‎Contents

‎Acknowledgements

‎List of Illustrations

‎Figures

‎Tables

‎Maps

‎List of Roman Emperors

‎Central Roman Emperors

‎Gallic Emperors

‎Chapter 1. Introduction: Approaching the Imperial Roman Economy

‎1. Central Aims of the Book

‎2. Who Will Read This? Target Audiences

‎3. Lingering Questions about Imperial Rome

‎4. The Many Faces of Roman Economic History

‎5. From Fine-Grained to ‘Big Picture’: Methods and Treatment of the Evidence

‎6. The Contribution of Modern Thinking to Ancient Problems

‎7. Book Organization

‎8. Terms and Definitions

‎Chapter 2. The Gift That Kept On Giving: Perpetual Endowments and the Role of Prosociality in Rome’s Economic Development

‎1. The Evolution of Prosocial Traits from the Early Days of Rome

‎2. Prosociality, Charity, and Social Capital: How Elite Benefaction Came to Be

‎3. Perpetual Foundations: The Gift That Kept On Giving

‎4. What Lies under the Epiphenomena?

‎Chapter 3. Investing in the Roman Economy: Material Evidence for Economic Development

‎1. Benefactions as Wealth Generators

‎2. Investment Opportunities in the Roman Economy

‎3. Money in the Roman Economy: The Numismatic Evidence

‎4. Supplying the Demand: Coinage, Monetization, and Market Development

‎Chapter 4. Aligning Public and Private Interests: Public Building, Private Money, and Urban Development

‎1. Public Needs and Private Incentives

‎2. Rome: A World of Cities

‎3. Public Building in the Cities of Roman Africa: A Case Study

‎4. Urbanization and the Development of the Non-agrarian Sectors

‎5. The Surprisingly Short Reach of the Roman State

‎6. The Public Deeds of Private Citizens

‎7. Aligning Interests

‎Chapter 5. Measuring Economic Performance beyond GDP: Economic Growth, Income Inequality, and Roman Living Standards

‎1. Real Growth in the Pre-modern World? Debates, Controversies, and Confusion in Roman Economic History

‎2. Proxy Evidence: Extrapolation or Hypothesis Testing?

‎3. Rome’s 99%: Economic Capacity and the Distribution of Wealth

‎4. Sharing the Spoils of Success: Increasing Living Standards with Public Goods

‎5. Collective Action and Prosociality in the Creation of Public Goods

‎Chapter 6. From Prosociality to Civil Strife: Conflict, Stagnation, and Growing Regional Divides in the Third Century CE

‎1. An Overview of the ‘Crises’ of the Third Century

‎2. What Really Happened after 235CE?

‎3. Money, Investment, and Markets

‎4. Production and Exchange

‎5. The End of Roman Prosociality?

‎Conclusion: Rome’s Place in a Global History of Development

‎Appendix 1. List of Inscriptions from the Western Empire Recording Interest being Drawn

‎Appendix 2. List of Building Inscriptions from the North African Provinces Recording the Sponsor

‎Bibliography

‎Index