Salah

I have heard a number of estimates for the total population - men and women, adults and children, free and slaves - of the Roman Empire at its peak in the 2nd Century AD - from a few tens of millions to a few hundreds of millions. What are your thoughts on this topic? Does anyone have any recent information or studies about the population of the Roman Empire?

Zeno

I heard: 100 million at the time of Augustus in the entire Roman Empire. Does seem a lot.

Salah

Rome herself was supposed to have had a population of 2,000,000, half of whom were slaves. Antioch, Athens, and Carthage all had signifiant populations. Alexandria had about 500,000 citizens in the time of Cleopatra.

Labienus

I would put it around 70 million at peak

Labienus

I would say Rome was closer to 1,2 million

Zeno

500.000 , 1.000.000 , 2.000.000 , when? Rome started with just 2. When was it 2.000.000?

Salah

I'm just speaking from memory, I can't give a source - but I read that in the 1st/2nd Centuries AD, Rome itself had a population of 2,000,000 or slightly less - half of whom were slaves. The population was then whittled down by the plagues that took place from the reigns of Marcus Aurelius onwards.

okamido

Here is some info on this as well, post #3:
Daily dose of archaeology

Salah

4-5 million seems a rather small number for the whole Empire...

okamido

Remember, that is just for the end of the 1st century bce, so as economic benefits, food, and medicinal needs increase, the population would most likely continue to grow exponentially, just look at the U.S after WWII.

Another factor that might be considered is the utter destruction of the native populations as they became incorporated and how quickly they would be given citizenship. Were the people of Roman Hispania considered citizens necessitating inclusion in a any form of census? And how many people were done in by the destruction of Gaul by Ceasar?

Not being any type of authority on this, I can only present and regurgitate certain information as I come across it. I saw the OP and remembered an article from my past thread, whether or not the information can be taken as conclusive would be speculative on my part.