T h e A g r a r i a n S o c i o l o g y o f A n c i e n t C i v i l i z a t i o n s i M a x W e b e r T R A N S L A T E D B V R. 1. F R A N K I lie A g r a r i a n S o c i o l o g y ot A n c i e n t C i v i l i z a t i o n s M a x W e b e r \ ; rcc •tin i ul J O :TV cau- r ot rlu w - ii k - - ;. iis n E iv o:' en •Suo.i vd a e ' u. ni. m m \\ . m i Et. •*Pk r du uia •p. ui ■=âo,:ri i lerr in tk! It’Ii ’ (Hl itv a: d r! e * °f ' ‘U tx •. (m m W e b i\ A 1 ‘•‘''I**'-"- III 1 S' ..■ iltva • -en-ut ■m Ui.il I m i oroi• s CV: Vise 1 1 > ni}: ir v. r. ut i vili/ • tun av d rs- v M e v >|u- ar V 1 % 1 ! i i '. • i r 1 r 1 iry-' aie- .(Ja - : ea 1 irtxv.. . il e h ili .. id nni al K IU BK h tuni r , l.pnuu .11 . 1' >-ct ■■ non ) C .S ! :a ■ O V\ rh in nuu-n . led .•i : sCS t1' rli, 1st a: It: line ■ 1 V. ‘el.1 . I Ol .1 'i . ‘•U : al t pl.i: .ton SS.i tin ri1 ■ llhdi ! 1 ! IMil.!! 1. ii Oil'll K.’mai inn 1 i re a i 1 i, V b h .1 : [Il - e: M.,i\ Weber >■ J :h m 1 tun ' >crm. :l\ iso •• .m. : il r ml. - ,-l: . bn .nr..•njist 1 i C tier k:iov- n 1 !'liÜlsl . .lit ; i ‘i> Y /!■./ S tet x. h, Votei.n/r. /• ... //■ < and !'!;■ -H'toi : v' •W/t?. ■ I S B N 0 7 0 - 1 - 5 5 0 0 4 - 2 7 5 - 1 9 0 0 0 0 9 "7818 59 " 8 4 2 7 5 1" V *( K S O tt -v hjs-.ihi. 4 ( ci design in r Kr The Agranan Sociology of Ancient Civilizations represents a sustained historical synthesis of a type unlike anything else in Weber’s writings. T h e work began as an essay on agrarian relations in the ancient world published in 1897, which Weber rewrote in a massively expanded form over four months of intensive cre­ ative work during 1908 and which was finally published in 1909. This work was one of the first examples of the conscious use of Weber’s n e w methodology - including the notion of the ‘ideal type’ - in relation to historical research. Weber starts with a general introduction that explores the necessary concepts for relating ‘economic theory’ and ‘ancient society’. H e then proceeds to a chronologically ordered study of the agrarian character of the socio-economic structures of Mesopotamia and Egypt - the two great riverine civilizations of High Antiquity; of He b r e w society in Israel, from its tribal to its royal forms; of the classical city-states of Greece; of the imperial Hellenistic realms which succeeded them in the Near East; and, finally, of the evolution of R o m a n soci­ ety, from the Republic to the Empire. T h e volume concludes with a ground­ breaking panoramic essay, first published in 1896, where Weber rooted the decline of R o m e in the agrarian situation and the ‘deurbanisation’ of the Empire. M A X W E B E R was born in 1864 in Erfurt and was educated at Heidelberg, Strasbourg, Göttingen, and Berlin where he studied law, economics, history and philosophy. H e held chairs in Political E c o n o m y at Freiburg and Heidelberg. F r o m 1904 he edited the Archiv ßir Sozia {Wissenschaft und Sozialpolitik. H e died in M un i c h in 1920. His m any publications include The Methodology of the Social Sciences (1904), The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (1904— 5), Economy and Society (1921), and General Economic History (1923). V E R S O C L A S S I C S The last few decades have seen an immense outpouring of works of theory and criticism, but, as the number of titles has increased dramatically, it has become more and more difficult to find one’s way around this vast body of literature and to distinguish between those works of real and enduring value and those of a more ephemeral nature. The Verso Classics series will rise to the challenge by taking stock of the last few decades of contemporary crit­ ical thought and reissuing, in an elegant paperback format and at affordable prices, those books which genuinely constitute original and important intel­ lectual contributions. Many of these works are currently out of print or difficult to obtain: Verso Classics will bring them back into the public domain, building a collection which will become the ‘essential left library’. 