A Demometric Analysis of Ulpian’s Table
Loading...
Date
2014-12
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
American Statistical Association
Abstract
Ulpian’s table is a famous ancient text that is preserved in edited form in Justinian’s
Digest, a compendium of Roman law compiled by order of the emperor Justinian I in the
sixth century AD. This passage probably provides a rough estimation of Roman life
expectancy in the early third century AD. The paper begins with a discussion of the
demographic properties and peculiarities of Ulpian´s table. Then the Gompertz distribution
and some of its extensions are used to fit life expectation functions to Ulpian´s
data. The model can be used to estimate important demographic functions and parameters
of the Roman life table. Inter alia, the average and median remaining life expectancies are
calculated, and compared with the results of other investigations, e.g., Frier’s life table
for the Roman Empire. It turns out that Ulpian´s life table is characterized by a steep
decline of the life expectancy function in the advanced age classes, which is much steeper
than in life expectancy functions of other life tables based on data. The modal or normal
age at death, which is between 55 and 60 years, is comparatively high.
Description
Table of contents
Keywords
Life Table, Roman Demography, Gompertz-Makeham, Mortality Law,
Citation
JSM Proceedings, Social Statistics Section. Alexandria, VA: American Statistical Association, 2014, 405-419