Subject Guides: Classics: Economies

Solidus, Constantine II
[image source]

River Vessel Carrying Barrels
[image source]

Trajan’s Market, Rome
[image source]

Understand your topic

The first step is to make sure you understand the topic. Identify the main concepts or keywords in your question to help you develop a search strategy.

Use encyclopedias and dictionaries for Classics to find definitions and background information

Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt (ANRW) = Rise and Decline of the Roman World
Print only; but there is an online index
The Cambridge Ancient History
The Cambridge Economic History of the Greco-Roman World
Also held in print format
A Companion to Ancient History (ed. A. Erskine)
Part VI, Economy
Oxford Bibliographies Online: Classics
Annotated bibliographies by scholars. Relevant articles include “Economy, Roman” and “Numismatics, Greek and Roman”
Oxford Classical Dictionary
Browse terms under the subfield Ancient Economy; relevant articles include “coinage, Greek,” “coinage, Roman,” “economy, Greek,” “economy, Hellenistic,” “economy, Roman,” “industry,” “labour,” “trade, Greek” and “trade, Roman”
The Oxford Handbook of Greek and Roman Coinage (ed. William E. Metcalf)

Check for High-Demand items by course code (about High Demand )
Find course material on AKO | LEARN.

Find books

Books and ebooks via MultiSearch

The Library Catalogue lists books held in the Library's collection. Hints for searching the library catalogue:

Use Keywords or Title searches to find additional material
Use the Browse Alphabetically: By Author search (e.g., Cicero, M) to find primary sources
Note that the Library Catalogue does not use abbreviated book titles. If your reading list uses abbreviation like CAH, you will need to type ‘Cambridge Ancient History’ in full
Click the Subject Headings of useful titles to find books on related subjects. Some relevant subject headings are
- Coinage – Greece ; Coinage – Rome
- Coins, Ancient ; Coins, Classical ; Coins, Greek ; Coins, Roman
- Economic history – To 500 – refine by “Era” To 500 in the left-hand column.
- Commerce – History – To 500 – refine by “Era” To 500 in the left-hand column.
- Greece – Economic conditions – To 146 B.C.
- Greece – Commerce – History
- Money – Greece ; Money – Rome
- Roads, Roman
- Rome – Commerce
- Rome – Economic conditions and scroll down the left-hand column to “Era” to refine by time period.
- Rome – Economic policy
- For sources, try adding “sources” to your search terms, for example
  Rome AND (commerce OR economic) AND sources – Subject search.
Browse the library shelves in the classification sequences for Economics and Commerce.
NB. Since 2024 the library catalogue only includes books and ebooks purchased by UC Library. It omits hundreds of thousands of ebook titles ‘leased’ through library subscriptions, which are listed on MultiSearch. The library catalogue has more functional search and sorting capabilities than MultiSearch, all the same.

See also:

Citation chaining

Finding ebooks

Find journal articles

See tips on finding journal articles.

Economics and commerce – Central Library

CJ 301–763	Ancient Greek Coins – Central Library, Level 11
CJ 801–1147	Roman Coins – Central Library, Level 11
DG 28–29	Roman Roads in Italy – Central Library, Level 10
HC 37	Greece. Economic History
HC 39	Rome. Economic History
HD 132–139	Land Use in Ancient Greece and Rome
HD 4844	Labour and Work in the Ancient World
HE 159–175	Transport and Communication in the Ancient World – EPS Library, Level 1
HF 357	Commerce in the Ancient World–General
HF 373–376	Greece. Commerce
HF 377–378	Rome. Commerce
HG 237	Money – History, Ancient
HJ 212–225	Public Finance in the Ancient world

Find websites: Economies

Graeco-Roman economy

Ancient Ports – Ports Antiques (Arthur de Graauw)
A catalogue of ancient coastal settlements, ports and harbours based on a study of ancient and modern authors, including the Barrington Atlas.

Greek economy

Engen, Darel. “The Economy of Ancient Greece”
EH.Net Encyclopedia , ed. Robert Whaples. 31 July 2004

Roman economy

ORBIS: The Stanford Geospatial Network Model of the Roman World
Reconstructs the time cost and financial expense associated with a wide range of different types of travel in antiquity. The model is based on a simplified version of the giant network of cities, roads, rivers and sea lanes that framed movement across the Roman Empire. It broadly reflects conditions around 200 CE, but also covers a few sites and roads created in late antiquity
The Oxford Roman Economy Project
The Project is based in the Faculty of Classics, at the University of Oxford. The website makes accessible the large amounts of data that are studied during the project. Includes access to full-text working papers, bibliographies and databases

Coins

The Beginnings of Empire, 168-27 BC (University of Warwick)
Project investigating provincial coins in the Roman Empire. The website includes a database of raw data generated by the project
Coin hoards of the Roman Republic Online (CHRR Online)
A database of Roman Republican coin hoards from 155 BCE to 2 CE
Coinage of the Roman Republic Online (CRRO)
Provides access to multiple online collections and digital projects using Linked Open Data
Corpus Nummorum Online
An open access numismatic web portal. As at August 2020 you can browse through and search for coins and coin types minted in Moesia Inferior, Thrace, Mysia and the Troad.
Online Coins of the Roman Empire (OCRE)
A catalogue of coins from 30 BCE to 211 CE
Roman Provincial Coinage Online (University of Oxford)
A database of provincial coinage of the Roman Empire

Library Subject Guides

Classics: Economies