Commentary on Joly and Knust’s paper

Abstract

The article by Fábio Duarte Joly and José Ernesto Moura Knust, Ancient Slavery in Mediterranean Perspective: A Proposal for a Global Approach, proposes a debate that enriches the historiographical discussions on slavery in the ancient Mediterranean, by offering a critique of Moses Finley's concept of "slave society" and by suggesting the existence of a "Mediterranean slave system" that developed diachronically. It presents a rich, original and valuable reading of the transformations that occurred between the time of the city-states and the Roman Empire. Here I only want to bring to light some critical reflections that may allow us to expand and question certain aspects of the methodological proposal presented, in light of an approach that explores the social trajectory of slaves and the intertwining of the public and private spheres in the Roman world.