trade and exchange: Rome became common for coins to be made of silver and for Greek city-states to monopolize their formation The Athenian historian Xenophon wrote in the fourth century b.c.e that his city was assured of trade because of its good supply of silver coins, the result of the Athenian-controlled silver mines at Laurium in Attica Coins gave city-states a valuable way to exchange goods within Greece and for great distances beyond its shores Port markets (emporia) and marketplaces (agora) served as locations for trade with people from other cities The prosperity of some of these markets, especially in Athens and Corinth, increased significantly as trade between Greek cities and overseas nations increased In the marketplace foreigners often had to pay a tax just for purchasing goods Citystates could also collect a duty on the cargo of ships with access to their ports Written evidence at Athens shows that it taxed the value of vessels going through the Piraeus Although trade between short distances was possible over land, the mountainous topography of Greece usually necessitated long-distance travel by ship Toward the end of the Peloponnesian War in 413 b.c.e., Athens further exploited trade being carried out in the Aegean by imposing a percent duty on all the ports within the empire A noticeable contrast to Athens is apparent in the city of Sparta In the seventh century b.c.e Sparta conquered the territory of Messenia and enslaved the entire population, turning them into what were called helots Messenia was a fertile territory that provided Sparta with food supplies and a workforce of helots A deeply militaristic society, Sparta was against the accumulation of personal wealth Its military domination of Messenia meant that it was not forced into trading with cities for grain and was able to pass laws forbidding its citizens to trade The activities of Alexander the Great (336–323 b.c.e.) were to have a major effect on Greek economic activity After his death the empire he created, which stretched from Macedon to India, was split into several Hellenistic kingdoms The Macedonian generals of Alexander then ruled territories from Egypt, Syria, Anatolia (modern-day Turkey), and Macedonia Greece benefited because Greek became the international language of business The use of common currencies and the production of roads fostered economic expansion not just in Greece but throughout what became known as the Greek world Yet Greece would not become the most important part of the greater Greek-speaking world because cities like Alexandria in Egypt were to be the main centers of manufacturing and imports The Roman Empire came to control Greece after the battle of Pydna in 168 b.c.e Rome became the unquestionable trading and economic power, placing Greece in a politically united Mediterranean In the second century c.e the Roman author Lucian describes how he saw, in the Greek port of Piraeus, a Roman grain ship that was 180 feet long and 45 feet across, and “the crew was like an army.” Greek culture and technology influenced the beginnings of Ro- 1105 man society, but its ports remained important for trading throughout Roman times ROME BY CHRISTOPHER SMITH Rome was superbly positioned from its beginnings to take advantage of regional trade and exchange The city of Rome is situated on the banks of the Tiber River; as one sailed up from the Mediterranean, from the first crossing point and alongside the river ran one of the oldest roads in Italy, the Via Salaria, or “salt road,” which linked the salt pans of the coast with the interior Salt was a vital commodity in antiquity, owing to its preservative function Some of the earliest archaeological evidence for the urban development of the city comes from an area adjacent to Rome’s earliest port, called the Forum Boarium, which was primarily a cattle market As of the eighth century b.c.e imported pottery is in evidence at this site, signifying cults that originated in the east The most apparent is the cult of Hercules, from the Greek Herakles, which also shows Phoenician features These artifacts demonstrate the early growth of trade links, with key connections being formed with the East Indeed, Greek and Phoenician traders moved westward from the eighth century b.c.e onward, bringing such unfamiliar and exotic materials as gold, silver, and ivory, which became indicators of high social status The Romans also learned from the Greeks the formal customs of banqueting The Etruscans, who occupied areas both north and south of Rome, were a crucial intermediary in this process of social development Alongside the development of such long-distance trade, vigorous and important regional trade was conducted The hinterland of Rome, the region called Latium, was populated The Crawford Cup, Roman, dating to the first to second century c.e and found on the border between Syria and Turkey; this goblet was made of fluorspar, a relatively rare mineral that in the Roman period could be found only in the kingdom of Parthia (modern-day Iran) (© The Trustees of the British Museum)