Description
In Trading Communities, Taco Terpstra shows that long-distance trade in the Roman Empire was conducted through foreign trading communities living overseas, held together by ethnic and geographical identity.
"In short, the essential parameters of Terpstra’s model provide a useful framework by which to explain certain evident successes of Roman trade. Contrasting his focused thematic volume with recent broader monographs by Bang and Temin, Terpstra declares “no such lofty aspirations” (pg. 7), and indeed the present work approaches a thinner slice of Roman trade. On these terms and more, it is undeniably successful, elucidating beautifully many details of one critical socioeconomic component of a broader model of Roman connectivity." Justin Leidwanger, Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2014.05.30.
Taco Terpstra, Ph.D. (2011), Columbia University, specializes in Roman socio-economic history and classical archaeology. He has published articles on Roman long-distance trade and editions of Egyptian papyri, as well as articles resulting from his field work in ancient Stabiae.