The economies of classical and Mediterranean antiquity are currently a battleground. Some scholars see them as lively and progressive, even proto-capitalist: others see them as static, embedded in social action and status relationships.
Focusing on the central period of the Mediterranean 330-30 BC, this book contributes substantially to the debate, by juxtaposing general questions of theory and model-building with case-studies which examine specific areas and kinds of evidence.
It breaks new ground by distilling and presenting new and newly-reinterpreted evidence for the Hellenistic...