This book compiles the key publications W.V. Harris has produced on the Roman economy in the last three decades. It includes chapters on a wide variety of topics, together covering almost the entire spectrum of Roman economic history, chronologically, geographically and conceptually. The book is to be welcomed as it brings together work that has not only played a key role in shaping current academic discourse on the Roman economy but also in many senses is still relevant: even though debates on particular issues may have moved on, the broad approach of most chapters, and Harris’ continuous emphasis on the terms of the debate, guarantee that many readers will find something of interest here. The potential audience of the book is wide, and includes (beginning) specialists on Roman economic history, who might want to read the entire book front to back, and students focusing on specific subsets of questions, who might want to read individual chapters – not all of which are easily accessible.
The book starts with an introduction in which Harris explains the rationale behind the chapters and their ordering, and points to some larger issues related to the study of the Roman economy and, particularly, its agenda for the foreseeable future. Though short, this is in fact an interesting and provocative piece, to which scholars may want to return for inspiration in the coming years. The twelve subsequent chapters have been thematically arranged under six headings: ‘structures’, ‘slavery’, ‘production’, ‘trade’, ‘money’, and ‘overviews’.
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The present reviewer disagrees with Harris on one major issue. Harris states (p. 6) that the whole Roman empire needs to be our subject, and sometimes a still wider area. This is also reflected in the book: with the exception of chapter 8 on the Po area, all chapters claim to deal with the Roman world in its entirety. While one may easily maintain that the Roman economy was one gigantic interconnected organism and that we should try to understand it in its entirety, we may be limiting ourselves by using empire-wide approaches alone: with the increasing chronological and geographical scale, one inevitably looses analytical depth, and one will unduly privilege the average over the exceptional. Less sometimes is more, and if there is one thing really lacking from Harris’ collected work here it is this small-scale, context-specific perspective which does not generate a historical overview but often may lead to detailed and interesting historical scenarios that enrich our historical spectrum. Typically, of the one chapter that focuses on one relatively limited region – chapter 8 on the Po area – Harris now feels that he should have used a more wide-ranging approach.
Nevertheless, there is no doubt that this book is an extremely valuable collection of scholarship of the highest quality that has already proven its academic relevance. The book covers a wide range of issues related to the Roman economy and deserves to reach a wide audience: this typically is a book one would expect to find in the academic libraries of more modest size as well. What this book shows more than the individual articles do is that one of the great strengths of Harris lies in his style of writing: Harris consistently frames his discussion within the wider academic debate: he is not one of those scholars who will hide himself behind an authoritative air of objectivity, but continuously refers to his own personal role in the construction of his ideas. This is a form of intellectual honesty (and modesty) that greatly enhances the accessibility of Harris’ texts, and that could serve as an example for many. Further, though the notes added by Harris at the end of each article are sometimes a bit short, they provide useful updates and at points interesting academic debate. Though some might be disappointed that Harris has not taken the time to more substantially rework and update the articles, Rome’s Imperial Economy is a valuable book the appearance of which is much to be welcomed.
Miko Flohr, 22/02/2012