Sicily and the Hellenistic Mediterranean World

Book excerpt: In Sicily and the Hellenistic Mediterranean World, D. Alex Walthall investigates the royal administration of Hieron II (r. 269-215 BCE), the Syracusan monarch who leveraged Sicily's agricultural resources to build a flourishing kingdom that, at one time, played an outsized role in the political and cultural affairs of the Western Mediterranean. Walthall's study combines an historical overview with the rich archaeological evidence that traditionally has not been considered in studies of Hellenistic kingdoms. Exploring the Hieronian system of agricultural taxation, he recasts the traditional narrative of the island's role as a Roman imperial 'grain basket' via analysis of monumental granaries, patterns of rural land-use, standardized grain measures, and the circulation of bronze coinage— the material elements of an agricultural administration that have emerged from recent excavations and intensive landscape survey on the island. Combining material and documentary evidence, Walthall's multi-disciplinary approach offers a new model for the writing of economic and social history of ancient societies.