58504 - History of Ancient Economics (1)

Learning outcomes

By the end of the course students will know the main sources for research into ancient economics, and be familiar with the conceptual framework and historiographic debate surrounding this side to ancient history. They will know the issues and methods pertaining to an economic analysis. They will know how to fit this section of the subject into the framework of modern economic history, as well as being able to link up general points to a specific case study. They will have learnt an original approach to texts and data, and be able to arrange and classify complex issues and information, summarising them and talking about them clearly. Working independently and in an orderly fashion, they will have acquired self-criticism and an ability to learn from mingling with others; they will also know how to choose the learning tools best suited to their own skills and purposes.

Course contents

N.B. for those choosing this course for the L-ANT/03 credits required for teaching and for Erasmus students, a personalized programme can be agreed upon with the lecturer.

In the first part, the focus will be on the main methodological problems of the Economic History of the Greek and Roman worlds and on the major ancient document typologies that are relevant to the discipline. In the second part, mainly through the reading and analysing of texts and images, some evolution lines of the ancient economy will be explored from the archaic period in Greece to Late Antiquity.

In particular, the topics are:

1. Problems and limits of the study of ancient economics (4 hours).

2. Sources for the study of the ancient economy (2 hours).

3. Archaic Greece: production, distribution, consumption (4 hours).

4. Classical Greece: production, distribution, consumption (4 hours).

5. The Hellenistic world: production, distribution, consumption (4 hours).

6. The Roman World during the Republic period: production, distribution, consumption (4 hours).

7. The Roman world during the imperial period: production, distribution, consumption (4 hours).

8. The Late Antiquity: production, distribution, consumption (4 hours).

Readings/Bibliography

For those choosing this course for the L-ANT/03 credits required for teaching and for Erasmus students, a personalized programme can be agreed upon with the lecturer.

 

Bibliography for attending students:

Students who attend at least 75% of the lessons are considered to be attending.

1. For the general outlines of the History of Ancient Economics, the study of the following two texts is required:
   • L. Migeotte, L'economia delle città greche, Roma, Carocci, 2003 (or further editions); the text is available in the library of the Ancient History section (via Zamboni 38, 4th floor) listed under ESAMI CONS. 0068.
   • F. Carlà – A. Marcone, Economia e finanza a Roma, Bologna, Il Mulino, 2011; (or further editions); the text is available in the library of the Ancient History section (via Zamboni 38, 4th floor) listed under ESAMI CONS. 0067.
2. For further exploration of particular aspects of the economy of the Greek world or the Roman world, a paper of your choice from the following:

Greek world:

• Alain Bresson, Markets, in Sitta von Reden (ed.), The Cambridge companion to the Ancient Greek Economy, Cambridge 2022, pp. 221-236.

• Daniele Foraboschi, Economia reale e riflessione teorica, in Salvatore Settis (a cura di), I Greci: Storia, Cultura, Arte, Società. 2. Una Storia Greca. III. Trasformazioni, Torino 1998, pp. 665-680.

• Daniel Jew, The agricultural Economy, Sitta von Reden (ed.), The Cambridge companion to the Ancient Greek Economy, Cambridge 2022, pp. 186-201.

• Karl Polanyi, Aristotele scopre l’economia, in Karl Polanyi (a cura di), Traffici e mercati negli antichi Imperi (tr. Eugenio Somaini), Torino 1978, pp. 75-113.

Roman world:

• Jean Andreau, Mercati e mercato, in Guido Clemente, Filippo Coarelli, Emilio Gabba (a cura di), Storia di Roma. 2. L’Impero Mediterraneo. II. I principi e il mondo, Torino 1991, pp. 367-385.

• Dennis P. Kehoe, The Early Roman Empire: Production, in Walter Scheidel, Ian Morris, Richard Saller (eds.), The Cambridge Economic History of the Greco-Roman World, Cambridge 2007, pp. 543-569.

• Arnaldo Marcone, Le innovazioni nell’agricoltura romana, in Elio Lo Cascio (a cura di), Innovazione tecnica e progresso economico nel mondo romano, Bari 2006, pp. 181-195.

• Walter Scheidel, Slavery, in Walter Scheidel (ed.) The Cambridge Companion to the Roman Economy, Cambridge 2012, pp. 89-113.

3. Concerning the topics discussed during lectures, attending students, in addition to personal notes, will count on the slides projected which will be uploaded to the Virtuale platform.

Bibliography for non-attending students:

1. For the general outlines of the History of Ancient Economics, the study of the following two texts is required:
   • L. Migeotte, L'economia delle città greche, Roma, Carocci, 2003 (or further editions); the text is available in the library of the Ancient History section (via Zamboni 38, 4th floor) listed under ESAMI CONS. 0068.
   • F. Carlà – A. Marcone, Economia e finanza a Roma, Bologna, Il Mulino, 2011; (or further editions); the text is available in the library of the Ancient History section (via Zamboni 38, 4th floor) listed under ESAMI CONS. 0067.
2. For further exploration of particular aspects of the economy of the Greek world or the Roman world, four papers of your choice from the following:

   Greek World:

• Alain Bresson, Markets, in Sitta von Reden (ed.), The Cambridge companion to the Ancient Greek Economy, Cambridge 2022, pp. 221-236.

