Money in Classical Antiquity

This book was the first to undertake a comprehensive analysis of the impact of money on the economy, society and culture of the Greek and Roman worlds. It uses new approaches in economic history to explore how money affected the economy in antiquity and demonstrates that the crucial factors in its increasing influence were state-formation, expanding political networks, metal supply and above all an increasing sophistication of credit and contractual law. Covering a wide range of monetary contexts within the Mediterranean over almost a thousand years (c.600 BC–AD 300), it demonstrates that money played different roles in different social and political circumstances. The book will prove an invaluable introduction to upper-level students of ancient money, while also offering perspectives for future research to the specialist.

Introduction; 1. Monetization: issues; 2. Monetization: cases; 3. Monetary networks; 4. Cash and credit; 5. Prices and price formation: issues; 6. Prices and price formation: case study; 7. Sacred finance; Epilogue: monetary culture; Appendices; Glossary.

This 2010 book was the first comprehensive analysis of the impact of money on the economy, society and culture of the Greek and Roman worlds. State-formation, expanding political networks, metal supply and above all an increasing sophistication of credit and contractual law are demonstrated as being the crucial factors in money's increasing influence.

Sitta von Reden is Lecturer in Ancient History at Universität München. She is the author of Exchange in Ancient Greece (1995) and co-editor, with Paul Cartledge and Paul Millett, of Kosmos: Essays in Order, Conflict and Community in Classical Athens (1998). Her most recent book is Money in Ptolemaic Egypt (2007).