In this introduction, we establish a framework for resistance studies as it relates to the ancient Mediterranean world, and especially to Rome as an imperial power. The first section explores the changing scope of resistance studies over the past century and how the three principal twentieth-century discussions of resistance by Classicists have been framed by Nazi Germany, the French colonial experience in Africa seen from the viewpoint of early postcolonialism, and the activities of McCarthyite America in the Cold War. It also sets out the range of theoretical and methodological approaches to resistance that recur throughout the volume. The second sections consists of discussion and summaries of the contributions. The third section offers Augustine as a case study of reading resistance at the level of an individual’s identity formation. The fourth section discusses the question of imperial Greek existence under Rome and ends with a case study of Pausanias.

The book concludes with the largest implications for the Charleston slave workhouse rebellion. It relies on the work of historian Michel-Rolph Trouillot to explain why the revolt has been silenced for more than 171 years. Trouillot determined that silences occur at four important moments in the process of historical production: fact creation (the making of sources), fact assembly (the making of archives); fact retrieval (the making of narratives); and retrospective significance (the making of history in the final instance). The newspapers downplayed the incident (the making of sources). The historical archives have not been concerned with collecting material on the revolt because they remained unaware of its occurrence (making of archive). The few historians that have written about the incident have misunderstood the incident. Francis Colburn Adams wrote a slave narrative about Nicholas and his half-sister that includes a depiction of the workhouse revolt. Yet nobody has made that connection until now.

The potato has nourished ordinary people in the Americas for millennia. Villagers along the Andes grew a great variety of potatoes, which were used in diverse ways to provide year-round nourishment. The Europeans who reached South America’s Pacific coast in the 1530s introduced potatoes to Europe, thereby initiating its global spread. Once in Europe, the potato attracted little attention from representatives of the state. Uninterested as they were in the everyday eating habits of European labourers, few learned writers assessed the novel plant’s potential as a foodstuff for Europeans. Those who did complained that the potato was excessively nourishing and so facilitated laziness. Ordinary people, in contrast, embraced the potato, which possessed a number of advantages over existing foodstuffs. Potatoes can produce a prolific harvest even in poor soil, and make a sustaining meal. Moreover, precisely because states were not interested in the everyday eating habits of poorer folk, it took many decades for the potato to attract the attention of tax-collectors. Potatoes thus allowed peasants and labourers to evade some of the less welcome aspects of state control. It is they who are responsible for the potato’s entry into the European diet.