Business Managers in Ancient Rome: A Social and Economic Study of Institores, 200 B.C.-A.D. 250 (Columbia Studies in the Classical Tradition)

Business Managers in Ancient Rome deals with the law of indirect agency in the classical period and explores the technical aspects and historical development of a set of praetorian remedies (actiones adiecticiae qualitatis), their role in the economy and their incidence on the society. The first part (Chapters 1-2) examines the picture of business managers ( institores) yielded by literary and juridical sources. The second part (Chapters 3-5) focuses on the role of such managers in various sectors of the economy (agriculture, manufacture, and government-related services, such as tax collection, entertainment, communication, and coinage). By bringing together various kinds of evidence (legal, literary, epigraphical, archaeological, numismatic, comparative, and accessorily, papyrological), this study attempts to sketch the social and economic history of an important chapter of the Roman law of obligations.