Maritime Traders in the Ancient Greek World
Maritime Traders in the Ancient Greek World
It has been claimed that ancient Athens differed from ancient Sparta and resembled Renaissance Italian republics and the early modern Dutch republic in being an aggressively commercial state with a business-minded elite. This work aims to refute that view. It argues that those trading with Athens were mainly poor and foreign--hence politically insignificant to Athens. Athens and other Greek states had no merchant marine of their own and took only limited measures, always short of war and lesser means of commercial imperialism, to attract maritime traders.
- First full study of the subject for seventy years
- Examines in the conclusion the most crucial stages in the transformation of the place of merchants from ancient Greece to the present
- Written in plain, jargon-free English and fully accessible to readers without Greek
Reviews & endorsements
"...a worthwhile book that should be read by all those who are interested in ancient Greek trade and the ancient Greek economy in general." EH.NET
"An important contribution to the understanding of ancient Greek maritime traders." International Journal of Maritime History
"...sensible and well-balanced...it is a useful contribution by a scholar who has thought about ancient traders for a long time, and it is short enough to be read by almost anyone." Journal of Classical Association of Canada Kathryn Simonsen, Memorial University of Newfoundland
Product details
December 2004Adobe eBook Reader
9780511058950
0 pages
0kg
2 maps
This ISBN is for an eBook version which is distributed on our behalf by a third party.
Table of Contents
- Acknowledgements
- List of abbreviations
- List of references to Greek terms
- Maps
- Introduction
- 1. Coming to terms
- 2. Classical modes and patterns of exchange
- 3. The juridical place of maritime traders
- 4. The level of wealth of maritime traders
- 5. Official attitudes toward maritime traders
- 6. Unofficial attitudes toward maritime traders
- 7. Archaic modes of exchange and the personnel involved, c. 800–475 BC
- 8. Conclusion: then and now
- Appendices
- Bibliography
- Indexes.
