ABSTRACT
Rostovtzeff had originally planned to include both Rome and Carthage in his study of the social and economic history of the Hellenistic world (SEHHW, vi). He excused himself, some what speciously as it may seem, first on the ground that the peculiar social and economic structures of Roman Italy and Carthage were not Greek in their essential features, and secondly, perhaps somewhat disingenuously, by pleading old age and the scale of the additional task of including the West in his study. It is not without interest that he anticipated that his decision would arouse the criticism of fellow historians.
