Last week, Richard Alston published a review in the Bryn Mawr Classical Review on a new source collection, 'Greek and Roman Slaveries'.
Richard writes: 'I don't often write reviews. I don't want to impose my view on other readers. But sometimes it seems worthwhile. The editors, Kostas Vlassopoulos and Eutychia Bathrellou have made a serious contribution to our understanding of slavery in this and other works. It seemed useful to publicise this collection and think about how free people treated those they enslaved. You sometimes read modern authors claiming that ancient slavery, particularly Roman slavery was not so bad, particularly in comparison with the horrors of the Atlantic slave system. The ethics of engaging in a competition of horror (one very, very bad thing does not make a very bad thing any better) are questionable to say the least. Anyone reading the collection of sources would be hard put to deny the horrors of Greek and Roman slaveries. Texts range from the inscriptions on a slave collar found round the neck of the skeleton of a slave woman, to Horace's treatment of slaves as sexual objects, to Biblical texts on slavery in ancient Israel. For me, the texts raise a fundamental historical issue and one that has resonances through the ages: how can one person look another person in the eyes and do such terrible things?
Most reviews get published and you never know whether anybody ever reads them. But this one, people have started writing to me about. See this link if you want to have a further look.”
