Ancient Economy Research Articles

Capital in the Sixth Century: The Dynamics of Tax and Estate in Roman Egypt

The Dioscorus and the Apion dossiers represent a unique opportunity to bring quantitative methods into the study of ancient economies. With a combined total of more than a thousand chronologically overlapping documents from two different Egyptian nomes, many of these account logs, the material from these two dossiers sheds light on the micro-economic situation of large and small estates in late antique Egypt. This paper uses many of these accounts—including some still unpublished—in order to reach estimates of the available agricultural surplus, its distribution between tenants, owners and state, the level of economic rationality undergirding economic choices by large and small owners, and the evolution of the imperial taxation policy at a period when Justinian was working to win back the lost western provinces for the Roman realm. The traditional assumption that the grands domaines grew at the expense of the smaller landowners in this period is drawn into question, and the argument is made that large and small properties display complementary rather than antagonistic economic relationships. Close examination of the documents also provides an image of the ancient economy that contradicts familiar assumptions of stability: taxation evolved in response to political and military necessities, and economic actors had to adapt in order to thrive or at least survive in times of fiscal crisis. The article also provides a sense of provincial unity and of a surprisingly equitable and efficient implementation of tax processing in Egypt.

O substantivismo polanyiano e os novos modelos do mercado na Mesopotâmia

<p>A reflexão sobre o mercado é um tema caro do substantivismo polanyiano. Em seu modelo da economia antiga, Karl Polanyi defendeu a preponderância da reciprocidade e redistribuição em detrimento do mercado autorregulável no mundo antigo. Os assiriólogos, sejam os defensores fervorosos do modelo polanyiano, como Johannes Renger, ou os críticos ferozes a tal modelo, como Morris Silver, têm debatido o papel do mercado no antigo Oriente próximo em meio a outras interpretações que procuram reinterpretar as mais diversas fontes textuais e arqueológicas da sociedade mesopotâmia em diversos períodos, como, por exemplo, o trabalho de Mario Liverani. Ao analisar os argumentos desses autores paradigmáticos, pretende-se, neste artigo, por meio da apresentação e repercussão do modelo polanyiano, apresentar um amplo painel crítico do debate sobre a economia e a sociedade na Mesopotâmia.</p>

BETWEEN UTOPIA AND DYSTOPIA: MOSES FINLEY AND THE ATHENIAN DEMOCRACY VERSUS MOSES FINLEY AND THE ANCIENT ECONOMY

AbstractModern scholarly accounts of ancient Greece and more particularly the research programme which broadly frames Moses Finley's contributions are generally traced to George Grote's politically anchored History of Greece and re-evaluationof Athenian democracy. However, notwithstanding their far-reachinginfluence, Finley's writings display an exceptional complexity that has invited a wide spectrum of contradictory interpretations and evaluations. This article extends my previous study of Finley's Athens by locating and exploring an unresolved and still significant debate that he held with himself through the major political and economic writings of his last period (1973–85). It thereby discloses the normative, theoretical, and empirical demands that, on the one hand, informed his account of ‘the ancient economy’ and necessitated its overall incoherence, and, on the other, allowed for a coherently normative account of ‘ancient politics’. In the process, some notable claims about Finley's work and politics are clarified, and it is shown why ‘Finley's ghost is [still] everywhere’ even though the short twentieth century that spanned his life, posed its major questions and set the context and constraints of his answers, has long been over.

Book Review: Stoic Philosophy in Corinth?: Timothy A. Brookins, Corinthian Wisdom, Stoic Philosophy, and the Ancient Economy

Book Review: Stoic Philosophy in Corinth?: Timothy A. Brookins, Corinthian Wisdom, Stoic Philosophy, and the Ancient Economy

Art and Archaeology

Poiesis is the simple title of the first book under review, and its front cover carries a view of that well-known Attic red-figure kylix in Berlin, ‘the Foundry Cup’, showing bronze sculptors at work. But librarians may wonder where exactly to classify Peter Acton's monograph on craftsmanship in classical Athens. The author himself is categorically unusual: a Classics graduate who became vice-president of a major global management consultancy firm before undertaking his doctoral dissertation, he clearly enjoys the transfer of intellectual property from academia to the world of commerce, and vice versa. ‘The ancient economy’ is probably where this belongs, though its most substantial case study is focused upon pottery production. Some of Acton's opening declarations are made over-confidently: that ‘craftsmen were well-regarded’ (7) is debatable, given the various literary instances of patent disregard for those engaged in ‘banausic’ activity (both concept and reality of the banausos are conspicuously avoided throughout). And there is carelessness in the presentation of details: the potter Cachrylion becomes ‘Cachsilion’ (281), for example, and the account of bronze and stone sculpture (215–25) is somewhat muddled. Nonetheless, Acton does well to insist upon a city of creators, not consumers. A famous passage in Plutarch concerning the multiple trades involved in building the Parthenon (Vit. Per. 12) implies as much, but our stereotypical image of Athens tends to exclude all workshop smoke and grime.

