The short and enigmatic constitutional treatise that found its way erro-
neously into the works of Xenophon, together with the genuinely Xeno-
phonticWays and Means,are probably the most useful and perceptive
general statements about the world of inter-state commercial relations in
the period between the second half of thefifth and the middle of the
fourth centurybc. Although the analytical value of these works has been
denigrated,^19 most historians today see no reason why such writings
should not be used alongside other types of evidence, whether literary,
epigraphic, or material.^20
Nineteenth-century historians of classical antiquity had a rather
limited set of resources from which to speculate on ancient economic
foundations, consisting mainly of literary works in Greek and Latin.
Classical writers had few objective resources for reflecting on their own
past and their Victorian readers lacked a convincing set of alternative
data that could illuminate classical literature in independent ways. The
study of inscriptions, and various classes of material evidence, some of
which were also inscribed (notably tradeamphorae) became increasingly
available in the course of the twentieth century, but are only now being
subjected to the kind of geographical and statistical analysis that will
provide reliable data for economic purposes. The pioneering methodo-
logical studies have come from Romanists, who have produced a funda-
mental range of ceramic data sets.^21 Other types of material evidence,
from identifiable settlements, tofish-processing vats and fulling work-
shops, are being subjected to spatial and volumetric analyses.^22 Leaving
aside tombstones, epigraphic evidence does not lend itself at all easily to
any kind of statistical analysis or to a clear methodological framework.
Public inscriptions are simply too rare to provide more than sample data
and are usually studied as independent documents, or classed with other
documents of the same form, such as civic decrees or honours voted to
(^19) Notably by Finley 1985 [1999] 19:‘In Xenophon, however, there is not one sentence
that expresses an economic principle or offers an economic analysis, nothing on efficiency
of production,“rational”choice, the marketing of crops.’Cf. ibid. 45, 73, and esp. 134–6,
236 n.39.
(^20) In theCEHGRWDavies, Möller, and von Reden refer extensively to Xenophon’s
economic works (see esp. 339–48, 382, 466, 477 (Reger).
(^21) David Peacock’s seminal work on Romanamphoraproduction and distribution
(Peacock 1982) has inspired analogous work on Aegean and Black Sea transport fabrics
(Whitbread 1995; Kassab Tezgör and Inaishvili 2010; Tzochev et al. 2011). 22
Bowman and Wilson 2009, 12–84, setting out the principles of the project,The
Economy of the Roman Empire: Integration, Growth, and Decline;Bowman and Wilson
2012; further volumes have been announced on the project’s web pages http://oxrep.
classics.ox.ac.uk/home
Societies and economies 93