Slavery in the Byzantine Empire

The importance of Byzantium to the history of global slavery stems from its geographic and historical position. Byzantium boasts a history of more than a millennium, longer than any other Mediterranean empire. As an offspring of the Roman Empire, it inherited the Roman institution of slavery, which was in constant change in view of the changes that the medieval world underwent. The Byzantine Empire offers an ideal historical environment to examine questions about global slavery, questions that pertain to continuity and change, the destiny of ancient slavery in particular, and thanks to its geopolitical position, also to connectivity between different medieval enslaving societies.