We know almost nothing of the merchants who made ancient Greece rich enough to spawn an unprecedented culture, but we know lots about the deeds of those who squandered that wealth in war. “The history of antiquity resounds with the sanguinary achievements of Aryan warrior elites,” wrote the historian of antiquity Thomas Carney. “But it was the despised Levantines, Arameans, Syrians, and Greeklings who constituted the economic heroes of antiquity.”
Matt Ridley, “Waterloo or railways”, Matt Ridley Online, 2015-06-18.
January 5, 2017
QotD: Warriors and (mere) merchants
2 Comments
RSS feed for comments on this post.
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.
Isn’t it likely that merchants were warriors and warriors merchants? Until very recently, in fact?
Reflect on “no peace beyond the line.”
Comment by Steven Muhlberger — January 5, 2017 @ 10:58
Lots of examples of seaborne traders who could turn to a bit of plundering, given sufficient incentive. The Vikings may be the best known raiders, but they were not unique. Harry Turtledove wrote a few books (for him, perhaps a few leisurely afternoons’ distraction) on a small group of traders from Rhodes during the post-Alexander period in the eastern Mediterranean, in which the line between legitimate traders and pirates is quite negotiable. Modern day pirates (especially the ones infesting the Horn of Africa and the East Indies) tend to be more purely piratical.
Comment by Nicholas — January 5, 2017 @ 11:30