The Class Struggle in the Ancient Greek World: From the Archaic Age to the Arab Conquests

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G. E. M. de Ste. Croix

The Class Struggle in the Ancient Greek World

From the Archaic Age to the Arab Conquests

G. E. M. de Ste. Croix

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English

Verso
04 November 2025

History; Historiography; Social classes

Series: Verso World History

The Class Struggle in the Ancient Greek World is an original and influential reconstruction of Classical Antiquity through a Marxist lens. Geoffrey de Ste. Croix explores the personality of the Ancient world as a slave economy. He traces the social origins of Athenian democracy and the later decline of the Greek city-states in the Roman era, and offers an innovative class-based explanation for the decline and fall of the Roman Empire in the West. Comparing the late Roman political-fiscal system to a ‘vampire bat’, Ste. Croix argues that serfdom and a tightening fiscal screw left the peasant masses with an attitude of indifference to the Empire’s fate.

First published in 1981, The Class Struggle in the Ancient Greek World

was recognised by Ernst Badian in the New York Review of Books as ‘The only work in a Western language that has ever attempted to tell the story of the greatest part of the ancient world with the interests of the lower classes as its central theme’.

‘A landmark in the field of ancient history’

New Republic

‘An astonishing achievement’

Sunday Times

‘Few contributions to ancient history are read much longer than a generation. There are exceptions, such as Edward Gibbon and George Grote; Geoffrey, I suspect, will join that company.’ David Harvey, Guardian

By: G. E. M. de Ste. Croix
Imprint: Verso
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Edition: New edition
Dimensions: Height: 234mm, Width: 153mm, Spine: 38mm
Weight: 720g
ISBN: 9781804298558
ISBN 10: 1804298557
Series: Verso World History
Pages: 752
Publication Date: 04 November 2025
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming

Geoffrey de Ste. Croix (1910-2000) was a Fellow of New College, Oxford and one of the most distinguished ancient historians of his generation. He is the author of The Origins of the Peloponnesian War and The Class Struggle in the Ancient Greek World, winner of the Deutscher Memorial Prize.

Reviews for The Class Struggle in the Ancient Greek World: From the Archaic Age to the Arab Conquests

An astonishing achievement * Sunday Times * A landmark in the field of ancient history * New Republic * Provides the kind of satisfaction one gets from watching a skilled craftsman at work. The reader's curiosity is constantly whetted - what is he going to say next? * Past and Present *