Four lectures presented at the Collège de France in November and December 1978.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 185-194) and index.

Slaves have been exploited in most societies throughout human history, but there have been only five genuine slave societies, and of these, two were in antiquity: classical Greece and classical Italy. In this major book, the distinguished historian Sir Moses Finley examines those two societies, not in isolation but in comparison with the other, relatively modern slave societies of the New World. Sir Moses considers how the ancient slave societies came into being; how they were transformed over millennia and in the long process that led to Medieval feudalism; how slavery functioned within the ancient economy and in ancient political systems, and how it was judged, socially and morally; and what modern historians have made of ancient history and why. Throughout, these topics are interwoven in a brilliant inquiry that is both historical and historiographical. (Book jacket).

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