Slavery in the Roman World (1St 4Th C

Slavery in the Roman World (1st–4th C. ce)

Brandeis University

Classics Department

Spring 2018

Instructor: Bernadette J. Brooten

Meeting times: Tuesday, Thursday, 5:00–6:30

Meeting place: Mandel Humanities Center G11

Office: Mandel Humanities Center 113

Telephone: 736-2978

Email:

Office Hours: Office Hours: Tues., Thurs. 3:30–4:15; or by appointment. Sign-up for a time during class.

Course Description

Analysis of the world’s first society with massive enslavement. Topics include: sources of slavery; slavery’s economic role; Roman, Jewish, and Christian legal regulation; gender difference and sexuality; religious teachings; daily and material life; punishment, incentives, and resistance; slavery’s effects on the freeborn. No prerequisites.

Course Information

Slavery was a central institution within the Roman world on which scholars have gained new insights in recent years. This research has partly run parallel to new research on New World slavery and on contemporary forms of forced labor and slavery. Sources on the subject—literary and legal sources, inscriptions, papyri, archaeological remains—have been hidden in plain sight. As with slavery studies in other regions and time periods, this generation has overcome a blind spot and begun to ask new questions. Women’s history and gender studies, the history of sexuality, and newer forms of social and economic history have led to new questions. This course is directed toward undergraduate students, but will be sufficiently challenging to be of value to M.A. students.

Learning Goals

How to engage in close textual analysis.
How to assess the value of multiple types of historical sources.
How to compare religious and cultural traditions.
How to assess the extent to which contemporary sociological, legal, and gender theory can help to understand ancient history.

Course Requirements

Active class participation (class attendance, preparation of the readings, making thoughtful comments in class). I will call on students to summarize and comment on the required reading for the day. Any student may tell me before class (up to twice) that she or he is not prepared and may “pass” for that class. Class participation will include additional small assignments during the course of the semester. More than three unexcused absences during the semester will result in a lower grade. If you need to miss class for religious observance (excused absence), please let me know in writing beforehand. If you need to miss for illness (excused absence), please provide a note from the Health Center or your physician. Students are required to post a short paragraph on in ten of the thirteen weeks of the semester on LATTE commenting on one of the week’s readings each week by 8:00 PM the evening before that reading is discussed. Students are required to read these postings before each class session. This will help us all to focus our discussion. You must bring to class a copy of the material that we will be discussing in class or bring your laptop with the text. [25% of final grade; maximum of 25 points]

One class presentation (8–10 min.) on a primary source (ancient text or artifact) on slavery in which you outline how you interpret it and why. [15% of final grade; maximum of 15 points]

3. A10–12-page research paper (14-pitch font; endnotes do not count toward the page limit; for graduate students: 15–18-page paper). The paper should propose a clear thesis demonstrated by means of multiple primary (at least three) and secondary sources (at least eight). Please upload your paper as a Word document to the top of the LATTE page. The paper is due on Thursday, April 26th. If you wish to revise your paper, you may hand in a complete, polished draft for comments by Thursday, March 22nd, which I will hand back to you by Monday, April 9th, the final revision of which is due on Monday, April 30th. Late papers will be graded down.[60% of final grade; maximum of 60 points]

Students with Disabilities

If you are a student with a documented disability on record at Brandeis University and wish to have an accommodation made for you in this class, please see me immediately.

Policy on Sexual and Racial Harassment

As a means of preventing sexual and racial harassment, I encourage students to comment on the following question in the final student evaluation form: “Has the instructor sexually or racially harassed you during the semester?” I do this to give students an anonymous means of reporting such behavior and to make public my commitment not to engage in it. Beyond this, I hope that you will feel free to tell me about any problems in the sexual or racial dynamics of the course so that I can address them--to the best of my ability.

Policy on Incompletes and Late Papers

Planning ahead can mean that you are better able to cope with the crises that will arise during the semester. Please be aware that I do not normally grant incompletes. Only a very major emergency can result in an incomplete. Please also be aware that late papers will receive lower grades. These policies exist out of fairness to all of the students who, in the face of similar crises and overloads, nevertheless complete their work on time.

If you have any special needs or concerns with respect to this class, be sure to discuss these with me during the first two weeks of class.

