WHAP Unit 2 - THE CLASSICAL ERAEurasian Social Hierarchies

500 b.c.e. – 500 c.e.

Why was slavery so much more prominent in Greco-Roman civilization than in India or China?

Why was slavery so much more prominent in Greco-Roman civilization than in India or China?

Hadrian’s Wall was built by legionaries, and much of the labor on Greek temples was undertaken by free skilled artisans, but Rome had large numbers of state-owned slave laborers to build aqueducts, palaces, ports, etc.

Why was slavery so much more prominent in Greco-Roman civilization than in India or China?

Compare the lot of slave gangs working on latifundia or in mines to that of household slaves.

Could slaves revolt? (See Spartacus!)

What if a slave killed his master? (All the slaves of that master would be put to death!)

Modern conveniences have made domestic servants unnecessary.

Discuss the role of domestic slaves.

Were slaves ever actually

necessary???

Why was slavery so much more prominent in Greco-Roman civilization than in India or China?

For all its success – Rome was unstable.

Power switches from the many to the few.

Landed aristocracy governed RomeWealthy, powerful families in the Senate & political offices

Growing Inequality & Unrest in Rome

Why did slavery emerge in 1st Civs?

1. domestication of animals provided a model for human slavery

2. war, patriarchy, and private property ideas encouraged slavery

3. women captured in war were probably the first slaves

4. patriarchal “ownership” of women may have encouraged slavery

Slavery in the Classical Era: A Historical Investigation

Slavery and Civilization

“Social death”: lack of rights or independent personal identity

Long-established tradition by the time of Hammurabi (around 1750 b.c.e.)

Almost all civilizations had some form of slavery

★ varied considerably over place and time

★ classical Greece and Rome: slave emancipation was common

★ Aztec Empire: children of slaves were considered to be free

★ type labor of slaves varied widely

Slavery in the Classical Era: A Historical Investigation

Less common in China (1 % of pop.)

★ convicts and their families were earliest slaves

★ poor peasants sometimes sold their children into slavery

India: criminals, debtors, war captives were slaves

★ largely domestic★ religion and law gave

some protections★ society wasn’t

economically dependent on slavery

Slavery in the Classical Era: The Case of the CHINA & INDIA

Mediterranean/Western civilization: slavery played immense role

★ Greco-Roman world was a slave society

★ 1/3 of pop. of classical Athens was enslaved

★ Aristotle: some people are “slaves by nature”

Beginning of Common Era, Italy’s population was 33 to 40 percent slaves

★ wealthy Romans owned hundreds or thousands of slaves

★ people of modest means often owned 2 or 3 slaves

1. Massive enslavement of war prisoners

2. piracy

3. long-distance trade for Black Sea, East African, and northwest European slaves

4. natural reproduction

5. abandoned/exposed children

Not associated with a particular ethnic group

Little serious social critique of slavery, even within Christianity

The Making of a Slave Society: The Case of Rome

Slavery was deeply entrenched in Roman society

Slaves did all sorts of work except military service

Performed both highly prestigious and degraded tasks

Slaves had no legal rights★ could not marry legally

★ if a slave murdered his master, all of the victim’s slaves were killed

★ manumission was common; Roman freedmen became citizens

Resistance and Rebellion★ cases of mass suicide of war prisoners to avoid

slavery

★ “Weapons of the weak”: theft, sabotage, poor work, curses

Flight, Occasional murder of owners, & Rebellion

★ most famous was led by Spartacus in 73 b.c.e.

★ Nothing on similar scale occurred in the West until Haiti in the 1790s

★ Roman slave rebellions did not attempt to end slavery; participants just wanted freedom for themselves

The Making of a Slave Society: The Case of Rome