Undergraduate Course: Ancient Greek Slavery (ANHI10057)
Course Outline
| School | School of History, Classics and Archaeology |
College | College of Humanities and Social Science |
| Course type | Standard |
Availability | Available to all students |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 10 (Year 3 Undergraduate) |
Credits | 20 |
| Home subject area | Ancient History |
Other subject area | None |
| Course website |
None |
Taught in Gaelic? | No |
| Course description | The course looks at the role of slavery in ancient Greek society. Students will investigate a range of evidence, including law court speeches, tombstones, vase paintings, domestic architecture, philosophical treatises, manumission inscriptions, etc. to gain a varied understanding of the ways in which the peculiar institution manifested itself in Greek society. Students will explore the relationship between slavery and other forms of unfree labour as well as between slavery and freedom, slavery and citizenship, and slavery and democracy. Like its 'partner', the Honours course on 'Roman Slavery', this course springs directly from the course organiser's main research interest: the study of slavery in classical antiquity. |
Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | Visiting students should usually have at least 3 courses in Classics related subject matter(at least 2 of which should be in Ancient History) at grade B or above (or be predicted to obtain this) for entry to this course. We will only consider University/College level courses. |
| Displayed in Visiting Students Prospectus? | Yes |
Course Delivery Information
| Not being delivered |
Summary of Intended Learning Outcomes
By the end of the course, students who complete the course successfully will have demonstrated in written coursework, a written degree examination, tutorial and class room discussion knowledge and understanding of:
i. a variety of important evidence for the study of Greek slavery
ii. the different types of questions asked by historians of this evidence
iii. the different problems that different bodies of evidence pose for the historian
iv. the different ancient media in which slavery was 'expressed' and 'transmitted'
v. the location (or locations) of slavery in Greek society
vi. the relationship between slavery and freedom
vii. the relationship between slavery and other forms of unfree labour
iix. the differences between different Greek city states and their approach to slavery and related forms of unfree labour
ix. the relatedness of slavery in the Greek world to slave systems of different geographies and periods
x. the relatedness of the study of slavery with the study of other aspects of the ancient (Greek) world
xi. the importance of wide-reaching reading, as well as independent and original thought to come to terms with the peculiar institution in ancient Greece
In similar fashion, they will demonstrate skill and expertise in:
xii. dealing independently with a wide-ranging body of information pertaining to the study of Greek slavery, digest, structure and comment on this information;
xiii. 'thinking on their feet' about ancient Greek slavery, i.e. to make fast and spontaneous connections between both familiar ('seen') and unfamiliar ('unseen') source material (visual and textual) pertaining to the study of ancient Greek slavery;
xiv. 'intellectual problem solving' within the given field of study, i.e. the production of answers to questions that demand independent soliciting and 'discovery' of source materials and secondary reading pertaining to the study of Greek slavery;
xv. maintaining complex information about ancient Greek slavery over a sustained period of time and to access this information as and when necessary;
xvi. accessing, understanding, and employing the standard conventions in the field, from publisher's conventions (e.g. bibliographical styles, referencing systems, text displays, etc.) to scholarly conventions in the study of evidence pertaining to ancient Greek slavery (e.g. epigraphic abbreviations, legal and literary referencing, etc.)
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Assessment Information
The assessment for the course is by way of written coursework and a written degree examination. The assessment is split in the following way:
60% degree examination (2 hours)
40% coursework (c. 3,000 words)
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Special Arrangements
| None |
Additional Information
| Academic description |
Not entered |
| Syllabus |
W1: Introduction: What is Greek slavery?
