Ancient slavery in Mediterranean Perspective: A Proposal of Global Approach
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5007/2175-7976.2024.e100010Keywords:
Ancient slavery, Roman Empire, MediterraneanAbstract
The aim of this article is to propose a new methodological alternative for the study of ancient slavery, considering the limits of the concept of “slave society” formulated by Moses Finley. This concept came increasingly under scrutiny in the last ten years by a scholarship that is devoting itself to a global history of slavery. In the first part of the article, we examine Finley's concept and the most recent objections from authors such as Noel Lenski, David Lewis and Kostas Vlassopoulos. In the second part, we propose to think of a “Mediterranean slave system” with distinct phases between the rise of the city-states in the Mediterranean and the development of the Roman Empire. To this end, we also propose a dialog with the most recent strands of study on Atlantic slavery, especially with the perspective forwarded by the concept of second slavery.
References
BARJA DE QUIROGA, Pedro L.; DORIA, Carla M.; ROTH, Ulrike (org.). Junian Latinity in the Roman Empire, vol. 1: History, Law, Literature. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2023.
BODEL, John; SCHEIDEL, Walter (org.). On human bondage: after Slavery and Social Death. Chichester: Wiley Blackwell, 2017.
BODEL, John. Ancient slavery and modern ideologies: Orlando Patterson and M. I. Finley among the dons. Theory and Society, v. 48, p. 823-833, 2019.
BLACKBURN, Robin. The Making of New World Slavery. From the Baroque to the Modern, 1492-1800. London: Verso, 1997.
BRADLEY, Keith; CARTLEDGE, Paul (org.). The Cambridge World History of Slavery, volume 1: the ancient Mediterranean world. Cambridge/New York: Cambridge University Press, 2011.
BROODBANK, Cyprian. The Making of the Middle Sea: A History of the Mediterranean from the Beginning to the Emergence of the Classical World. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013.
CZAJKOWSKI, Kim; ECKHARDT, Benedikt. Law, Status and Agency in the Roman Provinces. Past & Present, v. 241, p. 3-31, 2018.
ECKSTEIN, Arthur M. Mediterranean Anarchy, Interstate War, and the Rise of Rome. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2006.
FENTRESS, Elisabeth. The Domitii Ahenobarbi and tribal slaving in Gaul. In: MODOLO, M.; PALLECCHI, S.; VOLPE, G.; ZANINI, E. (org.). Una lezione di archeologia globale: Studi in onore di Daniele Manacorda. Bari: Edipuglia, 2019, p. 149-155.
FINLEY, Moses I. Escravidão antiga e ideologia moderna. Rio de Janeiro: Graal, 1991.
FYNN-PAUL, Jeff. Empire, Monotheism and Slavery in the Greater Mediterranean Region from Antiquity to the Early Modern Era. Past and Present, v. 205, p. 3-40, 2009.
FYNN-PAUL, Jeff. The Greater Mediterranean Slave Trade. In PERRY, C.; ELTIS, D.; ENGERMAN, S.; RICHARDSON, D. (org.). The Cambridge World History of Slavery, volume 2: AD 500 to 1420. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2021, p. 27-52.
FYNN-PAUL, Jeff; PARGAS, Damian A. (org.). Slaving Zones. Cultural Identities, Ideologies, and Institutions in the Evolution of Global Slavery. Leiden: Brill, 2018.
GARLAN, Yvon. War, piracy and slavery in the Greek world. Slavery and Abolition, v. 8.1, p. 7-21, 1987.
GOVEIA, Elsa V. Slave Society in the British Leeward Islands at the End of the Eighteenth Century. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1965.
GUARINELLO, Norberto L. Uma morfologia da História: as formas da História Antiga. Politeia: História e Sociedade, v. 3/1, p. 41-62, 2003.
GUARINELLO, Norberto L. Modelos teóricos sobre a cidade no Mediterrâneo Antigo. In: FLORENZANO, M. B. B.; HIRATA, E. V. (org.). Estudos sobre a Cidade Antiga. São Paulo: Edusp, 2009, p. 109-120.
GUARINELLO, Norberto L. História Antiga. São Paulo: Contexto, 2013.
HARPER, Kyle Slavery in the Late Roman World, AD 275-425. Cambridge/New York: Cambridge University Press, 2011.
