A People's History of the World: From the Stone Age to the New Millennium (86 page)

83
B G Trigger, ‘The Rise of Egyptian Civilisation’, in B G Trigger and others,
Ancient Egypt
, p67.

84
V Gordon Childe,
Man Makes Himself
, pp230-231.

85
V Gordon Childe,
What Happened in History
, pp119-120.

86
G R Willey and D B Shimkin, ‘The Maya Collapse’, in T P Culbert (ed),
The Classic Maya Collapse
.

87
Quoted in M Rich,
Egypt’s Making
(London, 1991), p226. For a criticism of the view that this text refers to real events, see B J Kemp, in B G Trigger and others (eds),
Ancient Egypt
, pp74-75, 115.

88
See, for example, F Katz,
Ancient American Civilisations
, pp78-79 and introduction to T P Culbert (ed),
The Classic Maya Collapse,
p19.

89
See, for example, F Katz,
Ancient American Civilisations
, p78.

90
B J Kemp, in B G Trigger and others (eds),
Ancient Egypt
, p115.

91
B S Lesko, ‘Rank, Roles and Rights’, in L H Lesko (ed),
Pharoah’s Workers
(Ithaca, 1994), p15.

92
B S Lesko, ‘Rank, Roles and Rights’, p39.

93
B S Lesko, ‘Rank, Roles and Rights’, p38.

94
K Marx, Preface to the
Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy
, in K Marx and F Engels,
Selected Works
, vol 1 (London, 1962), pp362-363.

95
K Marx and F Engels,
The Communist Manifesto
(London, 1996), p3.

96
V Gordon Childe,
What Happened in History
, p137.

97
K W Butzer,
Early Hydraulic Civilisation in Egypt
(Chicago, 1976), p46.

Part two: The ancient world

1
Some historians assume that knowledge of iron making must have been been transmitted into Africa. See, for instance, R Mauny, ‘Trans-Saharan Contacts in the Iron Age’, in J D Gage (ed),
Cambridge History of Africa
, vol 2, p318. But Jared Diamond argues that the techniques used in sub-Saharan Africa were rather different to those elsewhere, pointing to independent discovery. See J Diamond,
Guns, Germs and Steel
, (London, 1977), p394.

2
Centred on what is now Bihar.

3
Quoted in D D Kosambi,
An Introduction to the Study of Indian History
(Bombay, 1996), p190.

4
R Thapar,
History of India
, vol 1 (Harmondsworth), p84.

5
R S Sharma,
Light on Early Indian Society and Economy
(Bombay, 1966), p66.

6
R Thapar, ‘Asoka India and the Gupta Age’, in A L Basham,
A Cultural History of India
(Oxford, 1975), p44.

7
R S Sharma,
Light
, p78. Romila Thapar is critical of D D Kosambi for seeing the later Maurya period as one of economic decline: ‘If anything the picture is one of an expanding economy’, R Thapar,
Asoka and the Decline of the Mauryas
(Oxford, 1961), pp204-205.

8
H J J Winer, ‘Science’, in A L Basham,
A Cultural History
, p154.

9
H J J Winer, ‘Science’, p154.

10
R Thapar, ‘Asoka’, p49.

11
It did not build the wall from scratch, as is sometimes said, but connected up a number of pre-existing walls. The present Great Wall was restored and extended by the Ming Dynasty in the 17th century AD.

12
According to texts paraphrased in H Maspero,
China in Antiquity
(first published in French in the 1920s) (Folkestone, 1978), p26.

13
See, for instance, D Bodde, ‘The State and Empire of Ch’in’, in D Twitchett and M Loewe (eds),
Cambridge History of China
, vol 1 (Cambridge, 1986), p21.

14
H Maspero,
China
, p45. For some discussions of modern Chinese scholars on the question of the character of ancient Chinese society, see the contributions by Wu Daken, Ke Changyi and Zhao Lusheng, in T Brook (ed),
The Asiatic Mode of Production in China
(New York, 1989).

15
H Maspero,
China
, p70.

16
Cho-yun Hsu,
Han Agriculture
(Washington, 1980), p4. See also J Gernet,
A History of Chinese Civilisation
(Cambridge, 1982), pp67-69, and D Bodde, ‘The State’, pp22-23.

17
Cho-yun Hsu,
Han
, p6.

18
J Gernet,
History
, p72.

19
Cho-yun Hsu,
Han
, p12.

20
Cho-yun Hsu,
Han
, p13.

21
Shih-chi, quoted in D Bodde, ‘The State’, p40.

22
Details given in D Bodde, ‘The State’, p45.

23
J Gernet,
History
, p109, and D Bodde, ‘The State’, p52.

24
According to J Gernet,
History
, p109.

25
Cho-yun Hsu,
Han
, p3.

26
K Wittfogel, ‘The Fundamental Stages of Chinese Economic History’, in
Zeitschrift für Sozial Forschung
, no 4 (1935).

27
Cho-yun Hsu,
Han
, p39.

28
‘Discourses on Iron and Salt’ (81 BC), extracts translated in Cho-yun Hsu,
Han
, p191.

