Ancient Slavery: the Dark Underbelly of Greek and Roman Civilization
H&G13-5b-Thu3
Steven Ostrow
This course will take place in person at 60 Turner Street. The room will be equipped with a HEPA air purifier.
October 24 - November 21
In looking back on the ancient Greek and Roman world we are struck by the sheer quantity of dazzling “stuff” that survives -- both the tangible remains (like art and architecture) and the arguably even richer evidence of the mind and spirit. (Think: Greek philosophy, drama, poetry, history, and the very notion of “democracy;” or enduring features of Roman law and civil administration, and the concept of “Republic.”) One result has been, for centuries, unalloyed celebration of the “glory that was Greece” and the “grandeur that was Rome” (Poe’s words). But in recent decades the writing of history has adopted ever more an approach dubbed “from the bottom up.”
Nowhere is that seen so clearly as with Greek and Roman slavery, understood more and more as underpinning those two societies in a fundamental way. Our course will explore how the creation of all that magnificent ancient “stuff” depended to a striking degree on the “peculiar institution” that was slavery. And we will consider how the enormous lesson of Greco-Roman slavery prompted justifications for slavery in the United States where slavery has never been far from the headlines in recent decades, increasingly so since the 400th anniversary in 2019 of the first arrival of slaves on these shores. With the help of a recent very challenging but equally rewarding new book by Peter Hunt (Ancient Greek and Roman Slavery, 2018) we hope to enhance our understanding of ancient slavery’s legacy, still relevant for ourselves in the early 21st century.
More lecture than facilitated discussion.
Ancient Greek and Roman Slavery by Hunt, Peter (Wiley-Blackwell 2018), available in paperback and for Kindle; Paperback: ISBN 9781405188067 e-book: ISBN 9781119421061.
40-50 pages a week (2-4 hours)
Steven Ostrow joined BOLLI in 2019 after a half-century teaching Greek & Roman studies (history, art/archaeology, language/literature). With undergrad and grad degrees from Brown & the University of Michigan, a 1973-1975 fellowship at the American Academy in Rome, and many years' residence in Italy, since 1970 he has led dozens of archaeological study tours across Italy and Greece. After twenty-seven years in the History Faculty of MIT he retired in 2020. After three BOLLI editions of a “Pompeii” course, Steven looks forward to exploring ancient slavery (the “dark underbelly” of Greek and Roman civilization) with BOLLI comrades.