Slavery and Society at RomeThis book, first published in 1994, is concerned with discovering what it was like to be a slave in the classical Roman world, and with revealing the impact the institution of slavery made on Roman society at large. It shows how and in what sense Rome was a slave society through much of its history, considers how the Romans procured their slaves, discusses the work roles slaves fulfilled and the material conditions under which they spent their lives, investigates how slaves responded to and resisted slavery, and reveals how slavery, as an institution, became more and more oppressive over time under the impact of philosophical and religious teaching. The book stresses the harsh realities of life in slavery and the way in which slavery was an integral part of Roman civilisation. |
Contents
Confronting Slavery at Rome | 1 |
The Slave Society of Rome | 10 |
The Roman Slave Supply | 31 |
Slave Labour | 57 |
Quality of Life | 81 |
Resisting Slavery | 107 |
Change and Continuity | 132 |
Slavery and Progress | 154 |
To be a Slave | 174 |
Bibliographical essay | 183 |
| 186 | |
| 197 | |
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Common terms and phrases
Androcles antiquity Antoninus Pius Apuleius Artemidorus Augustus Bradley Cantabri captives Cato central period century BC Christian Cicero clothes Columella condition Daphnis Daphnis & Chloe death domestic dreams elite emperor enslaved Epictetus evidence example familia farm former slaves freedman freedom fugitive given Harriet Jacobs heir historian household human imperial Inst instance Italy jurists Karasch killed lives manumission manumitted Marcus Aurelius master Matralia moral Moretum Musonius Nero never number of slaves once Onir owners perhaps philosophers Plin Pliny provincial punishment Quintilian relationship resistance Roman slaveowners Roman slaves Roman society Roman world Rome Rome's runaway rural slaves second century Seneca servant in charge servile servitude set free sexual slave free slave population slave society slave women slaveowner's slaveowners slavery social sold status Stoic Tacitus torture Trajan Trimalchio Twelve Tables Ulpian vernae vilicus villa wife woman