Christian Origins and the Ancient Economy. By David A.Fiensy. Pp. xvi, 231, Cambridge, James Clarke, 2014, £22.50/$45.00.

The Heythrop JournalVolume 56, Issue 3 p. 465-466 BOOK REVIEW Christian Origins and the Ancient Economy. By David A. Fiensy. Pp. xvi, 231, Cambridge, James Clarke, 2014, £22.50/$45.00. Patrick Madigan, Patrick Madigan Heythrop CollegeSearch for more papers by this author Patrick Madigan, Patrick Madigan Heythrop CollegeSearch for more papers by this author First published: 14 April 2015 https://doi.org/10.1111/heyj.12249_13Read the full textAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditWechat Volume56, Issue3May 2015Pages 465-466 RelatedInformation

Harvesting the Sea: The Exploitation of Marine Resources in the Roman Mediterranean

Harvesting the Sea provides the first systematic treatment of the exploitation of various marine resources, such as large-scale fishing, fish salting, salt and purple-dye production, and oyster and fish-farming, in the Roman world and its role within the ancient economy. Bringing together literary, epigraphic, and legal sources, with a wealth of archaeological data collected in recent years, Marzano shows that these marine resources were an important feature of the Roman economy and, in scope and market-oriented production, paralleled phenomena taking place in the Roman agricultural economy on land. The book also examines the importance of technological innovations, the organization of labour, and the use of the existing legal framework in defence of economic interests against competitors for the same natural resource.

The Roman Market Economy by Peter Temin

Reviewed by: The Roman Market Economy by Peter Temin David B. Hollander Peter Temin. The Roman Market Economy. Princeton, NJ and Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2012. xiv + 299 pp. ISBN 978-0-6911-4768-0, $35.00 (cloth). The first proposition that Peter Temin attempts to prove in his new book is that economics can contribute to the study of ancient history. To those unversed in the literature on the ancient economy, this claim [End Page 980] will sound quite modest—but classical historians have been slow to embrace the tools of economics and many have simply rejected their applicability to the ancient world. That has already begun to change, thanks in part to Temin’s own efforts. Although the evidence is scarce, there is enough to strongly suggest that the Roman economy did not function in a completely alien manner. Temin’s other claims are somewhat less controversial: that Rome had a market economy; that the Pax Romana stimulated trade; and that in the early Empire “ordinary Romans” were better off “than any other large group … before the Industrial Revolution” (p. 2). The Roman Market Economy consists of eleven chapters, divided into an introduction and three parts. The first part, “Prices,” begins with a consideration of wheat prices in the early Roman Empire (Chapter 2) and detours into a discussion of price behavior in Babylon (Chapter 3), before concluding with an examination of Roman price behavior (Chapter 4). Temin uses the scanty data for Roman wheat prices to argue that under the Empire there probably was “a unified wheat market that extended from one end to the other of the Mediterranean Sea” (p. 46). The excursion into Babylonian price data (for barley, dates, “mustard,” cress, sesame, and wool) from the fifth to the first century BCE employs a relatively large data set (by ancient standards, at least) to show that those prices were market driven rather than administered. Temin concedes that some Roman prices were administered but suggests that most, like the Babylonian ones, fluctuated by means of supply and demand. The Romans enjoyed long-term price stability from the late Republic into the early Empire; Part 1 ends with an attempt to explain that stability and why inflation became more prevalent beginning in the late second century C.E. Temin suggests that the Antonine Plague was a major factor. Part 2 consists of four chapters devoted to specific markets. Temin discusses grain again in Chapter 5, here focusing on the institutions that facilitated its transport and trade. He suggests that “Roman merchants … had a system that was as good as any existing before industrialization and perhaps not equaled for another millennium and a half” (p. 113). Chapter 6 turns to the labor market and argues that, despite possessing a substantial slave population, “Rome had a functioning labor market and a unified labor force” (p. 114). Next, Temin examines real estate (Chapter 7) and again finds evidence for a “functioning market” (p. 140). The last chapter in this section considers financial markets. Temin reviews the evidence for financial intermediation in the Roman world—which ranged from informal lending to fairly sophisticated banks—and concludes that Roman financial institutions were “better than those of eighteenth-century France and Holland” and “similar to those in eighteenth-century London” (p. 189). [End Page 981] The final section is devoted to the question of growth in the Roman economy. Chapter 9 reviews theories of economic growth, and Chapter 10 explains how some growth is possible even in a “Malthusian Empire,” at least in the short term. In the last chapter, Temin reviews previous attempts to estimate Roman GDP before proposing his own. He suggests that per capita GDP in Roman Italy around 150 CE was roughly the same as that enjoyed by the Netherlands in 1600. Perhaps because they derive from articles published in several different journals, individual chapters offer varying levels of background information. Explanations of supply and demand curves and regression analysis in the opening chapters will be very helpful for those with little training in economics, but such readers may well be perplexed at times in subsequent chapters when, for example, Temin mentions in passing that he “regressed the logarithm...

