Book excerpt: Ancient pastoralism and pastoral economies are currently absorbing much scholarly interest, as part of the wider problem of understanding the social and economic life of rural communities. In antiquity the rural poor formed the vast majority of the population and were the main producers of wealth. Yet what is written about them in our sources is disproportionately small and often has to be quarried from authors who had little interest in the subject and whose information was distorted by romantic myths of the past. In recent years, however, archaeology, comparative anthropology and new techniques of historical criticism have been able to supplement our knowledge and have stimulated a reexamination of previously accepted theories. The papers in this volume are a contribution to that debate. They range from the archaic societies of Greece and Rome to the last days of the Roman Empire, with contibutions from both archaeologists and historians, some of whose views are controversial and throw entirely new light on the subject.