This paper explores the impact of acknowledged skill in mousikē (the ancient term which refers to the whole art of poetry, music and drama) on the income, identity and social status of poets, actors and musicians in the classical period. It is argued that the social status of these professionals depended on public recognition of the usefulness of their individual skills and the personal reputations of performers, rather than their economic class or legal order.

The introduction offers a definition of skilled labour and professionalism and considers the importance of these concepts for our study of ancient society and its economy.

Contrary to orthodox views, Sparta’s full citizens, the Spartiates, were not professional or specialized full-time soldiers and, apart from practice in elementary drill, their training focused mainly on physical fitness. In so far as Sparta’s armies excelled in technical proficiency, it was through their tight-knit organization and hierarchical command structures and their methodical, if often inflexible, implementation of set manoeuvres.

This chapter aims to establish a lower limit to the possible extent of horizontal specialization in the economy of classical Athens; in other words, the minimum plausible number of specialized jobs to do with production, exchange, and services. This exercise shows that even with a mindset sceptical to the idea of specialization, there cannot realistically have been fewer than 162 specialized full-time occupations in classical Attica. This demonstrates the complexity and dynamism of the classical Athenian economy.

This chapter challenges the default use of the language of professionalization with reference to the Roman army of the imperial period and argues that while certain usages of the term ‘professional’ may be valid, there are so many other unhelpful modernising connotations arising from such terminology that it is better avoided.

Literary condemnations of manual work and commerce and trade were a discourse of social distinction that emphasized philosophical morality over avaricious money making. It did not matter socially beyond its immediate intellectual context, and neither prevented artisans and professionals from publicly displaying pride in their work nor imperial elites from treating traders, engineers, and artisans with dignity and respect in their personal interactions.

The prosperous harbour town of Ostia in the second and third centuries AD is a good example for demonstrating the areas of daily life and economic activities, and skilled individuals and professionals. One can expect a very distinctive society, with lots of merchandising activities to fulfil the needs and requirements of the people who lived and worked in the city. Inscriptions, reliefs and mosaics inform us about many occupations and skilled professions, as well as guilds and club houses in Ostia. The aim of the contribution is to discuss evidences of monuments and written sources on skilled professionalism in Ostia exemplarily. In general, the individuals represented themselves in an appropriate manner and in their professional environment.

Cities selected and recruited skilled workers for various tasks, offering them contracts, payment and rewards. These will all be examined as well as the technitai’s travels, and the poleis’ assessment and appreciation of individuals and professions as a whole (especially doctors, seers, and architects).

By the early third century BC, musicians and people of the theatre with varied specializations, who participated in the Greek music contests (technitai tou Dionysou), began to organize themselves into associations, which can be deemed as the first professional associations in the Greek world. These associations were acting on behalf of their members as their ‘art agents’, but also on behalf of the organizers of festivals and contests (cities, kings, confederations) as their intermediaries.

This chapter concerns Roman sculptors and considers whether sculptors in the Roman empire fit the modern criteria for the term ‘professional’, as has been developed in the sociology of modern professions. While the lack of a regulatory system governing stone carving practitioners in the Roman world might make it hard to fit them into most modern definitions of professionals, it is argued that Roman sculptors saw their work as skilled and used their specialist knowledge to obtain social and economic rewards.

Since the late nineteenth century, scholars have discussed if Greek athletes were ‘amateurs’ or ‘professionals’. Analysing the ancient evidence on time, money, social status and group identity, this article argues that neither of the two terms helps in understanding the social reality of ancient athletes.

We now know that in Classical Athens there were as many as 200 occupations. This essay shows that not all occupations enjoyed an equal amount of status and prestige. Four occupations are studied: actors, especially those in the Associations of Dionysiac Artists, philosophers, doctors, and sculptors. These occupations required extensive training and acquired some features associated with modern professions.