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

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...

TOWARDS FUTURE ECONOMIC RESEARCH IN THE BASIN OF MEXICO

AbstractOngoing archaeological site destruction will limit future opportunities to conduct field research in the Basin of Mexico. Preparing for this future requires assessment of the resources that may be lost and the research that might be accomplished. Developing priorities to assist future studies of ancient economies is complicated by the evolving nature of this research. Nonetheless, trends in this research over the past few decades highlight the increasingly heavy data requirements associated with addressing economic issues. Much future research will be undercut if the required data are neither gathered nor collectable. Furthermore, many unresolved issues should be addressed while opportunities for further research remain available. The examples presented here focus on the development of the regional economy and generally reflect the author's concerns with the subsistence economy. Among these issues are characterizing more clearly the role of the site of Coapexco within the Early Formative economy, clarifying Teotihuacan's relationship with the rest of the basin when the city first achieved hegemony, and obtaining a more complete picture of the economic concerns and internal economic organization of the city. These examples represent a broader set of research issues than can be discussed in a single paper, but they illustrate the kind of work archaeologists must consider completing while they can.

Economy and Exchange in the Iron Age Kingdoms of the Southern Levant

Studies of the ancient world, and of the ancient Near East in particular, disagree over how to characterize the ancient economy. This paper attempts to contribute to this discussion by outlining an economic framework for the Iron Age kingdoms of the southern Levant. Three institutions—the kingdom, the market, and the trade route—provided opportunities for exchange, each according to a distinct economic rationale.

The Faustian bargain of technological change: Evaluating the socioeconomic effects of the bow and arrow transition in the Coast Salish past

Changes in technology can have transformative effects upon ancient economies. Commonly, the advantages of technology are highlighted in the past, with diagnostic markers of tool types, serving as the important signatures in regional culture histories. While technological changes generally do improve efficiency or provide other benefits, new technologies also bring new additional costs, presenting what Neil Postman calls a “Faustian bargain.” In this essay, we consider such costs in the transition from atlatl and dart technologies to the bow and arrow for the precontact Coast Salish economy, focusing on consequent organizational changes in hunting strategies. We maintain that technologies also can be indicators of broader socioeconomic changes in labor organization. We analyze shifting patterns of hunting emphasis through faunal assemblages in relation to changes in tool technologies. We postulate that the transition to the bow and arrow brought benefits in increased efficiency for individual hunters, but at a cost for collective hunting teams based on atlatl and dart technologies that were headed by elites. In so doing, with the bow and arrow, individual hunters exerted greater economic autonomy and this is marked in the faunal archaeological record of the Coast Salish area.

Harvesting the sea: the exploitation of marine resources in the Roman Mediterranean

Harvesting the Sea provides the first systematic treatment of the exploitation of various marine resources, such as large-scale fishing, fish salting, salt and purple-dye production, and oyster and fish-farming, in the Roman world and its role within the ancient economy. Bringing together literary, epigraphic, and legal sources, with a wealth of archaeological data collected in recent years, the book shows that these marine resources were an important feature of the Roman economy and, in scope and market-oriented production, paralleled phenomena taking place in the Roman agricultural economy on land. The book also examines the importance of technological innovations, the organization of labour, and the use of the existing legal framework in defence of economic interests against competitors for the same natural resource.

