Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-pftt2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-05-01T16:17:07.726Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Royal Scythians and the Slave-Trade in Herodotus' Scythia*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 May 2015

David Braund
David Braund*
Affiliation:
The University of Exeter
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Herodotus has a lot to say about slavery and about particular slaves and groups of slaves. The broad theme was, of course, central to his historical conception and presentation of the Persian Wars and of warfare in general, as well as being key to the contrasting nomoi whose range and significance he is concerned to explore. Against that large background, I wish to examine Herodotus' understanding of slavery and slave-trading on the north coast of the Black Sea, with a view to a fuller appreciation of his Histories and of exchange in the region. Three broad observations will assist.

Type
Research Article
Information
Antichthon , Volume 42 , 2008 , pp. 1 - 19
Copyright
Copyright © Australasian Society for Classical Studies 2008

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

*

David Braund was the keynote speaker at the 28th Conference of the Australasian Society for Classical Studies held in Newcastle (Australia) in February 2007. The Society is pleased to include this article from him as a memento of his visit to Australia.

References

Avram, A. (2007), ‘Some Thoughts about the Black Sea and the Slave Trade before the Roman Domination (6th-1st centuries BC)’, in Gabrielsen and Lund (2007) 239-51.Google Scholar
Bäbler, B. (1998), Fleissige Thrakerinnen u. Wehrhaften Skythen. Nichtgriechen im klassischen Athen u. ihre archäologische Hinterlassenschaft (Stuttgart-Leipzig).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Braund, D. (1998), ‘Herodotos on the Problematics of Reciprocity’, in Gill, C., Postlethwaite, N. and Seaford, R. (eds), Reciprocity in Ancient Greece (Oxford) 159-80.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Braund, D. (2004), ‘Herodotus' Spartan Scythians’, in Tuplin, C.J. (ed.), Pontus and the Outside World: Studies in Black Sea History, Historiography, and Archaeology (Leiden) 25–41.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Braund, D. (2005), ‘Introduction’, in Braund, D. (ed.) Scythians and Greeks (Exeter).Google Scholar
Braund, D. (2005a), ‘Neglected Slaves’, Vestnik Drevnei Istorii, fase. 4, 24–45.Google Scholar
Braund, D. (2007), ‘Greater Olbia: Ethnic, Religious, Economic and Political Interactions in the Region of Olbia c. 600-100 BC’, in Braund and Kryzhitskiy (2007) 37–77.Google Scholar
Braund, D. (2007a), ‘Black Sea Grain for Athens? From Herodotus to Demosthenes’, in Gabrielsen and Lund (2007) 39–68.Google Scholar
Braund, D. (2008), ‘Scythian Laughter: Conversations in the Northern Black Sea Region in the Fifth Century BC’, in Bilde, P. Guldager (ed.), Cultural Interactions in the Black Sea Region in Antiquity (Aarhus) (forthcoming).Google Scholar
Braund, D. and Kryzhitskiy, S.D. (eds) (2007), Classical Olbia and the Scythian World (PBA 142) (Oxford).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Braund, D. and Tsetskhladze, G. (1989), ‘The Export of Slaves from Colchis’, Classical Quarterly 39, 114-25.Google Scholar
Corcella, A. (1993) Erodoto: Le Storie, IV(Milan).Google Scholar
Corcella, A. (2007), Herodotus. Histories, IV(Oxford).Google Scholar
Finley, M.I. (1964), ‘Between Slavery and Freedom’, Comparative Studies in Society and History 6, 233-49.Google Scholar
Flory, S. (1987), The Archaic Smile of Herodotus (Detroit).Google Scholar
Gabrielsen, V. and Lund, J. (eds) (2007), The Black Sea in Antiquity: Regional and Interregional Exchanges (Aarhus).Google Scholar
Gavrilyuk, N.A. (1999), The History of the Economy of Steppe Scythia, 6th to 4th centuries BC(Kiev) (in Russian).Google Scholar
Gavrilyuk, N.A. (2003), ‘The Graeco-Scythian Slave-Trade in the Sixth and Fifth Centuries BC’, in Bilde, P. Guldager, Höjte, J. Münk and Stolba, V.F. (eds), The Cauldron ofAriantas: Studies Presented to A.N. Shcheglovon his 70th Birthday (Aarhus) 75–85.Google Scholar
Gavrilyuk, N.A. (2007), ‘Social and Economic Issues in the Development of Steppe Scythia’, in Braund and Kryzhitskiy (2007) 135-44.Google Scholar
