Trade in antiquity — its scale, status, pattern and context — is the subject of lively debate among historians. But no analysis has made a special investigation of trade in essential food stuffs. Famine and food crisis are also neglected subjects. This collection of essays is structured around the two focal points of trade and famine. A theme of the volume is that a combination of natural and artificial shortages made inevitable the bulk movement of staples between regions in all periods of antiquity. Novel contributions are offered in addition in relation to the cost of shipping, the extent of long-distance trade in wine, the relative demand for wheat and barley, the incidence and gravity of food crises, the efficiency of famine relief measures and the part played by food shortages in the collapse of the late Roman frontier system.
