Parasites du dieu
Comptables, financiers et commerçants dans la Délos hellénistique
Date de publication
12-2020
Auteur publication
Libérée de la tutelle athénienne en 314 avant notre ère, dans les remaniements géopolitiques qui marquent les débuts de la période hellénistique dans le monde égéen, Délos construit peu à peu son indépendance politique et économique. La communauté des Déliens redéfinit au cours des III e et II e siècles la place centrale que l’île n’a cessé d’occuper dans les circulations économiques, financières et culturelles de la Méditerranée. Cette étude s’appuie principalement sur les sources épigraphiques comptables, plus de cinq cents comptes et inventaires gravés qui furent exposés dans le sanctuaire d’Apollon, mais aussi sur les sources numismatiques et les vestiges archéologiques du front de mer, pour réenvisager la question de la place de Délos dans l’économie hellénistique. Loin d’être une exception à écarter des séries, la documentation délienne est le révélateur de situations économiques égéennes et témoigne des capacités des communautés grecques à s’adapter au changement dans des époques troublées. Derrière les chiffres gravés sur la pierre apparaissent des communautés humaines et des sociétés dont les activités économiques éclairent d’un jour nouveau l’histoire de cette partie de la Méditerranée.
Freed from Athenian guardianship in 314 BCE, at a time of geopolitical changes which marked the beginnings of the Hellenistic period in the Aegean world, Delos gradually built up its political and economic independence. The Delian community redefined, during the third and second centuries, the central place that the island had constantly occupied in the economic, financial and cultural flows of the Mediterranean. This study is mainly based on epigraphic accounting sources, including more than five hundred accounts and engraved inventories that were visible in the sanctuary of Apollo, but also on numismatic sources and archaeological remains on the seafront, in order to re-consider the question of Delos’ place in the Hellenistic economy. Far from being an exception to be excluded from serialized comparisons, the Delian documentation is indicative of Aegean economic situations and demonstrates the capacities of the Greek communities to adapt to change in troubled times. Behind the figures engraved on the stone appear human communities and societies whose economic activities shed new light on the history of this part of the Mediterranean.
Freed from Athenian guardianship in 314 BCE, at a time of geopolitical changes which marked the beginnings of the Hellenistic period in the Aegean world, Delos gradually built up its political and economic independence. The Delian community redefined, during the third and second centuries, the central place that the island had constantly occupied in the economic, financial and cultural flows of the Mediterranean. This study is mainly based on epigraphic accounting sources, including more than five hundred accounts and engraved inventories that were visible in the sanctuary of Apollo, but also on numismatic sources and archaeological remains on the seafront, in order to re-consider the question of Delos’ place in the Hellenistic economy. Far from being an exception to be excluded from serialized comparisons, the Delian documentation is indicative of Aegean economic situations and demonstrates the capacities of the Greek communities to adapt to change in troubled times. Behind the figures engraved on the stone appear human communities and societies whose economic activities shed new light on the history of this part of the Mediterranean.
