Other by John Weisweiler
In his, "Debt: The First 5000 Years" (Melville House 2011), David Graeber puts forward a new gran... more In his, "Debt: The First 5000 Years" (Melville House 2011), David Graeber puts forward a new grand narrative of world history. From the late bronze age onwards, all across Eurasia, relationships of social obligation were transformed into quantifiable and legally enforceable debts. Graeber argues that the roots of the current socio-economic order are located not in early-modern Europe, but in this first ancient age of empires.
This conference assesses the conclusions of "Debt: The First 5000 Years" from an ancient historical perspective. We pursue two aims. On the one hand, we seek to test the accuracy of Graeber's grand narrative. How well does the interpretation advanced in the book fit current understandings of ancient economies? On the other hand, we will explore the methodological implications of Graeber's work. Does an anthropology of value, which insists on the links between social, economic and cultural history, offer a useful alternative to the currently dominant neo-institutional theories of the ancient economy?
Books by John Weisweiler
Papers by John Weisweiler
Oxford University Press eBooks, Nov 11, 2022
Debt in the Ancient Mediterranean and Near East
This chapter introduces the major themes of the collection Debt in the Ancient Mediterranean and ... more This chapter introduces the major themes of the collection Debt in the Ancient Mediterranean and Near East. It surveys the arguments of David Graeber’s 2011 monograph Debt: The First 5,000 Years and situates them in the wider context of the author’s oeuvre. It examines the implications of his anthropological theory of value and makes a case that it has the potential to widen the field of vision of ancient historians. Unlike the currently dominant paradigm of new institutional economics, which tends to see the market as the natural and efficient resource allocation mechanism, it directs attention to the processes by which some fields of life were subjected to quantitative logics and others were not. The chapter concludes by exploring to what extent the studies assembled in this volume corroborate or modify the picture of ancient economic history presented in Debt. It suggests that Graeber’s concept of a “military–coinage–slavery” complex provides a useful analytic for understanding t...
in the Three Chapters dispute was not the protection of local practice, but rather an absolute de... more in the Three Chapters dispute was not the protection of local practice, but rather an absolute deference to the authority of the Council of Chalcedon; if anything, the bishops of the African church were motivated by their concern to be active members of a universal church. Ch. 5 'The Moorish Alternative' is a difcult outlier, but the territory is navigated with condence. Once proud and unambiguous Romani, many of the inhabitants of the Mauretanian provinces, Numidia and inland Tripolitania found themselves viewed with disdain as barbaric Mauri by the time of the Byzantine conquest. But if the Mauri of Corippus and Procopius do frequently sound like barbarians, they acted in ways that would not have been completely alien to the aristocrats of Carthage. Spectacular as the Djedar tumuli near Tiaret may seem, they were adorned with Latin inscriptions. Other well-known inscriptions, such as those of Masgiven at Altava and Masties in the Aurès mountains, also reveal a rm desire to articulate authority in a familiar 'Roman' mode. In part, of course, this is simply a reection of the nature of our sources, and forms of identity display (and political organization) which were not inscribed in Latin on prominent stones are invisible to us. But what survives remains important. C. provides a tremendously helpful summary of this material, and a series of important observations about its interpretation. In many ways, the specic title of C.'s book belies its true value. While important observations are certainly offered here about the changing nature of 'Roman' (and other) identities in Late Antiquity, these are based upon exceptionally rm foundations. As a starting point for Vandal and Moorish history in this periodstill better as a thorough overview of the status quaestionis on the murky world of Byzantine Africa-C.'s book is to be warmly recommended.
The paper explores the ideological reasons for the late-antique expansion of the imperial aristoc... more The paper explores the ideological reasons for the late-antique expansion of the imperial aristocracy. It suggests that in the fourth century the senate transformed from a Republican élite, whose legitimacy derived from the institutions of the Roman city-state, into an explicitly global class, whose authority was an emanation of the beneficence of a sacred ruler towards the human species.
Past & Present, Nov 14, 2021
In the first two centuries ce, the Roman senate transformed from an assembly of Italian landowner... more In the first two centuries ce, the Roman senate transformed from an assembly of Italian landowners into a multi-regional group. The admission of thousands of provincials into Rome’s governing elite is often taken as evidence for the successful integration of subject populations. This article challenges such views of the senate as an inclusive institution. It shows that the overwhelming majority of non-Italian senators came from merely four (out of more than thirty) provinces: Baetica (in southern Spain), Narbonensis (Provence), Africa (the coastlines of Algeria, Tunisia and Libya) and Asia (western Anatolia). The elites of these regions entertained close links to Italy since the second century bce. In the first centuries ce, they acquired enormous wealth through predation, through investments in capital-intensive agriculture and through their ability to exploit state supply networks for their own benefit. The steep rise in the number of provincial senators should thus not be read as evidence for the large-scale participation of conquered groups in the imperial administration. Rather, it chiefly was a product of the new opportunities for wealth accumulation and exploitation generated by Roman imperialism.
