Oikonomikē technē, the art of household management, has not much been studied, so far as the Hellenistic period is concerned. Histories of economic thought, when they refer to ancient thought, usually pass directly from Aristotle or his immediate successors to medieval economic Aristotelianism; even the most recent and up-to-date of these are no exception. It would seem that ancient economic thought, having reached its zenith in Aristotle's Politics, disappeared, only to reappear as a catalyst for the reflections of medieval commentators. However, several post-Aristotelian texts on the topic of oikonomikē exist such as the Economics of Ps.-Aristotle and the so-called Economics of Philodemus of Gadara; from a later age there are the Economics of the Neopythagoreans Callicratides and Bryson, the Economics of Dio of Prusa, the Economics of Hierocles and various other documents which, though not called Economics, are concerned with subjects connected with oikonomikē technē.

As far as I know, a general overview of the subject matter with which I am concerned is not available. Only the products of some of the schools, especially Ps.-Aristotle's Economics, have stimulated a sufficiently wide debate. I would like here to make a comparably broad study of the whole subject, with a view to a comprehensive synthesis.