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Invention of Ancient Slavery (Duckworth Classical Essays)

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Niall McKeown (Lecturer in Ancient History, University of Birmingham) presents The Invention of Ancient Slavery?, a sampler of modern theories concerning ancient slavery as circulated among scholars and students today. In the quest to uncover the "reality" of ancient slave life, The Invention of Ancient Slavery? examines surviving evidence (particularly where Roman slavery is concerned) such as ancient drama, legal regulations, poetry, letters, philosophy, inscriptions, and the work of Greek and Roman historians. How should modern historians reconstruct the past from such materials, and what effect does the nature of the evidence have upon their job? To what extent do modern preconceptions affect our understanding of ancient sources? A scholarly, meticulous discussion especially recommended for college libraries and ancient history courses, written to stoke critical thinking of human history.