Athenian Economy (Classics)

Introduction

As Athens plays a major role in the ancient sources, the Athenian case is often the standard on which general overviews and specific works on the economy of Greek city-states are based. On this account, every discussion of Athenian economy must necessarily refer to the bibliography on Greek economy as a whole. For more than a century said bibliography has been deeply marked by an intense theoretical debate on the nature and fundamental features of ancient economy. At the risk of oversimplifying, one could say that the debate (often referred to as the modernists-versus-primitivists or the formalists-versus-substantivists debate) polarized into two viewpoints: the idea that ancient economy could be described according to the principles of modern economy, the two being different only in terms of degree, not of nature; and the idea that ancient economy was deeply embedded in the social, political, and cultural structures of its time, to such an extent that purely economic and profit-oriented preoccupations and behaviors—such as those typical of a modern economy—were extraneous to the ancient world. Over the last decades the latter viewpoint has come to the forefront thanks to the works of Moses I. Finley, whose influential ideas have defined the “new orthodoxy.” As a result, many studies of ancient Greek and Athenian economy have embraced and developed Finley’s approach and have been delineating a coherent model: Predominance of political and social factors and failure to understand the economic sphere as a separate and autonomous one would have prevented the emergence of a productive mentality at the private level and of economic policies at the public level, with repercussions on the development of agriculture, craft activities, technological progress, trade, credit institutions, financial management, and economic growth in general. Nonetheless, many aspects and fundamental principles of this model have been revised or attacked, and more recently the bibliography has been enriched by studies that question the old parameters of the debate and look for new theoretical approaches, such as that of new institutional economics (NIE). According to this approach, the institutions, intended as the set of legal and social norms governing all social interactions, influence the performance of every economic system. Hence, the assessment of the performance of each specific system (ancient as well as modern) depends on the analysis of the internal logic of the institutions; for example, how they respond to the constraints of the concrete framework where they operate, which transactional costs they produce, how they use the natural resources at their disposal, and so on. From this perspective, the approach of NIE allows one to go beyond the terms of the old debates between primitivists and modernists and between substantivists and formalists. As a result of this renewed interest in the economic sphere and in new methods of analysis, many studies now underline the complexity, dynamism, and rationality of ancient economic phenomena, above all in the spheres of trade, craft industries, and business ventures. Studies on new specific topics and the reconsideration of old ones, as well as the publication of new epigraphic documents and archaeological materials, are contributing to enrich the basis of available data and to extend the range and goals of a research field in constant progress.

General Overviews

A general overview focusing only on Athenian economy does not exist; thus, one must necessarily turn to overview works on ancient economy, which can provide good introductions to the Athenian economy on both the theoretical and the descriptive planes. The renowned exception is Boeckh 1886, the first pioneering study on the public finances of the city of Athens, which took into account all the literary and epigraphic evidence available at the time. It remains the only attempt at a general overview on this subject, and it is widely recognized as the starting point for research on Athenian economy. Finley 1985 (first published in 1973) is the influential book that shaped the so-called new orthodoxy. It reacted to the then-prevailing modernist interpretation of ancient economy, arguing from a substantivist perspective that economic activities and performances were limited by the overriding weight of the value system and the social-political structure on individual and collective behavior. In the late 20th and early 21st centuries the need to go beyond the old primitivist-modernist debate took hold in the bibliography. This is the avowed purpose of Scheidel, et al. 2007, which provides an economic history of the Greco-Roman world, taking into account both the economic performance and the structures of the society (that is, institutions, technology, demography, ideology). Also, Bresson 2007 is an innovative and compelling study that analyzes the structures and dynamics of production and exchange of the Greek city-states, embracing the approach of new institutional economics. Migeotte 2009 offers a comprehensive and concise portrait of the economy of the Greek poleis. Morris 1994 sums up the debate on ancient economy twenty years after the publication of Moses I. Finley’s landmark book with specific attention to the Athenian case, while Nafissi 2005 offers an in-depth guide to the development of Finley’s ideas in the framework of its intellectual relationship with the works of Max Weber and Karl Polanyi.

Boeckh, August. 1886. Die Staatshaushaltung der Athener. Edited by Max Fränkel. Berlin: Reimer.
DOI: 10.1515/9783110841848Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
First edition in 1817, on which the English translation by G. C. Lewis, The Public Economy of Athens (London: Parker, 1842), is based. Accurate treatment of the incomes and expenditures of the Athenian state, including the institutional, legal, and economic aspects. Out of date but still a benchmark work.
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Bresson, Alain. 2007. L’économie de la Grèce des cités. Vol. 1, Les structures et la production. Paris: Armand Colin.
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Continued in Volume 2, Les espaces de l’échange (2008). A thematic but thorough analysis aiming to show the coherent internal logic of the economic system of the Greek city-states, whose degree of performance and capacity to respond to constraints should be judged in their specific historical and institutional context.
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Finley, Moses I. 1985. The ancient economy. 2d ed. Sather Classical Lectures 48. Berkeley: Univ. of California Press.
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First published in 1973. Updated edition with a foreword by Ian Morris published in 1999. For those especially interested in the historiographical debate on ancient economy, this work lays out Finley’s influential ideas that political, social, and cultural constraints played a major role in the economic domain.
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Migeotte, Léopold. 2009. The economy of the Greek cities: From the Archaic period to the early Roman Empire. Berkeley: Univ. of California Press.
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English translation of the second edition of L’économie des cités grecques (Paris: Ellipses, 2007), first published in 2002. A concise and clear overview of the economic activities of the Greek city-states in thematic chapters. Best introduction for undergraduates, also rich with useful observations for expert scholars.
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Morris, Ian. 1994. The Athenian economy twenty years after The ancient economy. Classical Philology 89.4: 351–366.
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Focusing especially on the debate on Athenian economy, Morris maintains that social constraints played a major role in ancient economy but without minimizing the scale of economic performances or denying the role of trade, industry, and banking.
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Nafissi, Mohammad. 2005. Ancient Athens and modern ideology: Value, theory, and evidence in historical sciences; Max Weber, Karl Polanyi, and Moses Finley. Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies 80. London: Institute of Classical Studies, School of Advanced Study, Univ. of London.
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Starting from the so-called oikos (household) debate, the author analyzes the evolving ideas of Weber, Polanyi, and Finley on the ancient economy with particular attention to the influences that the works of Weber and Polanyi exercised on Finley.
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Scheidel, Walter, Ian Morris, and Richard Saller, eds. 2007. The Cambridge economic history of the Greco-Roman world. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press.
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Twenty-eight thematic, chronological, and regional chapters that summarize the state of knowledge and future research perspectives in Greek and Roman economic history. For references to Athenian economy, chapters 10, 12–14, and 17 are particularly relevant, while chapters 2–6 deal with the more general determinant of economic performance in the ancient world.
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Historical Periods

The works in this section provide overviews on the different chronological phases of Athenian economy. As the classical age plays a major role in the ancient sources, the bibliography on Athenian economy is mainly focused on the period roughly extending from the Periclean age until the Lycurgan age, and general overviews as well as studies devoted to specific topics tend inevitably to approach their subjects from the perspective of the classical age. For a general survey of the Athenian economy during the Archaic and Roman ages, one must still refer, respectively, to French 1964 and Day 1973 (first published in 1942). In both cases Bresson 2007 and Scheidel, et al. 2007 (both cited under General Overviews) offer indispensable updates in terms of ancient evidence and methodological approaches. For the Archaic age, Osborne 1996 looks at the pattern of distribution of Athenian Archaic pottery to draw important conclusions on the nature of early Greek economy as already marked by a conglomeration of interdependent markets. Kallet 2007 provides a general survey of the complexity of Athenian economy during the Periclean age. Burke 1992 is interested in the relationship between political dynamics and the onset of market economy between the 5th and 4th centuries BCE. Descat 1987 offers a new interpretation of the alleged crisis of the 4th century BCE. For the Lycurgan era, Faraguna 1992, although not intended as a general overview of the economy, is the reference work for most of the financial and economic issues of the period. See also Burke 1985 (cited under Public Finance and Economy). Oliver 2007 offers a survey of the Athenian economy in the early Hellenistic age. See also Oliver 2007 (cited under Grain Supply and Trade), which more specifically focuses on the city’s responses to the issue of grain supply.

Burke, Edmund M. 1992. The economy of Athens in the classical era: Some adjustments to the primitivist model. Transactions of the American Philological Association 122:199–226.
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The author claims that the movement toward a substantial commercialization of the Athenian economy resulted from the negation of the primacy of land induced by the subsidizing policy of the democratic regime.
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Day, John. 1973. An economic history of Athens under Roman domination. Greek History. New York: Arno.
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First published in 1942. An outdated but still useful outline of all the varied aspects of Athenian economic life from the 3rd century BCE to the 3rd century CE.
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Descat, Raymond. 1987. L’économie d’une cité grecque au IVe siècle av. J.-C.: L’exemple athénien. Revue des Études Anciennes 89.3–4: 239–252.
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Reacting to the idea that in the 4th century BCE the Athenian economy was marked by crisis and failure, the article shows that the polis was successful in fitting its economic system to its own resources.
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Faraguna, Michele. 1992. Atene nell’età di Alessandro: Problemi politici, economici, finanziari. Memorie 9.2.2. Rome: Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei.
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Although mainly aimed at investigating Athenian internal politics from 338 to 323 BCE, the book devotes particular attention to financial and economic topics, such as the administration of the budget, the exploitation of the resource of the polis, and the role of the wealthy elite.
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French, Alfred. 1964. The growth of the Athenian economy. London: Routledge.
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Despite the outdated base of evidence and some controversial approaches to the sources, the book can be considered a guide to the evolution of the Athenian economy between the beginning of the 6th century BCE and the outbreak of the Peloponnesian War.
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Kallet, Lisa. 2007. The Athenian economy. In The Cambridge companion to the age of Pericles. Edited by Loren J. Samons II, 70–95. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press.
DOI: 10.1017/CCOL9780521807937Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
A synthetic outline that takes into account both the domestic and the imperial spheres of Athenian economy and underlines the coexistence of diverse economic behaviors and practices at the turning point of the Periclean age.
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Oliver, Graham J. 2007. Économie et société dans une cite hellénistique: L’exemple d’Athènes au IIIe siècle av. J.-C. Pallas 74:277–291.
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The author deals with the interrelated topics of agricultural production, trade, and the evolution of civic institutions in the troubled political scenario of the 3rd century BCE.
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Osborne, Robin. 1996. Pots, trade, and the Archaic Greek economy. Antiquity 70.267: 31–44.
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The author argues that the distribution of Archaic Athenian pots all around the Mediterranean implies the existence of a regular and dense network of direct trading between Athens and a large number of foreign markets, with consequences for the interpretation of the dynamics of the exchanges and productive activities.
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Sources

The study of Athenian economy is based on different categories of sources, ranging from literature to epigraphy to numismatics and archaeology. Among the literary sources, some ancient authors can be cited who dealt directly with some aspects of Athenian economy or whose discussion of more general economic themes developed within the historical and political framework of the Athenian polis. Modern works concerning these authors are gathered in the first part of this section, Ancient Economic Literature. The works gathered in the second part, Other Literary Sources, collect and discuss pieces of ancient literature that, without dealing specifically with economic themes, still offer useful insights into Athenian economic mentality and practices. The weight and relevance of nonliterary sources in the study of Athenian economy is ever wider and increasing, thanks to the edition and revision of new and old inscriptions (decrees, treaties, inventories, accounts, contracts, etc.), new archaeological surveys and excavations, and the discovery, analysis, and publication of various materials (coins, pots, metals, etc.). As this kind of evidence concerns more directly individual sectors and topics of the Athenian economy, the reader will find the relevant references in each specific section of this bibliography.

Ancient Economic Literature

Gauthier 1976 is the reference commentary of Xenophon’s Poroi, the only remaining work of ancient literature discussing a financial and economic program specifically aimed at the Athenian situation of the 4th century BCE. Schütrumpf 1982 proposes a new interpretation of Xenophon’s program, while Gauthier 1984 reasserts its previous interpretation and responds to the issues raised in Schütrumpf 1982. Pomeroy 1994 is a commentary of Xenophon’s Oeconomicus, a Socratic dialogue concerning the management of an agrarian estate set in Athens in the 5th century BCE. For Aristotle’s reflections on the circulation and exchange of commodities developed in the Athenian context of the 4th century BCE, one can refer to the extensive treatment in Meikle 1995. Faraguna 1994 discusses Aristotle’s economic thought against the background of his time and in the context of previous economic reflections. Even if Athenian anecdotes play only a minor role among the financial stratagems of the second book of the pseudo-Aristotle’s Oikonomikos, the text is frequently used as a valuable source for fiscal measures and financial practices: The preferred reference commentary is still van Groningen 1933. As for Plato, one can refer to Danzig and Schaps 2001 to consider some of the features of the ideal city of the Laws against the Athenian economic background of the 4th century BCE. For an analysis of Aristotelian and Platonic reflections on the craft sector, see Longo 1987 (cited under Craft Industries).

