Assessing Ancient Inequalities: Hellenistic Delos

This paper presents a new dataset that measures inequality levels on the city-state of Delos at two different points in time during the period of its independence (314-167 BCE). We propose a new approach for quantifying ancient inequality and its evolution by relying on inscriptions that indicate property data and artisanal remunerations. A probabilistic approach is adopted to assess the uncertainty of the estimates and their sensitivity to assumptions. This paper finds that there was a decrease in wealth inequality of about 20% between the early and late periods of independence. We hypothesize that the main reason for the socio-economic changes is to be found in the new political status of autonomy that occurred in 314 BCE and resulted in a greater share of wealth being held by the middle class.

本文提出了一个新数据集，用于衡量独立时期（公元前314-167年）提洛城邦（Delos）在两个不同时间点的不平等程度。我们通过依赖记录财产数据与手工业者报酬的铭文，提出了一种量化古代不平等及其演变的新方法。本文采用概率方法评估估算结果的不确定性及其对假设的敏感性。研究发现，在独立时期的早期与晚期之间，财富不平等程度下降了约20%。我们推测，社会经济变化的主要原因在于公元前314年确立的新自治政治地位，这一变化使中产阶级持有了更大份额的财富。