became common for coins to be made of silver and for Greek
city-states to monopolize their formation. Th e Athenian his-
torian Xenophon wrote in the fourth century b.c.e. that his
city was assured of trade because of its good supply of silver
coins, the result of the Athenian-controlled silver mines at
Laurium in Attica. Coins gave city-states a valuable way to
exchange goods within Greece and for great distances beyond
its shores.
Port markets (emporia) and marketplaces (agora) served
as locations for trade with people from other cities. Th e pros-
perity of some of these markets, especially in Athens and
Corinth, increased signifi cantly as trade between Greek cities
and overseas nations increased. In the marketplace foreign-
ers oft en had to pay a tax just for purchasing goods. City-
states could also collect a duty on the cargo of ships with
access to their ports. Written evidence at Athens shows that
it taxed the value of vessels going through the Piraeus. Al-
though trade between short distances was possible over land,
the mountainous topography of Greece usually necessitated
long-distance travel by ship. Toward the end of the Pelopon-
nesian War in 413 b.c.e., Athens further exploited trade being
carried out in the Aegean by imposing a 5 percent duty on all
the ports within the empire.
A noticeable contrast to Athens is apparent in the city
of Sparta. In the seventh century b.c.e. Sparta conquered
the territory of Messenia and enslaved the entire population,
turning them into what were called helots. Messenia was a
fertile territory that provided Sparta with food supplies and
a workforce of helots. A deeply militaristic society, Sparta
was against the accumulation of personal wealth. Its military
domination of Messenia meant that it was not forced into
trading with cities for grain and was able to pass laws forbid-
ding its citizens to trade.
Th e activities of Alexander the Great (336–323 b.c.e.)
were to have a major eff ect on Greek economic activity. Aft er
his death the empire he created, which stretched from Mace-
don to India, was split into several Hellenistic kingdoms. Th e
Macedonian generals of Alexander then ruled territories from
Egypt, Syria, Anatolia (modern-day Turkey), and Macedonia.
Greece benefi ted because Greek became the international
language of business. Th e use of common currencies and the
production of roads fostered economic expansion not just
in Greece but throughout what became known as the Greek
world. Yet Greece would not become the most important part
of the greater Greek-speaking world because cities like Alex-
andria in Egypt were to be the main centers of manufacturing
and imports.
Th e Roman Empire came to control Greece aft er the
battle of Pydna in 168 b.c.e. Rome became the unquestion-
able trading and economic power, placing Greece in a politi-
cally united Mediterranean. In the second century c.e. the
Roman author Lucian describes how he saw, in the Greek
port of Piraeus, a Roman grain ship that was 180 feet long
and 45 feet across, and “the crew was like an army.” Greek
culture and technology infl uenced the beginnings of Ro-man society, but its ports remained important for trading
throughout Roman times.ROME
BY CHRISTOPHER SMITH
Rome was superbly positioned from its beginnings to take
advantage of regional trade and exchange. Th e city of Rome
is situated on the banks of the Tiber River; as one sailed up
from the Mediterranean, from the fi rst crossing point and
alongside the river ran one of the oldest roads in Italy, the Via
Salaria, or “salt road,” which linked the salt pans of the coast
with the interior. Salt was a vital commodity in antiquity, ow-
ing to its preservative function.
Some of the earliest archaeological evidence for the urban
development of t he cit y comes f rom a n a rea adjacent to Rome’s
earliest port, called the Forum Boarium, which was primarily
a cattle market. As of the eighth century b.c.e. imported pot-
tery is in evidence at this site, signifying cults that originated
in the east. Th e most apparent is the cult of Hercules, from the
Greek Herakles, which also shows Phoenician features. Th ese
artifacts demonstrate the early growth of trade links, with key
connections being formed with the East. Indeed, Greek and
Phoenician traders moved westward from the eighth century
b.c.e. onward, bringing such unfamiliar and exotic materi-
als as gold, silver, and ivory, which became indicators of high
social status. Th e Romans also learned from the Greeks the
formal customs of banqueting. Th e Etruscans, who occupied
areas both north and south of Rome, were a crucial intermedi-
ary in this process of social development.
Alongside the development of such long-distance trade,
vigorous and important regional trade was conducted. Th e
hinterland of Rome, the region called Latium, was populatedtrade and exchange: Rome 1105Th e Crawford Cup, Roman, dating to the fi rst to second century c.e.
and found on the border between Syria and Turkey; this goblet was
made of fl uorspar, a relatively rare mineral that in the Roman period
could be found only in the kingdom of Parthia (modern-day Iran). (©
Th e Trustees of the British Museum)0895-1194_Soc&Culturev4(s-z).i1105 1105 10/10/07 2:31:05 PM