Danzig, Gabriel, and David Schaps. 2001. The economy: What Plato saw and what he wanted. In Plato’s Laws and its historical significance: Selected papers of the First International Congress on Ancient Thought, Salamanca, 1998. Edited by Francesco L. Lisi, 143–147. Sankt Augustin, Germany: Akademia Verlag.
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Rejecting the “primitivist” perspective, the article claims that Plato, despite his distaste for market, retail trade, and money making, subsumed these features into his ideal city and never proposed a real alternative, thus revealing to what extent they were deeply rooted in Athenian society and mentality.
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Faraguna, Michele. 1994. Alle origini dell’oikonomia: Dall’anonimo di Giamblico ad Aristotele. Rendiconti dell’Accademia dei Lincei 9.5: 551–589.
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While challenging the minimizing viewpoints on Greek economic literature, the article analyzes the positions of ancient authors of the 5th and 4th centuries BCE on economic matters and interprets the development of Greek economic literature as a response to the evolving economic scenario of the time.
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Gauthier, Philippe. 1976. Un commentaire historique des Poroi de Xénophon. Hautes Études du Monde Gréco-Romain 8. Geneva, Switzerland: Droz.
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Although without Greek text and translation, the book provides a line-by-line extensive commentary of Xenophon’s work, mainly focused on historical, social, and economic issues; several additional paragraphs are devoted to in-depth analysis of specific topics. The approach owes much to the Finleyan model.
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Gauthier, Philippe. 1984. Le programme de Xénophon dans les Poroi. Revue de Philologie, de Littérature et d’Histoire Anciennes 58.2: 181–199.
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Rejecting the interpretation of the Poroi as aimed at political reforms, the article argues that Xenophon aimed to increase Athenian public incomes to allow the regular running of the democratic institutions and relieve the wealthy elite from their financial obligations toward the community.
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Meikle, Scott. 1995. Aristotle’s economic thought. Oxford: Clarendon.
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The book provides an in-depth analysis of Nichomachean Ethics 5.5 and Politics 1.8–10. Albeit placing Aristotle’s inquiries in the domain of ethics and metaphysics rather than of economics, the author analyzes and stresses the importance of Aristotle’s contribution to modern economic thought.
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Pomeroy, Sarah B. 1994. Xenophon’s Oeconomicus: A social and historical commentary. Oxford: Clarendon.
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Greek text, English translation, and line-by-line commentary of Xenophon’s work with introductory thematic chapters focused on specific relevant topics, such as family composition and domestic economy.
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Schütrumpf, Eckart. 1982. Vorschläge zur Beschaffung von Geldmitteln oder Über die Staatseinkünfte. Texte zur Forschung 38. Darmstadt, Germany: Wissentschaftliche Buchgesellschaft.
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Greek text, German translation, and commentary of Xenophon’s Poroi. The introduction is devoted to the author’s interpretation, according to which Xenophon’s financial propositions aimed at a political reform by discouraging democratic participation and increasing the power of the wealthy elite.
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van Groningen, Bernhard A. 1933. Aristote: Le second livre de l’Économique. Leiden, The Netherlands: Sijthoff.
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Introductive essays, Greek text, and line-by-line commentary of the second book of Aristotle’s Oikonomikos. Outdated but still the preferred reference guide to the text.
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Other Literary Sources

Austin and Vidal-Naquet 1977 is the only anthology of Greek sources dealing with economic topics and is still a standard reference book. Kallet-Marx 1993 and Kallet 2001 are fundamental studies for understanding the interest of Thucydides in financial matters and his original viewpoint on the relationship between money and power. Even if primarily dealing with the democratic form of government and its implications, the pamphlet of the so-called Old Oligarch (reedited as Marr and Rhodes 2008) offers firsthand and penetrating insights into the economic dynamics of the Athenian Empire. Spielvogel 2001 deals with the comedies of Aristophanes as a reliable source of evidence for contemporary economic concerns in the private and public spheres. Isager and Hansen 1975 is a useful analysis of social and economic topics raised by some Demosthenic orations. Vannier 1988 is concerned mainly with the opinions expressed by ancient authors of the 5th and 4th centuries BCE on the role of private wealth in contemporary Athens.

Austin, Michel M., and Pierre Vidal-Naquet. 1977. Economic and social history of ancient Greece: An introduction. Berkeley: Univ. of California Press.
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Even if the introduction is a bit out of date, the second part offers an invaluable thematic collection of translated literary and epigraphic sources particularly useful for undergraduates. Section 2.5 is devoted to Athenian economy.
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Isager, Signe, and Mogens H. Hansen. 1975. Aspects of Athenian society in the fourth century B.C. Odense, Denmark: Odense Univ. Press.
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The work combines the commentary of eight private speeches of the Demosthenic corpus with a general survey of legal and economic history of the Athenian society of the 4th century BCE with a particular concern for foreign trade. Especially intended for undergraduates.
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Kallet, Lisa. 2001. Money and the corrosion of power in Thucydides: The Sicilian expedition and its aftermath. Joan Palevsky Imprint in Classical Literature. Berkeley: Univ. of California Press.
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The author examines the role of money in the second part of Thucydides’ work and concludes that while money was previously seen as the positive engine of Athenian power, it ended up as the instrument that dissolved the same power as a result of individual and public misuse.
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Kallet-Marx, Lisa. 1993. Money, expense, and naval power in Thucydides’ History 1–5.24. Berkeley: Univ. of California Press.
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The author examines Thucydides’ comments on financial matters in the first part of his work, revealing to what extent the role of financial resources is central to his ideas about naval power and imperialism.
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Marr, John L., and Peter J. Rhodes, eds. 2008. The “Old Oligarch”: The constitution of the Athenians attributed to Xenophon. Classical Texts. Oxford: Aris and Phillips.
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Greek text, English translation, and line-by-line commentary of one of the most intriguing pieces of ancient literature, where the reflection on the Athenian political system is strictly intertwined with social and economic observations.
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Spielvogel, Jörg. 2001. Wirtschaft und Geld bei Aristophanes: Untersuchungen zu den ökonomische Bedingungen in Athen im Übergang vom 5. zum 4. Jh. v. Chr. Frankfurter althistorische Beiträge 8. Frankfurt: Buchverlag Marthe Clauss.
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The book analyzes the statements of Aristophanes about private wealth, public finance, and trade as a means to penetrate—apart from all comic exaggeration—Athenian economic conditions between the 5th and the 4th centuries BCE.
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Vannier, François. 1988. Finances publiques et richesses privées dans le discours athénien aux Ve et IVe siècles. Centre de Recherches d’Histoire Ancienne 75. Paris: Les Belles Lettres.
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The book reviews the development of the Athenian political and intellectual debate on the relationship between private wealth and public finance through the 5th and 4th centuries BCE, underlining the growing importance of the wealthy class’s perspective in the debate.
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Demography

Economic dynamics are influenced in many ways by demographic change and so the size, structure, and development of the population are extremely relevant factors for the study of Athenian economy. Even though most of the works mentioned in this section focus on the political implications of demographic surveys, their results have important repercussions also for the study of certain economic phenomena. The clearest example is the relevance of the demographic factor for evaluating the dependence of Attica on imported food, with consequences for the study of Athenian agriculture and the Athenian grain trade. For the use of demographic data in this particular respect, see Jardé 1979, Garnsey 1988, and Moreno 2007 (all cited under Agricultural Products and Alimentation). As the number of slaves is one of the most serious cruxes of Athenian demography, the topic is debated in almost all the works cited in this section; still, the most thorough study remains Sargent 1973 (first published in 1924). Gomme 1967 (first published in 1933) is the traditional work on the size of the Athenian population; its discussion of the evidence, although outdated, is still relevant to the subsequent bibliography. The most influential work on Athenian demography is considered to be Hansen 1985, the primary concern of which is the number of adult male citizens in the 4th century BCE. As far as Athenian demography is concerned, Mogens H. Hansen was the first to claim the use of model life tables to assess the demographic structure of the Athenian population instead of the analogy with more recent population statistics. Hansen 1988 extends the study to the total population of Attica and reacts strongly against the tendency to underestimate the size of the population, represented, among others, by Ruschenbusch 1999. Sallares 1991 represents a demographic study in which the approach is based not only on written sources, but also on archaeological surveys, the study of human bones, and environmental factors. Akrigg 2011 deals with the history of the methodological issues concerning Athenian demography and calls for future research to pay more attention to dynamics and changes in the size and structure of the population.

Akrigg, Ben. 2011. Demography and classical Athens. In Demography and the Graeco-Roman world: New insights and approaches. Edited by Claire Holleran and April Pudsey, 37–59. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press.
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Discussing the importance of Hansen’s work within its scientific context, the author reaffirms the soundness of his quantitative conclusions but underlines the weakness of Hansen’s “static” model in representing the age structure of classical Athens.
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Gomme, Arnold W. 1967. The population of Athens in the fifth and fourth centuries B.C. Chicago: Argonaut.
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First published in 1933. The author relies mainly on ancient evidence concerning the military strength of Athens to propose an indicative estimate of both the number of adult male citizens and the size of the total population of Attica.
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Hansen, Mogens H. 1985. Demography and democracy: The number of Athenian citizens in the fourth century B.C. Herning, Denmark: Systime.
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Through a discussion of methodological issues and a careful reexamination of the relevant sources, the author rejects the tendency to underestimate the number of Athenian citizens in the 4th century BCE.
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Hansen, Mogens H. 1988. Three studies in Athenian demography. Historisk-filosofiske Meddelelser 56. Copenhagen: Munksgaard.
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A collection of three articles that support higher figures for the size of Athenian population in the 5th and 4th centuries BCE—figures more consistent with the large political participation and the huge dependence on imported grain attested in the ancient sources.
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Ruschenbusch, Eberhard. 1999. La démographie d’Athènes au IVème siècle av. J.-C. Paper presented at the Premier Colloque International de Démographie Historique Antique, November 1999, in Arras, France. In La démographie historique antique. Edited by Martine Bellancourt-Valdher and Jean-Nicholas Corvisier, 91–95. Cahiers Scientifiques de l’Université d’Artois 11. Arras, France: Artois Presses Université.
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Stressing the tendency for age classes to fluctuate, the author defends a lower figure for the number of Athenian citizens in the 4th century BCE with the support of the comparative method and modern statistics.
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Sallares, Robert. 1991. The ecology of the ancient world. London: Duckworth.
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Despite its title, the book deals mainly with the relationship between demography and production capacity in classical Attica, taking into account not only the size of the population, but also life expectancy, diseases, family structures, and age class systems.
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Sargent, Rachel. 1973. The size of the slave population at Athens during the fifth and fourth centuries before Christ. Westport, CT: Greenwood.
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Reprint of the 1924 edition of the author’s doctoral thesis, University of Illinois, 1923. Giving credit to the data attested in the ancient sources, the author concludes that the number of slaves varied considerably at different periods and was in direct relation to the size of the free population and the general economic conditions.
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The World of Agriculture

This section includes works that—although with different approaches and purposes—all deal with agricultural life and practices. Isager and Skydsgaard 1992 and Burford 1993 are general introductions to ancient Greek agriculture in which the Athenian case plays, as usual, a major role; they both range from technical aspects to social, legal, and religious issues. For agricultural technology one can refer also to Amouretti 1986 (cited under Agricultural Products and Alimentation). Sallares 1991 pairs the study of ancient demography with an analysis of production capacity, regarding in particular the grain supply of Attica. A similar approach can be found in other works dealing with cereal production and supply, such as Jardé 1979, Garnsey 1988, and Moreno 2007 (all cited under Agricultural Products and Alimentation). While dealing with the impact of warfare on agriculture—especially with the Spartan invasions of Attica—Hanson 1998 draws important conclusions on the nature of ancient agricultural practices. Gallant 1991, a controversial book in which the primary concern is the risk-management strategies developed by Greek households to cope with food crises, approaches agricultural practices from its own particular perspective. Focusing primarily on agrarian economies of the Hellenistic age, Chandezon 2011 ascribes the development of the larger and more complex agrarian enterprises of the Hellenistic time to forms of estate management already introduced in the 5th century BCE in Athens. Looking at the ideological aspects of the world of agriculture, Hanson 1999 offers a reconstruction of the lifestyle and values of independent farmers as the core class of Greek poleis with an eye both to the singularity of the Athenian case and to the contradictions of our contemporary society.

Burford, Alison. 1993. Land and labor in the Greek world. Ancient Society and History. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Univ. Press.
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Dealing with ownership and cultivation of land and with the nature of agricultural work and the use of different forms of labor, the author detects no significant changes in land tenure and agricultural practices over the long period.
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Chandezon, Christophe. 2011. Some aspects of large estate management in the Greek world during classical and Hellenistic times. In The economies of Hellenistic societies, third to first centuries BC. Edited by Zofia Archibald, John K. Davies, and Vincent Gabrielsen, 96–121. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.
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Refusing to see agriculture as an unchanging and backward-looking practice, the author argues that advanced practices, such as the emergence of managers, the recourse to complex accounting systems, and the interaction with the market, must be already ascribed to large Athenian estates of the classical age.
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Gallant, Thomas W. 1991. Risk and survival in ancient Greece: Reconstructing the rural domestic economy. Stanford, CA: Stanford Univ. Press.
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The book discusses, as part of the survival strategies developed by Greek households to respond to changing environmental and economic conditions, the adaptive measures of peasant agricultural systems, such as crop diversification, fragmentation of landholding, and irrigation.
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Hanson, Victor D. 1998. Warfare and agriculture in classical Greece. Berkeley: Univ. of California Press.
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First published in 1983. Rejecting the idea that wars and invasions produced permanent or long-term devastation on cultivated land, the author maintains that the productivity and efficiency of ancient agriculture were the result of labor intensification, not of investment in technology.
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Hanson, Victor D. 1999. The other Greeks: The family farm and the agrarian roots of Western civilization. 2d ed. Berkeley: Univ. of California Press.
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First published in 1995. The author sees Athens as the final evolution of the Greek polis, where radical democracy, market economy, and imperialism constitute the refutation of the traditional values of the agrarian city-states—the actual driving force of Greek political, economic, and military development between c. 700 and 300 BCE.
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Isager, Signe, and Jens E. Skydsgaard. 1992. Ancient Greek agriculture: An introduction. London: Routledge.
DOI: 10.4324/9780203294901Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
The book deals with farming systems, agrarian tools, and types of products as well as with the place of agriculture within the political and religious sphere, claiming the rather primitive nature of Greek agriculture.
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Sallares, Robert. 1991. The ecology of the ancient world. London: Duckworth.
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Despite its title, the book deals with the demographic development and the grain supply of Attica. Many other relevant topics are covered in the course of the main discussions; the subject index will be particularly useful to help the reader locate them.
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Pattern of Rural Settlement

In the late 20th and early 21st centuries the pattern of rural settlement in classical Attica has been a much-debated topic. Claiming the predominance of the political factor in shaping the settlement pattern of Attica, Osborne 1985 maintains that dispersed settlement did not exist and that nucleated villages were the general rule. In contrast, Lohmann 1992 argues that in the southwestern part of Attica isolated farms prevailed. This summary article is based on an archaeological survey concerning the territory of the deme Atene, whose results are extensively presented in Lohmann 1993, an influential case study that has gained the value of a general model. Brunet 1992 reasserts the incidence of environmental conditions in shaping the residential structure and defends a more variegated settlement pattern. Langdon 1991 claims that the prevalence of country villages did not exclude the contemporary existence of isolated and dispersed farms. Jones 2004 focuses mainly on the analysis of epigraphic sources and maintains that there is no clear evidence of residence in nucleated centers in the Athenian country.

