Economy, Family, and Society from Rome to Islam: A Critical Edition, English Translation, and Study of Bryson's Management of the Estate by Simon Swain

Abstract

248 BOOK REVIEWS Levicksucceedsindemonstratingthat,despiteomissionsandthestereotypes of gender in our sources, it is possible to delineate in broad terms the significance of these two women in imperial politics and life. Unfortunately she does not discusshow theyaffectedorcomplicatedtheroleofempressfor their successor,Julia Domna,which isa topic thatcould have been included in Chapter 7. JUDITH LYNN SEBESTA The University of South Dakota, jsebesta@usd.edu * * * * * Economy, Family, and Society from Rome to Islam: A Critical Edition, English Translation , and Study of Bryson’s Management of the Estate. By SIMON SWAIN. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 2013. Pp. xiii + 573. Hardcover , $160.00. ISBN 978-1-107-02536-3. The transition from antiquity to the Middle Ages is of considerable and growing interestamongscholarsof both the Christianand Muslimworlds. Indeed,a dominant trend for the study of this period is the focus on continuities in the midst of significant discontinuities. Scholars of early Islam interested in continuities with GreeceandRomepointtotheTranslationMovementofthe9th and10th centuries CE asanexampleinwhichawiderangeofancienttextsweretranslatedintoArabic and formed the basis for much Islamic intellectual activity. In many cases, ancient texts have only survived to the modern day through the mediation of these translations . One such text is that attributed to Bryson (probably writing in the first centuryCE )writtenintheoikonomikostradition—adviceonthemanagementofapersonal estate and household (wife, children, slaves) within the context of the polis. The original Greek text is lost (outside of a few fragments excerpted in Stobaeus’ Anthology),andthebulkofthecontentsurvivesonlyinlatertranslations—theearliest of which is an Arabic recension produced around 900 CE. Elites of the early Muslim period had worldviews and concerns similar (though not identical) to thoseoftheGreco-Romanelites,andstudyingthetextstheychosetotranslateand BOOK REVIEWS 249 how they chose to do so helps us to understand both similarities and differences between ancientand Islamic civilizations. However, Simon Swain argues that Bryson’s text, which has long been used by Islamicists, should in addition be used byclassicists, to whom it has been virtuallyunknown —thatis,he wants to transform BrysonArabusback intoan ancient text,availableforstudentsoftheancienteconomyandfamily.Thehingeonwhich thisargumentswingsisthe questionofthefaithfulnessoftheArabic translation to theGreekoriginal,andthusitsutilityforclassicists.ContraMartinPlessner,4 Swain finds reason to believe that the Arabic version is, while not a word-for-word translation , a fair representation of the essence of the Greek text. This, indeed, was the purpose of translation and a product of the shared concerns among elites of the two periods—content was the very reason that Muslim intellectuals chose to translate,use,andadapttheGreektext,andtodistortitmakeslittlesensetoSwain. To supporthisargument,SwaincomparestheArabictranslationto theexisting Greek fragments (and dismantles the objections to Bryson Arabus leveled by Plessner).Theproblem,ofcourse,isthatmanyclassicistsdonotknowArabicand wouldthusrelyonSwain’sEnglishtranslationoftheArabicrecensionoftheGreek text—a level of remove that is likely to make most classicists uncomfortable. For thosewho do knowArabic or Hebrew, Swain provides,in PartVof thisbook,editionsofthetwoArabicrecensions (acompleteonefortheearlytextandanextract ofthe latermedievalrecension),themedievalHebrewversion,aswellasthe Latin epitome. Those with the linguistic skills and interest can thus decide for themselves whichversion to use andhow to use it. Part I presents Swain’s English translation of Bryson Arabus, while Part II introduces the context of Bryson’s work and the various later texts and their transmissionhistories .PartsIIIand IV detail Swain’sreadingofthetextandhowhebelieves it could be used to revise scholarship about ancient economy and family. Part III analyses Bryson’s treatments of property and slaves in the context of ancient economic thinking, which Swain adamantly asserts that the Greeks did do. His primary target in this matter is M. I. Finley, against whom Swain argues that Bryson’s text proves that Greco-Roman elites did have interest in economic the4 MartinPlessner,DerΟἰκονομικόςdesNeupythagoreers'Bryson'undseineEinflussaufdieislamische Wissenschaft: Edition und Übersetzung der erhaltenen Versionen, nebst einer Geschichte der Ökonomik im Islam mit Quellenproben in Text und Übersetzung (Heidelberg: Carl Winter's Univesitätsbuchhandlung , 1928). 250 BOOK REVIEWS ory, since Bryson’s text has one. Of course, oikonomia means something far different than the modern sense of trade and capital growth, but it is clear that Swain findsinBrysonsupportfortheideathatwealthyGreeklandownersactivelysought toincreasetheirestates’holdingsandtheirpersonalwealth.Oikonomiaismanagement —of the estate, the family, and subordinates (slaves)—and Swain’s analysis supports the idea that an estate-holder should pay careful attention to preserving andexpandinghiswealth.Whetherthisreadingwillleadtoafull-scalereevaluation of ancienteconomic thoughtisan open question. Part IV is less historiographically adversarial, and focuses on inter-personal relationships and the management of wives and children (“the boy”). Swain analyses these sections of Bryson within the larger context of intellectual traditions (Greco-Roman and early Islamic) about marriage, education...