History, as Marc Bloch wrote, is to some extent an art, and every historian develops their own skill, which cannot easily be traced in any broader intellectual tradition.

In this work, Finley proves to be particularly adept at this art, analyzing topics such as the Athenian Empire, Spartan society, the freedom of the citizen or conversely, the slaves, the slave trade and slavery, technological innovations and economic progress in the ancient world, the world of Mycenaean palaces and economic history, property in the Mycenaean and Homeric world, and finally, marriage, sale, and gift in the Homeric world.

Finley thoroughly analyzes the social stratification of ancient Greece, meticulously examines every form of slavery (slave trade, enslavement due to debt, etc.), and, importantly, in each chapter of his work, offers a holistic approach, a complete interpretation of every social phenomenon, every social change, whether it occurred in Athens, in Sparta, or in the Mycenaean or Homeric world.

As he himself notes: “History is ‘indeterminate’ because its data and their combinations are countless and unparalleled. It is also specific. The professional historian can determine the raw material (within the limits of possibility) and then, as they reflect upon it aloud, they and their reader engage in discussion and inquiry. This is precisely what the word history meant in its original sense.”