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Financial crises are nothing new in Greece — they go back at least to the Peloponnesian War

In The Rise and Fall of Classical Greece Josiah Ober finds that, for all their sophistication, the Ancient Greeks were useless economists

11 July 2015

9:00 AM

11 July 2015

9:00 AM

The Rise and Fall of Classical Greece Josiah Ober

Princeton, pp.416, £24.95, ISBN: 9780691140919

Financial crises are nothing new in Greece. Back in 354 BC, at a time when Frankfurt was still a swamp, the Athenian general Xenophon wrote a briefing paper designed to help his city negotiate the aftermath of a disastrous war. His proposals mixed supply-side reform with Keynesian stimulus. The regulatory powers of Athenian officials, so Xenophon suggested, should be streamlined and enhanced; simultaneously, the city should invest in increasing its commercial and housing stock.

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Available from the Spectator Bookshop, £21.95 Tel: 08430 600033. Tom Holland has written extensively on the ancient world in Rubicon, Persian Fire and In the Shadow of the Sword.

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