Recently, ‘Coins, Riches, and Lands. Paying for Military Manpower in Antiquity and Early Medieval Times’, a new monograph co-edited by Dr. David Martínez Chico. The book is published by the prestigious Oxford-based publisher Oxbow. A study of how coins, wealth and land were obtained and distributed among soldiers, warriors and mercenaries in Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages.

Land was the ideal store of wealth in the ancient Mediterranean world. It brought social respectability and its possession made it possible to participate in the politics of the cities ruled by the landed elites. The crucial defence of the interests of a given political entity through armed services often involved the distribution of land to labourers not yet integrated into these societies. Mediterranean urban dynamics also involved wage labour and always needed short-term hired labour, including soldiers and skilled warriors. For short-term military services, land was not always available, so soldiers and warriors were paid in coin and wealth.
With their further development, the urban economies of the Mediterranean were able to attract paid migrant labour. When they returned home, migrant warriors brought with them coin and wealth that allowed them to maximise the return home. Although it is difficult to prove whether these men were paid in advance or on discharge, this is an important question, as it shows the strength of one contractor over another and helps to better understand state-building in antiquity.

This collection of works sheds light on how coins, wealth and land were obtained and distributed among soldiers, warriors and mercenaries. The contributions cover a broad chronological arc from the late Pharaonic period to the early Middle Ages, linking a well-defined core area, the Mediterranean basin, with its peripheries: Central Europe and Scandinavia to the north and the margins of the Sahara Desert and the Fertile Crescent to the south and east.

Sales link: https://www.oxbowbooks.com/9781789259902/coins-riches-and-lands/

The table of contents of the book is attached.

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