Reading Ancient Slavery

(Paperback)

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Studies of ancient slavery have tended to rely on particular types of evidence inscriptions, legal sources, and historical accounts whereas literary imaginings of slavery have been relatively under-exploited. Yet these sources illuminate for us the ideologies that allowed slavery to be practised throughout antiquity with virtually no opposition and further to understand how and why slavery was debated and, to some extent, experienced by Greeks and Romans. This volume provides a sustained discussion of the theory and practice of handling ancient literature and art in order to enhance our understanding of ancient slavery. Twelve essays by an international team of specialists develop a variety of theoretical positions, reading practices and interpretive strategies for recovering the psychological and social impact of ancient slavery from Homer, Aristotle, Greek drama, visual images, Roman poetry and imperial Roman dream interpretation.

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The essays collected here were originally presented as papers at an international conference at Royal Holloway and the British Library in December 2007, celebrating the anniversary of the abolition of the slave trade. The essays are written by US and European experts representing different theoretical positions, reading practices, and interpretive strategies for understanding poetic, dramatic, and pictorial representations of slavery in the ancient world. In an introduction, the editor examines the implications of this representational approach for the study of the psychological and social impact of slavery. Specific topics include the ritual of domination and social death in Homeric society, Greek representations of the slave body, the place of empirical analysis in Aristotle's account of natural slavery, and imperial Roman dream interpretation. B&W photos of artifacts are included. Alston teaches Roman history at Royal Holloway University of London.

Author Bio

Richard Alston is Professor of Roman History at Royal Holloway University of London, UK. Edith Hall is Research Professor at Royal Holloway University of London, UK. Laura Proffitt is Lecturer at Birkbeck College, University of London, UK.