Die Schriften ΠEPI ΣΦYΓMΩN des Philaretos

from short conference papers, should be seen as a preliminary presentation of results. Two clear conclusions emerge: the complexities of the ancient trade in staple foodstuffs, particularly grain, and the success achieved by the classical conquest cities, Athens and Rome, and to some extent Carthage and Alexandria, in securing a generally adequate food supply for the citizen inhabitants of the capital city. Such subsistence crises as there were were few and short term. Their armies too seem to have been well fed, with arrangements for their provisioning. But on the smaller towns, on the fate of the provincials, this collection of essays is largely silent. The evidence of the local chronicle of Edessa (S. Turkey) for the fourth and fifth centuries, or the story of a famine at Myra in Lycia in the sixth, suggests that the generally optimistic tone of writers at the centre may have to be considerably modified for the Roman empire as a whole, and Galen's famous description of peasants having to resort to eating roots may not have been wide of the mark. On the relationship between malnutrition, famine, and disease, little is said, and that contradictory (pp. 16, 64). This useful volume signposts a way ahead, but much travelling is still needed before a satisfactory destination is reached. Vivian Nutton Wellcome Institute