The economy of ancient Rome, with its money, complex credit
arrangements, and long-range shipping, was surprisingly modern. Yet
Romans also exchanged goods and services within a robust system of
gifts and favors, which sustained the supportive relationships
necessary for survival in the absence of the extensive state and
social institutions. In Gift and Gain: How Money Transformed
Ancient Rome, Neil Coffee shows how a vibrant commercial culture
progressively displaced systems of gift giving over the course of
Rome's classical era. The change was propelled the Roman elite,
through their engagement in shipping, moneylending, and other
enterprises. Members of the same elite, however, remained
habituated to traditional gift relationships, relying on them to
exercise influence and build their social worlds. They resisted the
transformation, through legislation, political movements, and
philosophical argument. The result was a recurring clash across the
contexts of Roman social and economic life. The book traces the
conflict between gift and gain from Rome's prehistory, down through
the conflicts of the late Republic, into the early Empire, showing
its effects in areas as diverse as politics, government, legal
representation, philosophical thought, public morality, personal
and civic patronage, marriage, dining, and the Latin language.
These investigations show Rome shifting, unevenly but steadily,
away from its pre-historic reliance on relationships of mutual aid,
and toward to the more formal, commercial, and contractual
relations of modernity.
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