As a university subject and an object of systematic research and scientiϐic studies, marketing has been around for more than 100 years. It appeared in the early 20th Century as a separate science which emerged as a branch of applied economics. However, the sources of marketing thought have a much longer tradition. The article argues that they go as far back as to antiquity. It describes the general background of the ancient philosophers’ interest in the market and market exchange, the controversies which arose in relation to the opinions on marketing voiced by ancient thinkers, and the logic of Plato’s marketing system.