The great secret to the vast power of ancient empires: huge numbers of slaves.
Not that the Greeks, Egyptians and Mesopotamians were any better in that regard.
It’s slavery all the way down
Actually, Rome was way ahead of the Greeks on that one. I saw an estimate of 12% slavery in Rome, while Athens was fully a plantation society with >70%.
Yeah, estimates of Roman slavery range from 5%-20%, with most modern estimates putting it at around 10%.
Athens had 30%+, with many estimates putting it as high as 50%, and a few even higher.
And Sparta was even more nightmarish on that front, with 80%+ as slaves.
That being said, Athens and Sparta were both exceptionally slave-oriented even by the standards of their fellow Greek city-states. Athens’ slave population ballooned with the massive accumulation of wealth by the elite (luckily that was never a problem in human society ever again), while in Sparta it was baked into the whole horrific system itself.
Sparta, Jesus. I’m going to take a wild guess that didn’t make it into 300.
What can Rome say except, “You’re welcome”?
