Although appearing in 2008, this volume has yet to be reviewed in English. Hopefully what this review lacks in timeliness will be compensated by introducing to a wider audience a work of considerable interest. Although the book retains features of a dissertation that can make casual reading difficult, C.'s scholarship is of high quality and this volume is now the standard reference for salt production and trade in the ancient Mediterranean world.
The first chapter introduces the ancient sources, where casual mention of salt as a cheap and readily available commodity contrasts with the almost complete absence of more detailed discussion of its production and trade. Theophrastus' Περὶ ἁλῶν, νίτρου, στωπερίας is lost and we are fortunate to have Pliny's excursus at N.H. 31.73–105. C. draws on Pliny and scattered evidence to introduce the various uses and especially the sources of salt. It could be harvested or produced from briny lakes and springs, and mined from deposits, but in the Mediterranean world the sea was the most important source of salt and in Greek thought the two are often closely associated. Little here is new, but C. offers an admirably clear overview and her judgement is reliably sound. A noteworthy example is her discussion of salt pans, where historians have sometimes concluded that the use of secondary evaporation or crystallisation ponds is a later innovation. That view is hard to reconcile with recent archaeological investigations at Vigo in Galicia and ancient sources suggesting an elaborate technical wherewithal that included methods for the separation, clarification and leaching required to obtain relatively pure sodium chloride. The production of sea salt likely differed little in methods or potential productivity from what is more richly attested in later periods.
Over 100 pages in length, Chapter 2 comprises the heart of the volume, offering an exhaustive geographical survey of salt production. This evidence is scattered and its interpretation sometimes fraught with difficulties. As such, discussions of individual loci engage with a range of specific questions, sometimes at unnecessary length, and taken as a whole the chapter can make for tedious reading. But C.'s attention to detail is impressive, as is her seemingly boundless grasp of a wide range of evidence of disparate types and periods. For example, she opens her survey of Syria (p. 98) by acknowledging that no Greek or Latin sources mention salt production on the Syrian littoral, but brings to bear Bronze Age documents from Ugarit that attest such. Especially commendable is C.'s deft handling of epigraphic and papyrological texts. Where ancient evidence exists it is frequently enriched by judicious use of modern comparative data. Archaeological evidence is likewise taken into account. Such evidence is scarce for the production of sea salt itself, but C. does a good job of incorporating archaeological evidence for salt fish and fish sauce production, which constitutes indirect evidence of salt production on a large scale. Finally, C.'s handling of previous scholarship is meticulous, carefully weighing competing interpretations and frequently offering corrections.
Two thematic chapters follow. The first (Chapter 3) treats the supply and trade of salt. An excellent synthesis, it offers numerous insights and provides a useful corrective to assumptions commonly encountered in more general treatments of the ancient economy. Most notably, C. argues persuasively that there never existed widespread, large-scale international trade in salt. Her argument is far from minimalist. Consumption varied widely based on alimentary needs of local populations and demands for livestock or other purposes, especially production of salted fish and fish sauces. Nevertheless, many regions would have required tremendous annual supplies of salt. But C. makes effective use of comparative evidence to demonstrate the considerable productive potential of Mediterranean salt pans, and taking Athens as a test case she demonstrates that Greek coastal poleis would have been largely self-sufficient. While there is good evidence in specific regions for trade in salt from coastal to inland populations (most famously in Thrace), C. is careful not to extrapolate too widely from such examples. Where literary evidence exists for long-distance trade, it is most often concerned with varieties of salt that were particularly prized, a trade akin to that of other luxury goods. Much better evidence for large-scale trade is afforded indirectly by the production of salt fish and fish sauces. Where such installations were at a distance from lagoons conducive to salt production, it is clear that supplies must have been moved at least regionally by sea. Noteworthy here is her discussion of Byzantium and [Arist.] Oec. 2.2.3a 1246b (pp. 179–80, also treated at pp. 188–9). Finally, she concludes by discussing more broadly evidence for the production and trade in salted fish and fish sauces, for which, as value-added products, long-distance trade was far more economical. This chapter comprises an important contribution to the study of the ancient economy.
Chapter 4, which treats legal and fiscal regimes, is as a whole less rewarding, but this is perhaps owing to the nature of the questions it addresses. These include the legal status of salt pans in the Greek poleis, the nature of monopolies at Byzantium and Rome, and legal and fiscal regimes in Macedon, the Bosporan kingdoms, Greco-Roman Egypt, the Seleucid kingdom, and in Greek cities under the Hellenistic kings and later Rome, with a concluding discussion of the problem of garum sociorum and its alleged relationship to a Roman monopoly on salt production (pp. 242–6). C. does an excellent job of showing that monolithic claims about ancient monopolies on production and sale find little support in the evidence. But replacing such generalisations with nuanced, localised portraits involves detailed discussion of specific problems that can seem tangential. For example C. dedicates eight pages (pp. 214–22) to the Ptolemaic ἁλική – a poll tax that, despite its suggestive name, has no certain connection to the subject of this volume. C.'s tentative hypothesis – that this poll tax subsidised management of the royal monopoly on production and sale (the ἁλικὴ ὠνή) – is no more plausible than previous suggestions (and these monopolies were ostensibly capable of generating surplus revenue). Nevertheless, these pages will certainly prove useful for scholars interested in the specific topics addressed (even if it is often necessary also to consult the same evidence discussed in different detail in Chapter 2).
Problems in terms of the book's accessibility are partly remedied by a summary chapter (Chapter 5) that should, especially when read together with Chapter 1, satisfy readers looking for a basic overview. There follows an appendix printing I. Garofalo's Latin text and Italian translation of Pliny, N.H. 31.73–105. This is convenient (C.'s index of sources gives nearly a hundred page references for these chapters of Pliny), but it strikes me as a missed opportunity – what is needed is a concise commentary. The book is closed by 24 pages of bibliography, three indexes and 17 figures – all maps, most borrowed from previous publications (with slight modifications). These too are convenient, if not handsomely produced. As a whole the volume is well edited. If there are solecisms in the Italian I have not found any. Quotations from Greek and Latin are admirably free of errors. Where errors have crept in, they are largely limited to citations and bibliography. For example, the publication year for an article of J.K. Davies is sometimes given as 2000, but appears correctly as 2001 in the bibliography. E. Shepherd's name is consistently misspelled. Readers who know the work of C.K. Williams will be surprised to discover that he has two last names (Kaufman Williams at p. 184 n. 85 and in the bibliography). This misunderstanding seems to originate in Spanish sources that C. also cites, which would perhaps be of more concern were C.'s volume not otherwise a model of sound research.
