INTRODUCTION 11
as long as they needed to dispose of their goods and acquire other goods to
take to another place. In this period, the agora was simply a meeting place in
the middle of a settlement. It had not yet acquired an exclusively commer-
cial function.^60 We also find occasional markets during the Classical period.
Thucydides (1.62.1; 6.44.2, 3; 8.95.4) and Xenophon (An. 4.8.8 [Macronians]
and 23 [Trapezuntians]) report how a city might provide a market for an army
passing through its territory.^61 In this case, the demand for goods arose at a sin-
gle time and did not continue after the army departed.
At the next level are periodic markets, which take place at regular intervals,say every ten days or twice a month. In many peasant societies most mar-
kets are periodic rather than permanent and continuous. In these societies, as
Berry notes,
The market is not open every day, but only once every few days on a
regularly scheduled basis, because the per capita demand for goods sold
in the market is small, the market is limited by primitive transport tech-
nology, and the aggregate demand is therefore insufficient to support
permanent shops. Businessmen adjust by visiting several markets on a
regular basis; and by accumulating the trade of several markets they are
able to survive.^62One finds an example of this kind of market at Baetocaece in Syria. An inscrip-
tion from this city containing a letter from the Emperor Valentinian contains
instructions from a communication by King Antiochus I (early third century
BCE) or King Antiochus II (mid-third century BCE) calling for panegyreis to
meet twice a month at Baetocaece, on the fifteenth and the thirtieth (IGLS
VII 4028, lines 15–39). During the Imperial period, the periodic markets of
Asia Minor coordinated their schedules so that merchants could travel from
one to another.^63 We find the same arrangement in Campania during the early
Roman Empire.^64 Periodic markets were often linked to festivals (panegyreis)
and existed alongside permanent markets. These might meet once a year such
as the Thermika at Thermos (Polyb. 5.8.5) or twice a year as at Tithorea (Paus.
10.32.15-16). On the one hand, markets were held to provide food and other
items for those coming to attend a religious festival. On the other, merchants
might take advantage of the large number of customers gathering at festivals to
sell items like cattle and slaves.^65 Despite their religious aspect, Strabo (10.5.4)
calls panegyreis gatherings that are ‘in a way commercial activities.’ These mar-
kets also might create a temporary rise in the demand for coinage, and the
communities hosting them would respond by minting special panegyris issues
to facilitate commercial exchange.^66
As the economy grows and the specialization of labour increases, perma-nent markets are established. As Berry notes, several factors bring about the
rise of permanent markets: ‘the establishment of law and order, introduction