04-09/2021    
Feodor-Lynen-Fellow der Alexander von Humboldt-Stiftung und Visiting Scholar an der Universität Edinburgh, assoziiert mit dem ERC-Projekt "Honour in Classical Greece" (PI Prof. Dr. Douglas Cairns)

Seit 10/2019
Mitglied des Auswahlausschusses für die Nachwuchsförderlinien des Zukunftskonzeptes der HU

07/2018    
Promotion an der Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin bei Prof. Dr. Aloys Winterling

Seit 2018    
Mitglied im Zentrumsrat August-Boeckh-Antikezentrum

Seit 2017    
Wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter an der Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin

2013–2017    
Mitglied des Excellence-Clusters Topoi als Stipendiat,
Arbeit an der Dissertation zum Thema „Ökonomik und Hauswirtschaft im antiken Griechenland, 430–280 v. Chr.“,
Mitglied der Berlin Graduate School of Ancient Studies

Oikonomia and Domestic Economy in Classical Greece

There is a certain irony involved in the discussion of ancient Greek household economy. Although the very concept of ‘Hauswirtschaft’ sparked the debate on the nature of the Ancient economy at the end of the 19th century, this debate never ventured far in developing a theory of household economy. This may be no accident. Despite all the polarization, so called ‘modernists’ and ‘primitivists’ shared a common notion of household economy (or ‘domestic economy’). It was supposed to be an archaic form of economic organization, aiming at autarky and self-sufficiency. This project followed a different lead. In classical times (ca. 450 – 300 B. C. E.) the Greek household economy adapted to the monetized markets of its urban environment. Not only that: the household was never surpassed as the most efficient form of economic organization.

The importance of households is a general feature of complex premodern societies. Therefore, a comparative approach is fruitful. At the same time, comparison highlights what was special about the ancient Greek household economy. Cohabitation in urban settlements with markets and civic self-government shaped how households produced and consumed goods and services. At the same time, these independent city-states were tightly interconnected as parts of a bigger Mediterranean space of exchange and distribution. For men and women willing to take risks, there were opportunities waiting right beyond the narrow confines of the rules and resources of their native city.

The everyday practices of household economy and the normative theories about household management (oikonomia, oikonomikē) have usually been investigated separately. In this study, both approaches are combined to draw a more complete picture of ancient Greek oikonomia and household economy. Norms and mental models do not simply mirror real life. Still, as culturally encoded knowledge they are a genuine part of this ‘real life’: they react to specific interests and problems and vice versa shape the way people think and act in everyday practice. Understood in this way, even contra-factual philosophical treatises tell us a lot about the realities of their time.

The Greek household was a hierarchical organization. As such, it was potentially effective, since its institutionalized order and the (relative) permanence of membership generated trust, enabled division of labor and the pooling of resources. Nonetheless, ancient households differed from modern corporations. They were not specialized on maximizing monetary returns. Instead, they focused on utility maximization. That encompassed any strategy ‘useful’ to the household: not just to acquire subsistence and money, but also to reach for honors and influence. In this sense, households were multifunctional.

Membership in a household was seldom optional. Wife, children, and slaves were subjugated to the command of the paterfamilias. But efficiency could not simply be ordered. The success of household economy rested on the willing, if unequal, cooperation of all members of the oikos.

This dissertation project was successfully completed within the Research Group B-3 Ökonomie/Oikonomia of the Excellence Cluster 264 Topoi.

Monographien

2021
Ökonomik und Hauswirtschaft im klassischen Griechenland, Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag 2021 (Historia Einzelschrift 265)

Aufsätze

tba
Die römische Komödie als historische Quelle oder Plautus’ Asinaria und die römische Wirtschaft der mittleren Republik, in: Gregor Vogt-Spira / Boris Dunsch (Hgg.), Plautus Revisited I (eingereicht, erscheint in der Reihe Studia Comica bei Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht)

2023
Agriculture, in: Frank Daubner / Patrick Reinard / Christian Rollinger (Hg.), The Attic Empire. The Athenians and their Allies in the 5th c. BCE (in Vorbereitung, de Gruyter, 2023)

2022
Zeus’ Herrschaft über Reichtum und Glück. Antikes Wirtschaften im Spiegel der Orakelanfragen von Dodona (angenommen, erscheint in KLIO 104, 2022)

Hauswirtschaft im klassischen Griechenland. Strukturen und Strategien, in: Iris Därmann / Aloys Winterling (Hg.), Oikonomia und Ökonomie im klassischen Griechenland. Theorie – Praxis – Transformation (Steiner), Berlin 2022, 355–370

Private Debts in Classical Greece. Bond of Friendship, Curse of Hatred?“, in: John Weisweiler (Hg.) Debt in the Ancient Mediterranean and Near East. Credit, Money and Social Obligation in David Graeber’s Axial Age (c. 700 BCE – 700 CE), New York (Oxford University Press, erscheint 2022)

Age-specific Mobility in Ancient Greece, in Historia 71, 2022

2019
Oikonomia und Chrematistik, in: Joseph Vogl / Burkhardt Wolf (Hg.), Handbuch Literatur und Ökonomie. Boston / Berlin (de Gruyter) 2019, 355–370

Rezensionen

2022
Rez. Pascal Montlahuc, Le pouvoir des bons mots. ‘Faire rire’ et politique à Rome du milieu du IIIe siècle a.C. à l’avènement des Antonins, Rom 2019, in: Gnomon 94, 2022, 227–231

2021
Rez. Saskia Roselaar, Italy's Economic Revolution. Integration and Economy in Republican Italy. Oxford 2019, in: H-Soz-Kult, 28.10.2021

2020
Rez. Dorothea Rohde, Von der Deliberationsdemokratie zur Zustimmungsdemokratie. Die öffentlichen Finanzen Athens und die Ausbildung einer Kompetenzelite im 4. Jahrhundert v. Chr. Stuttgart 2019, in: H-Soz-Kult, 20.07.2020

2019
Rez. Katarina Nebelin: Philosophie und Aristokratie. Paderborn 2014, in: Gnomon 6, 2019, 488–492

Rez. Richlin, Amy: Slave Theater in the Roman Republic. Plautus and Popular Comedy. Cambridge 2017, in: H-Soz-Kult, 29.04.2019

2018
Rez. Simonton, Mattew: Classical Greek Oligarchy. A Political History. Princeton 2017, in: H-Soz-Kult, 26.11.2018

2016
Rez. Cecchet, Lucia: Poverty in Athenian Public Discourse. From the Eve of the Peloponnesian War to the Rise of Macedonia. Stuttgart 2015, in: H-Soz-Kult, 25. Juli 2016

2015
Rez. Schmitz, Winfried: Die griechische Gesellschaft. Heidelberg 2014, in: H-Soz-Kult, 16. Februar 2015

2014
Rez. Thommen, Lukas: Die Wirtschaft Spartas. Stuttgart 2014, in: H-Soz-Kult, 21. Juli 2014