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Not so long ago, suggesting that anything like a 'business class' existed in the ancient world was enough to be labelled an incurable blockhead modernist, unable to grasp the staggering consequences of using imprecise or inadequate concepts borrowed from that infamous moderntimes monster called neoclassical economy, naïvely (and tastelessly) infusing it with marxist nonsense. Fortunately, today, the debate has moved beyond the discussion of which holistic models are intrinsically better to understand the 'nature' of the ancient economy to the more pragmatic approach to make as much sense as possible of the data we have, using intermediate models or relying on plain common sense. 1 From the minimalist viewpoint the inÁ uence of economic institutions and organisations on social differentiation was negligent. The embeddedness of the economy and the constraints it placed on economic activities implied that economic positions reÁ ected social positions rather than vice versa. However, in the classiÀ cation schemes used in ancient texts and inscriptions to describe social categories and to assign individuals to particular categories, occupational denominations play a central role. Thus, occupational labels are a common feature of subelite inscriptions and similarity of occupation is the distinctive criterion for voluntary associations throughout the Empire.

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