Classics 310: Slavery in the Ancient Roman World

Slavery, broadly construed, pervaded every part of life in ancient Greece and Rome. As the influential historian of the ancient economy Moses Finley puts it, “there was no action or belief or institution in Greco-Roman antiquity that was not one way or other affected by the possibility that someone involved might be a slave” (The Ancient Economy, Berkeley 1985, p. 65). Finley claimed that, throughout human history, there were only five true “slave societies,” i.e. societies in which slavery profoundly shaped their population, economy, and culture: Ancient Greece and Rome were two; the others – the southern United States, the Caribbean, and Brazil – come from the New World.

This class will focus on slavery in ancient Rome, with attention given to comparative material (Near Eastern, Greek, and Atlantic) according to relevance and interest. We will begin with an overview of the institution and its role in Roman private and public life, and then will examine a variety of evidence (literary, material, documentary) confronting important themes in the study of ancient slavery, e.g. ideologies of slavery and freedom; manumission; the social position of enslaved and freed people; gender, sexuality, and the family; literary depictions of slavery; and comparative slaveries.