1. LOUIS ALTHUSSER For Marx 2. perry ANDERSON Passages from Antiquity to Feudalism 3. terry eag l et o n The Function of Criticism 4. FREDRIC JAMESON Late Marxism 5. Jacqueline rose Sexuality in the Field of Vision 6. R A YMO ND WILLIAMS T h e Politics of Modernism 7. WALTER BENJAMIN Charles Baudelaire 8. WALTER BENJAMIN One-Way Street 9. ROY BHASKAR A Realist Theory of Science 10. LUCIEN FEB vre a n d Henri-jean martin The Coming of the Book 11. f ra n co MORETTi Signs Taken for Wonders 12. RAYMOND williams Problems in Materialism and Culture 13. GEORG LUKÂCS Lenin: A Study in the Unity of His Thought 14 IjOUIS ALTHUSSER A N D ÉTIENNE BALIBAR Reading Capital 15. THEODOR ADORNO a n d M A X HORKHEIMER Dialectic of Enlightenment 16. ERIK O U N WRIGHT Classes 17. THEODOR ADORNO Quasi una Fantasia 18. G U Y DEBORD Comments on the Society of the Spectacle 19 m a x WEBER The Agrarian Sociology of Ancient Civilizations 20. ERIK O U N WRIGHT The Debate on Classes 21 TERRY EAGLETON Criticism and Ideology: A Study in Marxist Literary Theory T h e A g r a r i a n S o c i o l o g y o f A n c i e n t C i v i l i z a t i o n s - - - - - - ♦ - - - - - - M A X W E B E R Translated by R.I Frank v V E R S O London • New York First published as ‘Agrarverhältnisse im Altertum,’ in Handwörterbuch der Staatwissenschaften, 1909; and ‘Die sozialen Gründe des Untergangs der antiken Kultur’, in Die Wahrheit M a y 1896. Republished in M a x Weber, Gesammelte Aufsätze zur Sozial- und Wirtschaftsgeschichte, Tübingen 1924. First English edition published by N L B , 1976 This edition published by Verso 1998 ©Verso: 1998 All rights reserved Verso U K : 6 Meard Street, London W 1 V 3 H R U S A : 29 West 35th Street, N e w York, N Y 10001-2291 Verso is the imprint of N e w Left Books British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Weber, Max, 1864-1920 T h e agrarian sociology of ancient civilizations. 1. Ancient world. Economic conditions I. Title 330.93 I S B N 1-85984-275-5 U S Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Weber, Max, 1864-1920. [Selections, English. 1988] T h e agrarian sociology of ancient civilizations / M a x Weber: translated by R.I. Frank, p. cm. “First published as ‘Agrarverhältnisse im Altertum,’ in Handwörterbuch der Staatwissenschaften, 1909; and ‘Die sozialen Gründe des Untergangs der antiken Kultur,’ in ‘Die Wahrheit, M a y 1896’-T.p. verso. Reprint. Originally published: London: N L B ; Atlantic Highlands: Humanities Press, 1976. Contents: Translator’s introduction — Economic theory and ancient society — T h e agrarian history of the major centres of ancient civilization — T h e social causes of the decline of ancient civilization. Includes bibliographies and indexes. I S B N 0-86091-938-2 (pbk.): S23.95 1. Economic history — To 500. 2. Agriculture — History. 3. Social history — To 500. 4. Civilization, Ancient. 5. Middle East — Economic conditions. I. Title. HC31.W42213 1988 Typeset in Intertype Caledonia Printed in Great Britain by Biddles Ltd, Guildford Contents Translator’s Introduction 7 I. E c o n o m i c T h e o r y a n d Ancient Society 3 5 II. T h e Agrarian History of the M a j o r Centres of Ancie nt Civilization 81 1. M e s o p o t a m i a 83 2. E g y p t 1 0 5 3. Israel 134 4. G r e e c e 147 5. Hellenistic A g e 220 6. R o m a n Republic 260 7. R o m a n E m p i r e 336 III. Bibliography 3 6 7 IV. T h e Social C a u s e s of the Decline of Ancient Civilization 3 8 7 I n d e x of N a m e s 4 1 3 I n d e x of Authorities 4 2 0 Translator’s Introduction ‘In science, each of us k n o w s that w h a t he has accomplished will be antiquated in ten, twenty, fifty years’.1 S u c h w a s M a x W e b e r s s o m e w h a t poignant view of a scholar’s work, but in fact the fate of his o w n writings shows that he w a s too optimistic about the advance of scholarship. T h e present book, in particular, w a s not studied or used for over fifty years. A s late as 1965 a distinguished ancient historian could call it ‘still the most original a n d p ene­ trating account ever written of Antiquity’s social a n d economic development’.