Economic Rationalism and Rural Society in Third-Century AD Egypt
The Heroninos Archive and the Appianus Estate

This book reconstructs the life and workings of the Appianus estate in the Fayum district of Egypt under Roman rule in the third century AD.

Dominic Rathbone (Author)

9780521401494, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 12 September 1991

512 pages
22.3 x 14.5 x 3.6 cm, 0.773 kg

"...Rathbone's preliminary study offers the historian invaluable evidence on the accounting systems and high degree of monetization of estates in Roman Egypt during a time when inflation reputedly was driving most to abandon the use of coins. Rathbone has done a fine service to future scholars by assembling the published papyri of this family, and his book will serve as the basis for the organization of the rest of Appianus' records." Choice

This book reconstructs the life and workings of the Appianus estate in the Fayum district of Egypt under Roman rule in the third century AD. Basing his study on the extensive documentary evidence of the Heroninos archive, consisting of hundreds of letters and accounts on papyrus, Dr Rathbone examines first the nature of rural society at the time, and in particular the status of estate owners, their relations with their upper-class managers and the social and economic position of the estate's workforce and outside contacts. He then looks at the organization and running of the estate, the production and marketing of its crops and centrally directed transport system, and, above all, its use of credit arrangements and its system of accounting. This was one of the most sophisticated yet known in the ancient world and the author uses this example of economic rationalism to challenge the common belief that economic thought and practice were uniformly 'primitive' in the ancient world. Appendices include an index of all the published texts of the Heroninos archive, and two of Heroninos' accounts with an English translation.

List of figures and map
List of tables
Preface
List of abbreviations and notes for the reader
1. The archive and the estate
2. Owners and managers
3. Permanent labour
4. Occasional labour
5. Lessees and other contractors
6. Production on the phrontides
7. Transport, marketing and monetisation
8. The accounts
9. Conclusions
Appendix I. Papyrological matters
Appendix II. Measures and prices of wheat and of wine
Indexes.

Subject Areas: Social & cultural history [HBTB], Ancient history: to c 500 CE [HBLA], African history [HBJH], European history [HBJD], General & world history [HBG]