Taxation, Economy, and Revolt in Ancient Rome, Galilee, and Egypt

This volume introduces new perspectives on taxation policies in the Roman Empire, the Galilee, and Egypt, with unique insights into the economic effects of imperial pacification on local and regional microlevel economies in the Galilee both before and after the First Jewish Revolt against Rome. Through examining tax documents and other ancient texts in detail, this book offers innovative perspectives on the mechanisms, ideological justifications, and politically hierarchizing functions of taxation and tribute, particularly in the Roman Empire. Moreover, leading archaeologists present important information about the economic effects of the First Jewish Revolt on local economies in the Galilee, based on findings from recent archaeological excavations. Taxation, Economy, and Revolt in Ancient Rome, Galilee, and Egypt is of interest to students and scholars in Classical, Biblical, and Jewish Studies, as well as economic history and Mediterranean archaeology.

Introduction, Thomas R. Blanton IV, Agnes Choi, and Jinyu Liu; Part I Taxation in Egypt and the Roman Empire; 1. Taxation and Tribute in Early State Thought and Practice, John T. Fitzgerald; 2. The Check is in the Mail: Assessing and Collecting Taxes in Ancient Egypt, Agnes Choi; 3. Opaque, Inconsistent, and Unfair: Some Remarks on the Burden of Roman Taxation during the Principate, David B. Hollander; 4. Roman Provincial Censuses as Sociopolitical Regulation: Implications for Interpreting the Synoptic Gospels and Acts, G. Anthony Keddie; Part II The Galilean Economy before and after the First Judean Revolt; 5. The Economic Impact of the First Jewish Revolt on the Galilee, Mordechai Aviam; 6 The Economic Transformation of an Early Roman Galilean Village: A Keynesian Approach, C. Thomas McCollough; 7. Bandits and the Galilean Economy: Was the Galilee Prosperous or Desperately Poor?, David A. Fiensy; 8. Refugees: The Missing Element in Discussions of the Galilean Economy in the Roman Period, James Riley Strange; Epilogue, Jürgen K. Zangenberg

Thomas R. Blanton IV is Associated Fellow at the Max Weber Centre, University of Erfurt (Germany). He is coeditor, with David B. Hollander and John T. Fitzgerald, of The Extramercantile Economies of Greek and Roman Cities (Routledge, 2019). Agnes Choi is Associate Professor of Religion at Pacific Lutheran University, USA. Jinyu Liu is Professor of Classical Studies at DePauw University, USA, with a guest professorship appointment at Shanghai Normal University, China. She is the author of Collegia Centonariorum: The Guilds of Textile Dealers in the Roman West (Brill, 2009).