above. Similarly, a successor of Kotys I outlined in a decree recorded on
the so-called Pistiros inscription the terms on which merchants from
Thasos, Apollonia, and Maroneia could operate in theemporionof
Pistiros and otheremporia, named and unnamed.^19 Hatzopoulos has
characterized the distinction in Macedonian territory as that between the
‘Old kingdom’and the‘Macedonian commonwealth’. Yet our modern
concepts of Macedonian territory rely far more than we may care to
admit on the seemingly arbitrary divisions effected in 167bcby Aemilius
Paullus and his Roman officials (Livy 45.29). From the point of view of
their southerly neighbours, the territorial dimensions of the Macedonian
and Thracian kingdoms appear to have been unstable, highly dynamic,
and altogether rather unclear. What is more, when Thracian rulers were
acting in close cooperation with their Macedonian peers, as occurred in
the 330s, and again under Philip V and Perseus, much of Thrace south of
the Danube also seems to have been aligned with Macedonian policy.
This apparent ambiguity about territory means that we need to take a
closer look at the nature of territorial power and consider what the
relationship was between the region as a whole and the economies of
kingdoms, cities, and other entities.
REGIONAL ECONOMIES OF THE NORTH AEGEAN
Exploring regional approachesIt is one thing to consider Macedonia, the template in organizational and
political terms for the Hellenistic kingdoms of Alexander the Great’s
Successors; in what sense, however, do the other parts of the east Balkans
constitute a‘region’that can be explored as a coherent economic phe-
nomenon? The area considered in this book explores several hetero-
geneous political entities, which changed over the time span within
its scope. In addition to Macedonia, there were several princely
entities in Thrace, including the long-lived Odrysian kingdom, and
independent territorial polities, including native ones of the interior, as
well as Greek-speaking civic communities along the Aegean and Black
Sea coastlines.
Regional approaches to the ecologies of the Mediterranean past have
proved to be a fruitful way of enhancing our understanding of historical
(^19) SEGxliii, 486; xlvi, 872*; xlvii, 1101; Velkov and Domaradzka 1994; Chankowski and
Domaradzka 1999; see further Chs. 2 and 5.
12 Introduction