W2: Ideologies of slavery in ancient Greece
W3: Slaves in the home
W4: Slaves in the crafts
W5: Slaves on the land
W6: Slave numbers
W7: Slavery, freedom, citizenship, democracy
W8: Spartan helotage
W9: Slave revolt and rebellion
W10: Slave manumission
W11: Conclusion: The location of Greek slavery
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| Transferable skills |
Not entered |
| Reading list |
L. Archer (ed.), Slavery and Other Forms of Unfree Labour (1988)
E. Badian, 'The bitter history of slave history', The New York Review of Books 38.16 (1981), 49-53
I. Berlin and P.D. Morgan (edd.), Cultivation and Culture. Labor and the Shaping of Slave Life in the Americas (1992)
K. Bradley and P. Cartledge (edd.), The Cambridge World History of Slavery, vol. 1: The Ancient Mediterranean World (forthcoming)
P.A. Brunt, 'Aristotle and Slavery', in idem, Studies in Greek History and Thought (1993), 343-88
A. Burford, Craftsmen in Greek and Roman Society (1972)
B. Calvert, 'Slavery in Plato's Republic', Classical Quarterly 37 (1987), 367-72
P. Cartledge, 'Rebels and Sambos in Classical Greece', in CRUX. Essays in Honour of G.E.M. de Ste. Croix (1985)
E. Dal Lago and C. Katsari (edd.), Slave Systems. Ancient and Modern (2009)
D.B. Davies, The Problem of Slavery in Western Culture (1966)
M. Finley, Economy and Society in Ancient Greece (1983)
M. Finley, 'Problems of slave society: some reflections on the debate', Opus 1 (1982), 201-11
M. Finley, Ancient Slavery and Modern Ideology (1980)
M. Finley, 'Slavery and the historians', Social History 12.24 (1979), 247-61
M. Finley (ed.), Slavery in Classical Antiquity (1968)
N. Fisher, Slavery in Classical Greece (1993)
N. Fisher, Social Values in Classical Athens (1976)
A. Fuks, 'Slave war and slave troubles in Chios in the 3rd century BC', Athenaeum 46 (1968), 102-11
T. Gallant, 'Agricultural systems, land tenure and the Reforms of Solon', ABSA 7 (1982), 111-24
Y. Garlan, Slavery in Ancient Greece (1988)
P.D.A. Garnsey, Ideas of Slavery from Aristotle to Augustine (1996)
M. Golden, 'Slavery and homosexuality in Athens', Phoenix 38 (1984), 308-24
E. Hall, Inventing the Barbarian (1989)
T. Harrison, Greeks and Barbarians (2002)
S. Hodkinson, 'Social order and the conflict of values in Classical Sparta', Chiron 13 (1983), 239-81
K. Hopkins, Conquerors and Slaves (1976), Ch. 3
M.H. Jameson, 'Agriculture and slavery in Classical Athens', Classical Journal 73 (1977-8), 122-46
A.H.M. Jones, 'Slavery in the ancient world', Economic History Review 9 (1956), 185-99
R. Just, Women in Athenian Law and Life (1989)
J.A.O. Larsen, 'Freedom and its obstacles in ancient Greece', Classical Philology 57 (1962), 230-34
P.B. Manville, The Origins of Citizenship in Ancient Athens (1990)
R. Osborne, Demos: The Discover of Classical Attica (1985)
O. Patterson, Slavery and Social Death (1982)
A. Powell, Athens and Sparta (1988)
A. Powell (ed.), Classical Sparta. Techniques behind her Success (1989)
W. Scheidel, 'Helot numbers: a simplified model', in N. Luraghi and S.E. Alcock (edd.), Helots and their Masters in Laconia and Messenia (2003), 240-7
R. Schlaiffer, 'Greek theories of slavery from Homer to Aristotle', Harvard Studies in Classical Philology 47 (1936), 165-204
G.E.M. de Ste. Croix, The Class Struggle in the Ancient Greek World (1981)
N.D. Smith, 'Aristotle's theory of natural slavery', Phoenix 37 (1983), 109-22
G. Vlastos, 'Did slavery exist in Plato's Republic?', Classical Philology 63 (1968), 291-5
J. Vogt, Ancient Slavery and the Ideal of Man (1975)
W.L. Westermann, 'Slave maintenance and slave revolts', Classical Philology 40 (1945), 1-10
W.L. Westermann, The Slave Systems of Greek and Roman Antiquity (1955)
T.E.J. Wiedemann, Greek and Roman Slavery (1993)
T.E.J. Wiedemann, Slavery (1993)
E.M. Wood, Peasant, Citizen and Slave (1988) |
| Study Abroad |
Not entered |
| Study Pattern |
The course is taught by lectures and small-group tutorials over 11 weeks (22 contact hours). The teaching is typically divided into a lecture part and a tutorial part. For the tutorial part, the students will be divided into smaller tutorial groups (normally 2 of ca. 10-15 students each) so as to allow in-depth discussion of the set tutorial tasks. Each week will concentrate on a different aspect of Greek slavery. |
| Keywords | Ancient Greek Slavery |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Ulrike Roth
Tel: (0131 6)50 3586
Email: U.Roth@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Ms Elaine Hutchison
Tel: (0131 6)50 3582
Email: E.Hutchison@ed.ac.uk |
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