ABSTRACT
The aim of this chapter is to establish a model for trade in the chora of Roman Egypt and to ascertain the place of urban communities within that trading system. Such a task raises considerable methodological problems. We have abundant evidence for the activities of traders and for trade routes from Middle Egypt, both papyrological and archaeological. The quality of this evidence is, however, mixed and often anecdotal by nature: one document attesting a transaction may represent an ancient reality of hundreds of such transactions or just one. Quantification of economic activity is not an option. Instead of approaching the problem through statistical analysis, the only available method is to deal impressionistically with the evidence. Yet, the evidence is in such quantities that the only feasible approach is to quantify the material. The reader is cautioned that any figures produced below quantify surviving evidence, not the activity of the ‘real economy’. We must have at the forefront of any analysis the knowledge that figures may be questioned both on the basis of the ‘generality’ of the evidence from which they were derived and on their applicability to the particular problem. Caveat lector.