Procurement and Distribution of Pre-Hispanic Mesoamerican Obsidian 900 BC–AD 1520: a Social Network Analysis

Ancient economies have been characterized by many researchers as localized, highly controlled by political actors, and static over long periods of time. In Mesoamerica, recent research has cast doubt on these views, with the recognition of early market place exchange, production by households for exchange, and the wide-ranging integration of communities into regional trade networks. Here, we expand on an earlier network analysis of obsidian assemblages from the Maya region during the Classic and Postclassic periods to incorporate data for all of Mesoamerica between 900 BC and AD 1520. Using both visual graphical representations and formal network metrics, we find that the Mesoamerican economy was dynamic and generally not highly centralized over time. The topology of this interactive network underwent significant changes over time. In particular, trends towards decreasing network hierarchy and size culminated in the highly commercialized “international” economy of Late Postclassic period as noted in previous studies. Based on this analysis, we make the case that the ancient Mesoamerican economy was neither predominantly top-down nor static, and so does not conform with oft-held presumptions regarding preindustrial economies.

Imported Fine Ware in Palaestina Secunda: Geographic, Economic, and Ethnic Aspects

Archaeological documentation of imports in a given region can contribute to our knowledge about ancient economy and society. This paper deals with imported fine ware between the fourth and seventh centuries in northern Israel, later known as Palaestina Secunda. Samples of imports from two field surveys covering dozens of rural sites in the region are presented and compared with published assemblages from excavated sites. An analysis of these findings indicates that such vessels were first imported to the region in the fourth century from North Africa and Cyprus and were followed by imports from Asia Minor from the fifth century on. The quantities of imported wares, found at sites ranging from large poleis to the smallest and most remote villages, indicate that these vessels were not limited to the higher social strata but were common and widely accessible. Contrary to previous opinions, the findings show that Jews did not avoid using imported pottery during this period. It seems, however, that Samaritans avoided using these imports, probably due to their stringent purity laws. The paper concludes with a discussion of the economic implications that may be drawn from this phenomenon of abundant imports.

Fishing and environmental change during the emergence of social complexity in the Lake Titicaca Basin

The Lake Titicaca Basin is one of the regions in the world where both primary village and state formation occurred in prehistory. Although agriculture has been discussed as the central engine fueling these processes, fish and other aquatic resources were significant but little-understood components of the region’s ancient economy. In this paper, we use zooarchaeological analysis of faunal remains from 367 flotation samples recovered from five archaeological sites to discuss the interplay between fishing, environmental change, and the emergence of sociopolitical complexity in the Taraco Peninsula of Lake Titicaca. Our results suggest that fishing comprised a significant component of the local inhabitants’ diet between 1500 BC and 1100 AD. The intensity of fish procurement, however, varied through time and independently of both climatic and population change. We interpret variation in fish consumption through time as a product of group and individual decisions to optimize resource use in a context of dynamic environmental and sociopolitical variability.

New Perspectives on Factor Markets and Ancient Middle Eastern Economies: A Survey

AbstractThe conventional view of markets for land, labour, and capital as a modern, Western phenomenon is questionable. Factor markets did indeed exist in Iraq, and even thrived, in various parts of its pre-modern history, including the period around 2000bce, the “long” sixth century (c. 620-480bce), and the eighth and ninth centuriesce. By employing the long-term approach used in this issue ofjeshoand by placing the organization of these markets in their wider social-political context, we can understand better how these markets developed, how they functioned, and why they rose and declined again.

Oil production in Roman times: residue analysis of the floors of an installation in Lecce (southern Italy)

Installations for the production of oil and wine are key features for the understanding of ancient Mediterranean economy. The analysis of the organic residues preserved in the vats of production installations has been demonstrated to be a useful tool to identify their function. However, to better understand the spatial distribution of activities, the analysis of the residues preserved in the floors can be performed. In this study, we present the results of chemical analyses of samples taken from the vat and floors of a Roman production installation found in Lecce (southern Italy). The samples were analysed using spot tests aimed at identifying the presence of fatty acids and phosphates. The results of the analyses were plotted in a Geographic Information System (GIS) platform and interpolated with Inverse Distance Weighting (IDW) to determine the spatial distribution of the residues. A number of the samples were selected for analysis with gas chromatography – mass spectrometry (GC–MS) to better identify the origin of the fats. The chemical analysis of the residues confirmed the hypothesis that the installation was used for oil production. In one sample, castor oil was identified. This oil could be present either because it was produced there or because it was used in the oil mill for different reasons, possibly for lighting.

