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Informationen zum Autor Roberta Stewart is Associate Professor of Classics at Dartmouth College. She is the author of Public Office in Early Rome: Ritual Procedure and Political Practice (1998). Klappentext 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. Zusammenfassung This book offers both a complete history of Roman slavery and an investigation into finding and interpreting evidence of it. Slavery is a relationship of power; to study slavery we need to see the interactions of individuals. Plautus comedies could be our most reliable source for reconstructing the lives of slaves in ancient Rome. Inhaltsverzeichnis Preface viii Introduction 1 1 Human Property 21 2 Enslavement, or "Seasoning" Slaves 48 3 Violence, Private and Communal 80 4 Release from Slavery 117 5 The Problem of Action 156 Conclusion 190 Bibliography 193 Index 215
List of contents
Preface
Introduction
Chapter One: Human Property
Chapter Two: Enslavement, or "Seasoning" Slaves
Chapter Three: Violence, Private and Communal
Chapter Four: Release From Slavery
Chapter Five: The Problem of Action
Conclusion
Bibliography
Report
"Stewart has shown how Plautus and his society were aware of slavery as a complex and contradictory institution that raised perplexing questions in human relations. Slavery informed the lived experience of Plautus' audience and this reality was embedded in Plautus' dramatization of master-slave relations. Anyone who seeks to understand the poet and his audience on their own terms should read Plautus and Roman Slavery." ( Bryn Mawr Classical Review , 1 November 2012)
"Summing Up: Recommended. Graduate students, researchers, faculty." ( Choice , 1 November 2012)
