Historians and archaeologists normally assume that the economies of ancient Greece and Rome between about 1000 BC and AD 500 were distinct from those of Egypt and the Near East. This book asks whether the differences between accounts of these regions reflect real economic differences.

Table of Contents for The Ancient Economy List of Figures List of Tables List of Contributors 1. Introduction, by Ian Morris and J.G. Manning Part I: The Near East 2. The Near East: The Bronze Age, by Mario Liverani 3. The Economy of the Near East in the First Millennium BC, by Peter R. Bedford 4. Comment on Liverani and Bedford, by Mark Granovetter Part II: The Aegean 5. Archaeology, Standards of Living, and Greek Economic History, by Ian Morris 6. Linear and Nonlinear Flow Models for Ancient Economies, by John K. Davies 7. Comment on Davies, by Takeshi Amemiya Part III: Egypt 8. The Relationship of Evidence in the Ptolemaic Economy (332-30 BC), by J.G. Manning 9. Evidence and Models for the Economy of Roman Egypt, by Roger S. Bagnall Part IV: The Roman Mediterranean 10. "The Advantages of Wealth and Luxury": The Case for Economic Growth in the Roman Empire, by R. Bruce Hitchner 11. Framing the Debate Over Growth in the Ancient Economy, by Richard Saller 12. Comment on Hitchner and Saller, by Avner Greif Bibliography Index

"This book is witness to the lively debates currently held on ancient economic history. All the authors are resolved to go beyond the orthodoxies established by Finley; they actually do incorporate questions and methods from economic history and theory of other periods without exposing themselves to the accusation of formalism or modernism... This book is an important step towards an economic history or the ancient Mediterranean."—EH.Net