This study analyzes the religious mentality commercial practices and socialcomposition of Roman trade society at the celebrated Hellenistic Greek RomanRepublica... » 

This study analyzes the religious mentality commercial practices and socialcomposition of Roman trade society at the celebrated Hellenistic Greek RomanRepublican emporium of Delos 16687 B.C. The remains of this site date largelyto the late second and early first centuries B.C. when Delos was the nervecenter of the transMediterranean luxury and slave trade of Roman Italy.Repeated military assaults between 87 and 69 B.C. destroyed the community andits trade importance declined. But as an archaeological site it offers theearliest and most detailed remains of a Roman trade community to surviveanywhere in the Mediterranean world including the city of Rome itself. Thisstudy marks the first reassessment and interpretation of these remains fromthe vantage point of Roman trade in more than seventy years. Among the subjectsdiscussed are the religious character of the remains of Delian marketplaces andtheir likely commercial function the role of oaths and more particularly ofthe gods Mercury and Hercules in Roman commerce the tendency of Romantraders to organize themselves according to religious fraternities and themanner in which this enhanced trade activities such as finance the socialstatus of these traders in wider Roman society as reflected by their houseremains and finally the identity of the mysterious Agora of the Italians. «