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Quantifying the Roman Economy: Methods and Problems

Online ISBN:
9780191721458
Print ISBN:
9780199562596
Publisher:
Oxford University Press
Book

Quantifying the Roman Economy: Methods and Problems

Alan Bowman (ed.),
Alan Bowman
(ed.)
Camden Professor of Ancient History, University of Oxford
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Andrew Wilson (ed.)
Andrew Wilson
(ed.)
Professor of the Archaeology of the Roman Empire, Universiy of Oxford
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Published online:
1 September 2009
Published in print:
25 June 2009
Online ISBN:
9780191721458
Print ISBN:
9780199562596
Publisher:
Oxford University Press

Abstract

This book contains a number of chapters on the Roman economy which discuss methods of analysing the performance of the economy of the Mediterranean world under Roman imperial rule in the period c.100 BC to AD 350 through quantification. It focuses on the methods and problems involved in identifying and analyzing the characteristics of economic integration, growth, and decline in this period. In particular, it attempts to suggest how a complex and diverse economic world can be better understood by using quantifiable and proxy data to measure these processes in different parts of the Mediterranean world. The data are drawn from both documentary and archaeological sources, and the book emphasizes the need to draw together different kinds of written and artefactual evidence and to describe the ways in which they complement each other. This approach is pursued in a series of analyses of approaches specific economic sectors: demography, urbanization and settlement patterns, the agrarian economy, patterns of trade and commerce, mining, metal supply, and coinage. The book offers a survey of the opportunities for advancing understanding of the economic and technological development of the Roman empire by using the tools and techniques of economic history and statistical analysis.

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