Demography and the Graeco Roman world : new insights and approaches Through a series of case studies this book demonstrates the wide ranging impact of demographic dynamics on social economic and political structures in the Graeco Roman world. The individual case studies focus on fertility mortality and migration and the roles they played in various aspects of ancient life. These studies drawn from a range of populations in Athens and Attica Rome and Italy and Graeco Roman Egypt illustrate how new insights can be gained by applying demographic methods to familiar themes in ancient history. Methodological issues are addressed in a clear straightforward manner with no assumption of prior technical knowledge ensuring that the book is accessible to readers with no training in demography. The book marks an important step forward in ancient historical demography affirming both the centrality of population studies in ancient history and the contribution that antiquity can make to population history in general This book has its origins in a conference entitled Pre modern Populations and Economies: the Case of Greece and Rome which we organised while we were postgraduate students at the University of Manchester in June 2005. Versions of some of the papers were presented at this conference and others were added later in order to extend the scope of the volume. We would like to thank our speakers: Ben Akrigg Nigel Goose Ian Harrison Mike McCarthy Neville Morley and Bob Woods and our session chairs and discussants Alex Craven Polly Low and James Thorne