Hecatee
Donor
Well from what I gather waterwheel-propelled spinning wheels were made, so I could see large scale villae and latifundia build water powered infrastructure...
Now the thing is also that by the late republic a lot of the pastoral work was done by slaves who lived in periphery of the villae, isolated in the mountains, often turning to brigancy too. I could well see the amount of people staying the same but with less time for mischief due to larger herds to manage and to shear...
Also you must not forget the role spinning played in the Egyptian economy as flax was turned into linen. It took roughly a kilometer of linen to make a mummy in the classical era, less in the roman era, but it still was a lot of linen to spin : it was done in factories where women worked by the dozens according to papyri I read in the great economical archives back when I was doing my studies... They also used nettles (which fibers' they included in linen clothes to improve the look) and other plant fibers...
Now the thing is also that by the late republic a lot of the pastoral work was done by slaves who lived in periphery of the villae, isolated in the mountains, often turning to brigancy too. I could well see the amount of people staying the same but with less time for mischief due to larger herds to manage and to shear...
Also you must not forget the role spinning played in the Egyptian economy as flax was turned into linen. It took roughly a kilometer of linen to make a mummy in the classical era, less in the roman era, but it still was a lot of linen to spin : it was done in factories where women worked by the dozens according to papyri I read in the great economical archives back when I was doing my studies... They also used nettles (which fibers' they included in linen clothes to improve the look) and other plant fibers...