The name "Helots" evokes one of the most famous peculiarities of ancient Sparta, the system of dependent labor that guaranteed the livelihood of the free citizens. The Helots fulfilled all the functions that slaves carried out elsewhere in the Greek world, allowing their masters the leisure to be full-time warriors. Yet, despite their crucial role, Helots remain essentially invisible in our ancient sources and peripheral and enigmatic in modern scholarship.
This book is devoted to a much-needed reassessment of Helotry and of its place in the history and sociology of unfree labor. The essays deal with the origins and historical development of Helotry, with its sociological, economic, and demographic aspects, with its ideological construction and negotiation.
Recenzijas
Altogether, these papers provide a stimulating overview of the major questions, debates, and methodologies in current scholarship on helotage in one accessible volume. This collection of engaging and often provocative papers should realize its editors interest in promoting future research on the history of the helots. -- Ellen G. Millender * Bryn Mawr Classical Review *
| Introduction |
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1 | (30) |
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Researching the helots: details, methodologies, agencies |
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3 | (9) |
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Raising hell? The Helot Mirage-a personal re-view |
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12 | (19) |
| Part I: Helotic histories |
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31 | (76) |
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Conquerors and serfi: wars of conquest and forced labour in archaic Greece |
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33 | (48) |
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Agreste genus: Helots in Hellenistic Laconia |
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81 | (26) |
| Part II: Ideologies |
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107 | (84) |
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The imaginary conquest of the Helots |
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109 | (33) |
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The Dorianization of the Messenians |
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142 | (27) |
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Freedom for the Messenians? A note on the impact of slavery and helotage on the Greek concept of freedom |
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169 | (22) |
| Part III: Structures |
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191 | (96) |
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The demography of the Spartan Helots |
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193 | (47) |
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Helot numbers: a simplified model |
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240 | (8) |
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Spartiates, helots and the direction of the agrarian economy: towards an understanding of helotage in comparative perspective |
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248 | (39) |
| Conclusion |
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287 | (24) |
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Reflections on helotic slavery and freedom |
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289 | (22) |
| Index |
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311 | |
Nino Luraghi is Professor of the Classics at Harvard University. Susan Alcock is John H. D'Arms Collegiate Professor of Classical Archaeology and Classics at the University of Michigan. Paul Cartledge is Professor of Greek History at Clare College, Cambridge. Thomas J. Figueria is a Professor at Rutgers University. Jonathan M. Hall is Professor of Ancient Greek History at the University of Chicago. Stephen Hodkinson is Professor of Ancient History at the University of Nottingham. N. M. Kennell is a Senior Associate Member of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens, Greece. Orlando Patterson is John Cowles Professor of Sociology at Harvard University; the author of Freedom in the Making of Western Culture, which won the National Book Award for Nonfiction, and Slavery and Social Death (Harvard); and the editor of The Cultural Matrix: Understanding Black Youth (Harvard), for which he was awarded the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award for Lifetime Achievement. His work has been honored by the American Sociological Association and the American Political Science Association, among others, and he is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He served as Special Advisor for Social Policy and Development to Jamaican Prime Minister Michael Manley and was awarded the Order of Distinction by the Government of Jamaica. Kurt A. Raaflaub is Professor of Classics and History at Brown University and Joint Director of the Center for Hellenic Studies in Washington, D.C. Walter Scheidel is Associate Professor of Classics at Stanford University. Hans van Wees is Professor at the University College London.
