Maritime Traders in the Ancient Greek World 2003 Reeds 0511065280.pdf

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MARITIME TRADERS IN

THE ANCIENT GREEK WORLD

This is the ﬁrst full work since Hasebroek’s Trade and Politics in the

Ancient World to deal directly with the place of maritime traders in an-

cient Greece. Its main assumption is that traders’ juridical, economic,

political, and unofﬁcial standing can only be viewed correctly through

the lens of the polis framework. It argues that those engaging in inter-

regional trade with classical Athens were mainly poor and foreign

(hence politically inert at Athens). Moreover, Athens, as well as other

classical Greek poleis, resorted to limited measures, well short of war

or other modes of economic imperialism, to attract them. However,

at least in the minds of individual Athenians, considerations of traders’

indispensability to Athens displaced what otherwise would have been

low estimations of their social status.

C. M. REED is William States Lee Professor of History at Queens

College, Charlotte, North Carolina.

MARITIME TRADERS IN

THE ANCIENT GREEK

WORLD

C. M. REED

William S. Lee Professor of History

Queens College,

Charlotte, North Carolina