St Paul got into a few sticky situations during his travels, but none was more hairy than Ephesus.
He was so successful in preaching his message of a reformed monotheism, people began turning away from the local goddess and stopped patronising the city’s great temple.
This affected the bottom line of the city’s silversmiths and craftspeople.
Stirred up by Demetrius, who convinced them “our craft is in danger to be set at nought”, a riot broke out that engulfed the whole city.
An assembly collected in the theatre. They quickly proceeded to make collective demands “in one voice”.
Paul went into hiding.
The situation was eventually calmed by a town clerk telling them they should seek legal redress from the courts or face the full power of the law themselves.
***
In her important new study, Sarah E. Bond (the Erling B. “Jack” Holtsmark Associate Professor in the Classics at the University of Iowa), analyses historical narratives like this within the context of ancient labor organisations and unions.
Were the silversmiths an organised association in the same vein as the AFL-CIO, Workers United, the Teamsters or even further afield Britain’s mighty UCU union?
There were obviously clear differences and Bond never makes this claim, but she is able to draw out details of ancient sources and highlight similarities, not least the power of work stoppage and collective bargaining.
I am drawn again and again to this passage, because it reveals the interconnections between different forms of power in an ancient city: religious, economic, political, legal and military (threatened).
The passage has an overt polemical purpose and has to be read carefully as a historical source, but it is evident that groups of craftspeople, like the silversmiths, could act collectively at points.
Bond writes that the period when Paul preached (c. 40s – 64/65 CE) and the narrative above was recorded in Acts (c. 80 – 120 CE), was a “golden age of association formation”.
These groups often centred around divinites.
Sometimes, we can link the god to a particular craft or locality.
Other times the link is more obscure.
The Isis associations in Delos and other parts of the Roman Empire, may have initially been linked to Egypt, but soon became broader in their scope, suggesting a ‘religious’ group (as we would understand it today).
Formerly enslaved people could join, as could women.
Associations ensured funeral rites and sponsored group celebrations.
More importantly to this study, workers organised themselves into groups, which may have made collective agreements.
For example, the Aurelian Walls (between 271 – 275 CE) around Roman were most likely constructed by a building association the fabrii tignuarii who had about 1,300 members during the reign of Hadrian. Alongside other associations connected to construction.
These were clearly important groups, not just in terms of their numbers but also the political and strategic importance of the work they did.
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Bond persuasively presents the groups as labor organisations, arguing essentially that they could be seen as forms of alternative power.
The Romans lacked a sense of ‘Civil Society’, groupings of people independent to government control and which may be centres of alternative power. Or maybe it is fairer to say they lacked a sense of why civil society was positive.
The Roman state had a record of opposing religious groups that it saw as dangerous. Followers of Bacchus, Isis, Jews, Christians and Manicheans were all attacked by the state in various ways.
But more broadly the Romans squashed any association which might gain great power.
Bond highlights the anti-association actions that Emperors took over centuries, which shows a consistent concern against these groups.
The power of collective action was most visible in the response against it.
***
Religion was not just the background, but a source of inspiration.
The leader of the first Roman Sicilian Revolution (First Servile War 135–132 BCE), Eunus claimed divine inspiration and may have been inspired by messianic myths. While the leader of the second Roman Sicilian Revolution (Second Servile War, 104-100 BCE) drew on the imagery and language of Eunus.
For Bond, the religious aspects of Eunus leadership are part of the character assassination by Roman authors, but I think this misses something important.
Religion does not just create new links and connections between formerly disparate people (“There is neither Jew nor Greek…”), it can potentially create new hierarchies and powers separate to worldly powers.
What greater authority is there than a god?
For me, the apocalyptic strain of radical politics needs pulling out.
The coming world, the prelapsarian idyll, the turning over of the old.
These are all ideas which grew within a religious context, often of a prophetic if not downright messianic nature.
They run as a golden thread across the centuries.
***
Even without these transcendent themes, ancient groups had radical aims.
They would have had day-to-day demands for food, shelter and livelihoods, but dignity and self fulfillment were important.
This is where they seem most similar to organised labor.
In a world in which slavery was openly a part of the economy and social organisation, associations were an important counterweight.
As Bond writes in conclusion:
“Roman history can also confer the less visible persons of the past with a degree of agency by exploring their participation, membership, and status within larger collectives. Rather than viewing these individuals as “primitive” workers only interested in social clubs for feasting, or poor laborers who needed collectives only to help to bury their loved ones, we can instead begin to acknowledge that many associations were vibrant and complex entities whose capabilities and impact still need further study.”
(Page 188)
Strike is a vital book to help us understand ancient society and more broadly, given the use of ancient history in contemporary discourse, it can help us challenge reactionary politics today and the rise of fascist leaders.
Strike: Labor, Unions, and Resistance in the Roman Empire by Sarah E. Bond. Published by Yale University Press (9780300281255)
Rhakotis 