Economic Analysis of Ancient Rome

[Xanthippus]

I've been trying to find this book or rather collection of works (6 volumes) which I had used in the past. Unfortunately, I cannot find it anywhere. It may be because I'm mixing up the name of it or something like that, but here is what I remember of it:

 

Title: An Economic Analysis of Ancient Rome (or that's what I believed it was)

Published in the 1960s

6 volume series with economic analyses of the Empire segmented into geographical areas. (The 6th book was just an index for the previous 5)

Each portion was written by a different author and the leading author, or at least the one who compiled the book had passed away before finishing it.

It was very dry, simply listing what happened without trying to jump to unwarranted conclusions as well as providing the original latin and greek texts for some of the important stuff like the Edict of Diocletian.

 

Basically I was hoping to get my hands on it again since all the information is compiled and easily accessible, but I can't seem to buy it anywhere or find it. Sorry to be so vague but if you know of it or of another good source similar in content to what is described please let me know. Thank you.

[Melvadius]

Any chance it is the series of books entitled An economic survey of ancient Rome which I understand were actually written between 1933 and 1940.

[Xanthippus]

Any chance it is the series of books entitled An economic survey of ancient Rome which I understand were actually written between 1933 and 1940.

 

Yes! Thank you. Sorry for the belated reply. Now to get my hands on a set of them.

[Klingan]

I haven't read the work in question but you should know that you must be very cautious reading any literature on Roman economy older than 1990-1995. Especially the Finley era (1965 - roughly the 90's and to some extent still today) is dangerous as he portrayed a very dark picture of the ancient world (parasite cities, no trade of value, no inventions to boost the economy). The view is considerably lighter today as more and more archaeological evidence support long distance trade and so on.

 

I would recommend taking a look at The archaeology of the Roman economy (which is a rather topic specific work) by Kevin Greene (1990) and/or the following articles. Let me know if you can't get your hands on them.

 

Green 2000: K. Green,