HARRIS, William. V. Demography, geography and the sources of Roman slaves. Journal of Roman Studies, v. 89, p. 62-75, 1999.
HARRIS, William V. (org.). Moses Finley and Politics. Leiden: Brill, 2013.
HOBSON, Matthew S. A Historiography of the Study of the Roman Economy: Economic Growth, Development, and Neoliberalism. Theoretical Roman Archaeology Journal, p. 11-26, 2014.
HORDEN, P.; PURCELL, N. The Corrupting Sea: A Study of Mediterranean History. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 2000.
ISMARD, Paulin. Les mondes de l’esclavage: une histoire comparée. Paris: Seuil, 2021.
JOLY, Fábio D. William L. Westermann entre o Antiquarismo e a História Comparada da Escravidão. Mare Nostrum - Estudos sobre o Mediterrâneo Antigo, v. 10, p. 187-208, 2019.
KATSARI, Constantina; DAL LAGO, Enrico. The Study of Ancient and Modern Slave Systems: Setting an Agenda for Comparison. In: KATSARI, C.; DAL LAGO, E. (org.). Slave Systems, Ancient and Modern. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008, p. 3-31.
KNUST, José E. M. Um passado romano para um presente capitalista: a economia romana em dois séculos de História Econômica. Revista História & Luta de Classes, v. 8, p. 18-22, 2012.
KOLCHIN, Peter. L’approche comparée de l’étude de l’esclavage: Problèmes et perspectives. In: COTTIAS, M.; STELLA, A.; VINCENT, B. (org.). Esclavage et dépendances serviles: Histoire comparée. Paris, L’Harmattan, 2006, p. 283-301.
LENSKI, Noel. Framing the Question: What is a Slave Society? In LENSKI, N.; CAMERON, C. M. (org.). What is a Slave Society? The Practice of Slavery in Global Perspective. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018, p. 15-58.
LEWIS, David M. The market for slaves in the fifth and fourth century Aegean: Achaemenid Anatolia as a case study. In: HARRIS, E. M.; LEWIS, D. M.; WOOLMER, M. (org.). The Ancient Greek Economy: Markets, Households and City-States. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015, p. 316-336.
LEWIS, David M. Greek Slave Systems in their Eastern Mediterranean Context, c. 800-146 BC. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018.
MARQUESE, Rafael de B. A História Global da Escravidão Atlântica: Balanço e Perspectivas. Esboços, 26(41), p. 14-41, 2019.
MARQUESE, Rafael de B. A escravidão moderna como problema historiográfico. In: CEZAR, T.; GUTERRES, T. da C. (org.). Problemas de Historiografia Antiga e Moderna: uma Introdução. Vitória: Editora Milfontes, no prelo.
MARQUESE, Rafael de B.; DA SILVA JÚNIOR, Waldomiro L. Tempos históricos plurais: Braudel, Koselleck e o problema da escravidão negra nas Américas. História da Historiografia: International Journal of Theory and History of Historiography, v. 11, n. 28, p. 44-81, 2018.
MAVROJANNIS, Theodoros. Le commerce des esclaves syriens (143–88 av. J.‑C.). Syria, v. 95, p. 245-274, 2018.
McMICHAEL, P. Incorporating Comparison within a World-Historical Perspective: An Alternative Comparative Method. American Sociological Review, v. 55(3), p. 385-397, 1990.
MILLER, Joseph. Slaving as historical process: examples from the ancient Mediterranean and the modern Atlantic. In: KATSARI, C.; DAL LAGO, E. (org.). Slave Systems, Ancient and Modern. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008, p. 70-102.
MILLER, Joseph. The Problem of Slavery as History: A Global Approach. Yale: Yale University Press, 2012.
MORALES, Fábio A.; SILVA, Uiran G. da. História Antiga e História Global: Afluentes e Confluências. Revista Brasileira de História, v. 40, n. 83, p. 125-150, 2020.
MORLEY, Neville. Slavery under the Principate. In: BRADLEY, K.; CARTLEDGE, P. (org.). The Cambridge World History of Slavery, volume 1: the ancient Mediterranean world. Cambridge/New York: Cambridge University Press, 2011, p. 265-286.
