It is generally believed that the systematic study of economics and its principles was started in 1776 with the publication of An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith, who has been universally held as the founding father of economics. Prior to Adam Smith,...

The establishment of Christianity in the late- and post-Roman world caused an economic as well as a religious revolution, but, while a great deal of attention has been paid to the religious developments of the period, the impact of the establishment of the Church on the economy has attracted...

This article discusses the various problems associated with the derivation of mortality measures for ancient Greece and Rome. It outlines two new sets of high mortality model life tables that describe the experiences of such populations more effectively than existing models. The issue of...

It has long been known that most of the private law content of the Theodosian Code has not been preserved independently of the Lex Romana Visigothorum, or Breviary of Alaric. Certain constitutions, not contained in the Breviary but dating to the period covered by the Theodosian Code, have...

A crucial step in economic development is the depersonalization of business, which enables an enterprise to operate as a separate entity from its owners and managers. Until the emergence of a de iure depersonalization of business in the 19th century, business activities were eminently personal,...

This book reviews, organizes and categorizes the humor of the Hebrew Bible, the Talmud and the Midrash, and presents it to the reader in a clear, readable, accessible manner. These works, replete with many types of humor and wit, have influenced the Jewish people in a major way over the...

Different ways of estimating the Gross Domestic Product of the Roman Empire in the second century CE produce convergent results that point to total output and consumption equivalent to 50 million tons of wheat or close to 20 billion sesterces per year. It is estimated that elites (around 1.5 per...