Brunet, Michèle. 1992. Campagnes de la Grèce antique: Les dangers du prisme athénien. Topoi: Orient-Occident 2:33–51.
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Rejecting the idea that the Athenian case could be representative of all Greece, the author claims that environmental conditions and agricultural practices were essential in shaping the specific settlement pattern of each region within and outside Attica.
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Jones, Nicholas F. 2004. Rural Athens under the democracy. Philadelphia: Univ. of Pennsylvania Press.
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Although the book is devoted to the distinctive character of rural Athens as opposed to urban society and culture, the first chapter deals with the pattern of rural settlement through the analysis of the epigraphic evidence, in particular security horoi.
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Langdon, Merle. 1991. On the farm in classical Attica. Classical Journal 86.3: 209–213.
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Although admitting the prevalence of country villages and the importance of local political and social activities in their development, the author reasserts the evidence for dispersed settlement in classical Attica.
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Lohmann, Hans. 1992. Agriculture and country life in classical Attica. In Agriculture in ancient Greece: Proceedings of the seventh international symposium at the Swedish Institute at Athens, 16–17 May 1990. Edited by Berit Wells, 29–57. Skrifter Utgivna av Svenska Instituet i Athen. Stockholm: Svenska Institutet i Athen.
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On the basis of an archaeological survey, the article reveals that the settlement pattern of the deme of Atene was characterized by an almost complete dispersion, with a good number of classical farmsteads and no deme center.
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Lohmann, Hans. 1993. Atene—Ἀτήνη: Forschungen zu Siedlungs- und Wirtschaftsstruktur des klassischen Attika. 2 vols. Cologne: Böhlau Verlag.
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The first volume presents the results of the archaeological survey of the deme of Atene, ranging from the final Neolithic to the modern period, and outlines the history of settlement in South Attica; the second volume contains a catalogue of find spots with iconographic apparatus.
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Osborne, Robin. 1985. Demos: The discovery of classical Attika. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press.
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Taking into account the essential role of demes in the political organization of Attica, the author argues that the importance of local political life and relations was the major driving force in shaping the nucleated settlement pattern of classical Attica.
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Types of Rural Properties and Methods of Exploitation

The distribution of landed property and the nature of agricultural labor are topics frequently interrelated in modern bibliography, and the different interpretations are usually associated with different viewpoints on the nature and composition of Athenian society. Andrejev 1974 argues the prevalence of small-scale landowners in Attica between the 5th and the 3rd centuries BCE. On the same line, Wood 1988 claims that the political and economic preeminence in Athenian democracy must be ascribed to self-sufficient smallholders working their own land without slaves. Conversely, Foxhall 1992 rejects the idea of Athens as a “peasant democracy” and maintains that the pattern of land distribution is not consistent with a political predominance of smallholders. Jameson 1992 defends a prevailing pattern of independent farmers characterized not as smallholders but as members of the hoplite class working their own land intensively with the help of slaves. As a complement to this idea, Jameson 2002 underlines a particular aspect of intensive agriculture. According to Hanson 1992, the fact that Athenian farmers commonly owned and employed slaves cannot be denied but does not imply—as Ellen M. Wood feared—a reassessment of their economic and political role within the structure of the society. For the debate, see also Jameson 1977–1978 and Wood 1983 (both cited under Economic Significance of Slavery). As far as the management of large estates is concerned, one can refer to Chandezon 2011 (cited under The World of Agriculture). The topic of nonprivate land, both sacred and secular, is extensively covered in Papazarkadas 2011.

Andrejev, V. N. 1974. Some aspects of agrarian conditions in Attica in the fifth to the third centuries B.C. Eirene 12:5–46.
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The article deals with the trend of land distribution and claims that expropriation of smallholders and concentration of land were not an extensive phenomenon in 4th-century BCE Attica, where also the leasing of public land benefited mainly the lesser peasants.
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Foxhall, Lin. 1992. The control of Attic landscape. In Agriculture in ancient Greece: Proceedings of the seventh international symposium at the Swedish Institute at Athens, 16–17 May 1990. Edited by Berit Wells, 155–159. Skrifter Utgivna av Svenska Instituet i Athen. Stockholm: Svenska Institutet i Athen.
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Using statistical calculations, the author argues that the ownership of nearly half of the agrarian land in Attica was concentrated in the hands of around 9 percent of the population, thus denying that the large number of Athenian smallholders controlled most of the land and political power.
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Hanson, Victor D. 1992. Thucydides and the desertion of Attic slaves during the Decelean War. Classical Antiquity 11.2: 210–228.
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The article points out that Thucydides’ account of the loss of Attic slaves during the Spartan occupation of Decelea implies that every farmer owned at least one slave, in accordance with the intensive nature of Athenian agriculture.
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Jameson, Michael H. 1992. Agricultural labor in ancient Greece. In Agriculture in ancient Greece: Proceedings of the seventh international symposium at the Swedish Institute at Athens, 16–17 May 1990. Edited by Berit Wells, 135–146. Skrifter Utgivna av Svenska Instituet i Athen. Stockholm: Svenska Institutet i Athen.
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Focusing on the nature of Athenian agricultural labor, the author claims that the bulk of Athenian farmers worked their own land intensively, assisted by their own slaves and generally living above the subsistence level.
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Jameson, Michael H. 2002. Attic eschatia. In Ancient history matters: Studies presented to Jens Erik Skydsgaard on his seventieth birthday. Edited by Karen Ascani and Vincent Gabrielsen, 63–68. Analecta Romana Instituti Danici 30. Rome: L’Erma di Bretschneider.
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Discussing the Attic usage of the term eschatia as referring to areas at the limit of cultivated land, often on the lower slopes of hills and mountains, the article shows to what extent terracing was unavoidable in Antiquity for intensifying agricultural exploitation.
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Papazarkadas, Nikolaos. 2011. Sacred and public land in ancient Athens. Oxford Classical Monographs. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.
DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199694006.001.0001Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
The book presents exhaustively the ancient evidence concerning sacred and secular properties, deals with the administration of such properties by the collectivities that controlled them (polis, civic units, religious associations), and provides a socioeconomic profile of the individuals involved in land leasing.
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Wood, Ellen M. 1988. Peasant-citizen and slave: The foundations of Athenian democracy. London: Verso.
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Reacting against the idea of Athens as a slave society, Wood minimizes the importance of slavery in agricultural production and puts at the core of Athenian democracy the class of free, small, and self-sufficient farmers.
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Transactions Involving Land

This section provides a survey of the different forms of financial, economic, and legal transactions involving land, and of the most important sources for the study of this topic. Finley 1985 (first published in 1951) is still the preferred reference study on security horoi and explores the legal and socioeconomic aspects of the relationship between land and credit. Pritchett 1953, on the stelae recording the public sale of the confiscated properties of the profaners of Mysteries and herms, is a mine of information on the nature and value of real properties and on their complements (slaves, livestock, furniture, etc.). On the sale of public land, one must refer to Lambert 1997, which focuses on a specific episode in the 4th century BCE and its related sources. As far as leases are concerned, Walbank 1983 deals with the leasing of sacred land through the study of inscriptions of the 4th century BCE, while Osborne 1988 discusses, from a more general perspective, the economic relevance and social conservatism of the lease of public and private land. Albeit restricted to inscriptions coming from the Agora, Lalonde, et al. 1991 offers important updates, overviews, and discussions on security horoi, sale of confiscated properties, and leasing of public land. For the administration of sacred and public properties by the collectivities that controlled them, see Papazarkadas 2011 (cited under Types of Rural Properties and Methods of Exploitation). As for official records of land transactions, Faraguna 1997 rejects Moses I. Finley’s idea that official records of private properties did not exist in Athens and claims that demes were probably responsible for keeping track of real estate situations for administrative and fiscal reasons. For a study of the pattern of private investment in public land leases and in loans recorded in the horoi, see Shipton 2000 (cited under Economic Attitude).

Faraguna, Michele. 1997. Registrazioni catastali nel mondo greco: Il caso di Atene. Athenaeum 85.1: 7–33.
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On the basis of a thorough study of the relevant sources, the author argues that in Athens the absence of a central cadastral register was counterbalanced by the existence of official records of property holdings under the responsibility of the demes.
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Finley, Moses I. 1985. Studies in land and credit in ancient Athens, 500–200 B.C.: The Horos inscriptions. Social Science Classics. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction.
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First published in 1951. An insightful study dealing with the function of the horoi, the nature of the security transactions, and the types of properties and parties involved; appendix with Greek texts of the inscriptions. The 1985 edition has an update by Paul Millett.
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Lalonde, Gerald V., Merle K. Langdon, and Michael B. Walbank. 1991. The Athenian Agora: Results of excavations conducted by the American School of Classical Studies at Athens. Vol. 19, Inscriptions: Horoi, poletai records, leases of public lands. Princeton, NJ: American School of Classical Studies at Athens.
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The volume presents the edition and commentary of three categories of inscriptions coming from the Agora excavations, all somehow related to transactions involving land. General essays on each category introduce the three topics of the volume.
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Lambert, Stephen D. 1997. Rationes centesimarum: Sales of public land in Lykourgan Athens. Archaia Hellas 3. Amsterdam: Gieben.
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Edition, epigraphic commentary, and interpretative study of the stelae recording a centrally organized sale of public land by several different corporate groups and the payment of a 1 percent tax on the proceeds of sale.
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Osborne, Robin. 1988. Social and economic implications of the leasing of land and property in classical and Hellenistic Greece. Chiron 18:279–323.
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The case study of Athens reveals that the leasing of public and private land was an economically relevant phenomenon that offered additional resources to those already well founded on property and was devoid of any social concern.
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Pritchett, William K. 1953. The Attic stelai: Part I. Hesperia 22.4: 225–299.
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Continued in Part 2, Hesperia 25.3: 178–328 (1956). The first part contains the edition and epigraphic commentary of the stelae; the second part discusses in detail, with comparative material and economic considerations, the prices of the confiscated properties whose sale is recorded on the stelae.
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Walbank, Michael B. 1983. Leases of sacred properties in Attica, Part I. Hesperia 52.1: 100–135.
DOI: 10.2307/147741Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Continued in four parts in subsequent issues of the journal. The first three parts contain the edition and epigraphic commentary of the stelae recording the lease of properties owned by several different Attic cults during the era of Eubulus and Lycurgus, while the fourth part is a detailed study of the economic, legal, and historical issues raised by the interpretation of the texts.
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Agricultural Products and Alimentation

As the production and supply of cereal was a central topic in Athenian economy and politics, its importance is clearly visible also in modern bibliography. Dealing with the gap between cereal production and consumption, Jardé 1979 presents the traditional view that Athens was heavily dependent on imported grain during the classical age. Garnsey 1988 reacts to this idea, stating that the productive capacity of Attica has been underrated and its dependence on foreign imports exaggerated. See also Sallares 1991 (cited under The World of Agriculture) for a similar view. Moreno 2007 returns to the idea that local resources were inadequate to feed the Attic population and imports from overseas sources were essential for maintaining an adequate grain supply. For other products, one must refer to more general works in which the Athenian case plays as usual a major role. On the cultivation of cereals and olives and the production of bread and oil, the preferred reference study is Amouretti 1986. Brun 2003 covers the process of production, trade, and consumption of wine and oil in the Mediterranean world, and Foxhall 2007 deals with the place of olive cultivation within the cultural and agricultural systems of classical Greece. Gallo 1999 underlines the important role of leguminous plants in Greek agriculture and diet.