Griffiths, A.H. (2001), ‘Kissing Cousins: Some Curious Cases of Adjacent Material in Herodotus’, in Luraghi, N. (ed.), The Historian's Craft in the Age of Herodotus (Oxford) 161-78.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harrison, T. (2000), Divinity and History: the Religion of Herodotus (Oxford).Google Scholar
Harvey, F.D. (1988), ‘Herodotus and the Man-Footed Creature’, in Archer, L. (ed.), Slavery and Other Forms of Unfree Labour (London and New York)42–52.Google Scholar
Hornblower, S. (2003), ‘Panionios of Chios and Hermotimos of Pedasa’, in Derow, P. and Parker, R. (eds), Herodotus and his World: Essays in Memory of George Forrest (Oxford) 37–57.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hunt, P. (1998), Slaves, Warfare and Ideology in the Greek Historians (Cambridge).Google Scholar
Hunter, V.J. (1995), Policing Athens(Princeton).Google Scholar
Ivantchik, A.I. (2006), ‘“Skythian” Archers on Archaic Attic Vases: Problems of Interpretation’, Ancient Civilizations from Scythia to Siberian, 197–271.Google Scholar
Kryzhitskiy, S.D. (2005), ‘Olbia and the Scythians in the Fifth Century BC: the Scythian “Protectorate”‘, in Scythians and Greeks: Cultural Interactions in Scythia, Athens and the Early Roman Empire (Exeter) 123-30.Google Scholar
Kopylov, V.P. and Larenok, P.A. (1994), The Taganrog Settlement (Rostov-on-Don) (in Russian).Google Scholar
Lévy, E. (1981), ‘Les origines du mirage scythe’, Ktema, 6, 57–68.Google Scholar
Macan, R.W. (1908), Herodotus: The Seventh, Eighth and Ninth books, 1, pt. 2 (London).Google Scholar
Malkin, I. (1998), The Returns of Odysseus (Berkeley).Google Scholar
Martin, R.P. (1996), ‘The Scythian Accent: Anacharsis and the Cynics’, in Branham, R.B. and Goulet-Cazé, M.-O. (eds), The Cynics: The Cynic Movement in Antiquity and its Legacy (Berkeley) 136-55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Medvedev, A.P. (1997), ‘Olbian Trade-Routes and the Credibility of Herodotus’ Ethnographic Data’, Arkheologiya 4, 24-8 (in Russian).Google Scholar
Missiou, A. (1993), , Classical Quarterly 43, 377-91.Google Scholar
Moreno, A. (2007), ‘Athenian Wheat-Tsars: Black Sea Grain and Elite Culture’, in Gabrielsen and Lund (2007) 69–84.Google Scholar
Munson, R.V. (2001), Telling Wonders: Ethnographic and Political Discourse in the Work of Herodotus (Michigan).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Osborne, R. (1998), ‘Early Greek Colonization? The Nature of Greek Colonization in the West’, in Fisher, N. and Wees, H. van (eds), Archaic Greece: New Approaches and New Evidence (London) 251-70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Owen, S. (2005), ‘Analogy, Archaeology and Archaic Greek Colonization’, in Hurst, H. and Owen, S. (eds), Ancient Colonizations: Analogy, Similarity and Difference (London) 5–22.Google Scholar
Pembroke, S.G. (1967), ‘Women in Charge: The Function of Alternatives in Early Greek Tradition and the Ancient Idea of Matriarchy’, Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institute 30.Google Scholar
Pembroke, S.G. (1970), ‘Locres et Tarente: le rôle des femmes dans la foundation de deux colonies grecques’, Annales ESC 25, 1240-70.Google Scholar
Piérart, M. (2003), ‘The Common Oracle of the Milesians and the Argives’, in Derow, P. and Parker, R. (eds), Herodotus and his World: Essays in Memory of George Forrest (Oxford) 275-96.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rawlinson, G. (1875), History of Herodotus (London).Google Scholar
Taylor, G. (2002), Castration (London).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Taylor, T. (2001), ‘Believing the Ancients: Quantitative and Qualitative Dimensions of Slavery and the Slave Trade in Later Prehistoric Eurasia’, World Archaeology 33, 27–43.Google Scholar
Thomas, R. (2000), Herodotus in Context (Cambridge).Google Scholar
Thomas, R. (2004), ‘Herodotus, Ionia and the Athenian Empire’, in Karageorghis, V. and Taifacos, I. (eds), The World of Herodotus(Nicosia) 27–42.Google Scholar
Tyrrell, W.B. (1984), Amazons: A Study in Athenian Mythmaking(Baltimore).Google Scholar
West, S. (1999), Introducing the Scythians: Herodotus on Koumiss (4.2), Museum Helveticum 56, 76–86.Google Scholar
West, S. (2000), ‘Herodotus in the North? Reflections on a Colossal Cauldron’, Scripta Classica Israelica 19, 15–34.Google Scholar
West, S. (2004), ‘Herodotus on Aristeas’, in Tuplin, C. (ed.), Fontus and the Outside World (Leiden) 43–67.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
West, S. (2007), ‘Herodotus and Olbia’, in Braund and Kryzhitskiy (2007) 79–92.Google Scholar