Slavery and Freedom
Primary Sources
Many passages collected by T. Wiedemann in Greek and Roman Slavery
(Routledge, 1988) illustrate the life of, and Greek and Roman views about,
slaves. These passages may prove particularly useful: 1, 4, 5, 6, 7-14,
17-20, 28-50, 55-56, 59-73, 75-79, 81-84, 88, 92-93, 98-100, 103-106, 108-109,
111-115, 119-127, 129- 133, 135-137, 139-157, 178-180, 185-191, 194-197,
199, 201-204, 208, 235-243.
Secondary Sources
K. Bradley, Slavery and Society at Rome (Cambridge U. Press,
1994) 1-103, 132-173.
K. Bradley, Slaves and Masters in the Roman Empire (Cambridge
U. Press, 1987) (all of it useful).
J. Madden, "Slavery
in the Roman Empire: numbers and origins" Classics Ireland 3
(1996) 109-128.
Main Questions
Who were the slaves of imperial Rome - i.e., where did they come from?
How many of them were there, both absolutely and in terms of percentage
of the population? Were there different gradations of slavery? What was
the position of slaves vis-a-vis the law? Did they have any legal recourse
against abuses? How would abuses of an enslaved person be treated at law?
What kinds of work did slaves do? Were there particular kinds of work which
only slaves did, and free persons did not do?
How did the phenomenon of manumission work in Roman society? Why would
it make sense to free a slave? Why would it make sense to free slaves posthumously?
What happened to a slave in terms of his or her legal and social position
if he or she managed to be freed?
Would an understanding of what slavery meant to the Romans, if we could
acquire and fully comprehend it, also light the way to understanding what
"freedom" was to them?