Amouretti, Marie-Claire. 1986. Le pain et l’huile dans la Grèce antique: De l’araire au moulin. Annales Littéraires de l’Université de Besançon 328. Paris: Les Belles Lettres.
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Taking into account all the categories of sources, the author deals with the cultivation and processing of cereals and olives, covering the range of topics from the botanical aspects to the history of technology and the role of manpower.
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Brun, Jean-Pierre. 2003. Le vin et l’huile dans la Méditerranée antique: Viticulture, oléiculture et procédés de transformation. Collection des Hespérides. Paris: Errance.
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A detailed outline of the technical aspects of the production, trade, and consumption of wine and oil in the Mediterranean world with a particular focus on the archaeological remains of oil and wine processing installations. Useful iconographic apparatus.
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Foxhall, Lin. 2007. Olive cultivation in ancient Greece: Seeking the ancient economy. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.
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The book ranges from the symbolic significance of the olive and the social and cultural values attached to its cultivation to agricultural practices and technology and to the place of olive cultivation in Greek economy.
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Gallo, Luigi. 1999. Il ruolo delle leguminose nell’agricoltura e nell’alimentazione del mondo Greco. In Demografia, sistemi agrari, regimi alimentari nel mondo antico: Atti del convegno internazionale di studi, Parma, 17–19 ottobre 1997. Edited by Domenico Vera, 117–129. Pragmateiai 3. Bari, Italy: Edipuglia.
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The article argues that, in spite of their reputation as humble food for the lower classes, leguminous plants were widely cultivated as an alternative to simple fallow and as a dietary resource in case of food crisis.
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Garnsey, Peter. 1988. Famine and food supply in the Graeco-Roman world: Responses to risk and crisis. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press.
DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511583827Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Dealing with the incidence of food crises in Antiquity, the author claims that these crises were common only during the 4th century BCE, when communities had to depend chronically on imports to survive. Part 3 is entirely devoted to the Athenian case.
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Jardé, Auguste. 1979. Les céréales dans l’Antiquité grecque: La production. Paris: De Boccard.
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First published in 1925. Originally intended as an introduction to a future study on the international grain trade in ancient Greece, the book deals with the amount and productiveness of cultivated land in Attica, agricultural techniques, and cereal consumption.
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Moreno, Alfonso. 2007. Feeding the democracy: The Athenian grain supply in the fifth and fourth centuries BC. Oxford Classical Monographs. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.
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The book is focused mainly on the history of the Athenian grain supply and its relationship with democracy and argues that the grain supply was controlled by powerful elites whose personal interests were concealed behind the democratic ideology linked to grain supply strategies.
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Animal Breeding, Hunting, and Fishing

Albeit assuming a more general perspective, the works in this section are essential guides to important sectors of Athenian economy. On animal breeding, one can refer to Hodkinson 1988, which reacts to the traditional idea that animal husbandry conflicted with arable farming and argues for a more pronounced integration, with variations depending on regions and periods. On the same line, see also Chandezon 2003, which places Attica, along with the Cyclades and the southern part of Ionia, in a regional unity where animal breeding was less significant but more closely associated with agriculture. Hodkinson 1992 deals with the development of the market of pastoral products in Athens in connection with the peculiar character of the political regime. As for beekeeping, one can refer to Balandier 2004. Longo 1989 deals with hunting and fishing practices and argues for their limited contribution to the productive sphere. On the other hand, Bekker-Nielsen 2002 asserts the importance of fishing and fish processing and the role of fresh and salted fish in the ancient economy and diet. The same viewpoint is shared by Mylona 2008, which offers a guide to the debate on the role of fish and fishing in the Greek world and tackles the subject with an original methodology by merging different types of evidence and approaches. For the important role of salt in the preservation of fish and meat and for its relationships with animal breeding and fishing, one can refer to Carusi 2008.

Balandier, Claire. 2004. La production du miel dans l’économie gréco-romaine. Pallas 64:183–196.
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The article surveys the production, trade, and taxation of honey in Antiquity and claims its economic significance as a source of profit—at different levels—for peasants, large landowners, and states.
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Bekker-Nielsen, Tønnes. 2002. Fish in the ancient economy. In Ancient history matters: Studies presented to Jens Erik Skydsgaard on his seventieth birthday. Edited by Karen Ascani and Vincent Gabrielsen, 29–37. Analecta Romana Instituti Danici 30. Rome: L’Erma di Bretschneider.
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The author deals with fishing practices, production of salted fish, and consumption of fresh and salted fish and distinguishes the humble social status of fishermen and fishmongers from the role played by fish in the ancient economy and diet.
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Carusi, Cristina. 2008. Il sale nel mondo Greco (VI a.C.–III d.C.): Luoghi di produzione, circolazione commerciale, regimi di sfruttamento nel contesto del Mediterraneo antico. Pragmateiai 15. Bari, Italy: Edipuglia.
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After an introductive chapter on the uses of salt and methods of production, the book provides a catalogue of the sites of production attested in the ancient sources and deals with all the issues related to salt trade and legal status of the resources. Specific paragraphs concern the Athenian case study.
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Chandezon, Christophe. 2003. L’élevage en Grèce (fin Ve–fin Ier s. a.C.): L’apport de sources épigraphiques. Scripta Antiqua 5. Bordeaux, France: Ausonius.
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A collection of epigraphic sources and a thorough study of the relationship between agriculture and animal breeding and the fiscal and diplomatic implications of pasturage.
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Hodkinson, Stephen. 1988. Animal husbandry in the Greek polis. Paper presented at the Ninth International Economic History Congress at Bern, August 1986. In Pastoral economies in classical Antiquity. Edited by Charles R. Whittaker, 35–74. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Philological Society.
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The article explores the place of animal husbandry in Greek agriculture and underlines its importance in providing subsistence and surplus; in the Athenian case it advocates the integration of small-scale breeding and mixed agriculture.
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Hodkinson, Stephen. 1992. Imperial democracy and market-oriented pastoral production in classical Athens. Anthropozoologica 16:53–61.
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The author claims that wealthy Athenians, burdened by financial obligations toward the city, obtained extra cash through the rearing of livestock for the production of cheese and wool for the urban market and for the provision of victims for public sacrifices.
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Longo, Oddone. 1989. Le forme della predazione: Cacciatori e pescatori nella Grecia antica. Forme, Materiali e Ideologie del Mondo Antico 28. Naples, Italy: Liguori Editore.
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The author deals mainly with the cultural and social role of hunting practices and observes that those specifically directed to production, such as fishing and fowling, enjoyed a poor reputation, while hunting was considered an aristocratic activity extraneous to productive concerns.
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Mylona, Dimitra. 2008. Fish-eating in Greece from the fifth century B.C. to the seventh century A.D.: A story of impoverished fishermen or luxurious fish banquets? BAR International Series 1754. Oxford: Archeopress.
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The book is mainly concerned with the role of fish eating in various aspects of life, including the economic sphere. Particularly interesting are the chapters devoted to the productive potential of the Greek waters and to the distribution and marketing of fresh and salted fish.
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Craft Industries

Although specifically devoted to the position of craftspeople in ancient society, Burford 1972 serves as a general introduction to Greek and Athenian craft industries. Its argument that craft industry was characterized by a low level of complexity and technology is influenced by Finley 1985 (first published in 1973; cited under General Overviews). The same approach is adopted also in Bettalli 1985, which reassesses the size and significance of Attic shops and ergasteria along these lines. Conversely, Stanley 1990 proposes a more complex scenario and underlines the economic significance of Attic ergasteria. The nature of technical specialization in Athens is the focus of Harris 2002: As the low level of technology and vertical specialization made huge financial investments and sophisticated account methods unnecessary to run a workshop, the author claims that the economic potential and rationality of ancient enterprises cannot be underestimated if examined in their proper historical context. On the same line Acton 2014 uses analytical techniques of contemporary business economies to establish what factors determined the nature and size of each sector of manufacturing in classical Athens and explain why and how individual craftsmen, small workshops, cooperative production arrangements, and large factories could coexist according to the different characteristics of each sector. As for the contribution of ancient sources, Longo 1987 focuses on philosophical literature and the ideological constraints it has often imposed on the historical analysis of craft industries, while Sanidas 2013 offers the most updated collection of archaeological evidence pertaining to Attic workshops. For specific examples of Athenian craft industries, one can refer to Webster 1972 for pottery, Bettalli 1982 for textile production, and Olson 1991 for the fuel industry. For the production of Athenian pottery aimed at foreign markets in the Archaic age, see Osborne 1996 (cited under Historical Periods). Works dealing with Mines and Metallurgy and Quarries and Public Building are cited under their respective sections.

Acton, Peter. 2014. Poiesis: Manufacturing in classical Athens. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.
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Applying the modern theory of competitive advantage, the author provides a comprehensive explanation of how the different segments of Athenian manufacturing operated and what economic opportunities they offered to the different categories of the population. Individual chapters deal with pottery, metalwork, textile production, woodworking, construction industries, and food processing.
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Bettalli, Marco. 1982. Note sulla produzione tessile ad Atene in età classica. Opus 1.2: 261–278.
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Examining the evidence on textile production in Athens, the author argues that luxury articles were mostly produced in the domestic context, while ordinary clothes were produced in workshops aimed at the local market.
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Bettalli, Marco. 1985. Case, botteghe, ergasteria: Note sui luoghi di produzione e di vendita nell’Atene classica. Opus 4:29–42.
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Reviewing Athenian sources about workshops, Bettalli argues that workplaces were not independent structures but usually coincided with the owner’s private house.
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Burford, Alison. 1972. Craftsmen in Greek and Roman society. Aspects of Greek and Roman Life. London: Thames and Hudson.
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The study covers the training and specialization of craftspeople, the organization of their work, the relationships with their patrons and fellows, their standard of living, and ancient views on the nature of craftsmanship and technology.
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Harris, Edward M. 2002. Workshop, marketplace, and household: The nature of technical specialization in classical Athens and its influence on economy and society. In Money, labour, and land: Approaches to the economies of ancient Greece. Edited by P. Cartledge, E. E. Cohen, and L. Foxhall, 67–99. London: Routledge.
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The article collects evidence for about 170 occupations and argues that the nature of technical specialization in the 5th and 4th centuries BCE in Athens was crucial for the rise of market exchanges and the shaping of the management methods of economic enterprises.
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Longo, Oddone. 1987. L’artigianato ateniese: Organizzazione del lavoro e rapporti di produzione. In La storia, la terra, gli uomini: Saggi sulla civiltà greca. Edited by Oddone Longo, 79–101. Biblioteca. Venice: Marsilio.
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An analysis of Platonic and Aristotelian reflections on the status of craftspeople and their technical skills and the structure of the productive process.
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Olson, S. Douglas. 1991. Firewood and charcoal in classical Athens. Hesperia 60.3: 411–420.
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Assuming that Athens required huge supplies of fuel for heating and cooking, the author analyzes the technical aspects and labor organization of the fuel industry and underlines the complexity of its economic structure.
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Sanidas, Giorgos. 2013. La production artisanale en Grèce. Une approche spatial et topographique à partir des exemples de l’Attique et du Péloponnèse du VIIe au Ier siècle avant J.C. Collection archéologie et histoire 33. Paris: Comité des Travaux Historiques et Scientifiques.
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Within a general study on the spatial organization of ancient workshops and their place in the urban and extra-urban context, the book offers a catalogue of all archaeologically attested Attic workshops concerning metalwork, stonework, pottery production, textile production, and food processing.
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Stanley, Phillip V. 1990. The value of ergasteria in Attica: A reexamination. Münstersche Beiträge zur antiken Handelgeschichte 9.1: 1–13.
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The author rejects the idea that workshops were insignificant structures of little value usually attached to the owner’s residence and points to a large variety of ergasteria of different sizes and values, including large factories with a relevant workforce whose owners pertained to the liturgical class.
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Webster, Thomas B. L. 1972. Potter and patron in classical Athens. London: Methuen.
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Although mainly dealing with scenes painted on Attic vases, the book offers a useful outline of the status, size, and labor organization of pottery workshops, including the relationship between potters and patrons.
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Mines and Metallurgy

The technical aspects of the extraction and processing of silver from the Laurion mines are the focus of Conophagos 1980, which underlines the advanced level of ancient Greek technology in this sector. One can refer also to Rihll 2001, which claims the appropriateness of the term industry to describe the large-scale activities of Athenian silver production in terms of the capital and workforce involved. The main sources concerning the administration and economic exploitation of the state-owned silver mines are the inscriptions of the 4th century BCE recording the concessions of the mines to private individuals. The reference edition of these texts forms part of Merle K. Langdon’s work on poletai records, included in Lalonde, et al. 1991 (pp. 57–143). The interpretative study Hopper 1953, although a bit outdated, contains many useful discussions of the most important issues raised by the evidence of the poletai records. Both Aperghis 1997–1998 and Faraguna 2006 offer important revisions and new insights on the questions discussed in Hopper 1953, in particular the nature of the payments made by the lessees of the mines and the profit of the city. For the mechanism through which Laurion silver was converted to coinage see also van Alfen 2011 (cited under Coinage and Monetary Policy). Bissa 2008 deals specifically with the pattern of private investment in mining and processing activities. For a comparison with other forms of investment, see Shipton 2000 (cited under Economic Attitude). The reference study on the slaves employed in the Laurion mines is Lauffer 1979 (cited under Economic Significance of Slavery).

