In this influential, path-breaking and respected work of scholarship G.E.M. de Ste. Croix makes a broad-ranging attempt to establish the validity of historical materialist analysis of the ancient world. He begins by defining exactly what terms such as 'class', 'exploitation', 'surplus' and 'mode of production' mean, in the sense they were used by Karl Marx. The book spans various historical periods, covering questions as varied as the emergence of democracy in Ancient Athens and the social importance of the decline of the Greek city-state during the Roman Empire.