The Position of Roman Slaves

Slaves were property of their dominus, objects rather than persons, without rights: These are some components of our basic knowledge about Roman slavery. But Roman slavery was more diverse than we might assume from the standard wording about servile legal status. Numerous inscriptions as well as literary and legal sources reveal clear differences in the social structure of Roman slavery. There were numerous groups and professions who shared the status of being unfree while inhabiting very different worlds.

The papers in this volume pose the question of whether and how legal texts reflected such social differences within the Roman servile community. Did the legal system reinscribe social differences, and if so, in what shape? Were exceptions created only in individual cases, or did the legal system generate privileges for particular groups of slaves? Did it reinforce and even promote social differentiation? All papers probe neuralgic points that are apt to challenge the homogeneous image of Roman slave law. They show that this law was a good deal more colourful than historical research has so far assumed. The authors’ primary concern is to make this legal diversity accessible to historical scholarship.

Martin Schermaier, University of Bonn, Germany.

“The Position of Roman Slaves: Social Realities and Legal Differences […] is a pathbreaking exploration of the phenomenon of slaves (servi) who lived a “privileged” life, a tiny elite of affluent unfree persons sometimes controlling vast assets. In PRS, seven legal historians of deservedly high repute, all professors at European law faculties, have authored nine essays that, appearing at a transitional moment in scholarly analysis of Roman servitude, undertake to fill a previously cavernous epistemological lacuna—the interrelationship between the “social realities” and the “legal differences” affecting Roman servitude. Through an accessible—generally clear and interesting—use of legal materials and analyses to illuminate historical (and sometimes even philological) problems, [the volume] provides a much-needed antidote to the academic segregation that has long separated (and impaired) the study of Roman law and of Roman history.” (p. 283)
“PRS deals with intricate, specialized, and (sometimes) arcane subjects through discussions generally easily intelligible even to economic historians, literary scholars, and other non-lawyers. Essays originally written in German have been translated for publication into an English almost always clear and sometimes even elegant.” (p. 291)
Edward E. Cohen, in: Classical Philology 120.2 (2025)

“Individual chapters confront major topics in the study of slavery. All are informative; some provocative.” Roberta Stewart, in: H-Soz-Kult, 23.09.2024