Keith Roberts is a graduate of Harvard College, Harvard Law School, and the Harvard Business School's Program in Venture Capital. He has served as president of the Preservation Group, a San Francisco-based real estate firm; Roberts Proprietaries, Inc., a manufacturing and distribution company; and other firms. He is an arbitrator for the Financial Industries Regulatory Authority and in the New York court system.
William H. McNeill is a noted world historian and professor emeritus of history at the University of Chicago. The recipient of a National Humanities Medal, he is the author of many books, including The Rise of the West: A History of the Human Community, which won a National Book Award for history.

Foreword, by William H. McNeill
Preface
List of Terms
Introduction
1 Business in the Ancient Middle East
1. The Beginning
2. Middle Eastern Empires, 1600–323 B.C.E.
2 Business in Ancient Greece
3. Markets and Greece
4. Business in Athens
5. Hellenistic History: Prologue to Revolution
6. The Hellenistic Business Environment
7. Hellenistic Business
3 Business in Ancient Rome
8. The Early Roman Republic
9. The Late Roman Republic, 201–31 B.C.E.
10. The Principate, 31 B.C.E.–192 C.E.
11. Roman Society
12. Roman Businesses
13. The Downfall of Ancient Business
Concluding Note
Notes
Bibliography
Index

Knowing and understanding Western business history helps clarify the nature of business throughout the world today, along with the public policies that determine much of its current operating environment. Yet rarely do business historians look further back than the European Middle Ages. As Keith Roberts describes in this book, business, markets, and money as we know them took shape in the ancient Greek, Hellenistic, and Roman civilizations. His detailed history underscores the parallels between early and modern business practice. With its broad consideration of business morality, the nature of wealth, the role of finance, and the development of public institutions that shaped business possibilities, Roberts pioneers an absorbing account of a long neglected history.