SYLLABUS

TERM 1

Week 1

No classes

 

Week 2

Introduction; sources for the Roman economy; the Great Debate about the nature of the Roman economy

 

Week 3

Growth and its limits: did the Roman empire experience growth? What were the potential constraints on growth?

 

Week 4

Models and institutions

 

Week 5

Institutions: Finance in the Roman world

 

Week 7

Institutions: Roman money

 

Week 8

The ‘bedrock’ of the economy: agricultural production and land use

 

Week 9

Markets, trade and consumption

 

Week 10

Trade: the evidence from shipwrecks; traders’ knowledge in the Roman world; the Roman army and the economy

TERM 2

Week 1

Roman technology and economic development

 

Week 2

Roman mining

 

Week 3

System and product: Quarries

 

Week 4

Pottery and the Roman economy

 

Week 5

Trade beyond the frontiers: Indo-Roman trade

 

Week 7

Trade beyond the frontiers: north Africa and beyond

 

Week 8

The third century: crisis; what crisis?

 

Week 9

Late antiquity

 

Week 10

The end of the Roman economy?