In this chapter tomb paintings join the selection of texts (preserved on stone, papyrus, and leather) to show the role of dependence as a structural feature of pharaonic society. Foreigners were acquired through raiding and warfare, and settled in both existing and new communities. An actual trade in persons is also documented and varying aspects of the experience of such individuals is examined, as they were exploited by those who purchased them or passed them on as gifts. Changes over time in the vocabulary of dependence are discussed, as are the different types of work and production in which such dependents were involved. Non-free dependents were employed on the land, in animal herding, and in artisanal workshops, especially textiles, as well as in the home. The key economic role of Egyptian temples is a constant feature of the period.

This chapter introduces the following corpus of texts from ancient Egypt, and outlines the differing meanings ascribed to slavery and dependence from antiquity to modern times. The terms used for dependents and slaves in the various languages of the texts translated here – Egyptian (Hieroglyphic, Hieratic, Demotic, and Coptic), Greek, and Arabic – are briefly presented, and defining features of the condition of those so labelled are discussed. How and from where such persons were acquired, their life experiences, and the different forms of exploitation in which they were involved are introduced, as are forms of slave resistance and limits to the archaeological and textual evidence available, and so to what we can learn from it.

Covering late antique Egypt into the period of Arab rule, this chapter introduces documents and literary texts translated from Greek, Coptic, and Arabic. In the countryside, coloni joined slaves and dependents at work on the great estates of Byzantine Egypt, while in the cities slavery continued as before. Coptic literature from the same period introduces servitude within Christian monasteries. The writings of Shenoute and Gnostic texts regularly employ the vocabulary of slavery in a negative sense. The trade, employment, and emancipation of slaves continued. Conscripted labour is also documented. Children and adults donated to monasteries represent a new form of sacred servitude. With the Arab conquest of Egypt, war and raiding resurface as important sources of slaves. Nubia and the Near East were again key areas for their acquisition, and slaves are illustrated as active in most areas of life and integrated into the religious life of their owners’ households.

In Roman Egypt, Greek remained the language of rule but the introduction of the Roman legal system and practices resulted in changes within the bureaucracy and an increase in documentation. Declarations were now required for birth, death, taxes, and much else. There were minor changes in the vocabulary of slavery, but in terms of acquisition and use much remained unchanged. There was an active market in slaves who were primarily employed in the home. There is further evidence for slaves in labouring jobs, artisanal roles, in entertainment and sex work. Imperial slaves held some important administrative roles, and slaves might act as business agents in urban settings. Slave labour was little used in agriculture, though the balance between free and unfree changed over time. As earlier, the boundaries between these categories were sometimes blurred. There is evidence, too, for the manumission of slaves. Documents translated in this chapter illustrate the situation.

This chapter introduces slavery during the three centuries of Ptolemaic rule in Egypt for which papyri, recycled in mummy casing or discovered archived together, provide a wealth of texts in both Greek and Egyptian Demotic. Greek settlers brought a developed form of slavery to Egypt. Traditional forms of dependence, however, continued in domestic as in temple contexts, where sacred slaves were dedicated to a god. The terminology of slavery is scrutinised and Greek city law codes examined for information on slaves. The third-century BC archive of Zenon provides many details on where slaves came from and how they were acquired. Slaves are mainly found in a domestic context but there is some evidence for workshop employment, especially in textiles; evidence for their use in agriculture is minimal. To gain their freedom slaves might benefit from testamentary grants but running away was the more usual method.

Translated texts preserved on stone, papyrus, leather, and ostraca (pieces of broken pot) in Egyptian and Aramaic illustrate dependence and slavery from the Late Period of pharaonic Egypt, which included over a century of Persian rule. Despite army garrisons and immigrant officials, many earlier Egyptian practices continued. At the same time, under the Persians immigrants brought in practices of slavery from their homeland and, alongside their purchase and sale, the marking of slaves with their owners’ names became well-documented. The terminology of slavery and dependence in both Egyptian and Aramaic texts, new sources for the acquisition of slaves, the relationship of names to ethnicity, and ways in which slaves could gain their freedom are all topics raised in this chapter, as finally is the difficult question of discerning the experience of being a slave.

By focusing on the relevance of regional identities in the self-presentation of Hellenistic victors, this chapter explores agonistic fame beyond the level of the polis. As the best documented case, the agonistic representation of Thessalian victors is of particular importance. It reveals that Hellenistic horse owners from Thessaly always emphasized their regional instead of their polis identity in order to enhance their horses’ value as objects of prestige and to create a virtual “hall of fame” of victorious horses and their owners. Although this was an exceptional case, regional identities were also expressed by Phokian and Arkadian athletes in the early Hellenistic age. Taken as a whole, the period saw the heyday of Greek federal states; and yet, the basic unit in the agonistic discourse remained the polis.

This chapter unites a multiplicity of individual case studies on the relationship between athletic victors and their hometowns. In Rhodes, the impressive Olympic victories of the second century were based upon a strong aristocracy that served as a guarantor of the success at a time when the political influence of the city diminished after the Third Macedonian War. In a similar manner, third-century Theban victors compensated for their city’s political ill fortune by presenting their hometown as a young and vital community. In Sparta and Messene, competitive constellations were transferred from the political arena to the agonistic sphere. Victor epigrams from both poleis formed part of a political discourse whose pillars were represented by Spartan polis ideology on the one hand and Messenian emphasis on autonomy on the other. All in all, it becomes clear that the polis remained the most important point of reference in the self-presentation of Hellenistic athletes.