ABSTRACT
As we saw in the previous chapter, the study of the ancient economy has recently moved beyond the centres of the Graeco-Roman world and turned towards its geographical and temporal borders, the Hellenistic world and the Roman provinces. Although less well documented by ancient authors, and often ignored by modern scholars, these areas have produced an abundance of numismatic, epigraphic and papyrological material which is only beginning to be explored. Yet this material also poses new problems and questions, especially how it should be used and what it can tell us given that its ideological context is frequently unknown. Moreover, while material on costs, prices, wages, rents and so forth is rich by ancient standards, it may not be sufficient for reliable quantitative or statistical analysis. The nature of the relationship between these Hellenised and Romanised regions, on the one hand, and the centres of Greek and Roman society and culture, on the other, is also open to debate.
