IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/revinw/v71y2025i2ne70001.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Assessing Ancient Inequalities: Hellenistic Delos

Author

Listed:
  • Filippo Battistoni
  • Marco Martinez

Abstract

This paper presents a new data set that measures inequality levels in the city‐state of Delos at two different points in time during the period of its independence (314–167 BCE). We propose a new approach for quantifying ancient inequality and its evolution by relying on inscriptions that indicate property data and artisanal remunerations. A probabilistic approach is adopted to assess the uncertainty of the estimates and their sensitivity to assumptions. This paper finds that there was a decrease in wealth inequality of about 20% between the early and late periods of independence. We hypothesize that the main reason for the socio‐economic changes is to be found in the new political status of autonomy that occurred in 314 BCE and resulted in a greater share of wealth being held by the middle class.

Suggested Citation

  • Filippo Battistoni & Marco Martinez, 2025. "Assessing Ancient Inequalities: Hellenistic Delos," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 71(2), May.
  • Handle: RePEc:bla:revinw:v:71:y:2025:i:2:n:e70001
    DOI: 10.1111/roiw.70001
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/roiw.70001
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/roiw.70001?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:revinw:v:71:y:2025:i:2:n:e70001. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/iariwea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.