Strike

Labor, Unions, and Resistance in the Roman Empire

By: Sarah E. Bond

Narrated by: Hillary Huber

Historian Sarah E. Bond retells the traditional story of Ancient Rome, revealing how groups of ancient workers unified, connected, and protested as they helped build an empire

From plebeians refusing to join the Roman army to bakers withholding bread, this is the first book to explore how Roman workers used strikes, boycotts, riots, and rebellion to get their voices—and their labor—acknowledged. Sarah E. Bond explores Ancient Rome from a new angle to show that the history of labor conflicts and collective action goes back thousands of years, uncovering a world far more similar to our own than we realize.

Workers often turned to their associations for solidarity and shared identity in the ancient world. Some of these groups even negotiated contracts, wages, and work conditions in a manner similar to modern labor unions. As the world begins to consider the value—and indeed the necessity—of unionization to protect workers, this book demonstrates that we can learn valuable lessons from ancient laborers and from attempts by the Roman government to limit their freedom.

©2025 Sarah E. Bond (P)2025 Tantor Media

Disappointing

I was looking forward to this, but found it only focused on the experiences of males. Even when talking about a law that said an enslaved person took the status of the mother, it went on to talk about slave owners sexually assaulting “people“ rather than dealing with the topic of sexual violence against enslaved women