Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: This commentary responds to the critique by Joly and Knust of M.I. Finley's binary concept of 'slave society' versus 'society with slaves', and to their 'new methodological alternative' of a first and second slavery. Whilst agreeing with much of the substance of their critique of Finley, and on the utility of a phasal model of a first and second slavery, this commentary underscores some potential pitfalls of this new alternative; it also highlights several intractable epistemological challenges to understanding slavery on a Mediterranean scale across the longue durée, and explores the role of regional histories in contributing to a history of slavery in the greater Mediterranean zone during antiquity.
Author: David Lewis
Institution: University of Edinburgh
Language: English
Topic: Classical Antiquity Studies
Subfield: Anthropology
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W4408900212