Introduction and Definition
The Roman economy was the economic system created by the geographical expansion of the political power of Rome over the Mediterranean and Europe between the third-century BCE and the first-century CE and maintained during the first centuries of our era until its gradual decline in late antiquity. The Roman economy can be seen as the acme of a long period of technological development and economic growth in the Mediterranean, which began in the early first millennium BCE and led to population increase, intensification of land use, economic and political integration, and urbanization. Its decline in late antiquity marks the beginning of a long period of transformation and urban regression in Europe as well as in large parts of the Mediterranean.
Historical Background
Academic History
The history, structure, and performance of the Roman economy have been hotly debated issues since the late nineteenth century. Debate about the Roman economy has long been...
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Further Reading
Bang, P. 2008. The Roman bazaar. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Bowman, A. & A. Wilson. (ed.) 2009. Quantifying the Roman economy. Methods and problems. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Finley, M.I. 1973.The ancient economy. London: Chatto and Windus.
Greene, K. 1986. The archaeology of the roman economy. Berkeley: University of California Press.
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Hopkins, K. 1980. Taxes and trade in the Roman Empire. Journal of Roman Studies 70: 101-25.
Horden, P. & N. Purcell. 2000. The corrupting sea. Oxford: Blackwell.
Kehoe, D. 2007. The early Roman Empire: production, in W. Scheidel, I. Morris & R. Saller (ed.) The Cambridge economic history of the Greco-Roman world: 543-69. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Morley, N.1996. Metropolis and hinterland. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
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Rostovtzeff, M. 1957. The social and economic history of the Roman Empire. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Scheidel,W. 2009. In search of Roman economic growth. Journal of Roman Archaeology 22: 46-70.
Scheidel, W & S. Friesen. 2009. The size of the economy and the distribution of income in the Roman Empire. Journal of Roman Studies 99: 61-91.
Wilson, A. 2002. Machines, power and the ancient economy. Journal of Roman Studies 92: 1-32.
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- 2009. Indicators for Roman economic growth: a response to Walter Scheidel. Journal of Roman Archaeology 22: 71-82.
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Flohr, M. (2014). Economy, Roman. In: Smith, C. (eds) Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-0465-2_1471
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