Slavery as a Non-Economic Institution in the Ancient World

2010

This paper discusses the location of slav ery in the Roman economy. It deals with the size and distribution of the slave population and t he economics of slave labor and offers a chronological sketch of the development of Roman sl very. © Walter Scheidel. [email protected]

The Palgrave Handbook of Global Slavery, eds. Pargas and Schiel, 2023

A brief but comprehensive survey of evidence and problems for the practice of slavery in the Roman Empire.

Studies on Pre-Capitalist Modes of Production, 2015

In this chapter, we will analyse the scope of some historiographical concepts and assumptions that prevail in studies on Roman slavery, focusing especially on the concept of ‘slave-based system’ and its relationship with the productive unit of the plantation. We will consider the appropriateness of using these elements as a basis for characterising the whole of Roman economy.

The nature of Roman expansion and their perpetual practice of capturing and selling slaves begs the question of what are the lasting effects of such a large influx of slaves on the already existing institution of slavery in Rome. This essay used both primary and secondary sources to show that the increasing population of slaves forced a change in the legislation governing the slave populace to create a more protective body of laws. This paper also uncovered the very diametrically opposed treatment of slaves by their masters. An analysis concludes this essay examining the possibility, albeit circumstantial, that the dependence on such a large number of slaves contributed to the eventual decline and downfall of Imperial Rome. 14 Ibid 15 Caes. BGall. 2.33.7

Ancient History Bulletin, 25, 2011, 73-132

L.A.B. Independent Publishing , 2024

The variations of slavery and the considerable lack of sources relating to ancient societies, should lead us to critically re-examine the words that we choose according to the context in which slavery is unfolding. It would be hard for us to identify social dislocation from the ‘dry business’ dealings reported on ancient court documents or royal inscriptions. Harder still would it be for us to flat-out restrict the impact that cultural survival had on enslaved individuals and their ideas of belonging. Should we endeavor to find a definition of slavery? The contextualization of slavery according to the society examined seems being more crucial for purposes of comparative analysis than attempting to find a clear-cut, ‘fits-all’ definition.

2019

Paper written for the course "Rome and the Universal", University of Bologna. Short analysis of archaeological evidences of the slave trade in the Roman world and in the Early Medieval trade of the Vikings.

The first section of "The Transformative Impact of the Slave Trade on the Roman World, 580 - 720"; This dissertation argues that the slave trade can be seen as providing a critical framework for understanding the economic and cultural developments of a time of rapid and dramatic changes within the cultures and economies of what had been the Roman Empire. To make this case, it will be demonstrated that neither the ascendance of Christianity nor the barbarian invasions nor even the collapse of the Western Roman Empire had changed the fundamental role of slavery in the centuries after Constantine. While slavery was vital to all the economies and societies of the period, it will be argued, a large-scale slave trade was necessary for the continued prosperity of the most developed economic regions as internal sources for slaves were insufficient to meet demand. By demonstrating the economic necessity, a crucial driving mechanism for long-distance systems of exchange within the Mediterranean world after the collapse of the western Roman fiscal system and its economy of bulk-exchange will be provided. Changes in the slave trade during the seventh century will be shown as being one of the key forces in the disintegration of Mediterranean cultural unity. New patterns would ultimately emerge that would lead to the beginning of the medieval trading cycle. These ideas are demonstrated by re-reading Arabic, Greek, and Latin sources and searching for the connections between them, by re-examining archaeological, epigraphic, and numismatic data and placing them in context, and by using analogous evidence and arguments from other periods and using them to investigate possibilities. Together, these allow for an innovative and bold reappraisal of the slave-systems and trade in a critical period that has not been previously argued. Prior scholarship has not attempted to address either the ubiquity of slavery or the extent of the slave trade in the period nor has anyone examined the slave-trading systems of the long seventh century itself by bringing together materials from the whole of the post-Roman world into a single coherent account. By doing so, this dissertation breaks new ground while creating an original synthesis and reconciliation between the interpretations of the economics of the end of the Roman Empire and the formation of the medieval world.

This dissertation argues that the slave trade can be seen as providing a critical framework for understanding the economic and cultural developments of a time of rapid and dramatic changes within the cultures and economies of what had been the Roman Empire. To make this case, it will be demonstrated that neither the ascendance of Christianity nor the barbarian invasions nor even the collapse of the Western Roman Empire had changed the fundamental role of slavery in the centuries after Constantine. While slavery was vital to all the economies and societies of the period, it will be argued, a large-scale slave trade was necessary for the continued prosperity of the most developed economic regions as internal sources for slaves were insufficient to meet demand. By demonstrating the economic necessity, a crucial driving mechanism for long-distance systems of exchange within the Mediterranean world after the collapse of the western Roman fiscal system and its economy of bulk-exchange will be provided. Changes in the slave trade during the seventh century will be shown as being one of the key forces in the disintegration of Mediterranean cultural unity. New patterns would ultimately emerge that would lead to the beginning of the medieval trading cycle. These ideas are demonstrated by re-reading Arabic, Greek, and Latin sources and searching for the connections between them, by re-examining archaeological, epigraphic, and numismatic data and placing them in context, and by using analogous evidence and arguments from other periods and using them to investigate possibilities. Together, these allow for an innovative and bold reappraisal of the slave-systems and trade in a critical period that has not been previously argued. Prior scholarship has not attempted to address either the ubiquity of slavery or the extent of the slave trade in the period nor has anyone examined the slave-trading systems of the long seventh century itself by bringing together materials from the whole of the post-Roman world into a single coherent account. By doing so, this dissertation breaks new ground while creating an original synthesis and reconciliation between the interpretations of the economics of the end of the Roman Empire and the formation of the medieval world.