When I think of antiquity, the detail that frightens me is that those hundreds of millions of slaves on whose backs civilization rested generation after generation have left behind them no record whatever. We do not even know their names. In the whole of Greek and Roman history, how many slaves' names are known to you? I can think of two ... One is Spartacus and the other is Epictetus. ... there are only two slaves whose names I definitely know, and probably few people can remember more. The rest have gone down into utter silence.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- Civilization was built on the labor of millions of unnamed slaves who left no historical record.
- In plain terms
- Most slaves in history are forgotten and their names are lost to time.
- What can you take from it?
- History often erases the contributions of the oppressed.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- Whose stories are missing from your history books?
- How do we remember the forgotten?
Another view
Some slave names may exist but remain obscure rather than completely nonexistent.
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