Greek and Roman Slaveries

11 Slavery and Historical Change

Did ancient slavery change over time; if so, in what ways? Which agents, factors, and processes effected change? The traditional narrative distinguishes between societies with slaves and slave societies. Societies with slaves had few slaves, who, moreover, did not play a dominant economic role; slave societies had large numbers of slaves, who were the major source of elite income. In this narrative, early Greek and Roman societies were societies with slaves. Athens was transformed into a slave society with the reforms of Solon; this meant that Athenian citizens were no longer available for exploitation by the elite, who had to import slaves on a massive scale as a response. In Rome during the second century BCE, the profits of imperial expansion allowed the elite to substitute the peasantry with masses of agricultural slaves. Finally, during late antiquity, the depression of the status of free peasants and the establishment of slaves as farm tenants transformed ancient societies again into societies with slaves.¹⁹²

This chapter includes sources that can help us to debate the validity of the distinction between societies with slaves and slave societies and its associated narrative.¹⁹³ Is slavery in the Homeric world and early Rome different from that of later periods? If so, in what ways (11.1–5)? Does the evidence from archaic Greece (11.6–8) and republican Rome (11.9–10) support the traditional narrative of a transition from societies with ...