Conceptions and Sources
logueisolatedreferencesto(say)agriculturalproduction,themarketingof
vegetables,thecustomsofnon-urbancommunities,diet,childbirth,orreli-
giousobservanceswithinthefamily,thenthatcouldalwaysbedone.Butit
does have to be accepted that whole areas of lifewill onlyappear tangen-
tially, if at all, in the inscriptions, and that there are manyareas, however
desirableinthemselves,wheretheinscriptionswillnotallowofanyserious
social history. One of these areas, for instance, is slavery.There are indeed
importantconcentrationsofdocuments,suchasthemanumissioninscrip-
tionsofDelphiorThessaly,whicharehighlyrelevanttoslaveryandbrilliantly
illuminateitssocialframeworkfromaveryspecificangle.^53 Butanactualhis-
toryofslaveryinanyparticularregioncannotbewritten.Again,foralmost
allareasofeconomiclifeandactivityinscriptionswillprovidethenamesof
tradesandoccupations,regulationsaffectingmarketsorprices,orthelimits
oftheprivilegesenjoyedbythemembersofparticulargroups.Buttheywill
bringusverylittlenearertoaneconomichistory.Similarly,themostdetailed
inscriptions which we have relating to agriculture, those concerned with
imperial estates in Africa,^54 resemble the inscriptions of imperial mines in
theIberianpeninsula^55 inbeingregulationswhichalludetomanyimportant
aspectsofeconomicandsociallife,butcannotbytheirnaturetakeusfurther
thanthat.Thesedocumentstoowouldbebeststudiedinthefirstinstance
astexts,inordertoestablishaclearviewoftheirinternalstructureandpur-
pose.Butthelimitationwhichfacesusincollectingeitherisolateditemsof
economicevidence(sayonthenamesoftradesoroccupations,whethergen-
erallyorinaparticularplace)orextendedformaldocumentsrelatingtoeco-
nomiclife,isthatwestillcannotplacethisevidencewithinanyworthwhile
framework.Wehavenoideaofhoworwheretheproduceoftheemperor’s
estatesinAfricawasmarketedorconsumed,norwhathappenedtothesilver
fromhisminesinSpain.
Thisisnottosaythatancienteconomichistoryshouldnotbepursued—
onlythatnoonehassofarescapedfromthealternativesofhavinginterest-
ingideaswhichdonotrelatetotheevidenceinawhollysatisfactoryway,or
. ForaninterestinghistoricalstudyofthemanumissioninscriptionsfromDelphi,see
K.Hopkins,ConquerorsandSlaves(Cambridge,),–;forsomeThessalianmanumis-
siondocuments,seeB.Helly,‘‘Actesd’affranchissementsthessaliens,’’BCH():,
and‘‘Loissurlesaffranchisementsdanslesinscriptionsthessaliennes,’’Phoenix():.
. Thesetextsarereproduced,e.g.,inFIRA^2 I,nos.–;TenneyFrank,ed.,Eco-
nomic Survey of Ancient RomeIV(Baltimore,),–.
.FIRA^2 I,nos.–;translationandnotesinTenneyFrank,ed.,Economic Survey of
Ancient RomeIII(Baltimore,),–.