south.^35 Nevertheless, the north has certainly not been neglected by
scholarship. Four individuals are singled out here to illustrate the kinds
of trajectories that research into the economic history of the region has
taken in the last century. Each of them has played a significant role, not
only in shaping scholarly perceptions of this sector of the ancient
Mediterranean hinterland, but also in developing specific methodologies.
These different approaches provide a useful starting point for consider-
ing how a history of northern economies can be written.
Rostovtzeff and the grand narrativeAlthough Michael Rostovtzeff’sSocial and Economic History of the
Hellenistic Worldhas more often been invoked, in recent times, as the
anti-type, rather than the prototype of scholarship on ancient economies,
the example he set of combining different types of data, epigraphic and
archaeological, as well as literary and historical, continues to provide a
model of the primary resource base with which historians should begin
an enquiry of historically remote economies. Indeed, this has even been
called‘the only way forward’(Horden and Purcell, 32). The Russian
historian gave far more prominence to Macedonia and Thrace in his
magisterial history than many subsequent writers on the Aegean area.
His knowledge of Cyrillic scripts and of Slav languages made the source
material accessible, but this familiarity also made him sensible of the
possibilities that the limited evidence available at that time could offer.
The problems that historians have since identified with Rostovtzeff’s
approach have less to do with his materials, and more to do with his
conceptual framework. His economic history is couched in a political
narrative, which is, in essence, the political history of a subset of the
agents concerned:
The history of the commercial relations between Greece (especially Ionia
and Athens) and Thrace is similar [to the Bosporan kingdom]. Thrace
exported to Greece through the colonies of the Euxine (Apollonia and
Mesembria) and those on the Aegean coast (especially Abdera, Maronea,
Aenus, and Amphipolis), large quantities of the same products as were
exported from South Russia (chiefly grain andfish) and of metals and
timber as well. The imports from Thrace in the early years were probably
balanced by exports of wine and olive oil from Greece. But the Greek cities
of the Thracian coast very soon became notable centres of wine production,(^35) Horden and Purcell provide an extensive discussion, which has not been superseded
in subsequent debates (2000, 9–25).
22 Introduction