Greek and Roman Slaveries. Eftychia Bathrellou
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reaching him in the night. Public attendants were sent and, when they were pointed out to them, the attendants dragged them away from their hiding place.
Why did Sapaudulus reveal the secret of his mistress?
What political conditions allowed Sapaudulus to take his revenge? What are the implications of this for the exercise of slave agency?
What were the consequences of slave family for this particular mistress?
What can we learn from this story about the significance of kinship for slaves?
1.14 Ps.-Plutarch, On the Education of Children, 8f–9a: Greek Moral Philosophy (Late First/Early Second Century CE)
Literature: Golden 1985; Klees 2005.
I also state that children should be guided toward honorable practices through admonitions and reasoning – not, by God, through beatings and blows. For these measures seem rather more fitting to slaves rather than to the free. Children end up dull and shudder at hard work, partly from the pain of the blows, partly from the outrage they suffer. It is, instead, praise and rebuke that are most beneficial for the free – praise because it urges toward what is good, rebuke because it keeps one away from what is disgraceful.
By what means should free children be trained? How should slaves be trained?
How can we explain the different treatment of free and slave?
1.15 IG I3 1390: Greek Inscription on Theater Seat, Athens (450–400 BCE)
In the ancient world, the privilege of sitting in the first row at the theater was a major indication of honor, reserved for magistrates, priests, and benefactors of the community and bestowed on prominent foreigners. The theater of Dionysus in Athens had inscriptions on the marble seats, reserving them for particular categories of people. Ancient cities possessed public slaves who performed many important tasks as civil servants.
Literature: Kamen 2013: 19–31; Ismard 2017: 57–79.
(Seat) of the (slave) assistants of the Council.
To what people does this inscription refer?
Why do you think the Athenians conferred this honor on these slaves?
Can we learn something about slavery from this inscription?
1.16 SEG XL 1044: Greek Funerary Inscription, Gordos, Lydia (69–70 CE)
This funerary text uses the language of honorific inscriptions, a common feature of epitaphs from Roman Lydia. All the names recorded are Greek. Because the style is largely elliptical, we have added the assumed words in round brackets, to assist comprehension.
Literature: Martin 2003; Zoumbaki 2005.
In the year 154, on the eighth day of the last third of the month Artemisios.
Elikonis honored Amerimnos, her husband […]; Amerimnos (honored) his father; Terpousa (honored) her own son; his grandmother Nikopolis (honored him); Alexandros and Demetria and Terpousa (honored) their brother; Aigialos, his foster father, (honored him); Gamos (honored) his in-law. All his kinsmen and fellow slaves honored Amerimnos.
Farewell.
What kind of inscription is this?
What kind of community is presented here honoring Amerimnos? What forms of kinship are evident? Cf. 7.12.
Are these people slaves? How can we know?
Is the master of these people mentioned? If not, what are the implications?
What do you think about the use of the vocabulary of honor by this group of slaves?
1.17 CIL VI, 6308 (Latin Text After Caldelli and Ricci 1999): Latin Funerary Inscription, Rome (First Half of First Century CE)
The deceased was buried in the columbarium of the slaves and freedpersons of the aristocratic Statilii Tauri (see 4.9, 10.16). For columbaria, see 7.17.
Literature: Caldelli and Ricci 1999; Borbonus 2014.
Jucundus, [freedman?] of Taurus, litter-bearer. So long as he was alive, he was a man, and defended both himself and others. So long as he was alive, he lived honorably.
This is offered by Callista and Philologus.
What was Jucundus’ legal and work status?
How is he described in his epitaph?
What was the role of honor in Jucundus’ life?
1.18 P.Turner 41, 1–20: Papyrus with Petition in Greek, Oxyrhynchos, Egypt (Mid-Third Century CE)
Literature: Llewelyn 1992: 55–60, 1997: 9–46.
Aurelia Sarapias, also called Dionysarion, daughter of Apollophanes, also called Sarapammon, formerly exegêtês of Antinoopolis, acting without a guardian, in accordance with the ius liberorum.19 I own a slave, formerly my father’s, Sarapion by name, who I thought would commit no wrongdoing because he was part of my patrimony and had been entrusted by me with our affairs. This man, I don’t know how, at the instigation of others, adopted an enemy’s attitude toward the honor and the provision of the necessities for life I was giving him. He stealthily took from our household some clothes I had prepared for him and some other stuff, which he helped himself to from our belongings, and secretly ran away. When it came to my ears that he was at Chairemon’s, in the hamlet of Nomou, I requested […].
What are the names of the mistress and the slave? Can we draw any conclusions from this?
How is Sarapion described?
Why did Sarapias not expect him to betray her and flee?
Why does Sarapias think that Sarapion was ungrateful? What did she offer her slave?
What do you think of the employment of the term honor in this context?
How does Sarapias explain Sarapion’s change of behavior? How credible do you find her explanation? What other explanations can you think of?
What can we learn about “the mind of the master class” from this petition?
SLAVERY AS AN ASYMMETRICAL NEGOTIATION
1.19 Herodas, Mimiambs, 5:20 Greek Verse Mime (First Half of Third Century BCE)
Herodas’ mimiambs are poems of a dramatic form, written in a type of iambic meter associated with invective poetry. They are influenced by comedy and the mime and were probably not only read but also performed, possibly to a fairly learned audience. For many societies, the theme of sexual relations between a mistress and her slave is an object of satire.
Literature: Fountoulakis 2007; Parker 2007; Todd 2013.
Bitinna: Tell me, Gastron. Is this so overfull, that it is no longer enough for you to move my legs, but you’ve been coming on to Menon’s Amphytaia?
Gastron: I to Amphytaia? Have I seen the woman you speak of?
Bitinna: You spin out excuses all day long.
Gastron: Bitinna, I’m a slave. Do whatever you want with me but don’t suck my blood day and night.
Bitinna: You! You can’t hold your tongue either! – Kydilla, where is Pyrrhias? Call him to me.