29
Cho-yun Hsu,
Han
, p53.

30
Translated in Cho-yun Hsu,
Han
, p165.

31
Edict contained in D Bodde, ‘The State’, p69.

32
Cho-yun Hsu,
Han
, pp6-7.

33
D Bodde, ‘The State’, pp71-72.

34
D Bodde, ‘The State’, pp71-72.

35
Quoted in D Bodde, ‘The State’, p83.

36
Cho-yun Hsu,
Han
, p153.

37
For a general survey of conditions, see R Osborne,
Greece in the Making
(London, 1996), pp17-37.

38
G E M De Ste Croix,
Class Struggle in the Ancient Greek World
(London, 1983), p293.

39
R Osborne,
Greece
, p67, explains the growth of slavery very much in these terms, although he does not use the term ‘surplus’. De Ste Croix argues that under Greek conditions slavery was much more ‘profitable’ to the ruling class than serf, let alone free, labour could ever be. See G E M De Ste Croix,
Class Struggle
, p226-231. By contrast, Ellen Meiksins Wood does not even discuss the material circumstances of cultivation, and therefore the circumstances in which slavery took root, in E M Wood,
Peasant, Citizen and Slave
(London, 1988). This is typical of the lack of materialism which is the defining feature of the ‘political Marxism’ of herself, Robert Brenner and others.

40
G E M De Ste Croix,
Class Struggle
, p227.

41
According to De Ste Croix, in Thessaly the Penastai were also serfs rather than slaves. Serfdom probably also existed in Crete. See G E M De Ste Croix,
Class Struggle
, p150.

42
The chapter on Lycurgus in
Plutach’s Lives
, (for instance in E C Lindeman (ed),
Life Studies of Men Who Shaped History, Plutarch’s Lives
(New York, 1950)), provides an account of what the Spartans claimed was their way of life. In fact the austerity may have been to a large extent an ideological myth rather than a reality, certainly in later Sparta. See A H M Jones,
Sparta
(Oxford, 1967).

43
This is the argument put in A H M Jones,
The Athenium Democracy
(Oxford, 1957).

44
Quoted in G E M De Ste Croix,
Class Struggle
, pp140-141.

45
De Ste Croix points to evidence that only 13 percent of slaves were ‘home bred’ according to inscriptions for the years 201-153 BC.

46
R Osborne,
Greece
, p233.

47
See the comments in G E M De Ste Croix,
Class Struggles
, and in
The Origins of the Peloponnesian War
(London, 1972). For a full attempted indictment of Socrates’ approach see I F Stone,
The Trial of Socrates
(London, 1997).

48
This argument is spelt out at length in G E M De Ste Croix,
Origins
.

49
E Gibbon,
The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
(London, 1920), p1.

50
G E M De Ste Croix,
Class Struggle
, p328.

51
P A Brunt,
Social Conflicts in the Roman Republic
(London, 1971), p28.

52
Sallust,
The Histories
, vol 1 (Oxford, 1992), p24.

53
P A Brunt,
Social Conflicts
, p51.

54
P A Brunt,
Social Conflicts
, p51.

55
G E M De Ste Croix,
Class Struggles
, p334.

56
G E M De Ste Croix,
Class Struggles
, p335.

57
According to P A Brunt,
Social Conflicts
, p87.

58
P A Brunt,
Social Conflicts
, p58.

59
P A Brunt,
Social Conflicts
, p58.

60
P A Brunt,
Social Conflicts
, p58.

61
A H M Jones,
The Roman Republic
(London, 1974), p116.

62
Quoted by P A Brunt,
Social Conflicts
, p15.

63
A H M Jones,
The Roman Economy
, p122.

64
P A Brunt,
Social Conflicts
, p33.

65
PA Brunt,
Italian Manpower, 225 BC-AD 14
(Oxford, 1971).

66
P A Brunt,
Italian Manpower
, p9.

67
P A Brunt,
Italian Manpower
, p9.

68
A H M Jones,
The Roman Economy
, p123.

69
P A Brunt,
Social Conflicts
, p78.

70
Details in P A Brunt,
Social Conflicts
, and A Lintott, ‘Political History’, in J A Cook, A Lintott and G Rawson (eds),
Cambridge Ancient History
, vol IX (Cambridge, 1986), p69.

71
Again accounts of what happened are to be found in P A Brunt,
Social Conflicts
, pp83-92, and A Lintott, ‘Political History’, pp77-84.

72
According to P A Brunt,
Social Conflicts
, p92.

73
Sallust,
The Histories
, vol 1, p25.

74
Quoted in P A Brunt,
Social Conflicts
, p96.

75
P A Brunt,
Social Conflicts
, p98.

76
P A Brunt,
Social Conflicts
, p104.

77
Appian, according to P A Brunt,
Social Conflicts
, p197.

78
See the account of their conditions in P A Brunt,
Social Conflicts
, p128.

79
A Lintott, ‘The Roman Empire’, in J A Cook, A Lintott and G Rawson (eds),
Cambridge Ancient History
, vol IX, pp25-26.[

80
The marvellous film
Spartacus
with Kirk Douglas seems to take poetic licence by portraying him on a cross.

81
Details from A Lintott, ‘Political History’, pp221-223.

82
Livy, figure quoted in G E M De Ste Croix,
Class Struggles
, p230.

83
Quoted in G E M De Ste Croix,
Class Struggles
, p368.

84
Quoted in G E M De Ste Croix,
Class Struggles
, p368.

85
Quotes given in G E M De Ste Croix,
Class Struggles
, p355.

86
It took them no more than a couple of hours to abandon their own attempt to re-establish the republic before the accession of Claudius.