Economic Changes in the Early Hellenistic Kingdoms of Macedonia and Thrace By Dylan Townshend A Thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies of The University of Manitoba in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of MASTER OF ARTS Department of Classics University of Manitoba Winnipeg Copyright © 2018 by Dylan Townshend Abstract The end of the fourth century B.C. saw large-scale political overhauls with powerful monarchies replacing the former polis-centred Greek world. With these political changes came economic changes. Evidence around the Greek world at this time shows expanding number and shifting roles of market officials, the foundation of urban centres, and changes in land distribution. The kings, starting with Philip II, played significant roles in many of these developments. Macedon and Thrace, however, offer less evidence for such changes than other regions. New archaeological evidence, however, of amphoras produced near ancient Mende shows a clear difference between earlier practices of organizing amphora production and those practices from the late fourth century. The changes in amphora stamping show an increase in personal accountability and complexity of organization thereby providing substantial detail to the more general evidence for economic change Macedonia and the Chalkidike. i Acknowledgements I would first like to thank my thesis advisor Dr. Mark Lawall for giving me the opportunity to write this thesis. His knowledge, guidance, and feedback have been invaluable for completing this work. I would also like to thank him for his patience throughout this process and for always encouraging me towards completion. My deepest gratitude also goes out to Dr. James Chlup and Dr. Erik Thomson, for their continued patience, support, and insight through the writing of this thesis. I express many thanks to Dr. Electra Anagnostopoulou-Chatzipolychroni, the director of the excavations at the Mende pottery workshops for inviting us to study the material there, and the Ephorate of Antiquities at Thessaloniki of the Greek Ministry for Culture and Sport for granting permission to carry out this research. Also many thanks to Dr. John Camp, the Director of the Agora excavations, and Sylvie Dumont, the Registrar of the Agora excavations, for providing access to excavation materials. And thank-you to Dr. Natalia Vogeikoff-Brogan for access to the Virginia Grace papers in the American School of Classical Studies at Athens. This thesis would not have been possible without the funding received by a grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, and the support of funding from the Department of Classics and the Faculty of Arts. Finally I would like to thank my parents and my entire family for their support and encouragement throughout my years of study and the writing of this thesis. I could not have completed this without their support. ii Abstract ................................................................................................................................... i Acknowledgements ................................................................................................................. ii List of Tables .......................................................................................................................... iv Chapter 1: Introduction ....................................................................................................... 1 1) History of Research ............................................................................................... 2 2) The Thesis ............................................................................................................. 6 Chapter 2: Early Hellenistic Economies: Kings and Cities .............................................. 10 1) Sources and Evidence ........................................................................................... 11 a. Epigraphy .................................................................................................. 12 b. Literature ................................................................................................... 13 c. Archaeology ............................................................................................... 14 2) Administrative Institutions and Officials .............................................................. 15 a. Agoranomoi: Classical Period ................................................................... 15 b. Agoranomoi: Hellenistic Period ................................................................ 17 c. Astynomoi .................................................................................................. 23 d. Taxes and Tribute ..................................................................................... 25 e. Trade ......................................................................................................... 28 3) Results of Royal Intervention ............................................................................... 34 a. City Foundation and Synoikismos ............................................................. 34 b. Land Control, Grants, and Intervention .................................................... 40 4) Conclusions ........................................................................................................... 47 Chapter 3: Amphora Stamps and Ceramic Evidence ....................................................... 50 1) Amphora Stamping ............................................................................................... 51 2) Research History of Amphora Stamps from the Kassandra Peninsula ................. 54 3) Mendean Stamping Practices ................................................................................ 59 a. Classical Mendean Stamps ....................................................................... 59 b. Monograms ............................................................................................... 63 c. Name-Stamps ............................................................................................ 65 d. Stamped Jar Stands/Supports .................................................................... 69 4) Stamp Dies ............................................................................................................ 72 5) Conclusions ........................................................................................................... 75 Chapter 4: Conclusions ........................................................................................................ 79 Catalogue ............................................................................................................................... 86 Tables ...................................................................................................................................... 140 Bibliography ........................................................................................................................... 141 iii List of Tables Table 1: List of Stamps with Multiple Occurrences and their Die-Counts ............................. 140 iv Chapter One Introduction “Something is known of their administrative system and of their relations with the Greek cities that lay within their boundaries and outside them, but there is no trustworthy evidence, either literary or epigraphical, to throw light upon the changes in the economic and social system of the country.”1 Thus Mikhail Rostovtzeff describes the socio-economic situation of Early Hellenistic Macedonia in The Social and Economic History of the Hellenistic World. Rostovtzeff assumes that there was economic change based on his examination of the Ptolemaic and Seleukid kingdoms during this period, but it is clear that this change could not be seen in the Macedonia. Less than fifty years before the period discussed by Rostovtzeff, Philip II (r. 359-336 B.C.) oversaw significant changes to Macedonia, which have even been considered ‘revolutionary’.2 These included social and economic changes both as direct intervention and as a consequence of broader political changes. The expansion by Alexander III (r. 336-323 B.C.) across the Achaemenid Empire saw the interaction of multiple cultures, with the spread of Greeks and Greek culture eastwards led by the Macedonian dynasties created after Alexander’s death in 323 B.C. This thesis seeks the “trustworthy evidence” that Rostovtzeff is concerned with when examining the other Successor kingdoms: literature, inscriptions, and archaeology. Scholarship of Macedonia and Thrace in all of these fields was lacking at the time Rostovtzeff was writing, but this thesis will use the abundance of new evidence from these fields to prove that there were economic changes in Macedonia and Thrace during the Early Hellenistic period. 1 Rostovtzeff 1941, p. 250. 2 Hammond 1989, p. 153. For Philip II’s reign: Hammond and Griffith, 1979; Gabriel 2010; Anson 2014. 1 1) History of Research Rostovtzeff covers the economies of the Ptolemies and Seleukids in almost 300 pages.3 The economic situation of the Macedonian and neighbouring Thracian kingdoms of Kassander, Lysimachos, and even the later Antigonids, however, is covered in a mere five pages.4 He admits that there is little evidence at the time from which to draw, although he also concludes that there were no changes in this region. It was “a country of tribal, almost feudal, structure, under a king who owned large domains in Macedonia proper”.5 His work, one of the earliest to incorporate archaeological