Skilled Labour and Professionalism in Ancient Greece and Rome

This book is a history of ancient Greek and Roman professionals: doctors, seers, sculptors, teachers, musicians, actors, athletes and soldiers. These individuals were specialist workers deemed to possess rare skills, for which they had undergone a period of training. They operated in a competitive labour market in which proven expertise was a key commodity. Success in the highest regarded professions was often rewarded with a significant income and social status. Rivalries between competing practitioners could be fierce. Yet on other occasions, skilled workers co-operated in developing associations that were intended to facilitate and promote the work of professionals. The oldest collegial code of conduct, the Hippocratic Oath, a version of which is still taken by medical professionals today, was similarly the creation of a prominent ancient medical school. This collection of articles reveals the crucial role of occupation and skill in determining the identity and status of workers in antiquity.

Introduction Edmund Stewart, Edward Harris and David Lewis; Part I. Professionals and Professional Identity in Greece and Rome: 1. Many Ancient Greek occupations, few professions Edward Harris; 2. Skilled workers in the ancient Greek city: public employment, selection methods and evaluation Natacha Massar; 3. Money making, 'avarice', and elite strategies of distinction in the Roman world Emanuel Mayer; Part II. Specialization and the Division of Labour in the Ancient City: 4. Labour specialization in the Athenian economy: occupational hazards David Lewis; 5. The perception of 'skills' in Ostia: the evidence of monuments and written sources Alice Landskron; Part III. Case Studies of Professions 1: Sculpture: 6. Professionalism in archaic and classical sculpture in Athens:  the price of technē Helle Hochscheid; 7. Artists beyond Athens: the freedoms and restrictions of the artistic profession in classical Greece Margit Linder; 8. Roman sculptors at work: professional practitioners? Ben Russell; Part IV. Case Studies of Professions 2: Music and Athletics: 9. The profession of mousikē in classical Greece Edmund Stewart; 10. Artists of Dionysus: the first professional associations in the ancient Greek world Sophia Aneziri; 11. Neither amateurs nor professionals: the status of Greek athletes Christian Mann; Part V. Case Studies of Professions 3: A Profession of Arms?: 12. Professionalism, specialization and skill in the classical Spartan army? Stephen Hodkinson; 13. A professional Roman army? Doug Lee.

Edmund Stewart is currently Lecturer in Ancient History at the University of Nottingham, having previously taught at the universities of Leeds and Warwick. He is the author of Greek Tragedy on the Move: the Birth of a Panhellenic Genre c. 500-300 BC (2017). He has contributed articles on ancient history and Greek literature to scholarly journals, including the Classical Quarterly, Cambridge Classical Journal, Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies, Phoenix and Philologus.
Edward Harris is Emeritus Professor of Ancient History, Durham University. He is the author of Democracy and the Rule of Law in Classical Athens (2006) and The Rule of Law in Action in Democratic Athens (2013) and co-editor (with D. M. Lewis and M. Woolmer) of The Ancient Greek Economy: Markets, Households and City-States (2016).
David Lewis is Lecturer in Greek History and Culture at the University of Edinburgh. He is author of Greek Slave Systems in their Eastern Mediterranean Context, c. 800-146 BC (2018) and co-editor (with E.M. Harris and M. Woolmer) of The Ancient Greek Economy: Markets, Households and City-States (2015). He is author of numerous articles on the history of labour in the ancient Greek world in general, and on ancient Greek slavery in particular.