Review article: Recent research on late-antique Rome[John Curran 'Pagan City and Christian ca... more Review article: Recent research on late-antique Rome[John Curran 'Pagan City and Christian capital: Rome in the fourth century' Michele Renee Salzman 'The Making of a Christian aristocracy: social and religious change in the Western Roman Empire' Heike Niquet 'Monumenta virtutum titulique: Senatorische Selbstdarstellung im spatantiken Rom im Spiegel der epigraphischen Denkmaler' Author(s) WEISWEILER, John Citation 西洋古代史研究 = Acta academiae antiquitatis Kiotoensis = The Kyoto journal of ancient history (2007), 7: 37-45 Issue Date 2007-12-15
Past & Present, 2020
In the first two centuries ce, the Roman senate transformed from an assembly of Italian landowner... more In the first two centuries ce, the Roman senate transformed from an assembly of Italian landowners into a multi-regional group. The admission of thousands of provincials into Rome’s governing elite is often taken as evidence for the successful integration of subject populations. This article challenges such views of the senate as an inclusive institution. It shows that the overwhelming majority of non-Italian senators came from merely four (out of more than thirty) provinces: Baetica (in southern Spain), Narbonensis (Provence), Africa (the coastlines of Algeria, Tunisia and Libya) and Asia (western Anatolia). The elites of these regions entertained close links to Italy since the second century bce. In the first centuries ce, they acquired enormous wealth through predation, through investments in capital-intensive agriculture and through their ability to exploit state supply networks for their own benefit. The steep rise in the number of provincial senators should thus not be read as...
The Classical Review, 2016
Literature and Society in the Fourth Century AD, 2014
Hermes, 2004
' Fur eine kritische Durchsicht des Manuskripts und fur wertvolle Hinweise sei HERMANN TRANK... more ' Fur eine kritische Durchsicht des Manuskripts und fur wertvolle Hinweise sei HERMANN TRANKLE von Herzen gedankt. 2 Definitive Publikation des Papyrus durch EW HANDLEY, P.Oxy. 64 (1997) 14ff. (Nr. 4467) (die hypothetische Zuweisung weiterer Papyri zu diesem ...
西洋古代史研究, Dec 15, 2007
Michele Renee Salzman, The Making of a Christian Aristocracy: Social and Religious Change in the ... more Michele Renee Salzman, The Making of a Christian Aristocracy: Social and Religious Change in the Western Roman Empire (Harvard University Press, Cambridge [Mass.] and New York, 2002, xiv+354 pages) Heike Niquet, Monumenta virtu tum titulique: Senatorische Selbstdarstellung im spiitantiken Rom im Spiegel der epigraphischen Denkmiiler (Heidelberger althistorische Beitrage und epigraphische Studien 34, Franz Steiner Verlag, Stuttgart, 2000, iv+352 pages+8 plates) Not since the age of Augustus had Rome changed as swiftly and profoundly as it did in the fourth century AD. This century is marked by two momentous developments. The first is the definitive withdrawal of the emperor from the city and the establishment of permanent new imperial residences outside the ancient capital. The other is the Christianisation of Rome's society and topography. This second transformation is the subject of a subtle exploration by John Curran, Pagan City and Christian Capital: Rome in the Fourth Century, a revised version of the author's Oxford doctoral thesis. Despite the title, C. does not offer an exhaustive account of the history of Rome in the fourth century. Rather, like an inspired tour guide, he chooses a very personal selection of sites for closer inspection. Some of the conventional must-sees, such as the pagan aristocracy of late fourth-century Rome, are missing from the itinerary. Instead, C.'s readers are shown some of the city's more closely guarded secrets, such as the monumental heritage of Maxentius' rule. Or, they are led along unfamiliar approaches to well-known sites, seen now from a fresh perspective, such as in the exploration of the significance of Constantine's construction activity in the city.
Cosmopolitanism and Empire, 2016
Palgrave studies in ancient economies, 2022
Journal of Roman Archaeology, 2012
Late-antique Rome was not only home to human inhabitants.* It also housed, according to the 6th-c... more Late-antique Rome was not only home to human inhabitants.* It also housed, according to the 6th-c. senator Cassiodorus, another population, made of stone: 'a large populace of statues and many herds of equestrian monuments'. 1 The ecclesiastical historian Zacharias of Mytilene, a younger contemporary of Cassiodorus, counted 3,845 honorific monuments for high-ranking office-holders and emperors in late-antique Rome. 2 Such punctilious accuracy was no doubt spurious, but the public spaces and aristocratic residences of lateantique Rome were crammed with statuary. Unfortunately, precious few traces have survived from Cassiodorus' 'other population of Rome'. Of all the statues for aristocrats and emperors put up in late-antique Rome, only a handful has survived completely. 3 Otherwise, all that remains is hundreds of fragments of the bases on which the statues were displayed. Sometimes the fragments are so small that we are lucky if it is even possible to reconstruct the name of the honorands.
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Other by John Weisweiler
This conference assesses the conclusions of "Debt: The First 5000 Years" from an ancient historical perspective. We pursue two aims. On the one hand, we seek to test the accuracy of Graeber's grand narrative. How well does the interpretation advanced in the book fit current understandings of ancient economies? On the other hand, we will explore the methodological implications of Graeber's work. Does an anthropology of value, which insists on the links between social, economic and cultural history, offer a useful alternative to the currently dominant neo-institutional theories of the ancient economy?
Books by John Weisweiler
Papers by John Weisweiler
This conference assesses the conclusions of "Debt: The First 5000 Years" from an ancient historical perspective. We pursue two aims. On the one hand, we seek to test the accuracy of Graeber's grand narrative. How well does the interpretation advanced in the book fit current understandings of ancient economies? On the other hand, we will explore the methodological implications of Graeber's work. Does an anthropology of value, which insists on the links between social, economic and cultural history, offer a useful alternative to the currently dominant neo-institutional theories of the ancient economy?