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.