The American Constitution was the creation of individuals who were well schooled in the classics, and who sought to incorporate the wisdom gained from ancient history and political philosophy. Professor Bonventre outlines the reliance of Adams, Madison, Wilson and other Founders on lessons...

This paper contributes to the understanding of the long-run consequences of Roman rule on economic development. In ancient times, the area of contemporary Germany was divided into a Roman and non-Roman part. The study uses this division to test whether the formerly Roman part of Germany show a...

In the early decades of the twentieth century, a group of Jewish legal scholars working in Eastern Europe, and later in Mandatory Palestine, sought to « revive » (i.e., modernize) Jewish law and turn it into the legal system of the Jewish community in Palestine — and later the legal system...

The coinage of Greek Naples is examined from the beginning of minting, perhaps in the 460s BCE, to the early third century. Particular attention is given to the iconography that appears on Neapolitan coins and its relationships to local history, cults, and identity

The chapter analyzes the basis of the market economy in classical Rome, from the perspective of personal vs impersonal exchange and focusing on the role of the state in providing market-enabling institutions. It starts by reviewing the central conflict in all exchanges between those holding and...

This paper analyzes the dynamics of income and wealth inequality in two of the largest ancient empires, Han China and Rome. Pervasive structural similarities emerge from this comparative survey. In both cases, resource concentration at the top of society was greatly amplified by rent-seeking and...

In this ground-breaking analysis of the world's first private banks, Edward Cohen convincingly demonstrates the existence and functioning of a market economy in ancient Athens while revising our understanding of the society itself. Challenging the "primitivistic" view, in which bankers are...

In the first century AD, a tax was imposed on Jews throughout the Roman Empire following their unsuccessful revolt in Judaea. This "Jewish tax" effectively appropriated a biblically mandated temple tribute, continuing the form of the ancient levy as a poll or head tax but with a substantially...