ANCIENT HISTORY FROM BELOW

Another history is possible

Ancient History has much to say about our own world. It can help us think about issues as diverse as freedom and oppression, citizenship and resistance, inequalities, work and everyday life. For a long time, however, the study of antiquity was restricted to the views and concerns of its elites. The authors of this blog start from the assumption that another Ancient History is possible. But writing Ancient History "from below" does not only mean asking, as in Brecht's poem, "who built Thebes of the Seven Gates?": Who were they, where were they and what did ordinary people do, men and women, children and the elderly, free workers and slaves? Our task is also, in the felicitous expression of Walter Benjamin, "brushing history against the grain" to rescue the point of view of the subaltern, the traditions of the oppressed. In this blog, we will talk about topics that interest us today, seeking in antiquity counterpoints, always from the point of view of the men and women who struggle, work and resist.