Aperghis, Gerassimos G. 1997–1998. A reassessment of the Laurion mining lease records. Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies 42.1: 1–20.
DOI: 10.1111/j.2041-5370.1998.tb00720.xSave Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
With the aid of a computer-based approach, Aperghis analyzes the data of the poletai records and deals with the classification of the mines, the procedure of leasing, and the prices of the leases.
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Bissa, Errietta M. 2008. Investment patterns in the Laurion mining industry in the fourth century BCE. Historia 57.3: 263–273.
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The article argues that mining and processing activities attracted considerable and wide investment and outlines a different investment pattern for wealthy Athenians and common investors, with implications for the continuity of the industry.
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Conophagos, Constantin. 1980. Le Laurium antique et la technique grecque de la production de l’argent. Athens, Greece: Ekdotike Hellados.
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A thorough study by a mining engineer charged with the modern exploitation of the Laurion mines dealing with the mining and processing technology of galena and silver in classical Attica. Rich and useful iconographic apparatus.
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Faraguna, Michele. 2006. La città di Atene e l’amministrazione delle miniere del Laurion. In Symposion 2003: Vorträge zur griechischen und hellenistischen Rechtsgeschichte (Rauischholzhausen, 30 September–3 October). Edited by Hans-Albert Rupprecht, 141–160. Akten der Gesellschaft für griechische und hellenistischen Rechtsgeschichte 17. Vienna: Verlag der österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften.
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The article collects and discusses the evidence concerning the administrative and fiscal control that the city exercised on the exploitation of the Laurion mines and underlines the complexity and rationality of this administrative system.
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Hopper, Robert J. 1953. The Attic silver mines in the fourth century B.C. Annual of the British School at Athens 48:200–254.
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An extensive article dealing with the evidence of the poletai records as well as with literary sources and previous bibliography. It covers questions of terminology, location and boundaries of the mines, and exploitation methods accompanied by a prosopographical study.
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Lalonde, Gerald V., Merle K. Langdon, and Michael B. Walbank. 1991. The Athenian Agora: Results of excavations conducted by the American School of Classical Studies at Athens. Vol. 19, Inscriptions: Horoi, poletai records, leases of public lands. Princeton, NJ: American School of Classical Studies at Athens.
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In the second part of the book Langdon provides the edition and commentary of all the known records of the Athenian poletai, including the inscriptions concerning the leasing of the silver mines, with an introductive essay on the nature and history of the institution.
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Rihll, Tracey E. 2001. Making money in classical Athens. In Economies beyond agriculture in the classical world. Edited by David J. Mattingly and John Salmon, 115–142. Leicester-Nottingham Studies in Ancient Society 9. London: Routledge.
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The article offers an up-to-date survey of the technical operations involved in the production of the silver coinage of Attica, such as mining, ore dressing, smelting, cupellation, and coining, and covers also the production of other minerals and metals related to the main industry.
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Quarries and Public Building

Ampolo 1982 is the reference study on the legal status and methods of exploitation of the quarries of Attica, including their interaction with public building initiatives. Although specifically focused on the Piraeus Peninsula, Langdon 2000 offers a useful and updated discussion of the methods of exploitation of the Attic quarries. As a general introduction to the Athenian building policy, one can refer to Boersma 1970, even though its chronological range is limited and its base of evidence is now outdated. Bodei Giglioni 1974 deals specifically with the relationship between public works and employment policies and rejects the idea that Athenian building policy was moved by social preoccupations. Among the most important sources for public building, one must count the inscriptions recording the accounts of the commissions in charge of the building projects. A general and updated bibliography on this topic can be consulted in Feyel 2006 (cited under Economic Role of Private Individuals), which deals specifically with the social identity of the workers mentioned in the accounts of the Erechtheum and the Eleusis sanctuary. On the Parthenon’s accounts, one can refer to the specific studies of Burford 1963 and Lanza 2004. Marginesu 2010 provides a survey of the financial issues raised by the accounts of the Acropolis works during the Periclean age. For the financing of the Acropolis works, see also Giovannini 2008 (cited under Imperial Finances). Another important category of inscriptions for the study of public building is the Athenian building specifications, whose nature, structure, and function are the focus of Carusi 2006.

Ampolo, Carmine. 1982. Le cave di pietra dell’Attica: Problemi giuridici ed economici. Opus 1.2: 251–260.
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On the basis of the ancient evidence, Ampolo argues that quarries were public property and were commonly let out on contract to private entrepreneurs, this system being the most rational form of exploitation for the interests of the civic community.
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Bodei Giglioni, Gabriella. 1974. Lavori pubblici e occupazione nell’antichità classica. Il Mondo Antico 4. Bologna, Italy: Pàtron.
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As far as Athens is concerned, the author argues that building programs were not intentionally aimed at increasing employment and that the great number of workers employed in public building was the result of different factors, among them urban development and demographic pressure.
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Boersma, Johannes S. 1970. Athenian building policy from 561/0 to 405/4 B.C. Scripta Archaeologica Groningana 4. Groningen, The Netherlands: Wolters-Noordhoff.
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The book contains a detailed catalogue of each building initiative attested in literary, epigraphic, and archaeological sources. The introductive essay offers a historical account of Athenian building policy during the 6th and 5th centuries BCE.
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Burford, Alison. 1963. The builders of the Parthenon. In Parthenos and Parthenon. Edited by G. T. W. Hooker, 23–35. Greece and Rome 10. Oxford: Clarendon.
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Through the analysis of the building accounts, Burford follows the administrative process and the phases of construction leading to the realization of the Parthenon with particular regard to the nature and skills of the workforce employed.
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Carusi, Cristina. 2006. Alcune considerazioni sulle syngraphai ateniesi del V e del IV secolo a.C. Annuario della Scuola Archeologica di Atene 84.1: 11–36.
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The article provides an annotated register of Athenian building specifications and argues that the publication of these texts on stone was due to the political purpose of conveying the significance of the building projects undertaken by the polis.
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Langdon, Merle K. 2000. The quarries of Peiraius. Archaiologikon Deltion 55:235–250.
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The article contains a list of the quarries excavated at Piraeus with their location and state of preservation and discusses their form, size, orientation, dating, and administration.
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Lanza, Elisa. 2004. Lavori pubblici e gestione amministrativa nei rendiconti di costruzione del Partenone. In La prassi della democrazia ad Atene: Voci di un seminario. Edited by Enrica Culasso Gastaldi, 1–28. Alessandria, Italy: Edizioni dell’Orso.
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The author offers some useful insights into the organization of the work, the different systems of remuneration of the workers, and the sources of funding of the Parthenon.
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Marginesu, Giovanni. 2010. Gli epistati dell’Acropoli: Edilizia sacra nella città di Pericle, 447/6–433/2 a.C. SATAA 5. Paestum, Italy: Pandemos.
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In the context of a broader study on the functions of the epistatai in charge of the Acropolis works, the author discusses the nature and size of the financial operations recorded in their building accounts.
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Trade (Institutions and Regulations)

The debate on ancient Greek trade has been deeply marked by the idea that the city-state had no interest in the sphere of trade and that its only interventions were aimed at securing food supplies and protecting its fiscal incomes; traders were mainly noncitizens of poor means and low social status with a marginal role in the life of the city. As the origin and essence of this idea goes far beyond the topic of this article, here it suffices to refer to Finley 1985) cited under General Overviews) for its implications for the Athenian economy. From the same perspective, Vélissaropoulos 1980 offers a detailed study, supplied with a large base of documentary evidence, of the structures and institutions of Greek trade during the classical and Hellenistic ages, while Reden 1995 investigates the symbolism of the exchange as a social and political practice. Bresson 2000 represents the more marked rejection of the traditional idea and underlines the interest of the polis for foreign trade and the importance of public intervention in trade regulations. Beyond that, Bissa 2009 argues that in certain cases Greek poleis involved themselves directly in foreign trade. As for the profile of maritime traders, Bresson 2003 claims that the traditional opinion is contradicted by the evidence, while Reed 2003 reaffirms their marginality within the economic and social scene of the Greek poleis. For the predominance of foreign merchants in Athenian grain trade, see also Montgomery 1986 (cited under Economic Attitude). For the Athenian policy of granting honors in exchange for trade-related services, see Engen 2010 (cited under Economic Attitude). For the role of credit in maritime trade, see the opposite views of Millett 1983 and Hansen 1984 (both cited under Banks and Credit). Gauthier 1981 and Descat 1993 are articles specifically devoted to Athenian market institutions, the former concerning the market for foreign trade (emporion), the latter the market for local exchanges (agora). For state intervention in trade regulations, see also Figueira 1986 and Rosivach 2000 (both cited under Grain Supply and Trade). For the Archaic trade of Athenian pottery, see Osborne 1996 (cited under Historical Periods).

Bissa, Errietta M. 2009. Governmental intervention in foreign trade in Archaic and classical Greece. Mnemosyne, Bibliotheca Classica Batava 312. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill.
DOI: 10.1163/ej.9789004175044.i-268Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Through the study of four commodities (gold, silver, shipbuilding timber, and grain), the author focuses on the direct intervention of Greek poleis in foreign trade and on the capacity of the Greeks to understand the nature of Mediterranean trade networks and interact with them.
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Bresson, Alain. 2000. La cité marchande. Scripta Antiqua 2. Bordeaux, France: Ausonius.
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A collection of old and new articles whose underlying theme is the importance of public intervention in the sphere of trade, concerning in particular price fixing, market regulations, and commercial treaties. Athenian topics are the specific focus of numerous articles.
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Bresson, Alain. 2003. Merchants and politics in ancient Greece: Social and economic aspects. Paper presented at a conference held in Rome, March 2000. In Mercanti e politica nel mondo antico. Edited by C. Zaccagnini, 139–163. Saggi di Storia Antica 21. Rome: L’Erma di Bretschneider.
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The article reviews the ancient evidence to demonstrate that merchants were not people of poor means without education and of low social status and that in the ancient city there was not a clear distinction between foreign merchants and citizens involved in trade only as moneylenders.
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Descat, Raymond. 1993. La loi de Solon sur l’interdiction d’exporter les produits attiques. In L’emporion. Edited by Alain Bresson and Pierre Rouillard, 145–161. Publications du Centre Pierre Paris 26. Paris: De Boccard.
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The article deals with the importance of the Solonian legislation for consolidating the role of the agora as an exchange place governed by the city, and underlines the political and economic purpose of these measures.
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Gauthier, Philippe. 1981. De Lysias à Aristote (Ath. pol., 51, 4): Le commerce du grain à Athènes et les fonctions des sitophylaques. Revue Historique de Droit Français et Étranger 59:5–28.
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The article shows the coherence of the Athenian regulations concerning grain trade and the role of the emporion, and ascribes the thoroughness of these measures to the importance of the grain supply for the survival of the city.
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Reden, Sitta von. 1995. Exchange in ancient Greece. London: Duckworth.
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On the basis of literary and iconographic sources, the author argues that economically motivated exchanges were considered morally inappropriate. Part 2 defines maritime exchange as a symbol of Athenian power, still associated with images of injustice, violence, and war.
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Reed, Charles M. 2003. Maritime traders in the ancient Greek world. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press.
DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511482908Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
The author describes maritime traders as mainly poor and foreign and argues that Athens intervened in behalf of trade and traders only to secure its own interests. The book also contains a valuable catalogue of all known individual emporoi and naukleroi of the classical age.
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Vélissaropoulos, Julie. 1980. Les nauclères grecs: Recherches sur les institutions maritimes en Grèce et dans l’Orient hellénisé. Geneva, Switzerland: Droz.
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The book deals not only with the socioeconomic profile of shipowners and traders, but also with the forms of state intervention in trade (mainly fiscal measures) and with the commercial legislation. The Athenian sources play as usual a major role.
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Grain Supply and Trade

Much of the debate on Athenian grain trade focuses on the question of the greater or lesser dependence of the city on cereal imports, and the different opinions are usually based on different views of the productivity of Attica. Jardé 1979 and Garnsey 1988 (both cited under Agricultural Products and Alimentation) represent opposite views, as the former argues that Attica was not self-sufficient and had to rely heavily on imported grain, while the latter claims that Athenian productivity has been underestimated and its dependence on foreign imports exaggerated. Peter Garnsey’s conclusions are criticized in Whitby 1998, which underlines the extent of the measures with which Athens encouraged grain trade. Also Moreno 2007 reasserts the dependence of Athens on grain importations and underlines the major role played by the powerful elites of the city in organizing and controlling grain trade. Figueira 1986 and Rosivach 2000 deal specifically with the nature of Athenian interventions in grain trade. As these interventions were a major part of the market regulations enacted by the city, see also the works cited under Trade (Institutions and Regulations). From a slightly different perspective, Descat 2004 offers a new interpretation of the alleged food crisis experienced by Athens in the years 330–325 BCE, while Oliver 2007 deals with the specific problems that the Athenian grain supply endured during the Hellenistic age and with the responses of the city to this situation. For the role of taxation and public finances in ensuring the grain supply, see, respectively, Stroud 1998 (cited under Taxation and Liturgies) and Fantasia 1987 (cited under Public Finance and Economy).

