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Edinburgh Studies in Ancient Slavery
Diverse SlaveriesSlaving Strategies and Experiences of Slavery in Classical Athens
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About this book
A study of classical Athenian strategies and the different forms of slavery they fashioned
- Innovatively demonstrates the complexity of Classical Athens’ slave system
- Furthers academic understanding of the complex relationships between slavery and Athens’ society and economy
- Provides a more nuanced picture of the lives of enslaved Athenians, the scale of diversity within this group, and the reasons for this diversity
- Advances a methodological approach of value to slavery studies more broadly that recognises the diverse motivations and contexts that drive slavery and the diverse forms of exploitation this has resulted in
Classical Athenian slavery is often discussed as a single phenomenon and Athens’ enslaved as a unitary group. Yet the single legal status that the enslaved shared often obscures the very different characteristics of slavery evident in our evidence. This book provides a nuanced picture of Athenian slavery and its consequences from the perspective of slaveholding strategies, evidencing the varying ways in which Athenian slave owners employed their enslaved and the different methods of social control they utilised to do so. This approach, drawn from the work of historian Joseph Miller, eschews static definitions of ‘the institution of slavery’, in favour of a more dynamic progression of varied, though interrelated, phenomena.
Applying this methodology to classical Athenian evidence sheds light on the complexity of the city state's slave system and explicates the wide variations in the lives of Athenian slaves. Jason Douglas Porter furthers academic understanding of the complex relationships between slavery, Athenian society and economy through recognising the diverse motivations and contexts that drove these varied forms of exploitation.
Reviews
An enviable achievement, Porter’s book recognises slavery as a legal institution and, at the same time, eschews a monolithic picture of what slavery entailed from the point of view of both exploiter and exploited. This book should be consulted by anyone who desires to know what slavery at Athens was in the period of history we can best document, how it functioned, and how it shaped the economy. Methodologically rigorous and evidence-based, it shows, like Lewis’s, that slavery was not monolithic and that its forms varied considerably. Porter is never doctrinaire and is ready to nuance his discussion as and when the state of the evidence does not permit definitive conclusions, or where the picture that emerges is not always clear-cut. His book is a welcome addition to the Edinburgh Studies in Ancient Slavery series.
Porter perceptively analyzes the diversity of slaving strategies in their social and economic contexts and the motives behind these strategies. This is a very valuable contribution to our understanding of the role of slavery in the world’s first democracy.
[Porter] shows an impressive command of a wide range of ancient texts, material evidence where appropriate (e.g. p. 115) and modern scholarship, and the book is closely reasoned and clear. His categorisation in terms of two basic slaving strategies, rents versus supervision, is innovative and yields insights relevant to many aspects of the lives both of Greek slaveholders and of enslaved persons.
Through meticulous attention to the ancient sources and judicious use of comparative material, Jason Porter shows persuasively that slavery in Athens was not a monolithic institution, illuminating the various methods of exploitation used by enslavers and exploring the repercussions of these differences on the lives of the enslaved themselves.
This book makes an important contribution to current debates on Athenian slavery. Its centre is the detailed exploration of the wide range of management strategies adopted by slave owners in pursuit of varied aims; and the equally diverse effects these had on the experiences of the enslaved and their opportunities for agency, advancement and the formation of varied social relationships. Porter supports his illuminating analyses of a wealth of Athenian texts with the telling use of comparative evidence from other slave systems.
Table of contents
Series Editors’ Preface
List of Tables
Acknowledgements
List of Abbreviations
Introduction
Part I. Divergent Slaving Strategies
1. The Motivations behind Different Slaving Strategies
2. The Development of Diverse Slaving Strategies in Relation to the Work of Enslaved Persons
3. The Diversity of Slaving Strategies within Industries
Part II. The Slaving Strategies of Athenian Households: Two Case Studies
4. Xenophon’s Ideal Household: Direct Management and Increasing Wealth Through Slavery in the Oikonomikos
5. The Real Household of Demosthenes: Rentier Strategies and the Building of a Political Career
Part III. Diverse Experiences of Slavery
6. Slaving Strategies and the Lives of Athens’ Enslaved
Conclusion
Appendix: Athenian Wealth Distribution and the Feasibility of Widespread Slave Ownership
Bibliography
Index
About the author
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