Structure and Performance in the Roman Economy
Models, Methods and Case Studies
Edited by P. Erdkamp Edited by K. Verboven
History is a reality that can be observed only through the traces it has left. Some are words and images (on parchment, papyrus, stone or any other bearer) conveying us the emotions and reflections of people in the past. Others are the scars and leftovers of human lives and actions, scattered in the landscape, buried or sunk under water. Historians and archaeologists are experts in restoring the damage done to a body of evidence by time or human manipulation. We are trained empiricists, wont to look down and think bottom-up. Economic history, however, requires us to do more: we need to look up. Economics is about explaining patterns in human interaction by detecting its causes and effects. However good our restored data are, the patterns they reveal will always be too fragmented and have too many loose ends to unveil reality. Economic history is always an act of imagination. The challenge is to ensure that it does not become an insubstantial pageant. Theories, models and comparative history help us to do that. They are explanatory frames and tools, showing the consequences of our assumptions and suggesting solutions to fill in the gaps. They do not diminish the need for empirical research methods. The output of any model depends on the reliability of its input data. This book discusses theories and models we believe are useful in economic history, but it also invites the reader to look at methods (both new and traditional) to ensure that input data are reliable, and offers case studies showing what can be done.
- Edited by P. Erdkamp
- Edited by K. Verboven
Other Titles in this Series
«Cum adulescens litteris Graecis operam darem»
El manuscrito latino de Giovanni Bartolomeo Marliano de Hesiodo, Operaet dies. Edicion critica del ms. Ang. lat. 240 (Roma, Biblioteca Angelica)
Volume 367, 2
Von Platon bis Fukuyama
Biologistische und zyklische Konzepte in der Geschichtsphilosophie der Antike und des Abendlandes
Volume 349
Fragmente eines Lebenswerks
Historischer Kommentar zur Universalgeschichte des Nikolaos von Damaskus
Volume 362
Sapientia contemptrix doloris
Le corps souffrant dans l'oeuvre philosophique de Sénèque
Volume 351
Discours des personnages féminins chez Sénèque
Approches logométriques et contrastives d'un corpus théâtral
Volume 359
Rome and the Seleukid East
Selected Papers from Seleukid Study Day V, Brussels, 21-23 August 2015
Volume 360
Imperial Transportation and Communication from the Third to the Late Fourth Century
The Golden Age of the cursus publicus
Volume 353
Le conflit propagandiste entre Octavien et Marc Antoine
De l'usage politique de la uituperatio entre 44 et 30 a. C. n.
Volume 357
Poétique(s) des commentaires antiques
Actes du colloque international (Université Charles de Gaulle-Lille 3, 17-19 novembre 2016)
Volume 364
Augustus through the Ages
Receptions, Readings and Appropriations of the Historical Figure of the First Roman Emperor
Volume 366
Similar Books
Invisible Labour in Antiquity
Visualizing Obscure Work in the Ancient Mediterannean and West Asia
Volume 1
Nurturing the Elite
Representations of Drinking, Eating, and Religious Vessels in Palmyrene Funerary Iconography
Volume 13
After Life in Roman Paganism. L’Égypte des astrologues. Les Mages hellénisés
Introductions historiographiques
Volume 7
Die Konjunkturkomponente des Grundgesetzes
Die konjunkturbedingte Kreditaufnahme im System der Kreditermächtigungen, europarechtlichen und gesamtwirtschaftlichen Verpflichtungen der Finanzverfassung
Kollektivismus und Individualismus im Aktienrecht
Zum Einfluss aktienrechtlicher Paradigmen auf die Rechtsentwicklung in Deutschland und den USA
But the Wise Shall Understand
Reuse of Prophecies, Chronotope, and Merging of Eschatological Horizons in Daniel 10-12
Creation Concepts and Creation Care
Perspectives from Early Judaism, Early Christianity, and Beyond. Kontexte und Normen neutestamentlicher Ethik / Contexts and Norms of New Testament Ethics XVII
Industriestadte
Historische Herausforderungen und aktuelle stadtpolitische Strategien. Tagungsband der 62. Jahrestagung des Sudwestdeutschen Arbeitskreises fur Stadtgeschichtsforschung
Volume 50
Stoic Presocratics – Presocratic Stoics
Studies in the Stoic Reception of Early Greek Philosophy
Volume 17
