Roman Empire

===Labour and occupations===
[[File:Pompeii - Fullonica of Veranius Hypsaeus 1 - MAN.jpg|thumb|right|Workers at a cloth-processing shop, in a painting from the ''[[fullonica]]'' of Veranius Hypsaeus in Pompeii]]
Inscriptions record 268 different occupations in Rome and 85 in Pompeii.{{Sfnp|Morris|Scheidel|2009|p=196}} Professional associations or trade guilds (''collegia'') are attested for a wide range of occupations, some quite specialized.<ref name=verb/>

Work performed by slaves falls into five general categories: domestic, with epitaphs recording at least 55 different household jobs; [[Slavery in ancient Rome#Servus publicus|imperial or public service]]; urban crafts and services; agriculture; and mining. Convicts provided much of the labour in the mines or quarries, where conditions were notoriously brutal.{{Sfnp|Gagarin|2010|p=323}} In practice, there was little division of labour between slave and free,<ref name=Garnsey/> and most workers were illiterate and without special skills.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Temin |first=Peter |date=2004 |title=The Labor Market of the Early Roman Empire |journal=Journal of Interdisciplinary History |volume=34 |issue=4 |doi=10.1162/002219504773512525 |pages=513–538 |s2cid=33380115 }}</ref> The greatest number of common labourers were employed in agriculture: in Italian industrial farming (''[[latifundia]]''), these may have been mostly slaves, but elsewhere slave farm labour was probably less important.<ref name=Garnsey/>

Textile and clothing production was a major source of employment. Both textiles and finished garments were traded and products were often named for peoples or towns, like a [[fashion brand|fashion "label"]].{{Sfnp|Jones|1960|pp=184–185}} Better ready-to-wear was exported by local businessmen (''negotiatores'' or ''mercatores'').{{Sfnp|Jones|1960|p=192}} Finished garments might be retailed by their sales agents, by ''vestiarii'' (clothing dealers), or peddled by itinerant merchants.{{Sfnp|Jones|1960|p=192}} The [[fulling|fullers]] (''[[fullonica|fullones]]'') and dye workers (''coloratores'') had their own guilds.{{Sfnp|Jones|1960|pp=190–191}} ''Centonarii'' were guild workers who specialized in textile production and the recycling of old clothes into [[patchwork|pieced goods]].{{Efn|The college of ''centonarii'' is an elusive topic in scholarship, since they are also widely attested as urban firefighters.{{Sfnp|Vout|2009|p=212}}<ref name="Liu">{{Cite book |last=Liu |first=Jinyu |title=Collegia Centonariorum: The Guilds of Textile Dealers in the Roman West |date=2009 |publisher=Brill |author-link=Jinyu Liu}}</ref> Historian [[Jinyu Liu]] sees them as "primarily tradesmen and/or manufacturers engaged in the production and distribution of low- or medium-quality woolen textiles and clothing, including felt and its products".<ref name=Liu/>}}

[[File:Cacera Centcelles panoràmica.jpg|thumb|upright=3|center|Recreation of a deer hunt inspired by hunting scenes represented in Roman art.]]