For the past few decades, studies on slavery in late antiquity have been primarily concerned with the question of whether slavery was, in fact, present during the period, or whether late antique slavery slowly declined and transformed into so-called medieval serfdom. For many years the latter proposition enjoyed favour among historians. Now, the picture is quite different. The majority of recent studies on late antique slavery confirm that slavery was alive and well during the period. Foundational studies such as Chris Wickham’s monumental analysis of the medieval period, followed more recently by Alice Rio’s focused study of early medieval slavery, Youval Rotman’s reconstruction of Byzantine slavery, and finally Kyle Harper’s extensive survey of late ancient slavery come to similar conclusions: the model or paradigm of ‘transition’, with its roots in nineteenth-century Marxist economic theory (especially from Marx and Engels), has outlived its usefulness for understanding labour and modes of production in the late antique world.

Philosophical asceticism played an important role in the opposition to social injustice, oppression, and slavery across religious traditions in imperial and late antiquity in the Mediterranean world. A connection emerges from recent research between asceticism (or at least a strand thereof), the rejection of slavery as an institution, and the embrace of social justice in ancient philosophy, Jewish Hellenism, and especially Christianity in antiquity and late antiquity. When Christian ascetics chose poverty and low status in service to Christ, they were often also concerned for those who were victims of social injustice and oppression. Since at least some Christian – and Jewish, and ‘pagan’ – philosophical ascetics spoke explicitly of ‘justice’ in this connection, we can surmise that at least a part of them embraced asceticism also for the sake of justice.