economy, Hellenistic
economy, HellenisticThe regions brought under the control of the Hellenistic kingdoms showed little economic unity or uniformity. Land-use systems ranged from irrigation regimes in Egypt, Mesopotamia, and parts of Iran (Polybius 10. 28) through widespread dry farming to the nomad or transhumant pastoralism of the deserts and the mountains. Land tenure arrangements included, besides private beneficial ownership at all levels of magnitude, land owned by cities, cantons, or temples but rented out to individuals or worked by ‘slaves of the shrine’ (hierodouloi), and above all land owned by the kings. Such land might be held in direct tenure and worked by serfs, or alienated to large-scale proprietors (e.g. M. M. Austin nos. 180 and 185), or bestowed as allotments (klēroi) in various ways on individuals in return for military service, or have its use and revenues assigned to individuals (dōrea). Such...
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