Ste. Croix de Geoffrey E.M. The Class Struggle in the Ancient Greek World: From the Archaic Age to the Arab Conquest

Cornell University Press, 1981. — 742 p.Combining sociological acumen with solid historical craftsmanship, Ste. Croix provides a new and insightful account of the major institutions, social groups, and historical developments of some 1,400 years of Greco-Roman civilization, and the result is not only one of the finest studies on classical society to date but also a major contribution to historical sociology. This book is one of the most exciting, provocative, and challenging works on ancient history to have appeared in recent times and is of immense importance to all historians of the Graeco-Roman world. Because of the great wealth of insights brought to bear on a multiplicity of topics, no one in the future will be able to neglect the book and its major theme, the exploitation by a propertied elite of the bulk of the ancient population.