Descat, Raymond. 2004. Les années 330–325 et la politique athénienne du blé. Pallas 64:267–280.
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The author argues that the rise of the price of grain during the years 330–325 BCE must not be interpreted as the result of a food crisis but as a consequence of the emergence in 4th-century BCE Athens of the structures of a cereal market in the full sense of the word.
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Figueira, Thomas J. 1986. “Sitopolai” and “Sitophylakes” in Lysias’ “Against the graindealers”: Governmental intervention in the Athenian economy. Phoenix 40.2: 149–171.
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The article states that Athenian legislation acted against collaboration in the buying of grain and against anticompetitive practices in price fixing, and argues that the episode reported by Lysias cannot be considered a test case for evaluating the management of a food crisis by the city.
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Moreno, Alfonso. 2007. Feeding the democracy: The Athenian grain supply in the fifth and fourth centuries BC. Oxford Classical Monographs. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.
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Dealing with the history of the Athenian grain supply and its relationship with democracy, the author reviews the evidence about the individuals involved in grain trade and argues that behind the elaboration of a democratic political ideology, grain trade was controlled by powerful elites in their own interest.
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Oliver, Graham. 2007. War, food, and politics in early Hellenistic Athens. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.
DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199283507.001.0001Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
The book deals with the effects of war on the Athenian grain supply and explores the responses the city developed in the military, institutional, and economic plan to ensure the import of grain to Attica from abroad.
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Rosivach, Vincent J. 2000. Some economic aspects of the fourth-century Athenian market in grain. Chiron 30:31–64.
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Dealing with the pricing mechanism of the cereal market in Athens and with the interventions of the city in the various steps of the market, the author observes that these interventions were aimed at the interest of the consumers, ensuring an adequate supply of grain at a fair price.
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Whitby, Michael. 1998. The grain trade of Athens in the fourth century BC. In Trade, traders, and the ancient city. Edited by Helen Parkins and Christopher Smith, 99–124. London: Routledge.
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The article focuses on the importance of grain trade for Athens and argues that while in the 5th century BCE the maritime empire favored the flow of grain in the Athenian market, in the 4th century BCE the city had to enact a complex network of measures to encourage grain trade.
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Coinage and Monetary Policy

For the development of coinage in Athens, Schaps 1997 and Trevett 2001 offer two different viewpoints, the former looking at the market, the latter at the political regime. During the classical age, the Athenian coinage was the most important currency, and its extraordinary dominance led to the emergence of a unified monetary space roughly corresponding to the Athenian Empire of the 5th century BCE. Both Figueira 1998 and Flament 2007 deal with this topic, although from different perspectives. The former focuses on the Athenian standards decree, which required all members of the Delian League to adopt Athenian coinage, weight, and measures, and rejects the traditional interpretation of it as an act of commercial imperialism; the latter is a thorough study of the relationship between Athenian public finance and monetary policy, where the exploitation of the Laurion mines and imperial taxation are put at the core of the predominance of Athenian coinage. For a general overview of the monetization of the classical world, one can refer to Reden 2010. Van Alfen 2011 deals with Athenian monetary policy in the classical age and with the extent and type of control that the Athenians exercised over coinage production, with a particular reference to the use of silver from Laurion mines. For the administrative practices and technical operations linking the exploitation of the Laurion mines to the production of Athenian coinage, see also Faraguna 2006 and Rihll 2001 (both cited under Mines and Metallurgy). Moving to the 4th century BCE, Stroud 1974 is the reference edition of the law of Nicophon (375–374 BCE), according to which money testers in the agora and the Piraeus should distinguish among genuine Athenian coins, imitations of pure silver, and counterfeit coins. Buttrey 1979 deals with the reasons why the Athenians enacted said law and the sense of its main provisions in the context of the monetary market of the period. For the exploitation of the Athenian coinage of the so-called new style (c. 164–88 BCE), which was the only currency to circulate in the majority of the Hellenistic world during that period, see Picard 2000.

Buttrey, Theodore V. 1979. The Athenian currency law of 375/4 B.C. In Greek numismatics and archaeology: Essays in honor of Margaret Thompson. Edited by Otto Mørkolm and Nancy M. Waggoner, 33–45. Wetteren, Belgium: Numismatique Romaine.
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Rejecting the idea that the law was linked to a crisis of confidence in the Athenian currency or aimed to enforce the use of foreign coins, the author sees it as a reassertion of the monetary circulation of the city in response to the appearance of foreign imitations on the local market.
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Figueira, Thomas J. 1998. The power of money: Coinage and politics in the Athenian Empire. Philadelphia: Univ. of Pennsylvania Press.
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The author argues that the standards decree did not enforce Athenian currency domination but codified what was already a current practice due to the dynamics of tribute collection in the already integrated space of Aegean economy.
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Flament, Christophe. 2007. Une économie monétarisée: Athènes à l’époque classique, 440–338; Contribution à l’étude du phénomène monétaire en Grèce ancienne. Collection d’Études Classiques 22. Louvain, Belgium: Peeters.
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The book covers the development of Athenian public and military finances, the rhythm and volume of coinage production, and the monetary flow caused by the financial transactions of the city, arguing that the monetary policy of Athens was fueled by the imbalance between exported and imported money.
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Picard, Olivier. 2000. Le contre-exemple du monnayage stéphanéphore d’Athènes. Revue Numismatique 155.6: 79–85.
DOI: 10.3406/numi.2000.2276Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
The author links the volume of the issues of the new-style coinage to the contemporary expansion of the commercial activity in the free port of Delos, which was under Athenian rule during the same period.
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Reden, Sitta von. 2010. Money in classical Antiquity. Key Themes in Ancient History. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press.
DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511763069Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
A general overview dealing with the institutional and political conditions that promoted the growth of monetization and monetary networks, with price formation and fluctuation, and with ancient perceptions of money and coinage. Intended for upper-level students and expert scholars.
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Schaps, David M. 1997. The monetization of the marketplace in Athens. In Économie antique: Prix et formation des prix dans les économies antiques. Edited by Jean Andreau, Pierre Briant, and Raymond Descat, 91–104. Entretiens d’Archéologie et d’Histoire 3. Saint-Bertrand-de-Comminges, France: Musée Archéologique Départemental.
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The article analyzes the changes due to the use of money between the Archaic and the classical ages and argues that the coinage of money, the development of retail trade, and the establishment of a commercial marketplace are all linked by a causal connection.
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Stroud, Ronald S. 1974. An Athenian law on silver coinage. Hesperia 43.1: 157–188.
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Greek text, translation of, and commentary on the law of Nicophon on the testing of silver coinage. The author sets the decision to restore order in the circulation of money in the context of the renewed political ambitions of Athens in the second quarter of the 4th century BCE.
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Trevett, Jeremy. 2001. Coinage and democracy at Athens. In Money and its uses in the ancient Greek world. Edited by Andrew Meadows and Kirsty Shipton, 23–34. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.
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Considering coinage as a political phenomenon, the author examines Athenian coinage against the background of the political regime of the city and argues that certain of its features can be best understood in the light of democratic ideologies and practices.
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van Alfen, Peter G. 2011. Hatching owls: Athenian public finance and the regulation of coin production. In Quantifying monetary supplies in Greco-Roman times. Edited by François de Callataÿ, 127–149. Bari, Italy: Edipuglia.
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The article analyzes the flow of silver into, through, and out of the Athenian public finance system and the mechanisms through which the Athenians controlled the quantity of coinage they produced and regulated silver input to the mint, in particular that derived from the Laurion mines.
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Banks and Credit

Finley 1985 (cited under Transactions Involving Land) argues that Athenian property owners contracting loans did not aim at improving their business interests but only at fulfilling their social and political obligations, such as liturgies and taxes. The idea that loans involving citizens had mainly a nonproductive character has greatly influenced the debate on banks and credit. Millett 1983 deals specifically with maritime loans as the only forms of professional money lending in Athens, and Millett 1991 widens the range of analysis to the whole sphere of credit, drawing a line between the world of citizens involved only in loans as forms of mutual support and the world of traders and bankers involved in professional lending. On the contrary, the analysis of Demosthenes’ private speeches in Isager and Hansen 1975 (cited under Other Literary Sources) speaks for a less clear-cut distinction between citizens and foreigners, and Hansen 1984 claims a steadier involvement of citizens in lending and trading activities. For the investment pattern in private loans, see also Shipton 2000 (cited under Economic Attitude). As for banks, Bogaert 1968, although refusing to see them as merely money changers and pawnbrokers, deals with their limits in terms of liquidity, specialization, and relevant legislation. Thompson 1979 challenges Raymond Bogaert’s viewpoint, and so does Cohen 1992, which embraces a modernist approach underlining the complexity of the transactions that Athenian banks performed in the sphere of cash-based economy. Shipton 2008 rejects the idea that banks operated mainly outside the world of citizens and focuses on their capacity to integrate the activities of different categories of individuals.

Bogaert, Raymond. 1968. Banques et banquiers dans les cités grecques. Leiden, The Netherlands: Sijthoff.
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A thorough and systematic study of bank terminology, operations, and geographic diffusion from the Archaic age to the Roman period. Athenian banks are seen as operating mainly in the field of high-interest-paying deposits and consumption loans.
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Cohen, Edward E. 1992. Athenian economy and society: A banking perspective. Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Press.
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Setting Athenian banks in the context of a market economy, the author underlines their advanced profile in performing sophisticated transactions, facilitating tax and creditor avoidance among the wealthy, and employing women and slaves.
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Hansen, Marianne V. 1984. Athenian maritime trade in the 4th century B.C.: Operation and finance. Classica et Mediaevalia 35:71–92.
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As the number of citizens involved in maritime trade has been underestimated and the image of traders as devoid of capitals exaggerated, the author argues that citizens, metics (resident aliens), and foreigners all invested in trade, with no distinction between capital, on the one hand, and active trade, on the other.
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Millett, Paul. 1983. Maritime loans and the structure of credit in fourth-century Athens. In Trade in the ancient economy. Edited by Peter Garnsey, Keith Hopkins, and Charles R. Whittaker, 36–52. London: Chatto and Windus.
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The article sees maritime traders as outsiders of poor means who needed to borrow money to stay in business and argues that citizens operating as professional moneylenders pertained to a nontypical minority whose kind of wealth was not based on land.
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Millett, Paul. 1991. Lending and borrowing in ancient Athens. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press.
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The book analyzes credit as a way of defining and regulating relationships among individuals and opposes the ideology of reciprocity and mutual support that prevailed among citizens to the impersonal and exploitative credit operations concerning traders and noncitizens.
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Shipton, Kirsty. 2008. Bankers as money lenders: The banks of classical Athens. In Pistoi dia tèn technèn: Bankers, loans, and archives in the ancient world: Studies in honour of Raymond Bogaert. Edited by Koenraad Verboven, Katelijn Vandorpe, and Véronique Chankowski, 93–114. Studia Hellenistica 44. Louvain, Belgium: Peeters.
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Through a comparison between loans made by individuals and by bankers, the author demonstrates the importance of private banks as providers of a credit, linking the activities of citizens, foreigners, wealthy elite, and humbler individuals in the cash-based economy.
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Thompson, Wesley E. 1979. A view of Athenian banking. Museum Helveticum 36:224–241.
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Reviewing all the relevant evidence, the author rejects the view that Athenian banks operated mainly in the field of high-interest-paying deposits and consumption loans and reasserts their role in commercial lending and providing services to businesspeople.
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Public Finance and Economy

The most comprehensive study of Athenian public finance is now Migeotte 2014, a work that represents the culmination of the author’s decades-long study of public finance of the Greek city-states and destined to become the landmark book on the subject. As for specific historical periods, van Wees 2013 offers a reconstruction of the system of Athenian public finance in the Archaic age, Flament 2007 draws an outline of Athenian public finances in the 5th and 4th centuries BCE, and Faraguna 1992 provides a comprehensive study of the Lycurgan program with a particular focus on the intervention of the state in the economic sphere and the rationalization of the financial system. Burke 1985 is more specifically focused on the relationship between public finance and foreign policy during the Lycurgan era. As for specific sectors of public finance, Fantasia 1987 deals with the role of public finance in the direct purchase of grain during food crises and Burke 1992 (cited under Historical Periods). focuses on the impact of state subsidies on Athenian economy. For a survey of the financial aspects of the Acropolis works during the Periclean age, see Marginesu 2010 (cited under Quarries and Public Building). Pritchard 2015 calculates the public spending of classical Athens in the three crucial sectors of religious festivals, democracy, and armed forces. For the impact of war on Athenian finances, see also Brun 1983 and Pritchett 1991 (both cited under War and Economy). Although specifically focused on the meaning of the term hosios (public money reserved for sacred purposes), Blok 2010 offers useful insights into the financial administration of the demes.

