Money in Ptolemaic Egypt: From the Macedonian Conquest to the End of the Third Century BC - Hardcover

Von Reden, Sitta

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0521852641 ISBN 13: 9780521852647

Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 2008

Synopsis

This book explores the impact of Alexander the Great's introduction of coined money on the economy and society of Egypt and its political implications for the formation of the Ptolemaic state. It argues that the introduction of coinage happened slowly, spreading gradually from Alexandria into the chora. Under Ptolemy II, however, Egypt was aggressively monetised. Using both numismatic and papyrological evidence, the workings of a rural monetary economy are reconstructed where coinage was in high demand, but in short supply. It is argued that by the middle of the third century BC Egypt was much more thoroughly monetised than is usually assumed, but that the degree of monetisation was sustained only by an extensive credit economy as well as ad hoc commutation of monetary payments into kind. Contextualising the complexities of credit and banking in rural Egypt, the book offers a fresh picture of their function in the ancient economy.

About this title

Book Description:

When Alexander the Great conquered Egypt he introduced coinage into a country whose economy had worked without it for millennia. This book explores the impact of the gradual adoption of this coinage, and reveals how some places were completely monetised by the middle of the third century BC.

About the Author:

Sitta von Reden is Lecturer in Ancient History at the University of Augsburg, having previously taught at Bristol. She is the author of Exchange in Ancient Greece (1995) and co-editor, with Paul Cartledge and Paul Millett, of Kosmos: Essays in Order, Conflict and Community in Classical Athens (1998).

About this edition

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 0521852641
• ISBN 13: 9780521852647
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 378