University Policy on Academic Integrity

Academic integrity is central to the mission of education excellence at Brandeis University. Each student is expected to turn in work completed independently, except when assignments specifically authorize collaborative effort. It is not acceptable to use the words or ideas of another person—be it a world-class philosopher or your lab partner—without proper acknowledgment of that source. This means that you must use footnotes and quotation marks to indicate the source of any phrases, sentences, paragraphs or ideas found in published volumes, on the internet, or created by another student.

Violations of University policies on academic integrity, described in Section 4 of Rights and Responsibilities ( may result in failure in the course or on the assignment, and could end in suspension from the University. If you are in doubt about the instruction for any assignment in this course, you must ask for clarification.

This policy applies to your research paper, your LATTE postings, and to any visuals that you use for class presentations.

Communications

Please consult the course’s LATTE page for updates and additional materials. If there are small changes to the syllabus, I will announce them via a LATTE emailing.

Required Textbooks

Brooten, Bernadette, ed., with the editorial assistance of Jacqueline L. Hazelton. Beyond Slavery: Overcoming Its Religious and Sexual Legacies. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010.

Glancy, Jennifer A. Slavery in Early Christianity. New York: Oxford, 2002.

Joshel, Sandra R. Slavery in the Roman World. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010.

Josehel, Sandra R. and Lauren Hackworth Petersen. The Material Life of Roman Slaves. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014. ISBN: 9780521139571

Toner, Jerry. The Roman Guide to Slave Management: A Treatise by Nobleman Marcus Sidonius Falx. Foreword by Mary Beard. New York: Overlook, 2014. ISBN: 978-1-4683-0937-9.

Recommended Textbooks

Bradley, K(eith) R. Slaves and Masters in the Roman Empire: A Study in Social Control. New York: Oxford University Press, 1987.

Glancy, Jennifer A. Slavery as Moral Problem: In the Early Church and Today. Minneapolis: Fortress, 2011.

Harper, Kyle. Slavery in the Late Roman World ad 275–425. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011.

Hartman, Saidiye V.Scenes of Subjection: Terror, Slavery, and Self-Making in Nineteenth-Century America. New York: Oxford University Press, 1997.

Heszer, Catherine. Jewish Slavery in Antiquity. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005.

Knapp, Robert. Invisible Romans. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2011.

Kriger, Diane. Sex Rewarded, Sex Punished: A Study of the Status ‘Female Slave’ in Early Jewish Law. Boston: Academic, 2011.

Course Outline

Thurs., Jan. 11Introduction

How should one define slavery? The

advantages and risks of the comparative study of slavery

How can examining slavery comparatively help to establish patterns cross-culturally and to discern ways in which older forms are replicated in newer ones, even as they permutate?

Required Reading (will be summarized in class, and I ask you to read it after class):

Brooten, Beyond Slavery, “Introduction”

Tues., Jan. 16The Master’s View

Required Reading:

Toner. Roman Guide, Introduction, Chaps. 1–4

Thurs., Jan. 18Brandeis Monday: No class

Tues., Jan. 23The Master’s View

Required Reading:

Toner. Roman Guide, Chaps. 5–11, Epilogue

Thurs., Jan. 25Overview of Roman Slavery

Was the Roman Empire a slave-holding society or a rather a society with slavery? Were only the very wealthy slaveholders? Did ethnicity play a role in enslavement? What kinds of historical sources can one use for the study of Roman slavery?

Required Reading:

Joshel. Slavery, chap. 1

Tues., Jan. 30How Did Slavery Fit into the Roman Social Order? How Did it Change Over Time?

Required: Joshel. Slavery, chap. 2

Gaius. Institutes 1.52–53 (

Thurs., Feb. 1The Sources of Roman Slavery

How did persons become enslaved? Discussion of conquest, kidnapping, birth to an enslaved mother, self-sale, loan default, being sold, and being inherited.

Required: Joshel. Slavery, chap. 3

Pliny. Natural History 21.170 (92); 24.35 (22); 32.135 (47) (LATTE)

Tues., Feb. 6The Labor of Enslaved Persons

Enslaved persons’ labor included: agriculture, mines, domestic labor, weaving, sex work, clerical work and accounting, business and diplomacy, entertainment (including the gladiatorial games). What kind of gender differentiation characterized the work? How did enslaved persons’ work during slavery shape their options if manumitted?