Blok, Josine H. 2010. Deme accounts and the meaning of hosios money in fifth-century Athens. Mnemosyne 63.1: 61–93.
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The article analyzes the epigraphic accounts of the demes Ikarion (IG I3 253), Rhamnous (I. Rhamnous 181, 182), and Plotheia (IG I3 258) and concludes that the adjective hosios applies to public money that was reserved for sacred purposes.
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Burke, Edmund M. 1985. Lycurgan finances. Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies 26.3: 249–264.
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Reviewing the public budget during the Lycurgan era, the author argues that the economic revival of that period was closely related to the maintenance of the status quo with Macedonia, so that foreign policy was in no small measure economically determinate.
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Fantasia, Ugo. 1987. Il grano di Leucone e le finanze di Atene: Nota a Demostene, 20, 33. Annali della Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa 17.1: 89–117.
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The article argues that in Athens the direct purchase of grain by public officials endowed with a state fund was an extraordinary measure only until the last quarter of the 4th century BCE, when the city was no longer the privileged destination of the grain trade.
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Faraguna, Michele. 1992. Atene nell’età di Alessandro: Problemi politici, economici, finanziari. Memorie 9.2.2. Rome: Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei.
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Dealing with Athenian internal politics from 338 to 323 BCE, the book covers, among other subjects, the financial organization of the city, the political and economic program of Lycurgus and its circle, and the exploitation of the resources of the polis, such as mines and public and sacred land.
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Flament, Christophe. 2007. Une économie monétarisée: Athènes à l’époque classique, 440–338: Contribution à l’étude du phénomène monétaire en Grèce ancienne. Collection d’Études Classiques 22. Louvain, Belgium: Peeters.
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The first and second chapters of the book are devoted to the civic and military finances of Athens with insights into the estimation of incomes and expenditures, the nature of balance-sheet items, and the history of the budget.
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Migeotte, Léopold. 2014. Les finances des cités grecques. Paris: Les Belles Lettres.
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The fifth chapter is devoted entirely to a thorough description and analysis of the system of Athenian public finance, including its organization, institutions, revenues, expenditures, and diachronic development from the classical to the Hellenistic age.
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Pritchard, David M. 2015. Public spending and democracy in classical Athens. Austin: Univ. of Texas Press.
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Taking his lead from a long-standing debate on the spending priorities of the ancient Athenians, the author calculates the public spending in religious festivals, politics, and war and argues that war was the overriding priority of the Athenian people.
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van Wees, Hans. 2013. Ships and silver, taxes and tribute: A fiscal history of archaic Athens. London: I. B. Taurus.
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Reacting against the idea that the system of Athenian public finance was created in the classical period, the author argues that a complex machinery of public funding and spending was in place from at least the time of Solon and became even more sophisticated throughout the 6th and early 5th centuries BCE.
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Sacred Finance and Economy

The works in this section offer a survey of the main case studies concerning the financial administration of cults and sacred properties. Although sacred properties belonged to gods and temples, their financial administration was usually in the hands of civic officials. This fact has given rise to a scholarly debate on the actual and legal distinction between sacred and public assets, with which the relevant bibliography has often to deal. As a guide to this debate one can refer to Papazarkadas 2011, which puts a strong emphasis on sacred landholdings as conceptually and economically separated from secular ones. Rousset 2013 reacts to the viewpoint of Papazarkadas in stressing the possibility that, in some cases, sacred property was included within public property and considered the joint possession of god and city. For a discussion of the term hosios (public money reserved for sacred purposes) in the context of said debate, see Blok 2010 (cited under Public Finance and Economy). Harris 1995 is the reference study for the administration of the treasures of votive objects kept inside the Parthenon and the Erechtheion, while Linders 1975 deals with the functions of the treasurers of the Other Gods. Aleshire 1989 is the reference edition of the inventories of the sanctuary of Asklepios. Chankowski 2008 shows the financial and economic implications of the Athenian administration of Apollo’s sanctuary in Delos during the classical age. Rosivach 1994 discusses the organization of public sacrifices and its underlying socioeconomic dynamics. For an estimation of public spending on Athenian festivals, see Pritchard 2015 (cited under Public Finance and Economy).

Aleshire, Sara B. 1989. The Athenian Asklepieion: The people, their dedications, and the inventories. Amsterdam: Gieben.
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Edition of the epigraphic inventories of the sanctuary of Asklepios with line-by-line commentary; additional essays are devoted to the history of the sanctuary and its cult, the dedicatory practices, and the financial administration of the sanctuary.
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Chankowski, Véronique. 2008. Athènes et Délos à l’époque classique: Recherches sur l’administration du sanctuaire d’Apollon délien. Bibliothèque des Écoles Françaises d’Athènes et de Rome. Athens, Greece: École Française d’Athènes.
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Through the analysis of the epigraphic evidence, the author shows that the administration of Apollo’s sanctuary was integrated into the Athenian financial system and was an important stage for the elaboration and diffusion of the Athenian administrative techniques outside Attica.
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Harris, Diane. 1995. The treasures of the Parthenon and Erechtheion. Oxford Monographs on Classical Archaeology. Oxford: Clarendon.
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The book provides a precise classification of the evidence drawn from the annual inventories of the treasurers of Athena, with essays devoted to the history of the treasures, the mechanism of the inventory, and the profile of the worshippers.
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Linders, Tullia. 1975. The treasurers of the Other Gods in Athens and their functions. Beiträge zur klassischen philologie 62. Meisenheim am Glan, Germany: Hain.
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The book rejects the idea that the creation of the treasurers of the Other Gods was aimed at centralizing and secularizing the sacred treasuries of Attica and argues that this measure principally facilitated the transactions of the state with the sacred funds.
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Papazarkadas, Nikolaos. 2011. Sacred and public land in ancient Athens. Oxford Classical Monographs. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.
DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199694006.001.0001Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Dealing with the administration of land owned by the polis and its subdivisions, the author shows the different financial schemes of secular and sacred properties and underlines the link between sacred rentals and cultic activity. Two specific essays are devoted to the Sacred Orgas and Athena’s sacred olive trees.
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Rosivach, Vincent. 1994. The system of public sacrifice in fourth-century Athens. American Classical Studies 34. Atlanta: Scholars Press.
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Exploring the mechanism of public sacrifices, the author argues that the egalitarian regime of Athens shaped the system to turn the resources of the more prosperous to the profit of the entire community and, in particular, of its poorer members.
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Rousset, Denis. 2013. Sacred property and public property in the Greek city. Journal of Hellenic Studies 133:113–133.
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The author argues that Papazarkadas’s criteria do not succeed in establishing a clear division between sacred and public land in Athens and, through the evidence from other Greek city-states, argues the existence of land that was simultaneously sacred and public.
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Taxation and Liturgies

The works in this section address specific topics of the Athenian fiscal and liturgical system. For a general overview on Athenian taxation, one can refer to Migeotte 2014 (cited under Public Finance and Economy), while Ober 2015 offers an analysis of the key features of the Athenian fiscal system and its relationship with the Athenian political regime. Thomsen 1964 focuses on the eisphora, the extraordinary direct tax levied in times of war. Christ 2007 is an update on the topic and provides a new interpretation of the evolution of the eisphora system. On the eisphora, see also Brun 1983 (cited under War and Economy). The public and voluntary subscriptions of individuals were another type of measure adopted by Greek cities to fund extraordinary initiatives and projects; the reference work on this topic is Migeotte 1992, which deals also with the Athenian evidence. Gabrielsen 1994 is devoted to the institution of the trierarchy, the liturgy that assured the financing of the Athenian fleet. Wilson 2000 plays the same role regarding the khoregia, the liturgy that aimed at financing and organizing Athenian festival choruses. In the light of the epigraphic discovery of a new piece of taxation, Stroud 1998 offers important insights into various aspects of the Athenian fiscal system. The complexity of this system is the focus also of Gallo 2005, which deals with the evidence for direct taxation in Athens. For other pieces of the Athenian fiscal system, see Isager and Skydsgaard 1992 (cited under the World of Agriculture) on taxes concerning agricultural produce, Chandezon 2003 (cited under Animal Breeding, Hunting, and Fishing) on taxes on pasturage, Lambert 1997 (cited under Transactions Involving Land) on the 1 percent tax on sales, and Vélissaropoulos 1980 (cited under Trade [Institutions and Regulations]) on indirect taxes on trade.

Christ, Matthew R. 2007. The evolution of the eisphora in classical Athens. Classical Quarterly 57.1: 53–69.
DOI: 10.1017/S0009838807000043Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
The article focuses on the collection of the eisphora before and after the reforms of 378–377 BCE and argues that only after this date was a system of assessment of wealth introduced and did taxes begin to be collected in proportion to the assessments.
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Gabrielsen, Vincent. 1994. Financing the Athenian fleet: Public taxation and social relations. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Univ. Press.
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A thorough study of the financial, logistical, and social organization of the Athenian navy, including the development and functions of the trierarchy and the political and ideological mechanism that linked the elite to the liturgical system and placed their wealth at the service of the state.
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Gallo, Luigi. 2005. La tassazione diretta nelle poleis greche: Alcune considerazioni sul caso di Atene. Mediterraneo Antico 8.1: 171–181.
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Rejecting the traditional idea that the Greek poleis did not levy regular direct taxes on the incomes and properties of their citizens, the author picks up the clues pointing to the existence of forms of direct taxation of the agricultural produce in Athens.
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Migeotte, Léopold. 1992. Les souscriptions publiques dans les cités grecques. Hautes Études du Monde Gréco-Romain 17. Geneva, Switzerland: Droz.
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A collection of the sources concerning public subscriptions in the Greek cities between the 4th and 2nd centuries BCE. The final chapter analyzes the role and weight of the subscriptions in the financial policy of the cities and in funding specific projects.
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Ober, Josiah. 2015. Classical Athens. In Fiscal regimes and the political economy of premodern states. Edited by Andrew Monson and Walter Scheidel, 492–522. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press.
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The author argues that the remarkable stability of the Athenian democracy was a result of the equilibrium created by its fiscal system, which mitigated economic inequality by allowing relatively high levels of public spending and a certain redistribution of wealth to the poorer citizens.
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Stroud, Ronald S. 1998. The Athenian grain-tax law of 374/3 B.C. Hesperia 29. Princeton, NJ: American School of Classical Studies at Athens.
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Editio princeps, translation, and commentary on the law concerning the taxation of the cereal produce of the Athenian possessions of Lemnos, Imbros, and Skyros, with implications for the fiscal system, grain supply policy, and financial administration of the city.
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Thomsen, Rudi. 1964. Eisphora: A study of direct taxation in ancient Athens. Humanitas 3. Copenhagen: Gyldendalske Boghandel.
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The book provides an interpretation of the development and basic principles of the eisphora system throughout the classical age and connects its excessive incidence on the wealthy elite with the supposed Athenian inaction and consequent loss of independence in the late 4th century BCE.
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Wilson, Peter. 2000. The Athenian institution of the khoregia: The chorus, the city, and the stage. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press.
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The historical development and mechanisms of the Athenian khoregia are the focus of this study along with the relationship between the values of the aristocratic elite and the democratic civic service and its changing significance in the late classical period.
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Imperial Finances

The works in this section discuss the impact of the Athenian Empire of the 5th century BCE on the city’s public finance and economy. Meritt, et al. 1939–1953 is the landmark study and the starting point for discussion of the imperial tribute, even though many aspects of this epigraphic edition and historical reconstruction have been heavily challenged. Finley 1978 is a penetrating survey of all the material benefits the Athenians obtained from their empire in both the public and the private spheres. The analysis of text of Thucydides in Kallet-Marx 1993 is also fundamental for understanding the role of financial resources in the creation and increase of the Athenian naval power. For the role of money in the dissolution of the Athenian Empire, see Kallet 2001 (cited under Other Literary Sources). The benefits that the Athenian Empire brought to the demos are one of the targets of the so-called Old Oligarch (see Marr and Rhodes 2008, cited under Other Literary Sources). Among the imperial resources, Pébarthe 2000 underlines the importance of indirect taxation and the related control of trade. The relationship between the treasury of the Delian League and Athenian state revenues is the focus of an intense debate. Giovannini 2008, first published in 1990, represents the idea that the treasury of the league was never used for funding Athenian public expenditures, such as the building program of the Acropolis, while Samons 2000 claims that the Athenian democracy relied heavily on the revenues generated by the empire.

Finley, Moses I. 1978. The fifth-century Athenian Empire: A balance sheet. In Imperialism in the ancient world: The Cambridge University research seminar in ancient history. Edited by Peter Garnsey and C. Richard Whittaker, 103–126. Cambridge Classical Studies. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press.
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The article focuses on the economic aspects of the imperial power, including not only the tribute, but also indemnities, incomes from confiscated properties, cleruchies (specialized colonies), and private enrichment through the acquisition of land and commercial advantages.
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Giovannini, Adalberto. 2008. The Parthenon, the treasury of Athena, and the tribute of the allies. In The Athenian Empire. Edited by Polly Low, 164–184. Edinburgh Readings on the Ancient World. Edinburgh: Edinburgh Univ. Press.
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English translation of “Le Parthénon, le trésor d’Athèna et le tribut des allies,” first published in 1990. The article focuses on the nature, scope, and development of the treasury of the Delian League and the treasury of Athena Polias and rejects the idea that the Acropolis building program was financed with the tribute paid by the allies.
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Kallet-Marx, Lisa. 1993. Money, expense, and naval power in Thucydides’ History 1–5.24. Berkeley: Univ. of California Press.
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By examining the comments on financial matters in the first part of Thucydides’ work, the author deals with the scope and nature of the financial exploitation by Athens of its empire and with the relationship between Athenian resources and the course of the Archidamian War.
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Meritt, Benjamin D., Henry T. Wade-Gery, and Malcolm F. McGregor, eds. 1939–1953. The Athenian tribute lists. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press.
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The four volumes contain the collection of the literary and epigraphic sources concerning the imperial tribute, the reconstruction and edition of the stelae recording the tribute quotas dedicated to Athena Polias, and the history of the Athenian Empire in the light of this evidence.
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Pébarthe, Christophe. 2000. Fiscalité, empire athénien et écriture: Retour sur les causes de la guerre du Péloponnese. Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik 129:47–76.
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The article discusses the role of indirect taxation on trade as an instrument of the Athenian rule over its allies, the importance of writing practices in the administrative machine of the empire, and the impacts of these factors in the outbreak of the Peloponnesian War.
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Samons, Loren J., II. 2000. The empire of the owl: Athenian imperial finance. Historia Einzelschriften 142. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner.
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The book provides a detailed study of the imperial revenues and the ways they were acquired, managed, and spent, and the author argues that the link between imperial revenues and public expenditures encouraged the aggressive character and the consequent failure of Athenian hegemony.
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War and Economy

For a general overview of the relationship between economy and war in the ancient Greek world, one can refer to Garlan 1989. Brun 1983 deals with all aspects of Athenian military finance in the 4th century BCE and represents the viewpoint that the general deterioration of economic conditions and the financial insufficiency of the city severely undermined its military capacity. For a similar perspective, see also Thomsen 1964 (cited under Taxation and Liturgies), which connects the loss of independence of the city with the deficiencies of its system of war funding. Military finances are discussed also in Flament 2007 and Pritchard 2015 (both cited under Public Finance and Economy). For the financing of the Athenian fleet, the reference study is Gabrielsen 1994. For the impact that naval spending had on the shaping of the Athenian system of public finance in the Archaic age, see van Wees 2013 (cited under Public Finance and Economy). In the context of a broad discussion of the topic of war booty, Pritchett 1991 offers a balance sheet of major Athenian military campaigns in the 4th century BCE. Millett 1993 takes a different perspective and focuses on war as a positive factor for stabilizing and preserving the democracy. The idea that the effects of war on economics and politics did not necessarily have to be negative is connected to the approach that reassesses the disruptive potential of ancient warfare. In this respect, the reference study is Hanson 1998, first published in 1983, that rejects the idea that wars and invasions produced permanent or long-term devastation on cultivated land. For the relationship between war and slave markets, see Suárez 2002 (cited under Economic Significance of Slavery).

