Greek Slavery

by

Rachel Zelnick-Abramovitz

Introduction

The earliest Greek texts known to us already attest to the existence of unfree labor. Despite being widespread and considered essential for the well-being of the dominant elite, even in Antiquity slavery in its various forms sparked debates, and writers speculated about its origins, nature, and justification. The theme gained new impetus in modern times with the trans-Atlantic slave trade and later with the abolitionist movements. But even after slavery was formally abolished, the subject never ceased to engage the minds of historians, sociologists, archaeologists, and philosophers. Writing about slavery has always been affected by contemporary ideologies and their underlying values, as well as by historiographical trends. Thus, in the 20th century, one of the central issues of debate was the question whether, as Marxists believed, slaves comprised an economic class, or, as Neo-Marxists and others have argued, slavery should rather be seen as a social status. In modern times, studies tended initially to be historical and general, but from the mid-20th century monographs on various aspects of slavery have been written by scholars from various disciplines. This bibliography cannot cover all the thousands of publications on slavery or all the trends and approaches, but must be selective. It focuses on the main issues raised by the subject and is meant to provide tools to navigate through the vast scholarship in this area, but also to point to controversies. Some old publications are also cited because they echo the ideologies and concerns of their time. Here, “Greek slavery” means slavery in all areas of Greek settlement and culture, including Ptolemaic and Roman Egypt.

Bibliographies

Several printed and online bibliographies are available that should be consulted for a fuller survey of the literature and resources on ancient slavery. Schulz-Falkenthal 1985 and Schulz-Falkenthal 1986 focus on the study of ancient slavery from the 15th to the mid-19th century. The research center for ancient slavery in the Academy of Sciences and Literature in Mainz, Germany (Akademie der Wissenschaften und der Literatur, Mainz: Forschungen zur antiken Sklaverei), has published bibliographies since 1965. The latest in this series is Bellen and Heinen 2003, with 10,415 entries on all publications known by the beginning of 2003. The comprehensive bibliographic project of Joseph Miller and assistants on world slavery, in the annual supplements to Slavery and Abolition and in The Bibliography of Slavery and World Slaving, can be searched for ancient Greek slavery, too.

• Bellen, Heinz, and Heinz Heinen. 2003. Bibliographie zur antiken Sklaverei. 2 Vols. Forschungen zur antiken Sklaverei, Beiheft 4. Stuttgart: F. Steiner Verlag.

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  This is the latest version of the Mainz research group’s bibliographies. Volume 1, Bibliographie, contains the bibliographical items, arranged thematically, a method that necessitates consulting several sections for an overview of slavery in any given area. Volume 2, Abkurzungsverzeichnis und Register, contains abbreviations and detailed indices. An online version is in preparation. Meanwhile, a bibliography updated to the end of 2004 can be found online.

• Schulz-Falkenthal, Heinz. 1985. Sklaverei in der griechisch-römischen Antike: Eine Bibliographie wissenschaftlicher Literatur vom ausgehenden 15. Jh. bis zur Mitte des 19 Jhs. Halle, Germany: Universitäts- und Landesbibliothek Sachsen-Anhalt.

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  This is an annotated bibliography of studies on ancient Greek and Roman slavery from the 15th to 19th century. The entries are arranged chronologically, and there is an index of authors’ and translators’ names.

• Schulz-Falkenthal, Heinz. 1986. Die antike Sklaverei als Gegenstand der Forschung vom Ausgang des 15. bis zur Mitte des 19. Jahrhunderts. Historiographisches Bemerkungen und sachliche Erläuterungen zu einer Spezialbibliographie. Wissenschaftliche Zeitschrift der Martin-Luther-Universität, Halle-Wittenberg 35.4: 64–77.

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  This is an addition to Schulz-Falkenthal 1985 with commentary.

• The Bibliography of Slavery and World Slaving.

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  A searchable database version of Joseph Miller’s installments in Slavery and Abolition and his two printed bibliographies: Joseph C. Miller, Slavery and Slaving in World History: A Bibliography, Vol. 1, 1900–1991; Vol. 2, 1992–1996 (Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe, 1999) (themselves a revised, indexed, and corrected compilation of the entries that appeared in previous volumes of Slavery and Abolition). It contains references to printed works on slavery in all academic disciplines and in all western European languages since 1900 in diverse formats.

• Slavery and Abolition: A Journal of Slave and Post-Slave Studies.

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  Published since 1980, first by Frank Cass and currently by Routledge. The annual supplements of bibliography on world slavery are arranged mainly geographically, with little subclassification. Entries on ancient Greek slavery are to be found under “General and Comparative,” “Greece and Dependencies,” and “Egypt.” The bibliographies may also be consulted.