First published as Agrarverhältnisse im Altertum, in Handwörterbuch der Staatwissenschaften, 1909; & Die sozialen Gründe des Untergangs der antiken Kultur, in Die Wahrheit, 5/1896. The Agrarian Sociology of Ancient Civilizations represents a sustained historical synthesis of a type unlike anything else in Weber's writings. The work began as an essay on agrarian relations in the ancient world published in 1897, which Weber rewrote in a massively expanded form over four months of intensive creative work during 1908 & which was finally published in 1909. This work was one of the first examples of the conscious use of Weber's new methodology - including the notion of the 'ideal type' - in relation to historical research.