In The Open Sea, J. G. Manning offers a major new history of economic life in the Mediterranean world during the Iron Age, from Phoenician trading down to the Hellenistic era and the beginning of Rome’s supremacy. Drawing on a wide range of ancient sources and the latest social theory, Manning suggests that the search for an illusory single ancient economy has obscured the diversity of the Mediterranean world, including changes in political economies over time and differences in cultural conceptions of property and money. At the same time, this groundbreaking book shows how the region’s economies became increasingly interconnected during this period—and why the origins of the modern economy extend far beyond Greece and Rome.