• Daniele Foraboschi, Economia reale e riflessione teorica, in Salvatore Settis (a cura di), I Greci: Storia, Cultura, Arte, Società. 2. Una Storia Greca. III. Trasformazioni, Torino 1998, pp. 665-680.

• Daniel Jew, The agricultural Economy, Sitta von Reden (ed.), The Cambridge companion to the Ancient Greek Economy, Cambridge 2022, pp. 186-201.

• Karl Polanyi, Aristotele scopre l’economia, in Karl Polanyi (a cura di), Traffici e mercati negli antichi Imperi (tr. Eugenio Somaini), Torino 1978, pp. 75-113.
  
  Roman World:

• Jean Andreau, Mercati e mercato, in Guido Clemente, Filippo Coarelli, Emilio Gabba (a cura di), Storia di Roma. 2. L’Impero Mediterraneo. II. I principi e il mondo, Torino 1991, pp. 367-385.

• Dennis P. Kehoe, The Early Roman Empire: Production, in Walter Scheidel, Ian Morris, Richard Saller (eds.), The Cambridge Economic History of the Greco-Roman World, Cambridge 2007, pp. 543-569.

• Arnaldo Marcone, Le innovazioni nell’agricoltura romana, in Elio Lo Cascio (a cura di), Innovazione tecnica e progresso economico nel mondo romano, Bari 2006, pp. 181-195.

• Walter Scheidel, Slavery, in Walter Scheidel (ed.) The Cambridge Companion to the Roman Economy, Cambridge 2012, pp. 89-113.

Teaching methods

Lectures on methodological problems and sources for the study of ancient economic history will be provided. In the second part of the course, students will be involved in the reading of the numerous ancient testimonies that will be used to outline the main developments in the economic history of the Greek world (archaic, classical, Hellenistic periods) and the Roman world (republic, empire, late antiquity).

An Integrative Digital Didactics project is also planned, addressed to students who do not have the opportunity to attend classes in person and who will compose a sort of virtual classroom.

The project involves recording the lectures through the Panopto application; the interaction with the students will be ensured by the opening of a Forum (one of the tools provided by the platform Virtuale) for each of the scheduled lessons, in which students who will follow the course in this mode will be able to ask the teachers questions on the subject dealt with; the questions and the relative answers will thus be visible to the whole virtual class.

Also through Virtuale, not only the slides with the guidelines of the lessons are made available, as was already foreseen in previous years for all course participants, but also additional in-depth materials intended explicitly for the virtual class.

A preliminary remote meeting is planned, through the Teams application, with all participants in the virtual class before the start of the lessons, to illustrate this experimental project to interested students; the date of the meeting will be announced on the News page of the two teachers' websites. From lesson to lesson, simple activities to verify learning on the subject matter will also be proposed, through Virtuale; completing these activities will allow students to continue attending the course.

At the end of the course there will be a meeting, at distance too, to verify the effectiveness of the chosen method (the meeting which will also be accompanied by a anonymous questionnaire, with the same purpose) which will certainly be of great use for adjustments in a possible re-edition of this experiment in the 2023-2024 academic year.

Students in the virtual classroom who have successfully completed the learning assessment activities, thus demonstrating that they have followed the course carefully, will be considered attending students and will be able to take the related program to the exam.

Assessment methods

For attending students, the assessment (oral examination of about 25 min.) will consist in:

• one question about topics faced by L. Migeotte, L'economia delle città greche, Roma, Carocci, 2003, with appropriate links to sources and topics explained during lectures.
• one question about topics faced by F. Carlà – A. Marcone, Economia e finanza a Roma, Bologna, Il Mulino, 2011, with appropriate links to sources and topics explained during lectures.
• A question on the article chosen by the student from the list of eight proposed articles.

For non-attending students, the assessment (oral examination of about 25 min.) will consist in:

• one question about topics faced by L. Migeotte, L'economia delle città greche, Roma, Carocci, 2003.
• one question about topics faced by F. Carlà – A. Marcone, Economia e finanza a Roma, Bologna, Il Mulino, 2011.
• A question on one of the four articles chosen by the student from the list of eight proposed articles.

 

If the student achieves a complete and detailed vision of the topics discussed in class and required for the discipline, provides an effective critical commentary, shows mastery of expression and of the specific language, he obtains excellence in the evaluation (28-30L).

Those students who demonstrate a comprehensive knowledge of the main topics of the subject, basic analytical ability and ability to synthesize, and a correct command of the language, will be given a good mark (25-27).

Those students who demonstrate a mnemonic (and/or non-exhaustive) knowledge of the subject with a more superficial analytical ability and ability to synthesize, a correct command of the language but not always appropriate, will be given a satisfactory mark (22-24).

A superficial knowledge and understanding of the material, a scarce analytical and expressive ability that is not always appropriate will be rewarded with a ‘pass’ mark (18-21).

A student will be deemed to have failed the exam if he displays significant errors in his understanding and failure to grasp the overall outlines of the subject, together with a poor command of the appropriate terminology (< 18).

 

Teaching tools

During the course, PowerPoint slides will be displayed. Virtuale, the University's repository for sharing teaching support tools, will be used to share the power points discussed during the lessons and the proposed readings.

Office hours

See the website of Simone Ciambelli