Parasites of the God

Freed from Athenian tutelage in 314 BC, at a time of geopolitical changes that
marked the beginnings of the Hellenistic period in the Aegean world, Delos
gradually consolidated its political and economic independence. During the
third and second centuries, the Delian community redefined the central place
that the island had continually occupied in the economic, financial and
cultural flows of the Mediterranean. This study, mainly based on epigraphic
accounting sources, including more than five hundred accounts and engraved
inventories that were displayed in the sanctuary of Apollo, but also on
numismatic sources and archaeological remains on the seafront, re-considers
the question of Delos’ place in the Hellenistic economy. Far from being an
exception to be excluded from serialized comparisons, the Delian evidence is
indicative of Aegean economic circumstances and demonstrates the capacities of
the Greek communities to adapt to change in troubled times. Behind the numbers
cut in stone appear human communities and societies whose economic activities
shed fresh light on the history of this part of the Mediterranean.