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This collection of essays is the first volume in a new series, Oxford Studies on the Roman Economy. Edited by the series editors, it focuses on the economic performance of the Roman empire, analysing the extent to which Roman political domination of the Mediterranean and north-west Europe created the conditions for the integration of agriculture, production, trade, and commerce across the regions of the empire. Using the evidence of both documents and archaeology, the contributors suggest how we can derive a quantified account of economic growth and contraction in the period of the empire's greatest extent and prosperity.
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OXFORD STUDIES ON THE ROMAN ECONOMY General Editors Alan Bowman Andrew Wilson OXFORD STUDIES ON THE ROMAN ECONOMY This innovative monograph series reXects a vigorous revival of interest in the ancient economy, focusing on the Mediterranean world under Roman rule (c.100 bc to ad 350). Carefully quantiWed archaeological and documentary data will be integrated to help ancient historians, economic historians, and archaeologists think about economic behaviour collectively rather than from separate perspectives. The volumes will include a substantial comparative element and thus be of interest to historians of other periods and places. Quantifying the Roman Economy Methods and Problems Edited by A L A N B OW M A N and A N D R EW W I L S O N 1 3 Great Clarendon Street, Oxford ox2 6dp Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide in Oxford New York Auckland Cape Town Dar es Salaam Hong Kong Karachi Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Nairobi New Delhi Shanghai Taipei Toronto With oYces in Argentina Austria Brazil Chile Czech Republic France Greece Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan Poland Portugal Singapore South Korea Switzerland Thailand Turkey Ukraine Vietnam Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University Press in the UK and in certain other countries Published in the United States by Oxford University Press Inc., New York # Oxford University Press 2009 The moral rights of the authors have been asserted Database right Oxford University Press (maker) First published 2009 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted by law, or under terms agreed with the appropriate reprographics rights organization. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address above You must not circulate this book in any other binding or cover and you must impose the same condition on any acquirer British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Data available Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Data available Typeset by SPI Publisher Services, Pondicherry, India Printed in Great Britain on acid-free paper by the MPG Books Group in the UK ISBN 978–0–19–956259–6 1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2 Preface This volume is the Wrst of a series of monographs to be published under the general title Oxford Studies on the Roman Economy. It has its origin in a research programme directed by the Series Editors and funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council for Wve years (2005–10). This project, entitled The Economy of the Roman Empire: Integration, Growth and Decline, starts from the realization that further debate on the Roman economy needs to be grounded in a better understanding of the evidence and that despite the lack of statistics in ancient written sources there is nevertheless a vast mass of archaeological and