POVERTY AND SUBSISTENCE New Testament scholar Steven Friesen has famously proposed a seven-tiered “poverty scale” for the free (i.e., not slave) population of the Roman Empire.a Others have modified and nuanced his work (including Bruce Longenecker), but the basic paradigm is still helpful.b Perhaps the top 3 percent of the Roman empire was part of the social elite and lived well above any ancient poverty line, with access to a great deal of excess of whatever resources (including food) they desired.