* Analysis h a d till then largely held the field. N o w , however, there is a re n e w e d interest in theory a n d synthesis, a n d this w o r k should at last gain the audience it deserves. Readers will find here a remarkable survey of 3,000 years, one which traces the institutional framework within w h i c h political a n d intellectual developments took place. T h e y will find m o r e if they k n o w something about the author a n d his premises, methods, a n d purpose. W h a t follows aims to give the essential information on these matters together with references for further study. 1. Author M a x W e b e r w a s b o m in 1864. His father w a s a wealthy lawyer a n d a leading m e m b e r of the Imperial Parliament, so he g r e w u p in Berlin a n d as a y o u n g m a n m e t m a n y of die leading figures in G e r m a n politics a n d scholarship. At the University of Berlin he studied law, writing his first dissertation on the mediaeval trading 1 2 1. H. Gerth and C. Mills (eds), From Max Weber ( N e w York, 1946), p. 138. 2. A. Heuss, ‘M a x W eb e r ’s Bedeutung für die Geschichte des griechisch- römischen Altertums’, Historische Zeitschrift, 201 (1965), pp. 529-56, at p. 538. 8 companies (1889)* a n d his second on R o m e ’s land use system (1891).* T h u s W e b e r qualified himself in both G e r m a n a n d R o m a n law, an unusual feat in those days a n d an early indication of his independence of traditional disciplinary boundaries. T h e second dissertation is in m a n y w a y s a key to W e b e r s studies. It is based o n complete mastery of the primary sources, in this case mainly a collection of abstruse Latin documents on surveying; here w e see W e b e r ’s link with the G e r m a n school of legal historians w h o used philological methods to interpret legal sources a n d to trace the development of institutions. W e b e r in fact h a d close ties with the greatest m e m b e r of this school, T h e o d o r M o m m s e n , ‘prince of philologists’. A t W e b e r ’s first doctoral examination M o m m s e n questioned h i m closely o n one of his theses, then concluded b y saying that although still uncon­ vinced h e w o u l d offer n o further objections. ‘Younger m e n often have ideas w h i c h at first s e e m unacceptable... B u t w h e n the time c o m e s for m e to go, there is n o o n e to w h o m I w o u l d rather entrust m y w o r k than the m u c h esteemed M a x Weber.’* N o w the historical school w a s characterized b y Savigny’s famous argument against legal reform, a n d b y his view of social change as ‘organic’, rooted in national character. H e n c e its m e m ­ bers tended to ignore classes a n d conflicts of interest.* E v e n M o m m s e n ’s legal works s h o w this trait, the m o r e noteworthy since his personal views in politics w e r e quite dissimilar. But W e b e r ’s 1891 w o r k shows the influence of a very different approach. After registering his great debt to M o m m s e n he goes on to say that h e h a d studied R o m a n agrarian institutions b y first looking at their practical importance for particular interest groups, a m e t h o d he h a d learned from his teacher, August Meitzen.3 4 5 6 7 T h e latter, to w h o m in fact the w o r k w a s dedicated, h a d written a 3. Zur Geschichte der Handelgeseüschaften im Mittelalter (Stuttgart, 1889), reprinted in Gesammelte Aufsätze zur Sozial- und Wirtschafts­ geschichte (Tübingen, 1924), pp. 312-443. 4. Die römische Agrargeschichte in ihrer Bedeutung fur das Staats- und Privatrecht (Stuttgart, 1891; rptd. Amsterdam, 1966). 5. Marianne Weber, Max Weber: Ein Lebensbild (Tübingen, 1926), p. 121; cf. P. Honigsheim, On Max Weber ( N e w York, 1968), p. 45; ‘M o m m s e n was said to have tried to get him a chair in ancient history or R o m a n law.’ 6. G. Gooch, History and Historians in the Nineteenth Century, 2nd ed. (London, 1952), pp. 39-49. 7. Die römische . . . (above, n. 4), p. 5; cf. Honigsheim (above, n. 5), pp. 53, 144.