MUSTI, Domenico. Il Commercio degli Schiavi e del Grano: Il Caso di Puteoli - Sui Rapporti tra l’economia italiana della tarda Repubblica e le economie ellenistiche. Memoirs of the American Academy in Rome, v. 36, p. 197-215, 1980.
PATTERSON, Orlando. Slavery and Social Death: A Comparative Study. Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1982.
PERRY, Matthew. Manumission, Citizenship, and Acculturation in the Roman World. In: HODKINSON, S.; KLEIJWEGT, M.; VLASSOPOULOS, K. (org.). The Oxford Handbook of Greek and Roman Slaveries. Online edn., Oxford Academic, 2016.
ROTMAN, Youval. Forms of Slavery. In: HORDEN, P.; KINOSHITA, S. (org.). A Companion to Mediterranean History. Malden: Wiley, 2014, p. 263-278.
SALSANO, Debora. Manumissio vindicta in ambiente provincial: Problemi e proposte. Chiron, 28, p. 178-185, 1998.
SCHEIDEL, Walter. (2023). Building up Slaveries in Ancient Italy and the Central Sudan. In: BERNARD, S.; MIGNONE, L. M.; PADILLA PERALTA, D. (org.). Making the Middle Republic: New Approaches to Rome and Italy, c.400-200 BCE. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2023, p. 80-100.
SILVA JÚNIOR, Waldomiro L. da. No limiar da escravidão: uma mirada global sobre os debates em torno de coartados em Cuba (1856) e statuliberi no Brasil (1857). Revista de História (São Paulo), v. 179, p. 1-33, 2020.
TANNENBAUM, Frank. Slave and Citizen: The Negro in the Americas. New York: Vintage Books, 1946.
THOMPSON, Dorothy J. Slavery in the Hellenistic World. In: BRADLEY, K.; CARTLEDGE, P. (org.). The Cambridge world history of slavery, volume 1: the ancient Mediterranean world. Cambridge/New York: Cambridge University Press, 2011, p. 194-213.
TOMICH, Dale. The Second Slavery and World Capitalism: A Perspective for Historical Inquiry. International Review of Social History, v. 63(3), p. 477-501, 2018.
VERLINDEN, Charles. The Beginnings of Modern Colonization. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1970.
VLASSOPOULOS, Kostas. Recent studies on ancient slavery. Polifemo’s Recent Studies, v. 2, p. 83-106, 2015. Disponível em: https://www.torrossa.com/it/catalog/preview/3073827. Acesso em: 19 mar. 2024.
VLASSOPOULOS, Kostas. Finley’s Slavery. In: JEW, D.; OSBORNE, R.; SCOTT, M. (org.). M. I. Finley: An Ancient Historian and his Impact. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2016, p. 76-99.
VLASSOPOULOS, Kostas. Historicising Ancient Slavery. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2021.
WESTERMANN, William L. The Slave Systems of Greek and Roman Antiquity. Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 1955.
WOOLF, Greg. World systems analysis and the Roman empire. Journal of Roman Archaeology, v. 3, p. 44-58, 1990.
YOUNI, Maria S. Transforming Greek Practice into Roman Law: Manumissions in Roman Macedonia. Tijdschrift voor Rechtsgeschiedenis, v. 78, p. 311-340, 2010.
ZELNICK-ABRAMOVITZ, Rachel. Taxing Freedom in Thessalian Manumission Inscriptions. Leiden; Boston: Brill, 2013.
ZEUSKE, Michael. Esclavitud: Una historia de la humanidad. Iruñea-Pamplona: Katakrak, 2018.
ZEUSKE, Michael. Handbuch Geschichte der Sklaverei: eine Globalgeschichte von den Anfängen bis zur Gegenwart. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2013.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2025 Fábio Duarte Joly, José Ernesto Knust
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Esboços: histories in global contexts adopts an Open Access policy and it is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC-BY 4.0). Authors will be asked to sign an open access license agreement before publication.
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- Authors grant the journal Esboços: histórias em contextos globais (ISSN 2175-7976) right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC-BY 4.0).
- This license allows users to remix, transform, and build upon the material, on the condition of giving acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- 3.Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or a personal website, or publish it as a book chapter or a translation).
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
