Historicising Ancient Slavery
Kostas Vlassopoulos
Abstract
This book offers a new approach to the study of ancient slavery. Informed by the global history of slavery, it eschews traditional approaches to slavery as a static institution. It explores instead the diverse strategies and the various contexts in which slavery was employed. It offers a new historicist approach to the study of slave identity and the various networks and communities that slaves created or participated in. Instead of seeing slaves merely as passive objects of exploitation and domination, it focuses on slave agency and the various ways in which slaves played an active role in th ... More
This book offers a new approach to the study of ancient slavery. Informed by the global history of slavery, it eschews traditional approaches to slavery as a static institution. It explores instead the diverse strategies and the various contexts in which slavery was employed. It offers a new historicist approach to the study of slave identity and the various networks and communities that slaves created or participated in. Instead of seeing slaves merely as passive objects of exploitation and domination, it focuses on slave agency and the various ways in which slaves played an active role in the history of ancient societies. It examines slavery not only as an economic and social phenomenon, but also in its political, religious and cultural ramifications. Finally, it presents a comparative framework for the study of ancient slaveries, by examining Greek and Roman slaveries alongside other slaving systems in the Near East, the Mediterranean and the Black Sea.
Keywords:
Slavery,
slave agency,
ancient history,
global history,
Classics,
global slavery,
slave systems,
slaving
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 2021 |
Print ISBN-13: 9781474487214 |
| Published to Edinburgh Scholarship Online: January 2022 |
DOI:10.3366/edinburgh/9781474487214.001.0001 |
