Reading Ancient Slavery

By: Edith Hall (Editor), Laura Proffitt (Editor), Richard Alston (Editor)

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Paperback | 27 January 2011 | Edition Number 1

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240 Pages

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23.2 x 15.2 x 1.8

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Evidence relating to the 'real world' of antiquity - inscriptions, historiography and legal speeches - has dominated studies of ancient Greek and Roman slavery, although providing few direct accounts by slaves of their subjective experiences. Yet the imaginative fictions produced by the ancient psyche in its literature and art provide many representations and discussions of what it felt like to be a slave. This volume provides a sustained discussion of the theory and practice of handling ancient poetry and images in order to enhance our understanding of the way that slavery was experienced by both slaves and their owners in the ancient world. Twelve essays by an international team of specialists develop a variety of theoretical positions, reading practices and interpretive strategies for recovering the psychological, emotional and social impact of ancient slavery from Homer, Aristotle, Greek drama, visual images, Roman poetry and imperial Roman dream interpretation.Contributors: Richard Alston; William Fitzgerald; Edith Hall; Leanne Hunnings; Kelly Joss-Wrenhaven; Deborah Kamen; Sara Monoson; Boris Nikolsky; Laura Proffitt; Patrice Rankine; Greg Thalmann.

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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.

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