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The Open Sea: The Economic Life of the Ancient Mediterranean World from the Iron Age to the Rise of Rome
A major new economic history of the ancient Mediterranean world
In The Open Sea , J. G. Manning offers a major new history of economic life in the Mediterranean world in the Iron Age, from Phoenician trading down to the Hellenistic era and the beginning of Rome's imperial supremacy. Drawing on a wide range of ancient sources and the latest social theory, Manning suggests that a search for an illusory single "ancient economy" has obscured the diversity of lived experience in the Mediterranean world, including both changes in political economies over time and differences in cultural conceptions of property and money. At the same time, he shows how the region's economies became increasingly interconnected during this period.
The Open Sea argues that the keys to understanding the region's rapid social and economic change during the Iron Age are the variety of economic and political solutions its different cultures devised, the patterns of cross-cultural exchange, and the sharp environmental contrasts between Egypt, the Near East, and Greece and Rome. The book examines long-run drivers of change, such as climate, together with the most important economic institutions of the premodern Mediterranean--coinage, money, agriculture, and private property. It also explores the role of economic growth, states, and legal institutions in the region's various economies.
A groundbreaking economic history of the ancient Mediterranean world, The Open Sea shows that the origins of the modern economy extend far beyond Greece and Rome.
In The Open Sea , J. G. Manning offers a major new history of economic life in the Mediterranean world in the Iron Age, from Phoenician trading down to the Hellenistic era and the beginning of Rome's imperial supremacy. Drawing on a wide range of ancient sources and the latest social theory, Manning suggests that a search for an illusory single "ancient economy" has obscured the diversity of lived experience in the Mediterranean world, including both changes in political economies over time and differences in cultural conceptions of property and money. At the same time, he shows how the region's economies became increasingly interconnected during this period.
The Open Sea argues that the keys to understanding the region's rapid social and economic change during the Iron Age are the variety of economic and political solutions its different cultures devised, the patterns of cross-cultural exchange, and the sharp environmental contrasts between Egypt, the Near East, and Greece and Rome. The book examines long-run drivers of change, such as climate, together with the most important economic institutions of the premodern Mediterranean--coinage, money, agriculture, and private property. It also explores the role of economic growth, states, and legal institutions in the region's various economies.
A groundbreaking economic history of the ancient Mediterranean world, The Open Sea shows that the origins of the modern economy extend far beyond Greece and Rome.
448 pages, Hardcover
Published April 3, 2018
About the author
J.G. Manning
7 books7 followersThe William K. and Marilyn M. Simpson Professor of Classics and History
Senior Research Scholar, Yale Law School.
Joseph Gilbert Manning is an ancient historian whose main interest is in the social history of the Hellenistic world. His primary focus has been in the fields of economic and legal history. He was educated at the Ohio State University (Medieval architectural history/History) and the University of Chicago, studying Egyptology and Ancient History, taking an AM and a PHD in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations.
Senior Research Scholar, Yale Law School.
Joseph Gilbert Manning is an ancient historian whose main interest is in the social history of the Hellenistic world. His primary focus has been in the fields of economic and legal history. He was educated at the Ohio State University (Medieval architectural history/History) and the University of Chicago, studying Egyptology and Ancient History, taking an AM and a PHD in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
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August 12, 2021I’m not qualified to rate this book, but I did appreciate Manning’s insistence the world was all connected even back in the day. Potentially useful to people studying the Axial Age of the Mediterranean.
Also, I enjoyed the note that the burning of the Library of Alexandria wasn’t the reason for the loss of all that information, more important was the practice of copying out manuscripts stopped.
Edit: Just discovered a TedEd about the library: https://youtu.be/jvWncVbXfJ0
Also, I enjoyed the note that the burning of the Library of Alexandria wasn’t the reason for the loss of all that information, more important was the practice of copying out manuscripts stopped.
Edit: Just discovered a TedEd about the library: https://youtu.be/jvWncVbXfJ0
October 16, 2019
There is a great deal of valuable material in Manning's book. However, it suffers from repetition; thus, only four stars.
