Preliminary Programme

In addition to the various theories on the idea of “the market in classical antiquity,” there has been an increasing interest in the role of local markets and fairs in the ancient economy. Even though subjects such as purchasing, consumption, and sale, form an essential part within these studies, specific information on individual buying behavior is still hard to find. As references relevant to this issue are scattered across a variety of literary genres, it is worthwhile to study in depth specific sources on the economy in Greek and Roman antiquity.
This paper will focus on the buying behavior of individuals and retail trade in the plays of Aristophanes to illustrate the value of a systematic analysis of the comedies of 5th century Athens for a better understanding of ancient Greek markets and marketing in everyday life.
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Saving behaviour in antiquity (Abstract)
The scholars of classics and ancient economic history have hitherto ignored the topic of saving money to a large extent, in contrast to all forms of spending money. Until the 18th century the idea of saving marked a behaviour of controlling expenses, especially by the well-to-do elites or the state (respectively kings or emperors). The building up of financial reserves in the form of treasures or deposits at banks are well documented for antiquity, but was suitable only for the upper classes and was not seen as a sign of thrift. From the 18th century onwards, beginning with France and England, saving banks for the common people were founded (complementary to the traditional banks), which accepted continuous deposits of small amounts of money as savings and paid interest on them. Economic theory lists as motives for such savings capital formation for later consumption, as provisions for illness and old age and formation of wealth to pass it on to the next generation.
The history of ancient economy will examine the question to what extent this way of saving was present in antiquity and which groups in society made use of it. The interpretation of the behaviour of rich people and their motives is very helpful in this respect. The mostly negative valuation of this behaviour is noteworthy alike. The idea of thrift is closely related to an accusation of miserliness, and is opposed to demands for liberality and euergetism. The extreme position on this end of the range is extravagance. The wider population in antiquity had little means for a long-term planned non-consumptive use of income. A closer look on the sources reveals certain groups of persons, who were able to use regular saving practice over a longer period of time. These persons were above all singles, who lacked the social security of a family. We can reckon among these people small farmers, courtesans or monks, who financially engaged in providing their own provisions for old age (or had to do so). Slaves laid aside money for to be able to pay for their freedom or for gifts to their masters. Soldiers saved money for special expenses or for their live after their demobilization, in addition to a deduction of a part of their remuneration by the state for their pension. All these persons were able to save small amounts of money from their returns or salaries. These sums were kept in a save place in pots or cashboxes in their dwellings but of course bore no interest. To immure these sums of money or to bury it in the earth was not practicable, because it was necessary to have constant access to these sums, in contrast to large amounts of money or objects of value owned by rich people.
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The Mycenaean economy and the ways the people of the Mycenaean states were organized in it is a fascinating aspect of Greek history. The Mycenaean period of the Late Bronze Age could be seen as a failed early experiment to establish a complex and developed economic organization similar to the economies of the Eastern Mediterranean in Europe, but with no consequence at all for future developments in Greece; or, on the other hand, as the precondition for the first millennium Greek world, both in its institutions and in the specific way of its failure.
This period is no short interlude but rather the last phase of several centuries of economic development on a high level in Crete and in parts of the Greek mainland during the Minoan and Mycenaean cultures. Large parts of the population interacted in many different ways with the palatial administration where they left their traces within the economic records of the Linear B-tablets. In many ways it is quite surprising to see how deep the reach of the state control went with some sections of the economy. Other parts of the economy are not found in the economic record and must have been organized on a much simpler and possibly on a local level.
With the collapse of the Mycenaean states around 1200 BC the economic system fell apart as well. Both the political and the economic system did not recover again as they had done during earlier periods of crisis. The peculiarities of this final collapse left only a few elements of the old system functioning. In turn these would be the roots of the new development of Greek civilization in the early first millennium.


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Numismatists are often asked, how much value a denarius or a sestertius had respectively what one could buy in antiquity with these coins (purchasing power). This issue was adressed in research projects by W. Szaivert and R. Wolters for the literary sources („Löhne, Preise, Werte. Quellen zur römischen Geldwirtschaftchaft“) and by H.-J. Drexhage for the egyptian papyri („Preise, Mieten/Pachten, Kosten und Löhne im Römischen Ägypten“). The current research project „Löhne, Preise und Werte im Römischen Reich: Erschließung der epig-raphischen Überlieferung und Gesamtauswertung” aims to an applicable extent at the compilation of the latin inscriptions containing prices and values until the age of Diocletian. By compiling the inscriptions a research gap is closed and an overall analysis of these three sources is made possible – the second aim of the project.
This project is current (May 2013) still in its early stage: subsequent to the compilation and editing in a data base the inscriptions are analysed including the papyri and literary sources. At the moment there are four research areas defined for the analysis: documention and rep-resentation/mentality (i.a.: what prices and values are mentioned in inscriptions? Do they differ from the ones mentioned in the literary sources and papyri? Are there differences re-garding time, region, social group or type of inscription?), monetization (i.a.: is it possible to make a statement about the level of monetization of the Roman Empire considering specific regions, ages, economic areas and social groups?), trends in prices and coin values (i.a.: is it possible to detect long-term price trends? Is the coin debasement reflected in the different sources and if so, in which way? Which coin values are named and are they limited to specific products and/or mediums and/or times? Do the mentioned coin values mirror the coin finds in specific regions?), rhetoric (i.a.: are there topoi and if so, which ones are found in the differ-ent types of sources? What function do they serve?). (Show less)