AMS 270 Ancient Political Economy

This course provides a broad survey of ancient political economy. The ancients played a very important role in the development of thisarea of inquiry: they not only invented the term, but were also the first to discover some of the most seminal economic concepts of the wes tern tradition, such as the division of labor, marginal utility, and supply and demand. Perhaps more importantly, they were the first to understand how essential these ideas were for promoting the common good. In addition to examining the economic policies and systems of the major city-states and nations of antiquity and the changes they underwent over time, the course will investigate the political economic thought of the Greek and Roman philosophers, such as Xenophon, Plato, Aristotle, and Cicero.