Required Reading:

Joshel. Slavery, chap. 5

Seneca. Letters 47 (LATTE)

Recommended: Knapp. Invisible Romans, chap. 5

Thurs., Feb. 8We will hold today’s class in Shapiro Campus Center Multipurpose Room,

Daily Life under Slavery

Required: Joshel. Slavery, chap. 4

Columella, On Agriculture 1.7–8; 12.3 (LATTE)

Tues., Feb. 13Living Spaces for Enslaved Persons

Required Reading:

Sandra Joshel and Lauren Hackworth Petersen. The Material Life of Roman Slaves, pp. 8–17, Chap. 2

Recommended Reading:

Gardner. “Slavery and Roman Law” (LATTE)

Tues., Feb. 20Spring Break: No class

Thurs., Feb. 22Spring Break: No class

Tues., Feb. 27Enslaved Person as Person (persona) in Roman Law, Able to Enter into Contracts and to “Own” Property

Owners often used enslaved persons in business, which required them to enter into contracts on behalf of their owners. Further, owners sometimes allowed their enslaved laborers to hold property that legally belonged to the owner but could be used by the enslaved person and eventually owned by him or her upon manumission.

Was marriage law an area in which the bishops recognized the personhood of the enslaved?

Required Reading:

Watson. Roman Slave Law, chap. 6 (LATTE) Basil of Caesarea. Canonical Letters 188, 199, 217 (late 4th C.) (LATTE)

Bernadette J. Brooten. “Enslaved Women inBasilof Caesarea’s Canonical Letters: An Intersectional Analysis,” inDoing Gender, Doing Religion. Ed. Ute Eisen, Christine Gerber, and Angela Standhartinger. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2013, 325–355.(LATTE)

Thurs., Mar. 1How Did the Early Rabbis Categorize Enslaved Hebrews?

The rabbis of the Mishnah (codified early 3d C.), like Roman jurists, classified enslaved Jews (“Hebrews”) and enslaved non-Jews (“Canaanites”) in relation to other categories of beings. Did they conceptualize enslaved Jewish men as being like citizens, like women, or like oxen?

Required Reading:

Genesis 9:18–27 (Read NRSV at

Exodus 21:1–12, 20–21 (Read at Oremus)

Deuteronomy 15:12–18 (Read at Oremus)

Leviticus 25:39–46 (Read at Oremus)

Mishnah, Tractate Qiddushin 1:1–4

McCracken Flesher. Oxen, Women, or Citizens? Chap. 6 (LATTE)

Tues., Mar. 6How Did the Extension of Citizenship to Virtually All Free Persons in the Roman Empire Affect Slavery?

In 212 ce, emperor Caracalla greatly expanded the rights of citizenship, which gradually brought the inhabitants of the Roman Empire under Roman law. What effect did this have on slaveholders and on enslaved persons?

Required Reading:

Harper. Slavery, chap. 9 (LATTE)

Codex of Justinianselections TBA

Thurs., Mar. 8Taking a Step Back: On Not Reinscribing Violence

Required Reading:

Hartman. Scenes of Subjection, Introduction (LATTE)

Tues., Mar. 13Punishments, Incentives, and Resistance

How did owners in the Roman world try to elicit the most labor from their enslaved workers? How did the methods of punishment correlate with a person’s social and legal status? Did Jews and Christians differ from their neighbors in the accepted forms of punishment? How did manumission serve as an incentive? What forms of resistance did enslaved persons employ?

Required Reading:

Bradley. Slaves and Masters, chap. 4 (LATTE)

Eusebios. Church History 5.1–3 (LATTE)

Thurs., Mar. 15The Sexual Dynamics of Slavery

The legal status of a child followed that of her or his mother, whether enslaved or free. What difference would that have made for the relationship between master and slave-woman or mistress and slave-woman? Roman law, Jewish law, and Christian canon law did not penalize sexual contact between master and slave-woman. How does that help to understand the logic of Roman-period slavery? Few pagan Romans saw a moral difficulty in sexual contact between male owners and enslaved males, but Jews and Christians prohibited male-male sexual contact. Would that have meant a difference in practice? Is slavery differently gendered in the differing religious and philosophical systems of the Roman world? Was sexual abuse incidental to slavery in this period or intrinsic to it?

