Les manieurs d'argent à Rome jusqu'à l'Empire

The work opens a vivid panorama of Rome’s financial world before the empire, showing how the great publicani—state contractors and tax farmers—evolved into powerful joint‑stock companies. It traces the rise of financiers who not only controlled vast fortunes but also swayed the courts, elections and public opinion, turning money into a decisive political weapon. By mapping the market, the shareholders and the games they played, the book reveals how wealth began to dominate the Republic’s civic ideals.

Built on exhaustive archival research, the study has been refined for a second edition with numerous corrections and new material, earning praise from the French Academy and the Academy of Moral and Political Sciences. Its clear, scholarly style brings the moral and constitutional consequences of Roman financial power into sharp focus, inviting listeners to reconsider how the pursuit of riches reshaped an entire civilization.