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This is the most comprehensive introduction to the ancient Greek economy available in English. A team of specialists provides in non-technical language cutting edge accounts of a wide range of key themes in economic history, explaining how ancient Greek economies functioned and changed, and why they were stable and successful over long periods of time. Through its wide geographical perspective, reaching from the Aegean and the Black Sea to the Near East and Egypt under Greek rule, it reflects on how economic behaviour and institutions were formed and transformed under different political, ecological and social circumstances, and how they interacted and communicated over large distances. With chapters on climate and the environment, market development, inequality and growth, it encourages comparison with other periods of time and cultures, thus being of interest not just to ancient historians but also to readers concerned with economic cultures and global economic issues.

Gifts, donations, and charity help shape society and can be regarded as virtual social and political constants. For the first time, this volume uses a range of scholarly perspectives and cultural comparison to examine the tensions, conflicts, and the social and religious transformation processes that have shaped philanthropy in European and non-European societies to this day.

Drawing on the latest research, this textbook surveys ancient economies, offering insights into the interconnections between agriculture, commerce, trade, markets, and tax systems while illuminating ecological, demographic, political, and technical factors. The author shows how ancient economies developed under completely different conditions than in modernity.

The Ptolemaic and Seleucid empires are usually studied separately, or else included in broader examinations of the Hellenistic world. This book provides a systematic comparison of the roles of local elites and local populations in the construction, negotiation, and adaptation of political, economic, military and ideological power within these states in formation. The two states, conceived as multi-ethnic empires, are sufficiently similar to make comparisons valid, while the process of comparison highlights and better explains differences. Regions that were successively incorporated into the Ptolemaic and then Seleucid state receive particular attention, and are understood within the broader picture of the ruling strategies of both empires. The book focusses on forms of communication through coins, inscriptions and visual culture; settlement policies and the relationship between local and immigrant populations; and the forms of collaboration with and resistance of local elites against immigrant populations and government institutions.

Der Band bildet die Forschungsgeschichte, Quellen und theoretische Forschungsansätze sowie die Bandbreite der wirtschaftshistorischen Sachgebiete der Alten Geschichte ab. Der Rahmen reicht dabei von ca. 1000 v. Chr. bis ca. 400 n. Chr., den Mittelpunkt bildet die "Kernzeit" der griechisch-römischen Antike von 700 v. Chr. bis 300 n. Chr. Dabei stehen althistorisch-kulturwissenschaftliche Analyse- und Darstellungsmethoden im Vordergrund

Der Band bildet die Forschungsgeschichte, Quellen und theoretische Forschungsansätze sowie die Bandbreite der wirtschaftshistorischen Sachgebiete der Alten Geschichte ab. Der Rahmen reicht dabei von ca. 1000 v. Chr. bis ca. 400 n. Chr., den Mittelpunkt bildet die Kernzeit" der griechisch-römischen Antike von 700 v. Chr. bis 300 n. Chr. Dabei stehen althistorisch-kulturwissenschaftliche Analyse- und Darstellungsmethoden im Vordergrund

The Handbook of Ancient Afro-Eurasian Economies offers in three volumes the first comprehensive discussion of economic development in the empires of the Afro-Eurasian world region to elucidate the conditions under which large quantities of goods and people moved across continents and between empires. Volume 3: Frontier-Zone Processes and Transimperial Exchange analyzes frontier zones as particular landscapes of encounter, economic development, and transimperial network formation. The chapters offer problematizing approaches to frontier zone processes as part of and in between empires, with the goal of better understanding how and why goods and resources moved across the Afro-Eurasian region. Key frontiers in mountains and steppes, along coasts, rivers, and deserts are investigated in depth, demonstrating how local landscapes, politics, and pathways explain network practices and participation in long-distance trade. The chapters seek to retrieve local knowledge ignored in popular Silk Road models and to show the potential of frontier-zone research for understanding the Afro-Eurasian region as a connected space