Author Description

Introduction: approaching the imperial Roman economy -- Central aims of the book -- Who will read this? Target audiences -- Lingering questions about imperial Rome -- The many faces of Roman economic history -- From fine-grained to 'big picture': methods and treatment of the evidence -- The contribution of modern thinking to ancient problems -- Book organization -- Terms and definitions -- The gift that kept on giving: perpetual endowments and the role of prosociality in Rome's economic development -- The evolution of prosocial traits from the early days of Rome -- Prosociality, charity, and social capital: how elite benefaction came to be -- Perpetual foundations: the gift that kept on giving -- What lies under the epiphenomena? -- Investing in the Roman economy: material evidence for economic development -- Benefactions as wealth generators -- Investment opportunities in the Roman economy -- Money in the Roman economy: the numismatic evidence -- Supplying the demand: coinage, monetization, and market development -- Aligning public and private interests: public building, private money, and urban development -- Public needs and private incentives -- Rome: a world of cities -- Public building in the cities of Roman Africa: a case study -- Urbanization and the development of the non-agrarian sectors -- The surprisingly short reach of the Roman state -- The public deeds of private citizens -- Aligning interests -- Measuring economic performance beyond GDP: economic growth, income inequality, and Roman living standards -- Real growth in the pre-modern world?: debates, controversies, and confusion in Roman economic history -- Proxy evidence: extrapolation or hypothesis testing? -- Rome's 99%: economic capacity and the distribution of wealth -- Sharing the spoils of success: increasing living standards with public goods -- Collective action and prosociality in the creation of public goods -- From prosociality to civil strife: conflict, stagnation, and growing re