The Slave Systems of Greek and Roman Antiquity


Book Description

Greek slavery from Homer to the Persian wars -- From the Persian wars to Alexander : slave supply and slave numbers -- From the Persian wars to Alexander : slave employment and legal aspects of slavery -- From the Persian wars to Alexander : the social setting of polis slavery -- The eastern Mediterranean lands from Alexander to Augustus : the Delphic manumissions : slave origins, economic and legal approaches -- The eastern area from Alexander to Augustus : basic differences between pre-Greek and Greek slavery -- Slavery in Hellenistic Egypt : pharaonic tradition and Greek intrusions -- War and slavery in the West to 146 B.C. -- The Roman republic : praedial slavery, piracy, and slave revolts -- The later republic : the slave and the Roman familia -- The later republic : social and legal position of slaves -- Slavery under the Roman empire to Constantine the Great : sources and numbers of slaves -- The Roman Empire in the West : economic aspects of slavery -- Slavery under the Roman Empire : the provenance of slaves, how sold and prices paid -- The Roman Empire : living conditions and social life of slaves -- Imperial slaves and freedmen of the emperors : amelioration of slavery -- The moral implications of imperial slavery and the "decline" of ancient culture -- In the eastern provinces of the Roman Empire -- From Diocletian to Justinian : problems os slavery -- From Diocletian to Justinian : the eastern and the western developments -- From Diocletian to Justinian : leveling of position between free workers and slaves -- Upon slavery and Christianity -- Conclusion.




Greek and Roman Slavery


Book Description

Greek and Roman Slavery brings together fresh English translations of 243 texts and inscriptions on slavery from fifth and fourth century Greece and Rome. The material is arranged thematically, offering the reader a comprehensive review of the idea and practice of slavery in ancient civilization. In addition, a thorough bibliography for each chapter, as well as an extensive index, make this a valuable source for scholars and students.




Slave Systems


Book Description

A ground-breaking edited collection charting the rise and fall of forms of unfree labour in the ancient Mediterranean and in the modern Atlantic, employing the methodology of comparative history. The eleven chapters in the book deal with conceptual issues and different approaches to historical comparison, and include specific case-studies ranging from the ancient forms of slavery of classical Greece and of the Roman empire to the modern examples of slavery that characterised the Caribbean, Latin America and the United States. The results demonstrate both how much the modern world has inherited from the ancient in regard to ideology and practice of slavery; and also how many of the issues and problems related to the latter seem to have been fundamentally similar across time and space.




Slavery and Sexuality in Classical Antiquity


Book Description

Slavery and sexuality in the ancient world are well researched on their own, yet rarely have they been examined together. Chapters address a wealth of art, literature, and drama to explore a wide range of issues, including gendered power dynamics, sexual violence in slave revolts, same-sex relations between free and enslaved people, and the agency of assault victims.




Slaves and Slavery in Ancient Greece


Book Description

Recovers the voices, experiences and agency of enslaved people in ancient Greece.




What is a Slave Society?


Book Description

Interrogates the traditional binary 'slave societies'/'societies with slaves' as a paradigm for understanding the global practice of slaveholding.




Slavery in the Late Roman World, AD 275–425


Book Description

Capitalizing on the rich historical record of late antiquity, and employing sophisticated methodologies from social and economic history, this book reinterprets the end of Roman slavery. Kyle Harper challenges traditional interpretations of a transition from antiquity to the Middle Ages, arguing instead that a deep divide runs through 'late antiquity', separating the Roman slave system from its early medieval successors. In the process, he covers the economic, social and institutional dimensions of ancient slavery and presents the most comprehensive analytical treatment of a pre-modern slave system now available. By scouring the late antique record, he has uncovered a wealth of new material, providing fresh insights into the ancient slave system, including slavery's role in agriculture and textile production, its relation to sexual exploitation, and the dynamics of social honor. By demonstrating the vitality of slavery into the later Roman empire, the author shows that Christianity triumphed amidst a genuine slave society.




Slavery and Society at Rome


Book Description

This book, first published in 1994, is concerned with discovering what it was like to be a slave in the classical Roman world, and with revealing the impact the institution of slavery made on Roman society at large. It shows how and in what sense Rome was a slave society through much of its history, considers how the Romans procured their slaves, discusses the work roles slaves fulfilled and the material conditions under which they spent their lives, investigates how slaves responded to and resisted slavery, and reveals how slavery, as an institution, became more and more oppressive over time under the impact of philosophical and religious teaching. The book stresses the harsh realities of life in slavery and the way in which slavery was an integral part of Roman civilisation.




The Cambridge Companion to the Roman Economy


Book Description

Thanks to its exceptional size and duration, the Roman Empire offers one of the best opportunities to study economic development in the context of an agrarian world empire. This volume, which is organised thematically, provides a sophisticated introduction to and assessment of all aspects of its economic life.




Slave Revolts in Antiquity


Book Description

Although much has been written on Greek and Roman slavery, slave resistance has typically been dismissed as historically insignificant and those revolts that are documented are portrayed as wholly exceptional and resulting from peculiar historical circumstances that had little to do with the intrinsic views or organizational capabilities of the slaves themselves.In this book Theresa Urbainczyk challenges the current orthodoxy and argues that there were many more slave revolts than is usually assumed and they were far from insignificant historically. She carefully dissects ancient and modern interpretations to show that there was every reason for the writers who recorded and re-recorded the slave rebellions and wars to repress or to reconfigure any larger-scale slave resistance as something other than what it was. Further, she shows that we often have the accounts that we do because of the happenstance of certain ancient authors having been particularly interested in creating accounts of them for their own interests. Urbainczyk argues that we need to look beyond the canonical sources and episodes to see a bigger history of long-term resistance of slaves to their enslavement.