ROBOVI S JADRANA U KLASIČNOJ GRČKOJ
Slaves from the Adriatic in Classical Greece

Summary/Abstract: The paper examines the presence of slaves from the Adriatic regions in the Classical Greece, as a contribution to the ongoing debate about the prevalence and general importance of Illyrian piracy in the pre-Hellenistic times. Traditional historiography maintains that there was widespread, indeed “endemic” Illyrian piracy centuries prior to the recorded activities of Illyrian pirates under king Agron in the second half of the 3rd century BC. If this was really the case, we would expect that it had a significant impact on the supply of slaves in Classical times. However, the examination of available sources (Old Attic comedy, prose literature, slave records from the Laurion mines, the Attic stelai, the slave lists from Chios, Athenian naval catalogues etc.) shows their presence to be minimal. Some slaves from Illyria are mentioned in the Attic stelai but hardly anywhere else, their numbers being dwarfed by the multitudes of Anatolian and Thracian slaves. Extant sources imply that there was no large scale export of slaves from Illyria in the Classical times and, likewise, that the scale of Illyrian piracy was fairly modest.

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