SURVEY OF LITERATURE 1953—1955 509
m e n t record. In this period it was t h e word διαγράφειν meaning t h e act of p a y i n g . At the beginning of t h e R o m a n domination t h e s t a t e m e n t of having fulfilled such an act is p u t in the perfect ten-se as it was t h e caten-se since the Ptolomaic era w i t h all t h e analo-gous s t a t e m e n t s .
W . L. W e s t e r m a n n, Price Controls and Wages (The Age of Diocle-tian, A Symposium, p. 25·—36) (The Metropolitan Museum of A r t , New" Y o r k 1953).
This m a s t e r f u l l essay deals with the problem which will also interest papyrologists. We f i n d there interesting remarks on t h e t a x a t i o n system, reorganized b y Diocletian, on t h e f a m o u s letter w r i t t e n b y a local official Dionysios (ed. b y M a t t i n g l y, Transactions of the International Numismatic Congress [1936] 246 ff.) and on t h e f a m o u s edict u p o n prices of goods for sale.
L. C a s s o n , The Grain Trade of the Hellenistic World (extr. f r o m t h e T . A . P . A . I X X X V [1954] p. 168 ff.).
The f i n d i n g s of t h e a u t h o r are as follows: F r o m t h e t i m e of Ale-x a n d e r to t h e middle of t h e second c e n t u r y B.C. t h e key figure in the grain t r a d e of the eastern Mediterranean was Rhodes. I t was she who distributed most of the s u p p l y f r o m E g y p t , and her share of t h a t f r o m t h e Black Sea area, to t h e coastal cities of Asia Minor and the Aegean islands a n d Greece. She employed Delos as a con-venient distribution point for shipment t o t h e neighboring islands a n d as a more convenient receiving point for grain f r o m t h e west. Financing was done w i t h her own capital and m u c h of the grain traveled in her own b o t t o m s . Athens a n d Greece, as in the f o u r t h century, received in addition substantial supplies directly f r o m t h e P o n t u s . F r o m t h e middle of t h e second c e n t u r y B.C. to the anne-x a t i o n of E g y p t , Rhodes does n o t lose her position in t h e grain t r a d e a l t h o u g h other forms of her commerce suffer. Whereas in t h e previous period there h a d been enough grain available to pro-duce competition a t times, t h e situation now changes. Sicilian sup-plies are now diverted t o R o m e . N u m i d i a n grain a t t e m p t s t o re-place it b u t is soon swallowed u p b y R o m e as well. The a m o u n t available f r o m t h e Black Sea is somewhat reduced. T h e b u r d e n t h u s falls upon E g y p t . I n the f i r s t c e n t u r y B.C., because of t h e
