundreds of millstones and anchor stones on that were collected from the Sea of Galilee and from archaeological sites around the Sea.
The Local Tax Farmer
Another occupation which would have an economical impact on Capernaum was its location. The detested tax collector would be busy at Capernaum collecting taxes on the fish caught daily in the Sea, collecting taxes on the fish which were salted and dried for shipping out of the area, collecting taxes on the millstone industry, and collecting toll taxes on the nearby Via Maris so one might pass from one district to another. Taxes in the Roman Empire were “farmed out” to area members. It was then, the tax farmer’s job to collect the tax for the Empire and anything that the tax farmer could collect above the tax would be considered as income for the tax farmer. The tax farmer did pay the tax up front, and his own income was dependent upon doing a successful business. For this reason, we may assume that as a tax collector or tax farmer, that Matthew (Levi) had sufficient wealth to buy the area tax business at auction, pay the taxes to the Empire, and still collect a sum above these fees.
And there is one “biggie” in tax collection that I can never pass up bringing to mind. The Romans brought the public Roman bath to the common person at a charge of about two mites per person. Usually located very near the Roman bath and its continual flow of water would be the public toilets. When water left the public Roman bath, it would flow through the public toilets carrying away the waste to a waste collection point outside the city in the care of “manure farmers.” A manure farmer was one who collected and sold the manure for area agriculture. But before the manure could be sold, it had to be measured and taxed. Yes, traditionally, the Roman Empire taxed “crap” and while there is no historical record of this occurring in Capernaum, one may be assured that since there was a public bath, a public toilet was not far away; and therefore, a collection of tax upon the product.
~serapha~
posted by ~serapha~ at 7:48 PM
2 Comments:
Nice and interesting blog.
A query about this:
"Usually located very near the Roman bath and its continual flow of water would be the public toilets (was there really a continual flow of water? If a bath was simply a pool, most of the time the water was just there). When water left the public Roman bath, it would flow through the public toilets carrying away the waste (did it really had the strenth and volumen enough for the task?)"
Where did you take this info from? It's very interesting, but I'm not sure if it can be real.
Thank you for the interest in ancient water systems. A source that is readily available to most people is the book, Archaeology and the New Testament, John McRay, Baker Book House, 1997. You would be interested in reading pages 76-88 on domestic structures and pages 42-51 on civic structures.
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