Cambridge Ancient Hi.. - Index of

the distribution of goods and wealth 373
period marble fittings from Proconnesos and probably exported at least
some of their wine overseas through Gaza. 45
But land transport undoubtedly added considerably to cost, and those
who did not have reasonably good access to waterways undoubtedly stood
at a disadvantage if they wished to sell their produce away from their home
region. For instance, the landowners of central Asia Minor are described
by John Lydus, in the time of Justinian, as unable to sell their crops because
they were ‘far removed from the sea’; while, by contrast, Agathias in the
mid sixth century describes the Lazi, on the Black Sea coast of Asia Minor,
as wealthy since ‘they put out to sea whenever possible and carry on a thriving
commerce’. 46 For many producers, commercial viability must have been
dependent on their access to water transport.
Even if it is accepted that commerce, as well as imperial and aristocratic
distribution, was one means whereby goods travelled overseas in the
Roman world, it still remains to be seen how important this commerce was
within the overall economy. Is it impressive only because archaeologists
have concentrated their attention on it, since it both strikes the imagination
and shows up so clearly in the archaeological record?
There is certainly much to be said for such scepticism, and there is no
doubt that we now need detailed studies of regional and local industries
and networks of exchange to set beside the work that has already been
done on long-distance distribution. For fine tablewares, some of this
research has already appeared. To set alongside the information on African
red-slip ware, it is already possible to form some impression of more
regional industries, producing pottery of comparable style and quality, such
as the various types of south Gaulish terre sigillée grise. 47 On a humbler and
more basic level, however, we know as yet very little about the plentiful
buff-coloured and grey tablewares and cooking-wares of the Roman, late
Roman and early medieval centuries, partly because they are often undecorated
and difficult to distinguish.
Although regional and local economies undoubtedly deserve emphasis
and more research, it would none the less be a mistake to dismiss long-distance
trade as peripheral to the main base of the economy. For there is a
very striking coincidence that cannot be avoided. Periods of rural prosperity
in a particular region seem to coincide closely with periods in which the
same region’s products show up in the archaeological record as exports
overseas.
This is true of Italy in the first century b.c. and the first century a.d.,
when Italian wine, pottery and marble were exported all over the western
45 Gaza wine: Riley (1979) 219–22. See also ch. 12, p.342 above, n. 60, for Cappadocian merchants
travelling overland to northern Mesopotamia to buy wine.
46 John Lydus: discussed by Hendy, Studies 295–6. Agathias Hist. iii.5.3.
47 Gaulish sigillata: Atlante (1981) 5–7; Reynolds (1995) 36–7.
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