Book Cover
E-book
Author Stewart, Roberta, 1958-

Title Plautus and Roman slavery / by Roberta L. Stewart
Published Malden, MA ; Oxford : Wiley-Blackwell, 2012

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Description 1 online resource (ix, 229 pages)
Contents Introduction -- Human property -- Enslavement, or 'seasoning' slaves -- Violence, private and communal -- Release from slavery -- The problem of action -- Conclusion
Summary This book studies a crucial phase in the history of Roman slavery, beginning with the transition to chattel slavery in the third century BCE and ending with antiquity's first large-scale slave rebellion in the 130s BCE. Slavery is a relationship of power, and to study slavery - and not simply masters or slaves - we need to see the interactions of individuals who speak to each other, a rare kind of evidence from the ancient world. Plautus' comedies could be our most reliable source for reconstructing the lives of slaves in ancient Rome. By reading literature alongside the historical record, we can conjure a thickly contextualized picture of slavery in the late third and early second centuries BCE, the earliest period for which we have such evidence. The book discusses how slaves were captured and sold; their treatment by the master and the community; the growth of the conception of the slave as "other than human," and as chattel; and the problem of freedom for both slaves and society
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages 193-214) and index
Notes Print version record
Subject Plautus, Titus Maccius -- Characters -- Enslaved persons
SUBJECT Plautus, Titus Maccius fast
Subject Slavery -- Rome -- History
Slavery in literature.
Enslaved persons -- Rome
SOCIAL SCIENCE -- Slavery.
Slavery
Slavery in literature
Enslaved persons
Rome (Empire)
Genre/Form Electronic books
History
Form Electronic book
ISBN 9781118274095
1118274091
9781118524145
1118524144