Contributions of GIS and Satellite-based Remote Sensing to Landscape Archaeology in the Middle East

This article explores the coevolution of landscape approaches and geospatial tools in Middle Eastern archaeology. From the first aerial reconnaissance programs, archaeologists recognized the value of a view from above to address overarching human–environmental questions that underpin regional historical narratives. The diversity and density of visible remains in the landscape of the Middle East has required an integrative approach, encompassed in the perspective of landscape as a static artifact, landscape as built features, landscape as a system, and landscape as a dynamic construct, which cuts across modern political boundaries. Recent advances in geospatial tools and datasets have enabled archaeologists to make significant progress on four long-standing questions of how to (1) best document and manage rapidly disappearing ancient landscapes, (2) understand landscape formation processes, (3) identify and interpret economic, environmental, and social influences that result in long-term settlement and land use patterns, and (4) recognize and contextualize the interplay between environment and human agency in the evolution of ancient economies and transformations in socio-organizational complexity.

The Roman Agricultural Economy: Organization, Investment, and Production by ALAN BOWMAN and ANDREW WILSON (eds.)

378 BOOK REVIEWS ERIC DODSON-ROBINSON West Chester University, EDodson-Robinson@wcupa.edu. * * * The Roman Agricultural Economy: Organization, Investment, and Production. By ALAN BOWMAN and ANDREW WILSON (eds.). Oxford Studies on the Roman Economy. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013. Pp. 333. Hardcover, $150. ISBN 978-0-19-966572-3. Preindustrial economies were firmly rooted in soil. In such “organic” economies the majority of people worked in agriculture in one way or another, and the bulk of trade depended on what came off the land, whether in raw material or manufactured goods. It is therefore fitting that the third volume resulting from the Oxford Roman Economy Project (OXREP) should be devoted to the Roman rural economy, c.100BC–AD 350. The book’s ambition is not limited to highlighting the importance of agriculture though. It “aims to move substantially beyond the simple assumption that agriculture was the dominant sector of the ancient economy , and to explore what was special and distinctive about the Roman economy … ” (1). It largely succeeds in achieving this aim by way of ten papers, the first of which, a helpful introduction by the editors, recaps the state of the field and revisits pastapproaches and macroeconomic models. One of only two contributions not to target a specific geographical area is an important and timely chapter by Dennis Kehoe, who analyzes how the state defended its interests and met its fiscal goals. In a balanced discussion, Kehoe rejects as unsatisfactory the notion of a “predatory” or “tributary” Roman state, arguing instead that the state consistently instituted fiscal policies and legal instruments that protected not just large landholdersbutalso small farmers. In the next chapter, Helen Goodchild explains the use of GIS computer modeling applied to the Tiber Valley, successfully—though somewhat predictably —showing how different parameters lead to widely different results for agricultural surplusproduction. Annalisa Marzano follows with two chapters, the first investigating the amount of wine and oil that Rome received from its hinterland, looking at numbers of recorded presses. Both the question and the approach are not new; they BOOK REVIEWS 379 were advanced most recently by Eric de Sena.5 Marzano suggests that the importance of viticulture in Rome’s vicinity was greater than previously thought, but stops short of proposing adjusted import figures. In her second chapter, Marzano extends her investigation of wine and oil production, shifting attention to Gaul, Iberia, and the Black Sea region. She detects an overall increase in multiplepress sites during the first two centuries ad followed by a decline after the third, attributing the pattern to rising and then falling population densities and standardsofliving . These findings contrast with those of Mariette de Vos in an information-rich presentation of fieldwork undertaken in the Medjerda Valley (Tunisia). De Vos’s survey data lead her to conclude that North-African oil and wine production saw a steady increase under the Empire, with a dramatic acceleration and peak in the Vandal and early Byzantine periods. De Vos ascribes this outcome to the breakdown of the annona so that“… export possibilities increased enormously and the benefits could be reinvested in the development of the region itself”(149). The apparently divergent economic trajectories of late-antique Mediterranean regions , including annona supply areas, is an interesting phenomenon, and it seems a pity that the volume does not make a greater effort to synthesize Marzano’s and De Vos’s findings. Two chapters are devoted to Roman Egypt, the first by Alan Bowman endeavoring to estimate grain yield, tax income, and population size for a number of Middle Egyptian nomes. Bowman refuses to engage in pan-Egyptian extrapolations of his data, but does state with refreshing directness that they show “… an agrarian economy that is flexible, entrepreneurial, and deeply monetized, even at the village level …” (246). Katherine Blouin then somewhat complicates the picture drawn by Bowman with a study of land use in the Mendesian nome in the Nile Delta. Despite the relatively diverse hydrology of the Delta, grain cultivation seems to have been the nome’s preeminent agrarian activity, with viticulture a distant second, and market gardening only a marginal third. Blouin suggests that thisoutcome in part results from documentary bias, but also reflects the desires of...