Brun, Patrice. 1983. Eisphora-syntaxis stratiotika: Recherches sur les finances militaires d’Athènes au IVe siècle av. J.-C. Annales Littéraires de l’Université de Besançon 284. Paris: Les Belles Lettres.
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The book deals with the extraordinary forms of war funding and the ordinary management of military finances in 4th-century BCE Athens and underlines the deficiencies of the city-state financial system with regard to war efforts.
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Gabrielsen, Vincent. 1994. Financing the Athenian fleet: Public taxation and social relations. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Univ. Press.
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In a broader study devoted to the institution of the trierachy, the author deals with the financial responsibilities of the trierarchs, in particular with the costs concerning the crew and the maintenance of the ship and its equipment.
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Garlan, Yvon. 1989. Guerre et économie en Grèce ancienne. Textes à l’Appui. Paris: Éditions La Découverte.
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A collection of new and reworked essays guided by the author’s Marxist viewpoint that war and its various manifestations should be looked at in a broad socioeconomic context.
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Hanson, Victor D. 1998. Warfare and agriculture in classical Greece. Berkeley: Univ. of California Press.
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First published in 1983. While dealing with the impact of warfare on agriculture, the author minimizes the effectiveness of agricultural devastation and argues that the Spartan invasions of Attica did not cause long-term damage or a general economic crisis of agriculture in the 4th century BCE.
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Millett, Paul. 1993. Warfare, economy, and democracy in classical Athens. In War and society in the Greek world. Edited by John Rich and Graham Shipley, 177–196. Leicester-Nottingham Studies in Ancient Society 4. London: Routledge.
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While refusing an image of Athens in the 4th century BCE as dominated by the economic crisis due to the aftermath of the Peloponnesian War, the author argues that war and its financial implications consolidated the power of the demos.
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Pritchett, W. Kendrick. 1991. The Greek state at war. Vol. 5. Berkeley: Univ. of California Press.
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The second part of the volume is devoted to all aspects related to war booty, from terminology to objects of booty and to booty as a source of profit. The chapter on 4th-century BCE Athens collects the evidence concerning the costs of campaigns and profits of war.
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Economic Role of Private Individuals

The works in this section deal with different categories of individual economic actors and their roles within the Athenian labor market and society. In the context of an in-depth study on the influence of personal wealth in Athenian public life, Davies 1971 collects the evidence concerning individual wealthy Athenians and their families, while Davies 1984 investigates the liturgical class as a whole. Brock 1994 provides a survey of women’s work attested in ancient sources. Feyel 2006 is the reference work for the study of craftspeople employed in large-scale building projects, while Epstein 2010 explores specifically the roles of citizens and metics (resident aliens) in Athenian public building. For the engagement of different segments of the Athenian population (citizens, women, metics, and slaves) in manufacturing activities, see Acton 2014 (cited under Craft Industries). For different viewpoints on the profile of maritime traders, see Bresson 2003 and Reed 2003 (both cited under Trade [Institutions and Regulations]). From a more general perspective, Loomis 1998 explores the nature and dynamics of the Athenian labor market through an analysis of wages and costs attested in the ancient sources.

Brock, Roger. 1994. The labour of women in classical Athens. Classical Quarterly 44.2: 336–346.
DOI: 10.1017/S0009838800043809Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Reviewing the evidence concerning the labor of women, the author detects a conflict between the ideological disdain for working women and the reality reflected by epigraphic evidence and various allusions in literary sources.
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Davies, John K. 1971. Athenian propertied families, 600–300 B.C. Oxford: Clarendon.
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As part of a study on the influence of personal wealth in public affairs, the book provides a register of the men and families known to have owned properties on a large scale, discussed with their relatives, connections, and financial standing.
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Davies, John K. 1984. Wealth and the power of wealth in classical Athens. Monographs in Classical Studies. Salem, NH: Ayer.
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The original first chapter of the dissertation from which Davies 1971 was derived. The author deals with the size and composition of the Athenian liturgical class, with the level and sources of wealth of its components, and with the continuity and stability of such a class.
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Epstein, Shimon. 2010. Attic public construction: Who were the builders? Ancient Society 40:1–14.
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The author observes the predominance of metics among the workers mentioned in the Athenian building accounts and ascribes this situation to the sporadic nature of large-scale construction activities, which attracted more workers from abroad as occasion required.
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Feyel, Christophe. 2006. Les artisans dans les sanctuaires grecs aux époques classiques et hellénistique à travers la documentation financière en Grèce. Bibliothèque des Écoles Françaises d’Athènes et de Rome 318. Athens, Greece: École Française d’Athènes.
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The first part is a catalogue of the craftspeople recorded in the best-preserved building accounts of the Greek world. The second part is focused on the characteristics of craftspeople as a social group and deals with their status, origin, level of specialization, forms of remuneration, and wages.
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Loomis, William T. 1998. Wages, welfare costs, and inflation in classical Athens. Ann Arbor: Univ. of Michigan Press.
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A collection and discussion of all wages, salaries, transport costs, and travel and welfare allowances attested in the sources, organized in categories and easy to consult. The interpretative study suggests the existence of an actual labor market at least in 4th-century BCE Athens.
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Economic Significance of Slavery

Andreau and Descat 2006 provides a general overview of the roles of slaves in various sectors of the ancient economy. Sargent 1924 is the most detailed study of the demographics of slaves in Athens within the different economic sectors. For figures concerning slave population in general, see also Gomme 1967 and Hansen 1988 (both cited under Demography). The presence and significance of slave manpower in agriculture is a much-debated issue, and the different opinions are strictly related to different viewpoints on both the nature of ancient agriculture and the structure of Athenian society. Jameson 1977–1978 represents the viewpoint that the use of slave manpower was essential for the intensive character of ancient agriculture and that slaveholding enabled farmers to exercise their civic rights and participate in the democracy. In contrast, Wood 1983 minimizes the importance of slavery in agricultural production and argues that the political structure itself allowed Athenian farmers to both subsist on family labor and sustain a high degree of civic participation. Hanson 1992 reasserts the widespread ownership of slaves among Athenian farmers while separating such a notion from the need to reassess the political and economic roles of small landholders in the Athenian society. For the debate, see also Wood 1988 and Jameson 1992 (both cited under Types of Rural Properties and Methods of Exploitation). The reference work on the slaves employed in the silver mines of Laurion is Lauffer 1979. For the role of slaves in public building, one can refer to Feyel 2006 (cited under Economic Role of Private Individuals). For slaves as objects of economic transactions, see Suárez 2002, which offers an overview of the slave market in Athens.

Andreau, Jean, and Raymond Descat. 2006. Esclave en Grèce et à Rome. Paris: Hachette Littératures.
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The book provides a general but insightful introduction to various aspects of slavery in the ancient world. Chapter 4 deals specifically with slave labor and the incidence of slavery in the structures of ancient economy and society.
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Hanson, Victor D. 1992. Thucydides and the desertion of Attic slaves during the Decelean War. Classical Antiquity 11.2: 210–228.
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The author argues that Thucydides’ assertion of the number of Attic slaves that fled during the Spartan occupation of Decelea must not be taken at face value but as an indicator of the common perception that most Attic landholders possessed at least one slave.
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Jameson, Michael H. 1977–1978. Agriculture and slavery in classical Athens. Classical Journal 73.2: 122–145.
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While discussing the options available to Athenian farmers to intensify agricultural production, the author argues that the recourse to slave manpower was the safest choice and that the ownership of at least one slave was the norm among Athenian farmers.
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Lauffer, Siegfrid. 1979. Die Bergwerkssklaven von Laureion. Forschungen zur antiken Sklaverei 11. Wiesbaden, Germany: Steiner.
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First published in two parts in 1955–1956. The book offers a comprehensive study of the mining slaves, ranging from the material conditions of work in the different phases of production to their legal position and family life and to their population size and significance in the social structure of the time.
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Sargent, Rachel. 1924. The size of the slave population at Athens during the fifth and fourth centuries before Christ. Illinois Studies in the Social Sciences 12.3. Urbana: Univ. of Illinois.
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While dealing with the general size of the slave population, the author offers estimations according to the different categories of occupation and devotes individual chapters to the slaves employed in public service, households, agriculture, mining, and so forth.
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Suárez, Domingo Plácido. 2002. Guerre et marché d’esclaves dans la Grèce classique. In Routes et marchés d’esclaves: 26e colloque du GIREA, Besançon, 27–29 septembre 2001. Edited by Marguerite Garrido-Hory, 21–28. Esclavage et Dépendance. Besançon, France: Presses Universitaires Franc-Comtoises.
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The author presents and discusses the evidence concerning the sources of the slave supply in relation to war and piracy and focuses on the sale places and procedures in Athens.
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Wood, Ellen M. 1983. Agricultural slavery in classical Athens. American Journal of Ancient History 8.1: 1–47.
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While reacting against the idea of Athens as a slave society, the author reviews the available evidence and concludes that ancient sources do not confirm the importance of agricultural slavery in classical Athens.
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Economic Attitude

The works in this section offer different viewpoints of the motives and mechanisms underlying the economic choices of individuals and social groups. The influential book Finley 1985 (first published in 1973; cited under General Overviews) represents the substantivist viewpoint that the ancient economy was embedded in a system of social and political values to such an extent that the weight of these values prevented individual and collective attitudes from developing along the lines of a merely economic and profit-oriented rationalism. In the late 20th and early 21st centuries this idea has been frequently challenged from various perspectives. As for agriculture, one points to the development of more complex forms of estate management, as seen in Chandezon 2011 (cited under the World of Agriculture). As for trade, Montgomery 1986 rejects the idea that moral values were responsible for averting Athenian citizens from maritime trade. Taking a middle ground, Engen 2010 argues that honor and profit were both goals of the traders honored by Athens for their services to the city. As for entrepreneurial activities, Thompson 1982 provides examples of an entrepreneurial mentality among ancient Athenians, and Harris 2002 (cited under Craft Industries) argues that the economic potential and rationality of ancient enterprises must not be underrated. The study of investment options with associated risks and returns allows Christesen 2003 to claim the existence of an income-maximizing economic rationalism in 4th-century BCE Athens. Acton 2014 (cited under Craft Industries) argues that the engagement of ancient Athenians in manufacturing activities was consistent with economic rationality and based on an empiric understanding of what is considered today good business practice. As for the impact of economic interests on the society, Ferrucci 1998 deals with the topic of private wealth in Isaeus’s orations and observes a conflict between family ties and values, on the one hand, and the inclination toward individual enrichment, on the other. Shipton 2000 argues that the wealthy elite played a more significant role in nonland- than in land-based investments and that shared economic interests linked people from different backgrounds and encouraged the internal mobility of the population. Papazarkadas 2011 (cited under Types of Rural Properties and Methods of Exploitation) reasserts the fairly substantial size of upper-class Athenians involved in land leasing. For the interest of Greek literature in economic matters, see Ancient Economic Literature.

Christesen, Paul. 2003. Economic rationalism in fourth-century BCE Athens. Greece and Rome 50.1: 31–56.
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After discussing the concept of economic rationalism, the author analyzes the ancient sources concerning, in particular, mining activities and focuses on the role played by economic rationalism in the choice among different forms of investment.
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Engen, Darel T. 2010. Honor and profit: Athenian trade policy and the economy and society of Greece, 415–307 B.C.E. Ann Arbor: Univ. of Michigan Press.
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Focusing on the honorary decrees for those who had performed trade-related services for Athens, the author analyzes the types of services and goods provided, the legal and socioeconomic status of the honored, and the types of privileges and honors granted by the city.
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Ferrucci, Stefano. 1998. L’Atene di Iseo: L’organizzazione del privato nella prima metà del IV secolo a.C. Pisa, Italy: ETS.
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The book provides a detailed study of the composition and management of the individual estates attested in Isaeus’s orations and discusses the relationship between private wealth, on the one hand, and family ties and public interest, on the other.
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Montgomery, Hugo. 1986. “Merchants fond of corn”: Citizens and foreigners in the Athenian grain trade. Symbolae Osloenses 61.1: 43–61.
DOI: 10.1080/00397678608590797Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
The article argues that Athenian citizens were less active than aliens in the grain trade, not as a result of conflicting moral values but because of their lack of competence in long-distance trade and loan transactions as compared to foreign merchants.
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Shipton, Kirsty. 2000. Leasing and lending: The cash economy in fourth century BC Athens. Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies 74. London: Univ. of London.
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The author explores the investment patterns attested in the leases of silver mines and public land and in the private loans recorded in the horoi and discusses the effects of these cash-based institutions on Athenian economy and society.
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Thompson, W. E. 1982. The Athenian entrepreneur. L’Antiquité Classique 51:53–85.
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Rejecting the idea that Athenians were not interested in increasing the size and revenues of their economic activities, the author reviews the different forms of investment available to underline the propensity to investment of Athenian entrepreneurs.
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