The subtitle of this Festschrift neatly summarises the career of Raymond Descat, who spent his professional life at the University of Bordeaux and for nine years served as director of the ‘Ausonius’ research centre. Whereas his early research work had been focused on the Greek economy, from the late 1980s Descat also devoted himself to the epigraphy of Caria. After a brief biography of the honorand (by P. Brun) and a list of his publications, the volume contains 29 papers in French, English and German which have been grouped into two thematic sections: ‘l'économie antique’ and ‘l'Asie Mineure’. Puzzlingly, the first section includes G. Reger's publication of an inscription from Mylasa (which is in Asia Minor) and the second A. Ivantchik and A. Falileyev's re-examination of a Celtic inscription from Olbia (which is not).

Markets and systems of exchange form the dominant theme within the first section where several papers address the debate between ‘primitivists’ and ‘modernists’ over the nature of the Greek economy (C. Pébarthe, J. Zurbach) and the role of markets in the economic life of the cities (V. Chankowski, C. Hasenohr, L. Migeotte). Others concern exchange-related topics such as metrology (G. Finkielsztejn, J.H. Kroll and G. Reger; also I. Pernin and C. Grandjean) and customs duties (M. Cottier). A slightly ‘softer’ focus on social rather than economic aspects characterises the contributions on Junian Latins in Rome (J. Andreau), women in Macedonia (Z. Archibald) and social security in fourth-century Athens (J.-M. Roubineau). A startlingly refreshing contribution (F. de Callataÿ) explores the results of recent quantitative studies to reach the ‘modernist’ conclusion that the quality of life in classical Athens was comparable to that of many modern societies – and significantly higher than in Rome. This first section offers a broad view of many aspects of ancient – mainly classical and Hellenistic Greek – economy and society.

The second section comprises a number of specialised studies devoted to a specific topic within Carian archaeology, epigraphy or numismatics (including the editor's contribution on coins from the Halicarnassus peninsula). Others address more general themes such as the relationship between cities and their benefactors (A. Bresson, F. Delrieux, G. Thierault), the early Hellenistic monarchy (L. Capdetrey; also W. Held on the royal palace of Pergamum) and the image of Alexander the Great in eighteenth-century British historiography (P. Briant).

Apart from the odd typo and a few blurred photographs, the volume has been produced to a high technical standard and is provided with an index of sources, as well as a general index.