Hellenistic Age - Civic Structures | Britannica

Economic developments

Alexander’s conquests had four major effects on the economy. In the first instance, it released a large quantity of silver and gold from the treasuries of Persia. The immediate result was a sharp rise in prices, but, as the surplus funds were absorbed into capital, prices began to fall. Second, the integration of quarreling city-states into a single empire removed some of the obstructions to mutual trade. Third, Philip had already adopted the Attic standard for gold, and Alexander adopted it for silver as well. The successors in general followed, though the Ptolemies preferred the Phoenician standard. The complex needs of money-changing were thus greatly reduced. These two standards held good until some time in the 1st century bce, when the Roman challenge to them triumphed. Finally, and most obviously, the extension of empire meant an extension of trade routes; China became open to trade for the first time and East Africa, Arabia, and India became more easily accessible than before.

The Egyptian trade was mainly by sea, featuring the port of Berenice on the Red Sea, while Alexandria was established as one of the greatest mercantile centres on the Mediterranean. Toward the end of the 2nd century bce an Indian at Alexandria explained to Ptolemy VII the secret of the monsoon, which greatly facilitated the sea passage to India and enhanced the importance of Coptos on the upper Nile. The Egyptians also had an eye to the land routes. This explains their desire to command the Phoenician ports, which were not only the terminus of one land route but also producers of woven stuffs and fine dyes.

The key point for Seleucid trade was Seleucia on the Tigris. In one direction, the route led to Antioch on the Orontes with branches to Ephesus and Damascus. In the other, there were three routes to India, two by land and one by sea. Alexander’s foundation of Alexandria in Areia was important to the trade. Dura Europus on the Euphrates was a fort protecting the lines of trade; it was retained by the Romans. The caravan cities, such as Petra and Palmyra (formerly Tadmor), flourished on the trade. The advance of Chinese military power from Turkistan in the 2nd century bce fostered the trade with China along the famous Silk Road through central Asia. The Chinese exported silk and other textiles, bamboo, and iron and imported vines and other trees and plants, as well as wine, olives, woolen goods, and artwork (which affected Chinese artistic style). The demand for luxury goods in the prosperous days of the early Roman Empire increased the trade with China, India, and Arabia, and an embassy from Marcus Aurelius actually reached China by way of Annam.

Early in the Hellenistic age, the Greek navigator, geographer, and astronomer Pytheas of Massalia (now Marseille) embarked on one of the most remarkable feats of exploration. Evading the Phoenician outposts, he slipped through the Strait of Gibraltar, sailed north along the coasts of the Iberian Peninsula and France, crossed over to Cornwall, continued around the north of Britain and on to Helgoland, and then returned. The Phoenicians, however, allowed no other ship to pass Gibraltar and the only tangible result of Pytheas’s voyage was an increase in the trade in Cornish tin by overland routes through France.

In general the Romans made transport, whether by land or sea, safer and swifter. The Greek Epictetus could say, “Caesar has procured us a profound peace. There are no wars, no battles, no massive brigandage, no piracy; we may travel at all hours and sail from East to West.” An inscription from Hierapolis in Phrygia dating from the imperial period tells how an operator named Flavius Zeuxis passed Cape Taīnaron no fewer than 72 times.

The economy of mainland Greece declined during the Hellenistic age, though standards rose briefly about 260 bce, and there were pockets of prosperity, such as the Boeotian city of Tanagra, famous for its terra-cotta figurines. The general picture is one of poverty, unemployment, falling wages, depopulation, and emigration. The forests were stripped, the land neglected, and smallholdings swallowed up in large estates, which, however, were underdeveloped. The Athenian silver mines at Laurium were depleted, though they reopened briefly at the end of the 3rd century bce. Demand for fine painted pottery had ceased. Athenian wine was of poor quality. Olive oil, however, continued to command a market, so much so that a law of 125 ce reserved one-third of the production to indigenous use; but, as the historian Moses I. Finley argued, olive oil alone would hardly meet the balance of payments. The centres of Hellenic prosperity had shifted with the movement of Hellenism from Athens, Corinth, Sparta, and Árgos to Alexandria, Rhodes, Pergamum, and Antioch.

Within the Mediterranean basin, trade was mostly in essentials or things regarded as such. Metals ranked highest in importance: there was silver from Spain, copper from Cyprus, iron from the Black Sea coast and later China, and tin from Cornwall. Food also was important: grain came from Egypt, North Africa, Crimea, and perhaps Babylonia. In other areas there was some specialization: Athens was noted for honey as well as olive oil, Byzantium for fish, Jericho for dates, and Damascus for prunes. Textiles were prominent: linen arrived from Egypt, a kind of silk from Tyre and true silk from China, and woolen goods from Miletus. Timber came from the forests of Anatolia and the north, marble for building from Páros and Athens, granite from Egypt: some docks constructed in Delos about 130 bce are of Egyptian granite.

The prosperity of Egypt, “the gift of the Nile,” was rooted in agriculture. The land lent itself to the cultivation of wheat, barley and sorghum, flax, vegetables (including lentils, beans, chickpeas, and onions), the date palm, and papyrus, as well as the raising of animals, such as horses, donkeys, goats, cattle, poultry, and fish.

Strabo gives a vivid picture of the resources of the Seleucid kingdom. He speaks of the rich yields of barley and the varied uses of the products of the palm—for food, drink, sweetening, fuel, and weaving. Mesopotamia is “good pastureland, and rich in vegetation, evergreens, and spice.” Rice was introduced into Persia from India, and the vine from Greece.

Similarly Strabo identifies the specialties of different regions of Anatolia. He mentions the fruit trees, vines, and olives of Melitene; the stone, timber, and pastures around Mazaca; the orchards of Cappadocia, and its mineral resources in red ochre, crystal, onyx, and mica; the market gardens of Sinope and beyond them olive groves and timber forests; the cattle and cheese of Bithynia; the styrax, producing gum and wood for spears, of the Taurus Mountains; and the superb wools of Laodicea and Colossae.

One figure suffices to indicate the huge economic expansion during the Hellenistic age. The customs revenue of Rhodes in about 170 bce was five times that of Athens in 400, with almost certainly the identical rate of 2 percent. It would be hard to demonstrate more clearly that the Hellenistic world operated in a totally different dimension.