Slaving Practices in the Early Greek World

Bibliographic Data

ID23459948
AuthorsHans Van Wees (University College London, corresponding author)
Year2021
Publication date2021-09-08
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeCHAPTER
VenueThe Oxford Handbook of Greek and Roman Slaveries (SOURCE_BOOK)
PublisherOxford University Press (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199575251.013.40
OpenAlexW3204382641
ISBN9780199575251
LanguageEN
References cited22

The Greek world contained many slave societies from the beginning of the archaic age. By the time of Homer and Hesiod, ownership of numerous non-Greek slaves was an integral part of elite status. Despite earlier views to the contrary, imported ‘barbarian’ slaves did not replace an older spectrum of ‘dependent’ native Greek workers but if anything preceded the forms of slavery imposed on indigenous populations. Debt-bondage emerged only in the late seventh century. This may also have been when so-called ‘helotic’ slaveries were extended across Messenia, Thessaly, and Crete, and when they were imposed on the native peoples of Syracuse and Byzantium. The latter part of the archaic age saw larger-scale employment of imported slaves in regions that began to specialize in labour-intensive forms of agriculture such as viticulture, but the basic patterns and practices of slave-owning emerged at the start of the archaic age and remained the same throughout.

Ancient history · Archaic period · Art · Barbarian · Elite · Geography · Hesiod · Indigenous · Literature · Political science · Politics · Archaeology and Historical Studies · Classical Antiquity Studies · Crime, Illicit Activities, and Governance · History · Law

Tools

Open DOI