Structure and Scale in the Roman Economy.

The exact nature of the Roman economy has been something of a scholarly battlefield recently, and of interest to more than ancient historians. Richard Duncan-Jones's Structure and Scale in the Roman Economy (Cambridge: U.P., 1990; pp. xvi + 245. [pounds]35) is an important contribution to the debate. Eight of the thirteen chapters are new; five are reworked versions of already published articles. They are grouped under five headings: 'Time and Distance', 'Demography and Manpower', 'Agrarian Patterns', 'The World of Cities', and 'Tax-Payment and Tax-Assessment'. As with his previous work, Duncan-Jones is concerned with precision and quantification. No one has managed to wring so …