This collection of essays, by leading historian Jairus Banaji, provides a stimulating rebuttal to the prevailing minimalism in late antique studies. Together, they strike a balance between the wide lens and more specialised discussion, expanding on the perspective and argumentation laid out in an earlier book, Agrarian Change in Late Antiquity (2001). Successive chapters discuss the scale of the late Roman gold currency, the economic nature of the aristocracy, the importance of trade, relations between the state and the ruling class, and the problem of continuity into the early Middle Ages. A substantial introduction pulls together the themes of the book into a coherent synopsis, while the preface clarifies the broad aims behind the study. The book as a whole deploys a wide range of sources in various languages and is intended for ancient historians, students of late antiquity, and economic historians more generally.

This book contributes to a new economic history of late antiquity, with tightly argued, stimulating studies of class, money and exchange.

About the Author
Jairus Banaji is Research Professor at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. He has published on a wide range of subjects and very different periods, and his last book Theory as History (2010) won the 2011 Isaac and Tamara Deutscher Memorial Prize.


Book Information
ISBN 9781107101944
Author Jairus Banaji
Format Hardback
Page Count 270
Imprint Cambridge University Press
Publisher Cambridge University Press
Weight(grams) 530g
Dimensions(mm) 235mm * 160mm * 19mm