Michael Dietler
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520265516
- eISBN:
- 9780520947948
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520265516.003.0005
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, European History: BCE to 500CE
Trade, interspersed with episodes of violence, was the principal form of interaction between indigenous peoples of the Mediterranean region and Etruscans and Greeks. But even after the Roman military ...
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Trade, interspersed with episodes of violence, was the principal form of interaction between indigenous peoples of the Mediterranean region and Etruscans and Greeks. But even after the Roman military intrusion into the region in the late second century B.C.E., trade continued to be a major element of colonial relations and a significant factor in the history of the colonial situation. Cross-cultural trade in Mediterranean France remained for centuries almost entirely in the form of barter. Coinage, although employed for various purposes within Greek settlements, was little used in indigenous contexts until the first century B.C.E., and there were few low value coins in circulation before that period that could have served the needs of small-scale exchanges. This chapter examines the nature of trade and traders in Mediterranean France. It discusses shipwrecks and the nature of maritime trade and traders, trade enclaves and diasporas, the role of settlements located along rivers in several parallel valleys leading inland from the coast of the lower Rhône basin in trade networks as either native emporia or colonial trading posts, and piracy and trade.Less
Trade, interspersed with episodes of violence, was the principal form of interaction between indigenous peoples of the Mediterranean region and Etruscans and Greeks. But even after the Roman military intrusion into the region in the late second century B.C.E., trade continued to be a major element of colonial relations and a significant factor in the history of the colonial situation. Cross-cultural trade in Mediterranean France remained for centuries almost entirely in the form of barter. Coinage, although employed for various purposes within Greek settlements, was little used in indigenous contexts until the first century B.C.E., and there were few low value coins in circulation before that period that could have served the needs of small-scale exchanges. This chapter examines the nature of trade and traders in Mediterranean France. It discusses shipwrecks and the nature of maritime trade and traders, trade enclaves and diasporas, the role of settlements located along rivers in several parallel valleys leading inland from the coast of the lower Rhône basin in trade networks as either native emporia or colonial trading posts, and piracy and trade.
Gary Forsythe
John Connelly (ed.)
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520226517
- eISBN:
- 9780520940291
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520226517.001.0001
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Archaeology: Classical
During the period from Rome's Stone Age beginnings on the Tiber River to its conquest of the Italian peninsula in 264 B.C., the Romans in large measure developed the social, political, and military ...
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During the period from Rome's Stone Age beginnings on the Tiber River to its conquest of the Italian peninsula in 264 B.C., the Romans in large measure developed the social, political, and military structure that would be the foundation of their spectacular imperial success. This account draws from historical, archaeological, linguistic, epigraphic, religious, and legal evidence to trace Rome's early development within a multicultural environment of Latins, Sabines, Etruscans, Greeks, and Phoenicians. The book charts the development of the classical republican institutions that would eventually enable Rome to create its vast empire, and provides discussions of topics including Roman prehistory, religion, and language. The book offers a revisionist interpretation of Rome's early history through its innovative use of ancient sources. The history of this period is notoriously difficult to uncover because there are no extant written records, and because the later historiography that affords the only narrative accounts of Rome's early days is shaped by the issues, conflicts, and ways of thinking of its own time. This book provides an examination of those surviving ancient sources in light of their underlying biases, thereby reconstructing early Roman history upon a more solid evidentiary foundation.Less
During the period from Rome's Stone Age beginnings on the Tiber River to its conquest of the Italian peninsula in 264 B.C., the Romans in large measure developed the social, political, and military structure that would be the foundation of their spectacular imperial success. This account draws from historical, archaeological, linguistic, epigraphic, religious, and legal evidence to trace Rome's early development within a multicultural environment of Latins, Sabines, Etruscans, Greeks, and Phoenicians. The book charts the development of the classical republican institutions that would eventually enable Rome to create its vast empire, and provides discussions of topics including Roman prehistory, religion, and language. The book offers a revisionist interpretation of Rome's early history through its innovative use of ancient sources. The history of this period is notoriously difficult to uncover because there are no extant written records, and because the later historiography that affords the only narrative accounts of Rome's early days is shaped by the issues, conflicts, and ways of thinking of its own time. This book provides an examination of those surviving ancient sources in light of their underlying biases, thereby reconstructing early Roman history upon a more solid evidentiary foundation.
