![]() ![]() The Ptolemaic dynasty that ruled Egypt developed an extensive bureaucracy to oversee numerous economic activities and like all bureaucracies, they kept detailed records of their administration. One of the most extensive collections of economic documents is the papyri from Greek-controlled Egypt during the Hellenistic period. The plays of Aristophanes, for example, make many references to economic activities, but such references are often characterized by stereotyping and exaggeration for comedic purposes. Of course, one must be careful to account for genre and audience in addition to the personal perspective of the author when using such sources for information about the economy. ![]() One can find random references to trade, manufacturing, the status of businessmen, and other economic matters. Poems and dramas also contain evidence concerning the ancient Greek economy. Thucydides, for example, does takes care to describe the financial resources of Athens during the Peloponnesian War. But within these contexts, one can find bits of information here and there about public finance and other economic matters. The ancient Greek historians concerned themselves primarily with politics and warfare. One drawback of such evidence, however, is that the authors of these works were without exception members of the elite, and their political perspective and disdain for day-to-day economic activity should not necessarily be taken to represent the views of all or even the majority of ancient Greeks. ![]() We learn about the place of economic activities within the Greek city-state, value system, and social and political institutions. Philosophical works, especially those of Xenophon, Plato, and Aristotle, provide us with an insight into how the ancient Greeks perceived and analyzed economic matters. But although these speeches illuminate some aspects of ancient Greek contracts, loans, trade, and other economic activity, one must analyze them with care on account of the biases and distortions inherent in legal speeches. Demosthenes, Lysias, Isokrates, and other Attic Orators have left us with numerous speeches, several of which concern economic matters, usually within the context of a lawsuit. Most of our evidence for the ancient Greek economy concerns Athens in the Classical period and includes literary works, such as legal speeches, philosophical dialogues and treatises, historical narratives, and dramas and other poetic writings. These activities have left behind material remains and are described in various contexts scattered throughout the extant writings of the ancient Greeks. They produced and exchanged goods both in local and long distance trade and had monetary systems to facilitate their exchanges. Nonetheless, the ancient Greeks did engage in economic activity. Sources of EvidenceĪlthough the ancient Greeks achieved a high degree of sophistication in their political, philosophical, and literary analyses and have, therefore, left us with a significant amount of evidence concerning these matters, few Greeks attempted what we would call sophisticated economic analysis. In addition, reference will be made to some recent scholarly trends in the field. Rather, it will attempt to set out the types of evidence available for studying the ancient Greek economy, to describe briefly the long-running debate about the ancient Greek economy and the most widely accepted model of it, and then to present a basic view of the various sectors of the ancient Greek economy during the three major phases of its history. This brief article, therefore, will not include any of the statistics, tables, charts, or graphs that normally accompany economic studies. Moreover, the evidence is insufficient to employ all but the most basic quantitative methods of modern economic analysis and has forced scholars to employ other more qualitative methods of investigation. Thus, despite over a century of investigation, scholars are still debating the nature of the ancient Greek economy. Throughout these periods of ancient Greek civilization, the level of technology was nothing like it is today and values developed that shaped the economy in unique ways. In the Archaic and Classical periods, Greece was not unified but was comprised of hundreds of small, independent poleis or “city-states.” During the Hellenistic period, Greek civilization spread into the Near East and large kingdoms became the norm. 2 During this time, Greek civilization was very different from our own in a variety of ways. in what are called the Archaic (776-480), Classical (480-323), and Hellenistic (323-30) periods. Ancient Greek civilization flourished from around 776 to 30 B.C. Given the remoteness of ancient Greek civilization, the evidence is minimal and difficulties of interpretation abound. The ancient Greek economy is somewhat of an enigma. Darel Tai Engen, California State University – San Marcos Introduction 1 ![]()
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