Manning makes a very strong case for studying premodern Mediterranean economies in a new, heterogeneous manner that spans eras, geography, societies, and climates. His main points are:
1. Historians, archeologists, etc. must take climate change into account when investigating premodern societies and economies. The ancient world was overwhelmingly involved in agriculture. Any climate change that affected food production, such as volcanic eruptions, solar minimums/maximums, etc., had a drastic effect on premodern societies and economies. The effects of climate change can be linked to the rise and fall of some societies.
2. Historians, archeologists, etc. must take advantage of the wealth of data coming from the physical and biological sciences. The "siloing" of academic disciplines has greatly affected the progress and fullness of historical investigation.
3. The premodern Mediterranean was not a closed system. The histories and economies of peoples in western Asia and India directly affected the development of Mediterranean societies. In other words, one cannot simply research Egyptian history without considering the Phoenicians, the Achaemenid empire, etc. The Mediterranean was directly and indirectly impacted by societies and events well outside its boundaries and over great periods of time.
Manning clearly shows that in order to try to understand premodern societies and their economies, the modern historian/archeologist/economist/etc. must cease viewing the premodern world as neatly divided into geographical and/or historical eras. For example, limiting oneself to only looking into ancient Egyptian texts or archeology robs the investigator of a vast wealth of data from outside Egypt and other disciplines.
This book is a valuable resource for those interested in the history of the Mediterranean, the effect of changing climate on societies, and the new data available from the physical and biological sciences to aid historical research.
Manning makes a very strong case for studying premodern Mediterranean economies in a new, heterogeneous manner that spans eras, geography, societies, and climates. His main points are:
1. Historians, archeologists, etc. must take climate change into account when investigating premodern societies and economies. The ancient world was overwhelmingly involved in agriculture. Any climate change that affected food production, such as volcanic eruptions, solar minimums/maximums, etc., had a drastic effect on premodern societies and economies. The effects of climate change can be linked to the rise and fall of some societies.
2. Historians, archeologists, etc. must take advantage of the wealth of data coming from the physical and biological sciences. The "siloing" of academic disciplines has greatly affected the progress and fullness of historical investigation.
3. The premodern Mediterranean was not a closed system. The histories and economies of peoples in western Asia and India directly affected the development of Mediterranean societies. In other words, one cannot simply research Egyptian history without considering the Phoenicians, the Achaemenid empire, etc. The Mediterranean was directly and indirectly impacted by societies and events well outside its boundaries and over great periods of time.
Manning clearly shows that in order to try to understand premodern societies and their economies, the modern historian/archeologist/economist/etc. must cease viewing the premodern world as neatly divided into geographical and/or historical eras. For example, limiting oneself to only looking into ancient Egyptian texts or archeology robs the investigator of a vast wealth of data from outside Egypt and other disciplines.
This book is a valuable resource for those interested in the history of the Mediterranean, the effect of changing climate on societies, and the new data available from the physical and biological sciences to aid historical research.
October 28, 2018
A great deal of extremely interesting material that suffers from being underedited and undertheorized. Manning has admirable ambitions of hoping to summarize and synthesize recent work on the economic history of the 1st millenium BC Mediterranean with climatology, social theory, and so on, but doesn't appear to succeed at delivering something greater than the sum of its parts.
December 25, 2025
Very poorly written. Thesis was unclear. The structure was all over the place. More about Classical Greece, Ptolemaic Egypt and ancient Near East than about "the Mediterranean Iron Age" (almost nothing on Western Mediterranean, very little on Phoenicians and Carthagenians). Could have been a good book; it's an interesting subject matter. Author got bogged down in the material and could not present any sort of compelling, coherent narrative.
September 30, 2019
Explores a history of the Mediterranean in the first millennium BC that combines history, economic s, and science. Tries to look beyond regional approaches, but clear-eyed about the limited comparative data. Extensive bibliography!
August 30, 2022
JUST LOVE IT.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews