Political Economy of Classical Athens

Barry O’Halloran has degrees in Economics and Politics, French and Renaissance Studies and more recently (2017) was awarded a Ph.D. in Classics at Trinity College Dublin. He was a television journalist with the Irish national broadcaster, RTE, and later founded a digital communications company working in real-time financial information services.

• PrefaceFigures, Tables and GraphsIntroduction1 Primitive Positions—the Oikos Debate1 The Defining Quartet—Marx, Weber, Polanyi and Finley2 The Ancient Economy Post-Finley2 New Perspectives1 Institutions—the Engines of History2 Materialist Man and His Motivations3 The Only Constant is Change4 Commerce, Conquest and Colonisation5 The Malthusian Trap and Economic Efflorescences3 Warfare States1 Path Dependence2 The Political Economies of Athens and Sparta: a Comparative Analysis3 The Spartan Naval Mirage4 War, Strategy and the Transition to Triremes1 The Gift of Ares and Athenian Conquest Strategy2 Emerging Patterns of War3 Strategy4 Early Athenian Expansionism5 The Transition to Triremes6 Private to Polis Navies5 The Late Archaic Transition—the Naval Evidence1 Athens’ ‘Turn to the Sea’2 Casus Belli3 The Athenian Naval Revolution4 Themistocles’ Naval Expansion6 Money, Markets and Naval Procurement1 Coinage, Silver and Money Supply2 Trireme Costs and Lifespan3 Trireme Timber and Naval Procurement4 Provisioning the Fleet—a Network of Markets7 Naval Institutions—Trierarchy1 The Rules of the Game2 Liturgy—Delivering Public Goods3 Trierarchy—Delivering the Fleet4 Trierarchy in Theory and Practice5 Trierarchy—Institutional Evolution6 Cleruchy—Further Institutional Adaptation8 Naval Innovation1 The Archaic Fleet and Athenian Defence Strategy2 Naval Technological Innovation—the Ram3 Greek Innovation in Nautical Design9 Naval Defence Infrastructure1 Shipsheds2 The Athenian Circuit Walls3 The Piraeus4 The Long Walls5 Estimating the Costs10 Soldiers, Sailors, Citizens1 Hoplite Ideology and Its Persistence2 Schools of Democracy3 Athenian Trireme Crews4 Mercenaries, Metics and Slaves5 The Trireme School of Democracy11 The Ancient Athenian Naval Economy1 Economic Growth2 Instrumental Behaviour, Self-Interest and Markets3 The Athenian Labour Market4 The Naval Economy5 Size Matters12 The Wealth of Naval Athens1 The Versatile Trireme2 Counting the Cost of Naval Deployments3 The Business of Empire4 Costs of War5 Ancient Athenian KeynesiansConclusionsAppendix: Sources and NumbersBibliographyIndex

"Barry O’Halloran has written an important book on the Athenian naval economy that deserves the attention of ancient historians. (...) this is the first to explore the Athenian navy from a political-economic perspective, making it a welcome addition to the recent flurry of work on ancient Greek economic history. (...) O’Halloran is equally comfortable navigating macroeconomic terminology as he is Thucydides’ text. He shows convincingly that the Athenians considered decisions about the navy to be economic decisions. (...) Overall, O’Halloran’s book is compellingly argued, nicely articulated, and well researched. (...) The original watercolors he commissioned to brighten his pages, especially those in Chapter 9 of triremes, shipsheds and Piraeus, are a unique treat and a beautiful touch. (...) O’Halloran’s book is, and will remain, an indispensable resource and reference for anyone interested in Athenian naval or economic history." - Tim Sorg, in: BMCR 2019.09.48