Slavery and economy in the Greek world

Kyrtatas, Dimitris J.

doi:10.1017/chol9780521840668.007

Cited by 57 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 310 publications

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“…3 Unlike slaves, free citizens identified themselves as not being subject to restrictions imposed by other individuals. Although slaveholding was vital for the elite to maintain their lifestyle (Cartledge, 2002), Kyrtatas (2002Kyrtatas ( , 2011 argues that Ancient Greek authors emphasised domination and ownership of slaves, aspects which relate to political power and legal status of the masters rather than economic considerations. 4 On the other hand, for Osborne (1995), employment of slavers was rational in the sense that slaves were occupied in jobs that were not worth rewarding more than subsistence, or jobs that were not profitable enough for a free citizen to earn a livelihood (see below for a critical reassessment of such arguments).…”

Section: Slavery In Ancient Greecementioning

confidence: 99%

Choice of slavery institutions in Ancient Greece: Athenian chattels and Spartan helots

Tridimas

2023

Journal of Institutional Economics

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The ancient Greek city-states were slave societies, but the institutions of slavery differed across them. The slaves of democratic Athens were foreigners bought as chattels labouring in agriculture, craftsmanship, banking, mining, and domestic services and were often given some limited freedoms and extra pay. On the contrary, the helots, the slaves of oligarchic Sparta, were indigenous of the lands they cultivated for their masters and were treated harshly. The study offers an economic explanation of the different slavery systems. Modelling the slaveholder as a profit maximiser, it attributes the different systems to differences in the probabilities of the slaves running away or revolting, the dependence of output on effort-intensive or care-intensive production technology, which depends on the fertility of the soil and affects whether the slave is treated kindly instead of harshly, and the cost of guarding slaves under different regimes.

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Section: Slavery In Ancient Greecementioning

confidence: 99%

Choice of slavery institutions in Ancient Greece: Athenian chattels and Spartan helots

Tridimas

2023

Journal of Institutional Economics

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Slavery, Greece

Kamen¹

2020

The Encyclopedia of Ancient History

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Slavery is attested in nearly all periods of ancient Greek history and in nearly all parts of the Greek world. Slaves could be owned by a private individual, a god, or a polis ; some were acquired through trading networks or captured in war, whereas others represented an entire enslaved community. In most poleis , slaves were engaged in every sector of the economy but possessed limited or no rights. Manumission was possible but granted infrequently, and freed slaves occupied a precarious legal and social position.

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Value Form and Abstract Labor in Marx: A Critical Review of Alfred Sohn-Rethel’s Notion of ‘Real Abstraction’

Milios

2020

Marx, Engels, and Marxisms

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Slavery and economy in the Greek world

Cited by 57 publications

References 310 publications

Choice of slavery institutions in Ancient Greece: Athenian chattels and Spartan helots

Choice of slavery institutions in Ancient Greece: Athenian chattels and Spartan helots

Slavery, Greece

Value Form and Abstract Labor in Marx: A Critical Review of Alfred Sohn-Rethel’s Notion of ‘Real Abstraction’

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