Required Reading:

Mishnah, Tracate Qiddushin 1:1–4 (LATTE)

Labovitz. “The Purchase of His Money.” In Beyond Slavery, chap. 5

Glancy. “Early Christianity.” In Beyond Slavery, chap. 8

Recommended Reading: Catherine Hezser. “Part Whore, Part Wife: Slave Women in the Palestinian Rabbinic Tradition,” inDoing Gender, Doing Religion. Ed. Ute Eisen, Christine Gerber, and Angela Standhartinger. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2013, 303–323

Tues., Mar. 20Enslaved Sexual Labor

In the Roman world, many enslaved women, girls, and boys labored in the sex trade, which was legal. Within the household, enslaved persons and even freedpersons could be required to provide sexual services.

Required Reading:

Thomas A. McGinn, “Appendix 3: A Catalogue of Possible Prostitutes at Pompeii,” The Economy of Prostitution in the Roman World (LATTE)

Rebecca Flemming. “Quae Corpore Quaestum Facit: The Sexual Economy of Female Prostitution in the Roman Empire.” Journal of Roman Studies 89 (1999) 38–61 (LATTE)

Thurs., Mar. 22Sexual Violence and the Criminal Justice System

How did slavery, the criminal justice system, and prostitution intersect? For comparison, consider an essay on the relationship of incarceration practices in the U.S. to past slavery.

Required Reading:

Briggs. “Gender, Slavery, and Technology.” In Beyond Slavery, chap. 9

Barry. “From Plantations to Prisons.” In Beyond Slavery, chap. 4

Tues., Mar. 27Enslaved Children

Did the Romans engage in slave-breeding? Can we speak of childhood if enslaved children began working at an early age? What do we know about the sale of children into slavery or from one owner to another? What did it mean that within Roman law an enslaved child did not have a father?

Required Reading:

Laes. “Child Slaves at Work in Roman Antiquity” (LATTE)

Thurs., Mar. 29 Was Jewish slavery different?

How much does the slavery discussed in the Mishnah and documented in papyri, inscriptions, and literary sources differ from that of neighboring ethnic and religious groups? How did the slave laws of Exodus, Leviticus, and Deuteronomy shape early rabbinic law? What difference does the early rabbinic distinction between the enslaved Hebrew and the enslaved Canaanite make? Why did the Essenes and the Therapeutrides and Therapeutai reject slavery?

Required Reading:

Wright. “’She Shall Not Go Free as Male Slaves Do.’” In Beyond Slavery, chap. 7

Tues., Apr. 3Passover/Easter Break: No Class

Thurs., Apr. 5Passover/Easter Break: No Class

Tues., Apr. 10Was Jewish Slavery Different (cont.)

Required Reading:

Mishnah, Tractate Gittin 7:4 (LATTE

Mishnah, Tractate Qiddushin1:1–3 (LATTE)

Catherine Hezser. Jewish Slavery, pp. 380–392 (LATTE)

Diane Kriger. Sex Rewarded, Sex Punished, pp. 1–34 (LATTE)

Thurs., Apr. 12Was Christian Slavery Different?

Jesus used slavery in his parables, and he nowhere told his followers to refrain from slave-holding. Paul’s own teachings on slavery are somewhat ambiguous, whereas those of his followers contain clear commands to enslaved persons to obey their owners in all things and to endure ‘unjust’ beatings. Some early Christians tried to buy fellow Christians out of slavery with church funds or they urged enslaved persons to flee their owners to enter their monasteries, but the early bishops opposed such teachings. Were the early Christians like the Stoics in their stances on slavery? Do we find evidence of church penalties for harsh treatment or sexual assault? Did bishops oppose the beating of enslaved persons? Were Christians less likely to be slave-holders? Were enslaved persons able to enter Christian monasteries?

Required Reading:

Paul’s Letter to the Corinthians 7

Epistle to the Colossians 3–4

Epistle to the Ephesians 5–6

Epistle to Titus 2

Glancy. Slavery in Early Christianity, Introduction, chap. 2

Tues., Apr. 17Was Christian Slavery Different? (cont.)

Required Reading:

Nazer. Beyond Slavery, “Epilogue”

Acts of Andrew (LATTE)