The orthodox view of slavery in the ancient Mediterranean holds that Greece and Rome were its only 'genuine slave societies', that is, societies in which slave labour contributed significantly to the economy and underpinned the wealth of elites. Other societies, traditionally labelled 'societies with slaves', are thought to have made little use of slave labour and therefore have been largely ignored in recent scholarship. This volume presents a radically different view of the ancient Eastern Mediterranean world, showing that elite exploitation of slave labour in Greece and the Near East shared some fundamental similarities, although the degree of elite dependence on slaves varied from region to region. Whilst slavery was indeed particularly highly developed in Greece and Rome, it was also economically entrenched in Carthage, and played a not insignificant role in the affairs of elites in Israel, Assyria, Babylonia, and Persia. The differing degrees to which Eastern Mediterranean
elites exploited slave labour represents the outcome of a complex interplay between cultural, economic, political, geographical, and demographic factors.

Proceeding on a regional basis, this book tracks the ways in which local conditions shaped a wide variety of Greek and Near Eastern slave systems, and how the legal architecture of slavery in individual regions was altered and adapted to accommodate these needs. The result is a nuanced exploration of the economic underpinnings of Greek elite culture that sets its reliance on slavery within a broader historical context and sheds light on the complex circumstances from which it emerged.

About the Author:
David M. Lewis, Lecturer in Greek History and Culture, University of Edinburgh

David M. Lewis is Lecturer in Greek History and Culture at the University of Edinburgh. He hails from the Ards Peninsula in Co. Down, Northern Ireland, and studied at Durham University, gaining his PhD in 2012. Between 2013 and 2016 he worked at the University of Edinburgh, first as a postdoctoral fellow, and then as a Leverhulme Early Career fellow, then in 2016 took up the post of Assistant Professor of Ancient History at the University of Nottingham. He returned to Edinburgh to take up his current post in 2018. His work focuses on Greek socio-economic history in a wider Eastern Mediterranean context.