Description: This is the first book to offer a comprehensive analysis of the impact of money on the economy, society and culture of the Greek and Roman World, using new approaches in economic history to explore how money affected the economy and which factors need to be considered in order to improve our understanding of ancient money. Covering a wide range of monetary contexts within the Mediterranean over almost 1000 years (c. 600 BC - AD 300) its method is comparative and specific in order to demonstrate that money plays different roles under different social and political circumstances. In line with the aim of the Key Themes Series, the book not only offers guidance to students and course directors for studying money at University level, but also some perspectives for future research to graduate students and specialists.
Brief description: Sitta von Reden is Lecturer in Ancient History at Universitat Munchen. 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).
Review Quotes: "Sitta von Reden offers an admirable introduction to some of the main themes in current debates on the use of money in the Classical world. As such, [this volume] will serve as an instructive and clearly presented book to be used in courses dealing with ancient economic matters. The book chimes well with the recent trend among ancient economic historians to seek inspiration from the so-called new institutional economics. Indeed, it seems a both careful and nuanced contribution to this body of scholarship."
Peter Fibiger Bang, The Journal of Roman Studies